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Speaking of Formula D, they put on a hell of a show and it was an excellent way to enjoy the evening after spending the first part of the day attacking time.Global Time Attack puts on a great show and combined with Formula D, there’s countless things to see and do to keep one occupied between rounds. First up on day 1 was a practice session to determine grid order and to make sure people drove the right way round the track. Turns out it was clockwise. The Evo X performed like a perfectly stock new car, which it practically was. No issues, smooth power, extremely quiet and confidence inspiring. The usual warnings from team engineer, Mike Lewin, were in my mind. Don’t crash, don’t push too hard, don’t go too slow, be smooth, be fast, do something, no you’re doing too much, well, that’s not enough, etc… With a lap time in the 1:44.3xx range for the practice session, we knew Element Tuning’s previous Enthusiast Class record was in reach. Driver Phil Grabow had ran a 1:43.925 in their sweet FR-S at last year’s GTA event.
Normally I am used to a Limited Class Evo that weighs about 500lbs less. That made it a challenge to be patient and smooth with the car. The Evo X was a great learning tool and I am quite confident I will be faster in Limited Class using what I learned driving a slower, more composed vehicle.We knocked out a 1:43.8XX in the next timed session, significantly taking pressure off the rest of the weekend as a new record was secured. After that it was all about learning. Smoothing out lines, seeing what felt faster. Paying attention to RPMs in turns and where I was shifting compared to previous laps. This was an awesome way to learn and improve which is normally not possible as you’re on full kill mode when you’re chasing another competitor or record. Day 1 didn’t get any faster, but a lot was learned by just staying out lap after lap.
Back to iRacing for a moment, the other cool thing is that in our team, I’m not the fastest at it. Grant Davis is generally considered the resident master, but Mike Lewin is no slouch either and generally we each are better at a particular sector than the other. They’ve driven Road Atlanta just as much as I have and with that knowledge and video from my actual sessions, we started to pick apart each turn as well as my driving inputs. After loading up 5 people and taking our racecar to the sketchiest Motel 6 in the greater Atlanta area, Day 2 was bound for improvement, so long as we survived the night and no prostitutes stole our car.
A key to success within time attack is quickly breaking down info from one session and using it to improve during the next. Here Grant Davis reminds me of how many mistakes I made in the first sessions based on our lap videos.
