2021 US Vintage Grand Prix

[1795]

It was nice to get out and race again! I am a little rusty due to lack of seat time, physical conditioning and still have not regained complete strength in my shoulder. All in all, it still was a good weekend. While I was not racing as fast as normal, I still managed to finish 2nd in B Production during the 1 hour Enduro. The weather was touchy at times with some rain that cancelled sessions or at least minimally limited who went out. During our first qualifying race I was one of four cars that went out as it had rained hard 1/2 hour prior to the race and I only stayed out for about 4 laps, spending most of the time in 2nd gear going easy. Wet tracks and cobras are not a great mix.

There was quite a bit of carnage this weekend. A nice Autokraft Mark IV met a Corvette in the toe of the boot and both sustained heavy damage. The Corvette was able to get enough repaired to be able to race the next day, but the AutoKraft was done for the weekend. I met the driver of the Autokraft the day prior and he was a real nice guy.

Attached are two links to videos from the enduro. The first one is from the start and the second one takes over where the first ended. I cropped the videos to erase times where there was a few minutes of me just driving on the track. It is useful to me to watch to learn where to improve my racing skill, but pretty boring for you to watch.

The first video: https://youtu.be/N_pPmjyCE-U

The second video: https://youtu.be/XYR_1mrJN_k

Feel free to critique my driving. I spent a good deal of time working on adjusting tire pressures and suspension changes as the weekend progressed trying to find the optimum balance. You may need to turn the volume down a little, as I moved the camera higher up on the roll bar so that the rear view mirror was not blocking the view of the cars in front of me, but doing so ended up with more wind noise.

Jim

[Alfa02]

Good Morning Jim Let me be the first to say, well done my friend. You have REALLY come a long way as a Comp. Driver. Much, much smoother, I like seeing that right hand back on the wheel after a clean shift. Now lets make you a touch faster, (Yeah, yeah here it comes ) Apex's we need to just tickle the FIA curbing, not enough to upset the car (Fastest way around) just by running closer to the curbing is worth anywhere from .2th-.7th quicker on 2-3 mile course, think about that. Cheapest way to reduce time and it cost you nothing. (Braking), get to the edge of the track, use the whole track I noticed @ "The Bus Stop" you always started braking in the middle of the track (Any reason I don't know about?). Following another car, get right behind him even a FB car will cut some air for you, the Elan even more. Now to end with on a good note Jim, you watch your mirrors pretty much better then most guys do that have raced a lot longer. Even though you drive a Cobra (So Whata's behind you does not MATTER ) Thank you for your great video's, and keep up the good work, the Cobra look's well sorted now. Call me if you need to talk more. Cheers Tom.

[1795]

Tom,

Thanks for the feedback. I will be spending days reviewing the video and seeing what benefitted me and what did not. When I used to race my MGB I found that if I approached the Bus stop midway in the track and hit the curbings I could turn it into almost a straight, as opposed to coming at it from the far left and then doing more of a "U" through it. I will compare the approaches, as I know I did do the "U" a few times. Some of those mid track approaches were because I just passed somebody on my left and there was not enough room to get back over to the left before hitting the Bus stop.

Jim