Had a great time at the SOVERN fall finale--we had a nice potluck on Friday
night that turned into some serious wine imbibing (at least on my part) that
left me a little shaky on Saturday, but still whole. Did Okay on Saturday--a
second in the first race, and I think fifth in the second race. Pretty
consistent 1:41's. I can occasionally pull out a 1:39 at PIR, but couldn't
manage it last weekend. Sunday morning I looked at my front brakes and found
my pads were worn to about the thickness of a shirt cardboard. A quick
search of the trailer revealed NO SPARES. I have four sets sitting on my
workbench--they were rattling around in my Yukon most of the season, and got
taken out without being put in the trailer where they belong. Damn. These
are fairly special pads--my front brakes look like stock Girlings, but are
actually aluminum Lockhearts.
While prying back the pads one of the rotors snapped. I've had radial cracks
for the whole year and didn't worry about them, but a tiny amount of side
force and BAM, big gaping crack all the way to the bolt hole.
Fortunately Charley Mitchell had some reconditioned rotors at home (close
by), and was willing to go get them. Still no pads though, but I figured at
least I wouldn't have to worry about the pads dropping out, as they could
have with my old, very thin rotors.
So I raced--AND HERE'S THE TIRE PART. Since I had to be very sparing of the
brakes, I decided to switch to the radial 215/R60 15 Hoosiers I had in the
trailer. I figured I had a better chance of staying on the track with them.
I started from the back in the third race (got the car together and all
suited up just as the lead car was leaving the grid), but made my way up to
fifth or so. Did a couple of 1:40's even with sketchy brakes. Then in the
fourth race all the fast guys agreed to start from the back in reverse
order. In the first lap coming into big indy (turn 8) I got a lucky opening
and was able to go around all the fastest guys on the outside. Then I got
past the leaders in turn 3 and 4 and got away from the pack. Mike Malone in
a super fast Lotus 15 chased me down. I held him off until the last two
laps, but he was so fast down the straight he finally got past. I tried to
repass at the beginning of the twisties so I could pull out some lead, but
never quite got it, so I finished second. Turned a very low 1:40 (something
like 1:40:250). I was babying the breaks and sliding sideways through most
of the corners. I'm sure the cornerworkers thought I'd lost my mind, but I
pulled the pads last night and they were literally as thin as three sheets
of paper--but hadn't gone trough anywhere, so the rotors are fine. (thanks
again Charley).
Couldn't have done that without the Radials. I could toss Peyote into turn
three almost flat out (a ginger little dab on the brakes to drop the nose,
then downshift and toss it in, slide sideways and scrub some speed, then
roll on the throttle to keep the nose in and hang on. The tires were amazing
once they heated up.
>From the looks of the tires after two races and a test and tune day, I'd say
they are going to last a very, very long time. They will certainly harden
up, but I'd guess that at their hardest, they'd be better than freshly
scrubbed Hoosier TD's. I can't really use them for Group 1, but whenever I
can, I will. Takes about ten minutes per side to change camber on Peyote--I
have it down to the number of turns on the heim joint.
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