Vince's Stuff: Back on track at St-Eustache

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Back on track at St-Eustache

Now that the Civic seems reliable, I want to try to get to as many track events as reasonably possible. I headed to St-Eustache for Monday night lapping for the first time of the year. I was hoping to dip under 1:02 for the first time with this car. My best times lap last year was a 1:02.48, but I felt I never had the car running exactly right at St-Eustache last year.

I headed out in the first session and everything seemed OK with the car. I had mounted my GoPro directly on the roll bar with a little Ebay mount instead of the bulky headrest mount I had been using and the results are as hoped for.

In my first session, I managed a couple of laps in the 1:02's, but could not do better than a 1:02.68. Still, the car felt fine, and I enjoyed the comfort of the 6-point harness. I hoped that the improved ergonomics and the car running properly would offset the extra weight of the roll bar (80 pounds or so?).

I usually improve my times from one session to the next. The car had burned quite a bit of oil in the first session, so I topped up the level (more than full) before heading back out. It only took a couple of laps to get into the low 1:02's as I tried to keep up with the K20-powered Celica (I could not). I was the slowest car on track, but I was motivated (other cars were the Celica, my old race Civic and an EP3 Civic). My 8th lap was my best, a 1:02.11. I had beat last year's best time, but the 1:01's were not to be... before the end of the session, the Vtec was slow to engage at certain corners. Clearly the car was still burning oil... a lot.

That session was the last one of the day, so it was time to head home. I was generally satisfied with my driving: I felt I was pretty smooth and was relaxing my body in the race seat. I was a bit rough with the upshifts and this would make the gearbox grind. I got into one small slide at the dogleg, but caught it early with a good dose of throttle. Did I feel the slide sooner because I was strapped into the race seat? It's hard to know. As for lap times, I think it's only a matter of time before I lap in the 1:01's, but I don't see how I will be able to go under 1:01 with the current setup... I would need to shave off another 1.2 seconds. I can still remove a bit of weight (the broken a/c system is still there), but I don't want to spend any money modifying the car any more. I just want to drive it as much as possible.

This brings me to the question of where I want to drive this season: St-Eustache is more fun, but as far as oil consumption and gearbox stress, ICAR is so much better: I never need 2nd gear and do not rev to redline that often. I can easily complete a session at ICAR without losing Vtec. ICAR is rougher on tires, though. It's hard to know where I should try to focus my energy this year, as this is the last season St-Eustache will even be open.... To be continued!