Eric--
One comment on the brake pad wear thing ... don't brake too much.
No, that is not a wisecrack, but a technique. At Heartland Park for the PCDE
they use the southwest loop course (uses 1-right, 2, 3, 4, then straight to
7A and on to the north end). And BTW, there are no "steep banked turns" in
that layout, but you have a nice climb in the carousel at 3 and a fair
drop-off from 12. Other than the carousel climb, all the corners are
basically flat.
I have raced Heartland, and have taught at the PCDE several times. I try to
teach my students a braking approach I discovered the first time I raced
there, when I found I was over-using my brakes. when I changed just to let
the brakes cool, I found I was 2 sec a lap faster!
Basically there are three hard-brake locations (which are the fastest
approaches):
-- the straight just before the pylon chicane
-- T8 going into the kink on the backside
-- T10 before the esses
Because of the pylon chicane, T1 is not that fast an approach any more. T3
and T7A are basically soft-brake locations. And the trick is you can do all
the esses without braking at all, but with an off-and-on use of the gas
pedal. It is a very disciplined and rhythmic approach to the esses, but it
works. And you can do it in any car, not just little race-prepped Britcars
like my Spitfire. I've done it in students' cars ranging from C5 Corvette to
Dodge Colt. It simply takes the discipline NOT to go too deep into the
corners, but to drive out of them instead.
This way, the brakes have cooling time on each lap and do not get over-used.
Thus, they last!
(Doesn't mean you should not check 'em, though!)
Tires, however, may be another matter. You may want a harder compound. Talk
to some of the SS guys who race Neons at HPT. Try Bill Lambros in St. Louis,
who has a Neon among his rental fleet <lambros@earthlink.net>
--Rocky Entriken
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