s4wood

I was running grid during several of the sessions...letting out cars ...trying to evenly space them. Anyway, Paul Lambert came in several times to give rides to students....two times when he came in I put him almost right in front of Corey in Sharon's yellow beast. I knew Corey would appreciate doing some lead/follow with Paul in the race car. He did. From what I can tell, and Corey can comment on this, Paul had Corey in a few spots...braking into the new turn #9....going from turn 4-5....but Corey had Paul on the straight from turn 6-7..and would catch up again. They got to do this for several laps. There was a twin Turbo Porsche driven by Chris Rooke that was close to them...but they would pull on him....Todd Serota in his yellow cabriolet was definitely in that same caliber, but didn't get to play with them in these two hot lap sessions..he was several cars back...and passing zones were not frequently found...so he stayed out of the mix.

All in all in was a good event...the rain on Thursday morning added a bit of humility to the event..and made everyone slow down for the rest of the event...which was actually a very good thing.

With a few exceptions...I think the majority had a great time.

Sears Point, even in construction, is very fun. Slippery? Yes..but the fun doesn't happen until you lose traction..and fight to get it back. :-)

Until next time....

gtt

Definitely a fun event Steve. Driving was great but the food...fantastic.

s4wood

I gotta go clean my car RIGHT NOW. Later...good seeing you.

gtt

that night found a self service car wash to hose off the wheels. Looking good in the pits is important for my sponsors ;-)

s4wood

<ul><li><a href="http://www.funkadelic.org/gallery/qc_sears_point_2001_d1">Link to Funkadelics website...the Sears Point event</a></li></ul>

Todd Serota (TracQuest)

. . . although I was certainly exhausted by the time I got home at 11:30 p.m. on Friday night. I had students in both B and C, as well as Mike Hoppen in that marvelous RS4 on Saturday (just to show him the track). On Friday, there weren't nearly enough A sessions to get everyone in my car who wanted a ride, so I started going out in D as well (with permission, of course). I was on the track for pretty much 4 hours straight after lunch on Friday, followed by a 5 hour drive home. Talk about collapsing into bed.

I seem to recall seeing Cory on track only once on Thursday before he was pushing hard. On Friday, I got caught in a lot of traffic and saw Cory a ways back in my mirrors, but then the session ended. Otoh, I saw Paul in the Stasis World Challenge car quite a bit. On Thursday he was running on the Toyo street tires that he has to use in the World Challenge series and I was a bit faster (even after he got his new engine broken in and was pushing hard). On Friday, though, we went out together at the beginning of a session and I couldn't get away from him. Hmmmm, I thought, something is definitely different here. Indeed, I found out that what I had suspected was true. Paul slapped some Kumhos on the car on Friday and that made the difference. I'd say he was a bit faster than me with the Kumhos. Either way, though, we had great fun playing tag (or at least I did!). I only had to give a passing signal once during the entire event and that was to Paul at the end of those few laps. I was really looking foward to following him after that, but unfortunately, he went in to switch passengers. Super nice guy, too.

Speaking of passing signals, I'd like to thank most of the instructors in the A group and most of the drivers in the D group as well. For the most part, folks made good effort to let me by as soon as we got into a passing zone, which was really important, given the lack of same.

Finally, speaking of Kumhos, this is the first time I ran the new Ecsta V700 R compound tires (which replaced the Victoracers) because they just came out in 18's. For those of you running R compound tires or who are thinking about it, 3 words: GET THESE TIRES! They were absolutely fantastic! The warmed up quickly for R compound tires (1/2 lap or less), they continued to stick great the whole time, even though I drove hard every lap (where I got the opportunity), and looked great at the end of the event. I was running 245/35 x 18's in the front and 285/30 x 18's in the rear with my previous P-Zero C's, but Kumho isn't making a 245/35 x 18 so I had to go to 225/40 x 18's in the front. After having my car set up very well, I was concerned that this would add understeer and I'd have to spend more time balancing the car again, but to my amazement, the car was perfectly balanced even with the smaller 225's up front.

I look forward to seeing some of you at my TracQuest events at Sears Point in 2 weeks and then Laguna Seca next year. For those who weren't at the event, or missed my announcement at the driver's meeting on Friday, Laguna Seca has moved my dates from February 6-8 to the weekend of April 20-21. It seems CART decided they really liked my dates. It was a tough choice for the track between TracQuest and CART, but CART just edged me out. :-) Anyone who has already signed up will have first priority for the new dates, or a full refund, at your choice. I'll post a separate announcment about the Laguna Seca date change on the board tomorrow.

Todd Serota
tserota@tracquest.com (high speed driver education)
tserota@vinoquest.com (wine business) tserota@adelphia.net (law firm and home) www.tracquest.com (TracQuest web site) www.tracquest.com/deboard (TracQuest message board)
www.vinoquest.com (VinoQuest web site)

gtt

I'm considering them but wondering about how they were during the wet session and as a replacement for my Pilot Sports later this spring.

Todd Serota (TracQuest)

. . . I always use the same set of tires for street and track. They were ok in the rain, not great, as were my previous P-Zero C's, Kumho Victoracer V700's long before that, and most of the tires that were there at the event. If you want an R compound tire to run on the street and track, I'd recommend the new Kumho Ecsta 700 highly based on my experience so far. I didn't realize you were were considering them. It's a shame you didn't get a ride with me, so you could have observed them in action first hand.

Todd Serota
tserota@tracquest.com (high speed driver education)
tserota@vinoquest.com (wine business) tserota@adelphia.net (law firm and home) www.tracquest.com (TracQuest web site) www.tracquest.com/deboard (TracQuest message board)
www.vinoquest.com (VinoQuest web site)

gtt

I too want one tire for street and track use.

Torg

THANKS!

I think the mark on my right shoulder is from your passenger seatbelt!

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it!