Long story on the debut of my SCCA T2 Exige S at Laguna Seca

[kmarshall]

Originally Posted by Tom_Hughes

Kevin ... for 2010 rules, LCS will be transitioning NA Stock to more of a spec class, allowing very limited mods and mostly Lotus only parts available on various versions of the stock cars. Some non-Lotus parts will be allowed for safety, reliability, driver comfort. With Lotus USA now sponsoring LCS, should now be easier to get those parts from Lotus Sports.

Prior to Lotus, all I ever raced was various formula cars, all very much spec racing, often with sealed engines. I agree that spec racing often leads to more competitive racing and hope to see that take off within LCS.

BTW ... any incidents that weekend within that SCCA run group?
I seemed to have bad luck in SCCA with my Pro Formula Mazda - kept getting crashed into a lot, even behind the pace car!!

Some rumors of getting Lotus in Koni Challenge. That would be a great series for the Lotus. Speed World Challenge isn't a good fit for the Lotus in my opinion - competition has too much HP and too much factory money.

Hi Tom, Thanks for the notes. The race was really clean... first turn I found myself dicing with huge vipers, panoz' mustangs, etc... everyone was aggressive but aware of others. I worked hard to position my car on the inside of fights for corners as I knew the big guys will go wide and my light car could sneak in and hold the inside line more predictably. The 25 plus cars behind me seemed to do well too. No waving yellows either race. The run groups with FM, DSR, CSR had a bit more drama. And of course SM had plenty of craziness. Looked fun!

See you at Laguna in a few weeks!

[Houston Lotus]

We need more Loti in the SCCA.

[coulthard fan]

Originally Posted by AZReason

...I am guessing Scott Knott would disagree with you. I just noticed that he set the track record at Barber in TTA.

I do disagree that our cars are competitive in NASA time trials based on their current classing rules. The exception to that would be at big tracks with long straights. Barber was pretty technical and I juuuuuuust nipped the Z06s by a few 10ths, but then again it was my first weekend there. Unfortunately I can't speak to our competitiveness in the NASA race groups.

I have bad flashbacks of watching David Brand in a T2 Elise at the Runoffs last year (before Elise's were reclassed to T3) and feeling his pain that he couldn't get around folks in the straights even though he was probably faster than them in the turns, finishing 10th. Specifically, his fastest race lap was a 1:48.03, which was faster than the 4th place car, but still a couple seconds off the fastest T2 guys. In time trials traffic is generally not a factor, so I commend kmarshall for getting the job done on the inside with good racecraft.

p.s. I hear you about our advantage in the Andretti Hairpin at Laguna Seca. I've only done that turn in a F2000 Skip Barber car, but the whole time behind the wheel I was saying to myself that I could have taken it faster in my car. (At least that is what my butt dyno was telling me.)

[road racer]

Originally Posted by kmarshall

The car got a lot of attention in the garage as everyone seemed excited to see a Exige in SCCA.

Ah, that's why I couldn't find you later in the day! (Frank here, Harry's buddy. I was racing in FE.)

So, I qualified conservatively while sharing the track with 40 other cars ... In qualifying (which felt like driving an Audi R15 through GT2 traffic) we set a new track record for T2 at Laguna... ever.

Wow, I'd love to see what happens when you qualify aggressively! Congrats on the record on the first time out. Impressive. Also sounds like R3 has done a great job with the car.

The run group has everything from 600 hp+ NSX's,

That NSX is wicked. Folks I've talked to estimate it's a $200k car though. A bit overkill even for GT-1. Seems to have reliability problems as well. I'm sure they'll get it sorted out though.

I ended up setting new T2 track records in both races; the best time I turned was a 1:39 something.

Nice icing on the cake. Well done and great writeup!

[kmarshall]

Originally Posted by road racer

Ah, that's why I couldn't find you later in the day! (Frank here, Harry's buddy. I was racing in FE.)



Wow, I'd love to see what happens when you qualify aggressively! Congrats on the record on the first time out. Impressive. Also sounds like R3 has done a great job with the car.



That NSX is wicked. Folks I've talked to estimate it's a $200k car though. A bit overkill even for GT-1. Seems to have reliability problems as well. I'm sure they'll get it sorted out though.



Nice icing on the cake. Well done and great writeup!

Hi Frank, How'd your weekend end up? I went looking for you later in the day but then I saw something I couldn't resist...we had the kids in the rental car and the corner workers were able to go drive the track, so I hopped in line and showed my wife and kids the racing line. A Camry with a 5 and a 3 year old in back dropping the corkscrew is fun! Anyhow, I look forward to catching up at a future event. We'll be at Streets of Willow tomorrow at 6:00am.. come on down!