Nice report, thanks. I too have adapted to the Hoosiers and find them quite a
bit of fun to drive. Took me several weekends to figure out how to make them
happy and quick. I think it makes the cars drive and look more like they
should with all the drifting and sliding.
You have just the right answer to how to have fun when there's no one to race
with in a particular event. Sometimes I just set a mental red-line lower than
usual or I'll do a little lift in the middle of a long straight to give the
guy behind a better target. And it doesnt work just from first place
overall. If it's clear I aint catchin the guy disappearing up ahead, ease off
and race the next guy behind. Prize money is all the same and both of us have
a much more satisfying experience. I learned it from David Whiteside (RIP),
and he never let on when I was whooping and hollering about the great race we
had. It was a week later watching the video tape that it was clear he was
loafing from time to time to keep it close.
mike jackson
Bill Babcock wrote:
> I promised to give my impression of the Hoosiers. I love 'em. I actually
> took about four seconds of my typical lap time at Pacific Raceway
> (formerly known as Seattle International Raceway). Did a whole bunch of
> sliding and slithering around, but I got used to it--very controllable. I
> found it very fast in tight turns to just let the back end hang out and
> keep my foot in it. A little disconcerting on the sweepers at first, but I
> finally got the point of drifting all the way through the turn. The end
> result was that my car started the weekend off four seconds a lap faster
> than second place and by the end of the weekend when I was getting the
> most out of the tires it was six seconds faster. It gets kind of lonely
> out there, so I slowed down and played with a Porsche-powered Cooper
> (Pooper). After pushing him so hard I couldn't see nipping him at the end,
> so I backed off and took second. My that sounds smug. Second race I
> decided to just go for best times, so I lapped my way up to about fifth
> place. Third race there was a young kid just flying in a well-prepped
> Sprite, so we swapped the lead back and forth a few times, I made an
> impromptu rule that I wouldn't pass in the straights, and we had a ball.
> He passed me in the carousel on the last lap, and I couldn't break my
> rule, so I took second again.
>
> Peyote is just ripping. I'm going to get the organizers to put me into a
> faster class. Kas, you'll be pleased to know that your TR250K was running
> in the group I want to move into--Tony Garmey won all three races in it,
> beating a bunch of very fast cars, including a blistering-fast 2002 BMW
> and a raft of really fast Porsches. I think I might have been able stay in
> contact with the lead group--Tony turned a 1:40 something, I turned a 1:42
> with no one to race with (I tend to get sloppy when I'm not pushed). The
> TR250K looked and sounded great. What a car.
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