I drove Peyote in the Sovern "defrost kickoff" this weekend. Had a great
time. the new limited slip diff is wonderful--I could drive hard out of
corners that I previously tiptoed through looking for traction. The bump
steer elimination project also paid great dividends, though at first I was
disappointed. In the first practice I still found the nasty kink and bump
near the end of the front straight at Pacific raceways was still
upsetting the car a lot. But I finlly figured out that it was still a
bump, and I was trying to compensate for the wiggle I got banging over it
at high speed. I relaxed and held the wheel with just my fingertips, and
the car tracked perfectly straight. The steering input was coming from ME
not the suspension travel.
I think I've done better lap times at Pacific, but probably not during the
first race of the year. I can't find my lap times from last year for the
new course. My qualifying time was 1:44:something which was about three
seconds a lap faster than second place. After three laps in the race I
lifted and waved the guy in second past--he's got a Healy 3000. So I
played cut and thrust until the last lap, and then decided to do a fast
lap for time and just ran away.
Second race I asked to start from the back so I could have some fun. I
didn't want to just charge through, so I hung out in the back for the
first lap to let all the cars spread out and settle down, then I ran
through them. I got up to the top three after about four laps--a Lotus 11,
a Elva, and the big healey. Passed them, then waved the first two past and
chased them awhile and finally repassed them. I meant to wave them past
for the last lap since it doesn't feel right to push the heck out of them
with a far faster car and then blithely take the win, but I must have
miscounted the laps. I passed the transponder wire in first and waved them
past only to see the checker at the flag station. Ah well, at least they
got the checker first if not the official win.
I need to get them to move me up a group or two, though when the Poopers
are at the track I have a race on my hands in this group. My time would
still have taken first in the Historic class and would have been top five
in the sports racers and formula cars and third in the big bore against a
raft of cobras. What a car!
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