MX-5 Cup at Laguna Seca, May 9-12
04-24-12, 01:20 PM
#1
MX-5 Cup at Laguna Seca, May 9-12
I have signed up with Atlanta Motorsports Group to race in a MX-5 Cup car during the ALMS weekend at Laguna Seca, May 9-12. This will be my professional racing debut and should be a very interesting experience! The event schedule is very busy and I will get up to 4.5 hours of track time including two 45 minute races. I’ve had a good experience with AMG as I ran with them in the 2011 25 Hours of Thunderhill, finishing 2nd in the E2 class. They are a first rate organization and will give me a very competitive car with excellent race support.
To prepare, I will be running at Laguna Seca during a SCCA double regional event in a Spec Miata this upcoming weekend. I will be participating in three race groups and run in six races within a total of fifteen on-track sessions. This will be my immersion training in a momentum car.
During these race weekends I will be blogging on twitter, you can find me at twitter.com/racerrx7
Guy
P.S. I realize and apologize that the MX-5 Cup car uses pistons and not crazy rotating triangles, along those lines...my 2011 ITE winning 93 FD is coming back together after lots of upgrades. I will post a thread as it gets closer to completion.
To prepare, I will be running at Laguna Seca during a SCCA double regional event in a Spec Miata this upcoming weekend. I will be participating in three race groups and run in six races within a total of fifteen on-track sessions. This will be my immersion training in a momentum car.
During these race weekends I will be blogging on twitter, you can find me at twitter.com/racerrx7
Guy
P.S. I realize and apologize that the MX-5 Cup car uses pistons and not crazy rotating triangles, along those lines...my 2011 ITE winning 93 FD is coming back together after lots of upgrades. I will post a thread as it gets closer to completion.
05-02-12, 01:03 PM
#5
This past weekend I raced a Spec Miata at Laguna Seca to prepare for my upcoming MX-5 Cup races during the ALMS event at Laguna Seca. The goal was to get comfortable in a momentum car that closely resembles the handling characteristics of the MX-5 Cup car. Over the course of this past weekend, I ran in every group that the Spec Miata was eligible. I ran in three classes totaling 15 on-track sessions including six 30 minute races. All in all I logged about 420 miles and have become one with the Spec Miata.
Things are a little crazy in the Spec Miata races; however I have a new found respect for those drivers who can go fast in a slow car. The long and short of it is that at a track with a severe elevation gain, like Laguna Seca, and a low powered car, like the Spec Miata, you are punished harshly for driving errors anywhere near the start of the hill.
The main difficulty I had over the weekend, other than getting the car’s annual inspection, was the lack of data feed-back. There were three lap-timing and or data logging systems in the car and sadly none of them worked. I ended up just keeping track of corner exit speeds. Fortunately, the company I am renting from has a reliable data system in the car, data from last year’s winning car and most importantly I will have access to the driver who won the Laguna Seca event as well as the 2011 MX-5 Cup championship.
So, I head to Laguna Seca on Tuesday afternoon to start off the weekend. I look forward to this adventure and will be blogging on twitter and will update here.
zoom…zoom
Guy
Things are a little crazy in the Spec Miata races; however I have a new found respect for those drivers who can go fast in a slow car. The long and short of it is that at a track with a severe elevation gain, like Laguna Seca, and a low powered car, like the Spec Miata, you are punished harshly for driving errors anywhere near the start of the hill.
The main difficulty I had over the weekend, other than getting the car’s annual inspection, was the lack of data feed-back. There were three lap-timing and or data logging systems in the car and sadly none of them worked. I ended up just keeping track of corner exit speeds. Fortunately, the company I am renting from has a reliable data system in the car, data from last year’s winning car and most importantly I will have access to the driver who won the Laguna Seca event as well as the 2011 MX-5 Cup championship.
So, I head to Laguna Seca on Tuesday afternoon to start off the weekend. I look forward to this adventure and will be blogging on twitter and will update here.
zoom…zoom
Guy
05-02-12, 11:53 PM
#6
This past weekend I raced a Spec Miata at Laguna Seca to prepare for my upcoming MX-5 Cup races during the ALMS event at Laguna Seca. The goal was to get comfortable in a momentum car that closely resembles the handling characteristics of the MX-5 Cup car. Over the course of this past weekend, I ran in every group that the Spec Miata was eligible. I ran in three classes totaling 15 on-track sessions including six 30 minute races. All in all I logged about 420 miles and have become one with the Spec Miata.
Things are a little crazy in the Spec Miata races; however I have a new found respect for those drivers who can go fast in a slow car. The long and short of it is that at a track with a severe elevation gain, like Laguna Seca, and a low powered car, like the Spec Miata, you are punished harshly for driving errors anywhere near the start of the hill.
The main difficulty I had over the weekend, other than getting the car’s annual inspection, was the lack of data feed-back. There were three lap-timing and or data logging systems in the car and sadly none of them worked. I ended up just keeping track of corner exit speeds. Fortunately, the company I am renting from has a reliable data system in the car, data from last year’s winning car and most importantly I will have access to the driver who won the Laguna Seca event as well as the 2011 MX-5 Cup championship.
So, I head to Laguna Seca on Tuesday afternoon to start off the weekend. I look forward to this adventure and will be blogging on twitter and will update here.
zoom…zoom
Guy
Things are a little crazy in the Spec Miata races; however I have a new found respect for those drivers who can go fast in a slow car. The long and short of it is that at a track with a severe elevation gain, like Laguna Seca, and a low powered car, like the Spec Miata, you are punished harshly for driving errors anywhere near the start of the hill.
The main difficulty I had over the weekend, other than getting the car’s annual inspection, was the lack of data feed-back. There were three lap-timing and or data logging systems in the car and sadly none of them worked. I ended up just keeping track of corner exit speeds. Fortunately, the company I am renting from has a reliable data system in the car, data from last year’s winning car and most importantly I will have access to the driver who won the Laguna Seca event as well as the 2011 MX-5 Cup championship.
So, I head to Laguna Seca on Tuesday afternoon to start off the weekend. I look forward to this adventure and will be blogging on twitter and will update here.
zoom…zoom
Guy
Nice driving Guy! You got some great times all things considered.
What's your blog or twitter feed?
I may be there cheering for you in the stands.
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05-16-12, 03:17 PM
#8
This last weekend I participated in the MX-5 Cup races at Laguna Seca. The racing experience is much different than your run of the mill SCCA regional type event. The level of support that I received as a driver was quite amazing. Within this group were individuals with several series championships, wins at the Rolex 24 and the 24 hours of LeMans.
The team with whom I was driving was fielding the MX-5 that I was driving as well as TC and GTS cars with World Challenge. For these three cars there were eight individuals including a suspension engineer, driver coach, engine tuner / car chief who performed the maintenance on the car as well as drivers.
After each on-track session there was a “down load” between the drivers and the suspension engineer. This was very interesting to listen to as the engineer was drilling down within the drivers observations to make adjustments to the car or to the driver’s style.
I came up to speed pretty quick as my previous six race weekend with a spec miata had me in the momentum car state of mind. The car was predictable at or beyond the limit of the tire and I was able to make small adjustments to my driving style to find time. This is where the driving coach was very helpful as we examined my on track data and video. With the addition of a set of sticker tires I picked up nearly 2.5 seconds and was P6 after practice.
Before my qualifying session on fresh stickers, adjustments were made to the car to take into account the elevated track temperatures. Unfortunately, the car developed a wicked push and I lost about 2 seconds putting me out of the top ten for the start. Additional adjustments were then made to the car prior to my first race and after a reasonable start the car went from free to crazy loose. I did what I could to put in decent lap times but I was really just trying to keep the car on the track.
The starting grid for the second race was set by fast time from the first race. This put me in P14 for the start of race two. The race was scheduled for 8AM, however we had about a 55 minute delay for the fog to clear. For the start of the second race, on stickers again and with the original setup back under the car, I decided to be a bit cautious as I was unsure of the grip level and I didn’t want to throw it away in turn 2 (Andretti hairpin). Anyway, the start was uneventful (other than the three guys who dive bombed the field in turn 2) and I spent the first lap and a half assessing the grip level. The good news was that the car was back to its old self of being predictable and fast. With a good handling car I was able to move forward from 17th place after the first lap to 10th place at the finish. It was unfortunate that the race was shorted due to the weather delay as I was running down cars ahead.
All in all it was a great experience and I would recommend running a race with a pro team to anyone who really wants to learn how to drive faster. It was good that Niles (shpnout) came to watch the first race and of course get my autograph at the signing session.
Here is a link to a short video from my second race.
Guy
The team with whom I was driving was fielding the MX-5 that I was driving as well as TC and GTS cars with World Challenge. For these three cars there were eight individuals including a suspension engineer, driver coach, engine tuner / car chief who performed the maintenance on the car as well as drivers.
After each on-track session there was a “down load” between the drivers and the suspension engineer. This was very interesting to listen to as the engineer was drilling down within the drivers observations to make adjustments to the car or to the driver’s style.
I came up to speed pretty quick as my previous six race weekend with a spec miata had me in the momentum car state of mind. The car was predictable at or beyond the limit of the tire and I was able to make small adjustments to my driving style to find time. This is where the driving coach was very helpful as we examined my on track data and video. With the addition of a set of sticker tires I picked up nearly 2.5 seconds and was P6 after practice.
Before my qualifying session on fresh stickers, adjustments were made to the car to take into account the elevated track temperatures. Unfortunately, the car developed a wicked push and I lost about 2 seconds putting me out of the top ten for the start. Additional adjustments were then made to the car prior to my first race and after a reasonable start the car went from free to crazy loose. I did what I could to put in decent lap times but I was really just trying to keep the car on the track.
The starting grid for the second race was set by fast time from the first race. This put me in P14 for the start of race two. The race was scheduled for 8AM, however we had about a 55 minute delay for the fog to clear. For the start of the second race, on stickers again and with the original setup back under the car, I decided to be a bit cautious as I was unsure of the grip level and I didn’t want to throw it away in turn 2 (Andretti hairpin). Anyway, the start was uneventful (other than the three guys who dive bombed the field in turn 2) and I spent the first lap and a half assessing the grip level. The good news was that the car was back to its old self of being predictable and fast. With a good handling car I was able to move forward from 17th place after the first lap to 10th place at the finish. It was unfortunate that the race was shorted due to the weather delay as I was running down cars ahead.
All in all it was a great experience and I would recommend running a race with a pro team to anyone who really wants to learn how to drive faster. It was good that Niles (shpnout) came to watch the first race and of course get my autograph at the signing session.
Here is a link to a short video from my second race.
Guy
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