nice video and driving B!

 

Added a highlight video shot by the guy who beat me both days. He does video production for a living so this is just a "little something" he threw together.

 

Looks very fun. Car sounds great as well

 

It's a stock 2001 LS6 with a halltech air filter replacing the stock airbox. Exhaust wise it's all stock, but with the cats removed. C5Zs have a titanium catback which sounds good, flows well, and is really light all from GM. I have the stock 6600 rpm rev limiter in place. The red car is spinning to 7k; also stock exhaust and he has his cats still in place.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8t8qogzmmo96sg/RA%20-%20NASA%20ST2%20-%2006-17-12%20Rear%20Thunder%20Qualifying.mov Chasing a detuned (but still very very fast) ST2 GTR qualifying. Guy just sent me the vieo from his rear mounted Go-Pro.

 

Great videos. How did you progress to running in nasa wheel to wheel racing? Did you have to complete hpde 1-4 and then you are allowed to enter actual racing classes?

 

1. Started doing HPDEs with various groups in 2002.

2. Went to the Panoz driving school in 2003, but didn't get a comp license, just did the school.

3. Ran various HPDEs over the years, generally 3-5 a years as funds allowed. Joined NASA in '05-'06 timeframe, can't remember. Was in HPDE-3 from the start due to previous experience.

4. In 2009 I got tired of driving laps and decided to get a TT check ride. One TT session with real timing and I was hooked. Had zero desire to run HPDE laps from that moment forward.

5. Got my instructor certification in February 2011.

6. Went to comp school in October 2011.

The current progression is HPDE 1-3 and then you can go for you comp license. However, I strongly suggest running TT before you try to go to comp school, but it's not mandatory. This tends to be debated on the NASAforums as some racers never did TT and don't see the value in it. I disagree 100%. Mastering TT means you can drive your car 100% "flat out". This is an important skill to have... being able to drive your car as fast as it'll go means you have the fundamentals of driving the car mastered and can devote your brain to all the extras that come with racing i.e. other cars and racecraft. I like to use a golf analogy. Hitting perfect shots on the driving range and having a fundamentally perfect swing is very different from playing tournament golf and winning. However, you'd have a really hard time winning a golf tournament if you're always fiddling with your swing and trying to figure out how to hit a certain shot... you have to just know how to hit the shots.

My best advice is to just get out there and drive. Too many people thing they need to mod up their cars and need all kinds of fancy parts or mega horsepower. Just go and learn.

 

Awesome, thanks for the insight. I can definitely see the benefit of mastering TT before getting into competition racing. When you run in the thunder class, are the slower ST and GTS cars on the track racing at the same time?

 

Depends. Sometimes the faster GTS cars run in Thunder, sometimes they run in Autobahn group. ST cars are supposed to be faster than my class which is technically PTA.