Edge Engineering WSIR Report

[ghickman]

Thought I'd post a quick race report from the WSIR National this past weekend. I'll make this brief as we are in the middle of prep for T-Hill just 14 days away.

Thurs. Test:
Had a diff failure coming out of pit lane. Thanks to Nicholas Belling we got it fixed and back on track by 1PM. Ran several sessions with times down in the low 1:18's with the best time of 1:17.8

Friday Test:
Started picking up some serious understeer. Chased that problem for several hours. Managed to improve it some but finally ruled that our new front tires had gone bad with just a few heat cycles on them.

Saturday Qualifying:
It was raining bucket loads when we showed up at the track. We didn't have rains with us so we sat out the 8:20am warm up session. Put new tires on for qualifying in hopes it would clear up just enough to get at least 1 decent lap in qualifying. About 15 minutes before we were to go out the rain stopped and the group before us dried the track enough to run slicks. When I got on track it was apparent that the car was now over steering...we'd just gone to far the other way with our setup from the day before. Dialed in some rear bar and was only able to get down to the low 1:20's. Belling was fastest of the group with a 1:18.6

Sunday Race:
We'd screwed with the balance of the car so much I wasn't sure what to expect for the race. Turned out I still had some over steer which you can see in the video. I held off the 2 Atlantics and 1 real fast DSR for most of the race. Meanwhile Belling pulled a 12 second lead over me which I never was able to make up. The car began to feel better about half way thru the race but still felt spooky in T9. Finished 5th overall out of 25 cars. I was dissapointed because I have so much time around WSIR...felt I was a lock on it.

Positive from this race was we found the car is very fast on the straight. Had several people tell us they got us on radar with the fastest entry speed into T1.

POST RACE FESTIVITIES:
Thanks to Nicholas Belling and Dustin Wright we had a Pro Style post race happening. Lots of pictures taken and yes we even got to spray the crowd with Champagne...that was cool.

Father time hasn't been kind to WSIR, it's getting bumpy to say the least. It's still one of my all time favorite tracks other than Road Atlanta.

Special thanks to Tony Moore for all his hard work. Met Nicholas Belling for the first time, he's a cool dude and someone I look forward to running wheel to wheel with.

Here's some video to watch....the opening laps aren't pretty, fighting the oversteer most of the race..but it gets better.


http://vimeo.com/9898803 front camera

http://vimeo.com/9898204 rear camera



Gary Hickman
FB #76

[Becker Motorsports]

Thanks for the video, WS is one of our favorite tracks also. If it does not violate any secrets, what was your MPH going into T1, regards ernie

[ghickman]

140mph in the braking zone

[Scott Gesford]

A podium for a 2 car field.

[Thomas Copeland]

Not only a podium but a spilt start in front of the entire field!

Thanks for posting the video Gary. We are trying to get Nicholas to post his in-car camera video soon.

Looking like a good field for Thunderhill with firm commitments this time.

[Richard Dziak]

Gary:

Great video of the WSIR race especially when put side to side on split screeens to see you approach and pass the other entries and those apporaching from behind. Great driving. The race looked very exciting. It must have been a blast.

[James Hill]

Let's get a few sponsors here and in New York Region NESCCA FB will be the class to develop drivers, paddle shifting, 180 hp. 1000 lbs. Competition!