It was really freaking hot. Fortunately a few friends with 4 tents and half dozen fans made it bearable. Otherwise I don’t think I could have stood it. On Friday it was hot enough that I had to run shorter sessions just to keep the car’s temps under control. When the oil temp reached 250 and the water 230 it was time to quit. We rested the cars for an hour then headed back out. I ran five sessions in my car and one in Bernie’s Vette.
Plenty of open track time for one day. No trains or anything. It was really nice.
The facilities at CMP are OK, but not nearly as nice as VIR. They need improvements, but that is in the near future from what we were told by the new owners. IMO, the track itself is fun from T1 thru T10. T11 thru T14 needs to be bulldozed because it just plain sucks. Four 90 degree (or more) corners blows goats….especially in FWD car. There is nothing at all I can say good about that section. As a matter of fact I pretty much just putted around it unless someone was right behind me. T8 was my favorite followed by the kink (T10). Both of those are fast and fun. Though my car doesn’t really like the carousel portion (T5-T7), it didn’t suck too bad. The track surface is pretty abrasive and it is hard on tires similar to Rockingham. The outer gators must have been designed to eff up a car is all I can think off. I took others advice and steered clear of them all weekend. Jim Poole driver in a Miata did not and screwed his front alignment big time as he slammed them into T5. I hope those things will get redone thank goodness.
Everything was fine on my end Friday (brakes, tires, etc) until my first session on Saturday. About three fourths of the way thru the tranny didn’t want to go into 4th without putting serious effort on the shifter itself. After the session I put the car on ramps just to check the fluid level and see if there was anything amiss. Upon crawling under notice a perfectly spiraled piece of aluminum sticking out between the tranny and engine. There is a small plastic shield that covers the flywheel and it was protruding from there. I’m not expert, but pieces of metal usually ain’t too good. I decided to park the car for the remainder of the weekend to prevent further damage which may keep me from getting home. In the past I would have been pretty bummed about the car, but I have a backup one to get me to work and back so no big deal. It’s just a car and I’ll get it fixed like I always do somehow.
My student Spratte offered me a session in his MCS which was cool. It does everything pretty well on track for a
decent, but not spectacular car. For a stock car, the body roll isn’t too bad and the brakes did OK…nowhere near my brakes, but still OK. The brake pedal travel was far greater than mine which prevented me from do a decent H-T though. Thanks again to David (and Bernie) for letting me flog their cars.
Even with my car problems I had a great time. We had plenty of laughs at dinner thanks to Spratte. Good friends and cars, and I made it home just fine. A damn fine weekend. Thanks again to the THSCC/TZC staff and crew for another great weekend.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
