2013 SCCA ProSolo Finale in Lincoln this weekend

En route to Lincoln

I’ve been on radio silence for a little while, but it’s time to get back to blogging. I’ve got the car in tow on the way to Lincoln today. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve put in a lot of hours working on the car including two days of testing on the College Station concrete.

The ProSolo season will wrap up this weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Pro Finale awards more points than any other event this season and will determine the class national champions. Entries are capped at 260 for the event, and we have 13 in E Street Prepared. I am coming in with 32 points, tied for second, and still have a shot to take the national championship. 

ESP is running in Run Group 5. The ProSolo format consists of three rounds: Heat 1 will be Saturday AM, Heat 2 will be Saturday PM, and Heat 3 will be Sunday AM followed by the Challenges.  You can follow me and the rest of the competitors on live timing and video at the following links:

Live Timing: sololive.scca.com

Live Video: www.ustream.tv/channel/sccasolo

Mentioned in SportsCar's "Who Will Win"

I was mentioned by SportsCar magazine in their annual "Who Will Win" article in which they attempt to predict who will win each class at the SCCA Solo Nationals. As expected, they went with 8-time champ Mark Madarash. Here is the blurb on ESP:

Nurburgring Onboard Videos with data overlay

Using my GoPro cameras, my friend Yama's AIM Solo, and editing software RaceRender, I made several videos from my trip to the Green Hell overlaid with GPS speed and lat/long data overlaid.

I can't beleive it's been almost two months since I took these videos....it was certainly the experience of a lifetime that I can't wait to repeat!

This video is from my Sunday session the Subaru BRZ on my fastest lap which was an 8:59. My camera died during the lap so it cuts off the Karussell.

Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4aK_2eaVmY

This video is from my second fastest lap of the 'Ring in the Stage 2 VW Scirocco. I posted my fastest lap back in July from France, but the data file had dropouts so I went to the next best lap. 

Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJL0Mrxrp9o

The Cars of the Nurburgring Touristenfahrten

I am still sorting through my video, data, and photos from my Nurburgring trip so there will be several posts to follow. I wanted to start off with a collection of photos taken by my brother, Matt, from various corners around the famed Nordschleife that highlight the amazing mix of 4-wheel and 2-wheel machinery that rip around the Touristenhfahrten sessions. These photos are all from the Sunday full day session. The full day weekend Tourist sessions are generally the busiest with a wide range of horsepower and monetary investment showcased.

Ferrari 458 On track

Modded Audi R8 with crazy wheels

Trackday toy action - KTM X-Bow

These BMW Safety Cars made frequent appearances

Street Legal Radical mixing it up

Two racecars putting down laps

Of the more expensive hypercar breed...Lamborghini Aventador

The famed BMW Ring Taxi leading another Bimmer

Ferrari F430 shredding Brunchen

GODZILLA

The Rent4Ring Artega GT rolling through Brunchen

A look at the traffic....R8, Vette, and bikes giving each other some room

A Nice Aston Martin Through Brunchen

One of the craziest track attack vehicles we saw

One of the Ring Kings....the Corvette ZR1

Photo Credit: Matt Ogburn.....thanks for the great photos!

GT Academy - Movin' Up, Still a Ways to Go

US GT Academy Rankings

I picked up about 1.4s over the past few days to move up to 538th in the USA out of about 25K sim drivers. This puts me 5,463rd in the World out of over 206K entries. I am about 2.5s off of the where the cutoff for the National Finals will be....so there is still plenty of pace to be had. Trying to whittle down the time on the same track with the same car can be very, very frustrating, but seeing where you stack up with over 200,000 people across the Globe is pretty cool. My goal was to be in the Top 1,000 in the US, so hopefully I can keep getting better and give myself a shot at the National Finals.

GT Academy 2013 - Givin' it a whirl

GT Academy 2013 started officially on July 2nd and ends July 28th. I decided to give it a go and see how well I stack up against the fastest sim racers in the US. Since I started yesterday, I have put a few hours in and am in 1,231st place in the US out of over 22,000 entrants. I have lots to learn about how to be quick in Gran Turismo, but plenty of time to try and get it done. Making it to the National Finals (top 31) is a long-shot, but I have no chance if I don't try.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of time to make up. The fastest guys are putting down unbelievable times, but there replay videos and ghosts are available to everybody in the competition so there is at least a chance to learn from them. 

My Playstation handle is YawMomentRacing (shocker, I know...) and the live updating results can be viewed here: http://www.gran-turismo.com/us/academy/2013/rankings/

VW Scirocco Hot Lap at the 'Ring

Posting this from Strasbourg, France....we have quick internet at the hotel.

Here is my fastest lap from the 'Ring:

I'll post more video and a full recap when I get back stateside, but overall it was an amazing experience. Nurburg and Adenau are beautiful towns and as expected, the track is immense. The Touristenfahrten has such a different feel to any motorsport event I have ever participated in. Especially on the Monday evening session, it was just hardcore tracktards having fun...and it was cool to be a part of. 

Bonne nuit, gute nacht, good night.

Off to Germany for Fine Art and Castles.....oh and the 'Ring

My first trip to Europe is set to be a good one. I fly out today to Frankfurt with Ali and my family for a week of trekking around Deutschland. Here is the route:

Our first stop will be the town of Nurburg where I hear they have a cool racetrack so will be doing my best crazy German with white socks and boat shoes impression:

My Dad and I will be driving the Touristenfahrten sessions on Sunday (full day) and Monday (evening session). We have a Subaru BRZ for Sunday and a VW Scirocco for Monday rented from Rent4Ring. Dale Lomas over at bridgetogantry.com has been super helpful in getting our rental squared away and answering my 'Ring-newbie questions. 

Hopefully the rain will stay away

Details on the Rent4Ring Cars:

I will be posting some updates to the blog during and after the trip hopefully with some cool photos and videos from the Nurburgring and the rest of our trip to Germany including the BMW Museum in Munich! Auf Wiedersehen. 

SCCA Match Tour Cancelled - Substitute Testing, Rental Car LTB & PCA Autocross

On the weekend of June 15th and 16th, the SCCA Match Tour planned for Mineral Wells was unfortunately cancelled due to low entry count. The most likely reason was that the 16th was Father's Day, but nonetheless 85 entries did not cut it and the SCCA had to bin it. In order to salvage the weekend, my Dad (who already had a flight to TX booked) made plans for a practice day at Mineral Wells on Saturday and an a PCA club autocross on Sunday.

Rainy Mineral Wells

It was a pretty small crowd at Mineral Wells on Saturday and we had two separate courses setup with a skidpad. We had a few hours of dry running before the rain came down which was a bit of a buzzkill, but we used the opportunity to log more laps and get seat-time in drying conditions on race tires. We also had a bit of fun in someone's rental cars including some reverse lapping and a National Champion lap time battle. There was a bit of controversy over who won so we we'll keep the results off of the web....however my Dad put in a good showing against 4 guys with a combined 12 (I think) National Championships. 

Solo National Champ Lap Time Battle

On Sunday, we autocrossed with the Maverick Region PCA club at Pennington Field in Dallas. It is a fairly small lot but has very coarse concrete that provides tons of grip. We got a total of 9 runs and had a great time in good weather. 

Sunday's Autocross Course

Dad on Grid for the Father's Day Autocross

My Dad made huge improvements through the weekend. I think we had a bit of a breakthrough on how to find pace with the Camaro. He had a smoking final run and came home 4th overall. I had a close battle a 2012 ZR1 who took home FTD and got me by about a tenth. My 3rd run in the afternoon was my quickest at a 33.341 and I could not find more pace on my final two runs.....the last photo below may help explain that!

Raw Time Results - 2nd and 4th fastest for the ESP Camaro

Steel showing on race tires...signs of a fun weekend

Onboard video from my fastest run:

Shiny New GoPro 3!

My loot for winning the SCCA GoPro video of the month arrived....can't wait to put it to good use!