The weather at ICAR yesterday was supposed to be nice, but it started raining pretty much as soon as the evening kicked off. I noticed that another of my tires is starting to cord, which is annoying, as I have already bought 6 tires this year. I guess I shouldn't complain, because it means I have been getting a lot of laps, this being my sixth Tuesday in a row at ICAR.
I headed out for the first green session in mostly dry conditions, but the rain was steadily increasing and my lap times were getting worse. I was watching one of my old racing buddies Dave pull away in his Champcar Civic, but he eventually had a little spin in the wide hairpin after the start-finish line. I could understand that, as even my understeer-prone RSX had had the rear swing out in the same location. I was trying to have fun even though I was going more and more slowly. The car understeered a couple of times, but didn't really oversteer again. I reminded myself that I was learning about how the car drives in the rain. After the session, I wondered if the evening was going to become more fun, or whether it was a sort of write-off.
I had to wait for two sessions to go by before I could hit the track again. It had stopped raining and a dry line was forming. I managed to catch Carl in his 996 GT3... he was on slicks and I can only imagine how tricky it must have been to drive that car on a semi-wet track. I was pretty much able to keep up with him as my lap times went from 1:24's to a 1:21 at the end (compared to 1:16's for my best ever laps). I was having more fun at this point.
By the last session, the track was pretty much dry. I was almost alone on track, as they had separated the yellow and green groups. After the fast cars passed me, I got in a few clean laps. I was still not able to push 100% because of reduced visibility, but I managed a couple of laps in the 1:17's, which are probably my best laps in darkness. I decided to call it quits after three sessions, to end on a high note and also because my right rear tire was even more corded than it had been before the session. It had been worth it to stick around. I probably won't attend next week, as I am waiting for someone to sell me some used tires after the Fall Classic at Tremblant in two weekends.
The car is reliable, it's not that slow, and it only needs a new (or used) tire to keep going, so this is a pretty good situation to be in.
Here is my little highlights video:
A rare diesel-powered track car
Carl's 996.2 GT3
I still want to try one of these on track
A couple of GR Corollas
Patrick's Civic
Mathieu's cool MR2 and tow rig
There had been a Mclaren event earlier and we saw a couple of them leaving
I had never really noticed that there are some common points in the designs of these two cars
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