Vince's Stuff: First outing at ICAR - new configuration and not-so-great lap times

ICAR season begins

I was not planning on heading to ICAR for Tuesday night lapping this week, but when the rainy weather forced a move to Wednesday, I decided to give it a shot. It would be my first time driving the new shorter configuration, and I was looking forward to the novelty of it, and to setting a reference lap. I still haven't decided what tires I want to buy this year (Hankook RS4 or something more aggressive like a Nankang AR-1), so I would be using a mix of tires from the last couple of years: RS4's with some good tread (but a lot of heat cycles) in front and my only two non-corded Falken's in the rear.

Over the winter, the administrators at ICAR decided to reduce the length of the track by almost a third. This new configuration included a new chicane that now joins two parts of the track that were separate until now. Looking at my videos from last year, I predicted that my car should be able to do a 1:13 or 1:14 on the new configuration.

I had dropped by Perry Auto to pick up a battery for the M3 and I was chatting with Carl and I found out that he actually helped to design the new chicane. He described it as a blind entry corner and wanted to make it fun and challenging. He succeeded. There has been a lot of complaining online about how much smaller the track is, but I was not going to knock it until I tried it. For example, I quite like the short version of Calabogie. I hoped the same would be true at ICAR.

I was at the track early to make sure I did not hit traffic heading north and I emptied out the car. I headed out in the first yellow/green session behind a modified Golf Wagon that I had seen before at the AISA school at Calabogie. Every part of the track except the new chicane was familiar as it was part of last year's layout. I was secretly hoping to hit 1:14 at some point during the evening. From the first lap, I could see that it was going to be tricky to really nail the new chicane. I was also seeing that the performance of my front tires was less than optimal. In sections where I was usually flat out, I had to modulate the throttle and I was getting wheelspin several times per lap. I never even caught the Golf wagon. As was the case in Calabogie, with dead front tires, I did not have a ton of confidence in what the car would let me do. The lap times were abysmal, and it tool me until the seventh lap to even go under 1:20. It was only 10 degrees out, so the engine was making great power. The tires were not cooperating very well. I ended the session with a best lap of 1:18.08. I also got black flagged right at the end of the session for passing outside the designated passing zones (for the record, the driver had pointed me by). After the session, the Golf driver told me he had managed a 1:15. I was having trouble imagining how I would get from 1:18 down to 1:14!

My second session went a bit better as far as confidence, but I was still not sure of how to attack the chicane. I was also caught between 3rd and 4th gear both before and after the chicane. I managed to get down to a 1:17.14, but I was feeling something I have never felt before with this Civic: a soft brake pedal. I admit that I did not bleed the brakes over the winter, but this was never an issue in the past. I guess there is just less time for the brakes to cool on this shorter lap.

In my third session, the brake pedal was definitely lower than it had been before. I went out behind a NC Miata with a giant wing and managed to follow it from a distance. It was fun to have another car to try and catch and I managed to get my lap time down to a 1:16.73. However, I lost confidence in the brakes after I botched the braking zone of the chicane on my 9th lap, heading off the track into a small runoff zone before rejoining after the chicane. I drove through the pits at the end of that lap to see if the car still had brakes, and it did, so I rejoined the track and did one more lap before the checker. I will definitely need a brake fluid flush before my next time on track, and I might change the pads too if they are almost done. My car has always had excellent braking and I need to feel that confidence in the brakes so that I don't even have to think about them.

Although it was relatively early, I decided not to head out for a fourth session with a low brake pedal so I packed up the car and headed home. The pedal was still low, but was fine for street driving.

I looked at the data to see where I could find the missing 2 or 3 seconds and I could see that my minimum speeds in most corners was slower than last year. I think with a combination of new tires, strong brakes and some better driving, I will hit the 1:14's at some point. The top speed on the front straight was 160 km/h, equal to my personal best, probably because of the cool weather. My minimum speed in the chicane was about 80 km/h, so it's not a terribly slow chicane. I'm not happy about having to learn new lines every year, but at least I have something to stive for, as there is a lot of time to shave off that 1:16.73. Here is a short video: