Here's our team analysis of the weekend. It has a lot of charts and features me blathering on for page after page, so I'm sure that you'll all love it:
I was talking to Ricky at the THSCC VIR-North HPDE the weekend before last about downshifting to 3rd for T3, which we had decided back in 2013 was a bad idea, but I had recently started doing again, and tracking all the way out for T2, which Ricky isn't doing, but I'm a big believer in, so I decided to dig up the old data logs of the fastest of the current crop of Duff car drivers, Kraig, from his fastest lap around VIR-North, for comparison. That was from 2013, and it was Kraig's first time in the Duff car and his first time around VIR-North, although Kraig had been very active in motorsports for years and was a national champion SCCA driver, so he wasn't the typical Green group student. The car was similar to what it is today, although I don't remember if it was faster or slower. We generally think of the Duff car as getting better/faster as the years go by, and that's sometimes true, but it has had more powerful engines, better transmissions, better suspension, lighter weight, etc; it just didn't last as long. The current car is a compromise between speed and reliability/longevity, so the 2013 car may have been faster or slower, but probably not by much.
All that said, when I overlapped the 3 of us in 2013 and then in 2015 (using Kraig's 2013 data and Ricky's and my 2015 data), the graphs were very interesting (at least to me, all this chart stuff may bore the rest of you to tears, but I really like it). Here's a quick (for me) breakdown of Kraig (red line), Ricky (green line) and Roger (blue line) on a lap of VIR-North over the years:
Welcome to 2013. The biggest hit song is Thrift Shop and the biggest hit movie is Fast & Furious 6 (not kidding, that was the biggest hit movie). Kraig, Ricky, and I are driving the Duff car on VIR-North at a THSCC HPDE, and these are each of our fastest laps:
Ricky - 2.00.951
Roger - 1.56.080
Kraig - 1.54.793
Entering T1, Kraig is slowest; he probably shifted to 5th early in the front straight to take it easy on the car. This was his first time out in the Duff car and it was a bit more blow-uppy in 2013, so his decision was probably sound. I'm next, and Ricky is fastest. I brake a little earlier than Kraig, probably because I'm moving faster, but we both end up in the same downward braking line, while Ricky brakes too early and loses half a second in the braking zone. I'm on throttle too early and have to back off to make the turn, while Kraig gets fully on throttle sooner. Ricky brakes too much, although he's on throttle soonest because he's going so slow, and we all end up on the same line accelerating towards 3. Ricky slows on the way to 3, either lifting or scrubbing, maybe he apexes 3 early? I do something stupid before 3, at this point I'm thinking that I downshifted without rev-matching (don't remember how good my heel-toe was in 2013), and Ricky lifts, while Kraig accelerates smoothly to the braking point. We all brake at the same point and to the same degree, but Ricky and I brake way too long, so Kraig enters 3 fastest. Ricky and I are in 3rd and Kraig is in 4th, so we both gain on him, but neither of can regain what we lost in 3. We all brake for 4 around the same place and to the same degree, although Ricky and Kraig brake too long. We all get on throttle around the same place, but I go to 2nd gear, resulting in a half second loss while I shift to 3rd, and we all shift to 4th between 5 and 5A. Kraig feathers the throttle for 5A, probably because he is much faster at that point, but it lets me get faster than him on the way to 7 because I'm full-throttle earlier. Ricky and I brake too early for 7 and our throttle-to-brake transition time is slow compared to Kraig. At this point Kraig is over half a second ahead of me and over 2.5 seconds ahead of Ricky.
Kraig enters 7 fastest, probably because he goes wide and uses the uphill transition to compress his suspension and let him carry more speed, while I square it off and get on throttle more quickly, losing time overall, but we are both at the same speed going up the hill. Ricky enters very slowly, so he is slower going up the hill. I downshift without rev-matching again at 10, while Ricky and Kraig stay in 4th, Ricky lifting and Kraig either not lifting or lifting just a little. At 14, Ricky and I again take our time getting our feet from throttle to brake and we both brake too early and too long. Kraig and I both double-brake 16 (probably my bad influence on Kraig, or maybe his instructor told him to do it that way), while Ricky brakes too much and too long. Kraig is off the brake and on throttle earliest, although he has to feather it while I brake too long for 16, so I'm full throttle sooner. Kraig shifts to 5th early because he's not in a hurry on the front straight, and finishes over a second ahead of me and about 5 seconds ahead of Ricky.
Now fast-forward 2 years to the same event, but Kraig didn't make this one, so I'm using his 2013 lap. Here are our fastest laps:
Ricky - 1.56.461
Roger - 1.54.551
Kraig - 1.54.793
Ricky is still fastest entering 1, but he doesn't brake early any more and gains almost half a second on both of us. This is a huge difference from 2013, when he was losing half a second to us. Ricky feathers the throttle a bit for 1, while am full throttle instantly, and we are all withing 1 MPH of each other on the entry to 1. Ricky and Kraig shift to 4th at the same time on the way to 3, while I shift later, but my shift is slow. Ricky lifts, while Kraig and I do not. Now for the fun part; I downshift to 3rd for 3, while Ricky and Kraig take it in 4th. Ricky brakes too long, and I enter slower than Kraig, but I am full throttle much sooner and pass Kraig right about the time we hit the apex of 3, while Kraig isn't full throttle in 4th (or maybe he is, but he's left-foot braking to a bit past the apex) until past the apex. I open up a 7 MPH speed differential and gain half a second before we get to 4. I'm going to reverse my earlier opinion that 4th is faster through 3. We all enter 4 in 3rd and within 2 MPH of each other, with me fastest. This is a huge difference from 2013, when we were within 7 MPH of each other. Kraig shifts to 4th latest, but Ricky has by far the fastest shift. We all end up going the same speed on the way to 7. Ricky takes his feet off of the pedals before 7, and Kraig slows as well, maybe anticipating the braking zone? I have by far the best brake-to-throttle transition. I am in the lead at this point by almost half a second.
We all do basically the same thing accelerating out of 7. Kraig has a slightly higher entry speed, but consequently Ricky and I are on throttle slightly sooner, with all of us exiting within 1MPH of each other. Ricky shifts too soon for 10, while I take way too long to shift. I do a huge and cowardly lift for 11 (apparently the harness was cutting off the blood supply to my man-parts) and Kraig keeps his foot down to leap ahead and pass me before 14. 15 is interesting; you have to time your steering input to where the track elevation stops dropping and briefly rises on the inside of 15 to really carry speed there, and it looks like I'm the only one that nailed it. I pass Kraig exiting 15. Ricky brakes a lot for 16, and is on throttle sooner, so ge gains it back down the front straight. The exit speed of the turn before a straight is very important. I think that I could have been on throttle sooner there and beat him, but I'm still a little nervous in Hogpen after bouncing off of a couple of walls there last year. Kraig double-brakes 16, hard on the brakes, on throttle, then on brake again. I brake around the same time, but very gradually, then coast a bit until we both get on throttle at exactly the same time. Ordinarily I'd say that any time you are not mashing a pedal you are wrong, but my way has me at a higher speed for more time (at one point the speed differential is over 5 MPH), so I think that double-braking may be inferior there. Kraig shifts early to 5th, taking it easy on the motor, otherwise he might have been slightly faster then me for the lap.
That's it; in summary I love seeing how much closer Ricky and I are to Kraig in so many places. I no longer have big general things to critique, just little specific things. Kraig needs to get out to more HPDE's with us so we can get some updated data logs.
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