Jesus writes:
>How about that novice in a Boxster beating the SS guys, he should have
>been on street tires, and McKenna's Corvette was on sticky Hoosiers. I
>think that time (and others as well), is suspect to some timer scrutiny.
>Seemed like a great event, except for the posting of incorrect times on
>the time cards.
>
>JV
>
Thanks for trying to help, but we have no reason to question our times. Now,
ability, car set-up, bravery THEY are questionable. Oh yea, do you remember
driving on that surface the first event after the slury? Its better, by far,
but it probably changes a lot as the number of runs clean it up. As for the
Boxter, probably weight on the driving wheels, and street tires, plus not a
small amount of talent, helped in the first group.
On a more serious note, one other thing that is radically different this
year compared to the first event following the July'99 slury coat, on
11-7-99, when we last ran Hoosiers at Oakland, is tire wear. At that event,
the traction was so bad, we had to drive so carefully that tire wear was
almost not measurable after the event. This last Sunday the, measured, tire
wear is the worst (except for one "scrub-in" measurement at 3-Com) we've
measured on hoosiers in 25, two-driver, events. The wear-rate was greater
than the average 3-Com wear and more that twice the wear rate of either
average-Mather or the Nationals,'00. A lot of measurement experience tells
me that when the car won't "hook" on either end and we get that wear rate,
on well-worn tires, we're sliding accross a lot of abrasive loose stuff.
BTW, looking at the tires gives the same impression, lots of "cut" marks
accross the tread.
The classic example of that phenomina was our Divisional at Castle in
July,'97. I ran 1st group both days on Hoosier Autocrossers. Saturday's
measured wear was more than three times the Sunday wear rate, when we ran
the same, now clean, course "path", in the opposite direction.
Come-on 3-Com.
That's all the excuses I can think of, and I'm sticking to em !!!
Don
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