Chris91GT
06-17-2002, 09:10 PM
Well, this weekend at Shannonville was a mixed bag to say the least. By day's end Sat I was just about ready to pack things in and run away in shame. I was hopelessly frustrated after my runs on Fabi in the wet. I think my confidence in wet traction was shattered after my spin in my first heat and I never trusted the car after that, even though I know it was ME and not the car that had no traction.
Sunday was a whole different ball game. After a decent night's rest I woke up to another damp dismal day. I got out to the track for warm-up thinking that it was going to be another embarassing outing. Apparently I was wrong. It's amazing what some sleep will do. The track was still damp for warm-up but I soon discovered that the Kumhos really DO have wet traction (although Nelson drains far better than Fabi... in most areas). Suddenly my confidence came rushing back and my the first heat I was feeling pretty good. Even when the sky opened up in heat 2 I kept the car on a decent pace and was really impressed by the grip.
Heat 3 was really good and I dropped 2 seconds from my first heat times and was within 1.5s of 2nd place. I know it's a big gap... but I was 4 seconds back of the same car at Mosport. Having had 3 good heats under my belt I decided to push harder for the final session. The front pads were clearly going to be scrap after the weekend so I decided to put the last few mm's to good use. I braked deeper, and cleaned up my line and dropped another 2 seconds off my previous heat as the track was almost completely dry. Unfortunately Colin in his 01 Cobra also picked up the pace, but I closed the gap to 1.1s. Dave in his Z28 was a hopeless 3s out front, but I didn't come prepared to win so I was extremely happy with the day.
I can't wait until Mosport!
Sunday was a whole different ball game. After a decent night's rest I woke up to another damp dismal day. I got out to the track for warm-up thinking that it was going to be another embarassing outing. Apparently I was wrong. It's amazing what some sleep will do. The track was still damp for warm-up but I soon discovered that the Kumhos really DO have wet traction (although Nelson drains far better than Fabi... in most areas). Suddenly my confidence came rushing back and my the first heat I was feeling pretty good. Even when the sky opened up in heat 2 I kept the car on a decent pace and was really impressed by the grip.
Heat 3 was really good and I dropped 2 seconds from my first heat times and was within 1.5s of 2nd place. I know it's a big gap... but I was 4 seconds back of the same car at Mosport. Having had 3 good heats under my belt I decided to push harder for the final session. The front pads were clearly going to be scrap after the weekend so I decided to put the last few mm's to good use. I braked deeper, and cleaned up my line and dropped another 2 seconds off my previous heat as the track was almost completely dry. Unfortunately Colin in his 01 Cobra also picked up the pace, but I closed the gap to 1.1s. Dave in his Z28 was a hopeless 3s out front, but I didn't come prepared to win so I was extremely happy with the day.
I can't wait until Mosport!