Took the Fit to Desert Center, CA for Speed Ventures HPDE at Chuckwalla. For those who don't know, it was originally a motorcycle track. 2.67 miles, 17 turns, a good track for lower horsepower cars. They had one of the Spec Miata championship races there last year. There are two blind turns with double apexes. That leads to a nascar style banked turn. It's a really fun track and Austin puts on a great event. Everybody was personable and compared to the PCA events, there is a little more freedom -- you can point by on either side, or based on experience, step up to race conditions, without point by, etc. I only went Sunday because there was a BMW challenge Saturday. The track really challenges you. Even when you nail the apex, you'd be all the way across the track on the rumble strips. Never have I ever seen so many cars off the track. Thank God there is a lot of desert out there. My tires were already chunking off a bit from my previous races. I was slightly nervous but I switched the left side once and finished fine. First session I ran a 2:27. After learning the track a bit (I watched a lot of video but it's not the same) I got it down to 2:20. Best lap of the day was a 2:19. I went all out the last session and improved on segments but did not get a better overall. I improved my best virtual lap from 2:18 to 2:15 in the last session. Here are a few videos...
https://youtu.be/cAGi21ow_zM
https://youtu.be/CWSLeN8SdyM
https://youtu.be/5rDKfPjbnJ4
good times!

 

 

Probably between 2:00 to 2:20 range. I saw a super time attack miata did like 1:50 but that is motorcycle speed. Most miatas passed me but I passed a couple too. I kept up with a couple B18 integras, as fast as one, 6 seconds faster than the other.

 

must have been a satisfying moment, to see that integra (which just passed you up), spin out .... moo ha ha!

spin out 1:03

 

Yeah, the Honda kids all kind of lined up together (except for the S2Ks which were mostly in the level above). His name was Nick and one of the first dudes I met there. He was shaking down a new suspension in the integra, coilovers, heavy stabilizer bars front and back, stripped interior, he hit 2:19, and was like 1/10th of a second faster than me. He did not hang around for the last session which was too bad since it was wide open. We were neck and neck about the same speed throughout the day. He rented a transponder which lots of people do to record their time, and it's like $20 per day. I told him I was using Harry's Lap Timer which is like $9 once, and just uses the GPS and accelerometers from your phone, and he was wondering if it was very accurate. We each had our best lap together, with me right on his tail, and that is the lap that was 1/10th of a second difference, so I'd venture to say it's pretty accurate for anyone that was wondering. Cheers!

 

Harry's Lap TImer is fantastic. I used it along with a separate wireless Dual GPS receiver until I got a data acquisition system for my race car. It is pretty accurate and provides an impressive amount of data for an inexpensive app.