New Hampshire International Speedway

Metro NY PCA and Rennlist

May 8-9 2000

    I just got back from a 2 day driver ed event at New Hampshire International Speedway. Major fun! The track is very nice, and I had a great time.

    Let’s see, where to start this story. Well, no changes to the car since Pocono, so no news there. Of course, I’ve been very busy, including a 4 day business trip the week before the track event, so I didn’t get to do anything to the car before then. So, I have a number of small things I want to do, nothing exciting, just raise the camera mount so I get better video (more on that later), rotate the front tires, and adjust the camber and toe on the RF for NHIS (more right turns than Pocono, so I need to run more camber on the LF). Well, one thing leads to another, and Sunday morning I’m doing the suspension alignment and front tire rotation.

    Well, I take a close look at the LF tire, and of course I find a small spot of tire cord showing. Crap, no way will that tire get me through a two day event. Damn. Down into the basement I go, and luckily enough, I have an old, mostly worn out 245/45/16 Kumho V700. So now I just have to find someone who can mount it on a Sunday morning. It’s about 9:30 AM, and I have to load everything up and be on the road by 3:30 PM to make my 4:15 ferry. Should be plenty of time. I found one place that was open, and the guy tried very hard to mount the tire, but his old tire machine just didn’t have the guts to get it done. After wasting 30 minutes, I told the guy to forget about it. I went 2 stores down to a real small, real greasy looking place, and that guy was able to mount the tire in literally 3 minutes. So I made it home, and actually the rest of the day was relaxing. The drive up to NHIS was very smooth. I pulled into the parking lot of NHIS at about 10:00 PM. Nowhere to sleep there, so I went up the road about 1 mile where I found the perfect RV parking place. Very quiet, and I slept fine until 6:30 AM.

    Monday morning found me unloading the car and getting set up. I’ve never been to NHIS, so I did some research on the track, but nothing compares to driving it. I wanted to go out towards the back of the pack, so I could follow some people and get to see the line. That didn’t happen, and I was actually first out. The first session was not pretty. I had absolutely no idea what to do out there. There are a few blind corners, and those really threw me. Then, after driving the track for all of 20 minutes, I had to instruct a student! My student had driven at NHIS before, so I had him give me some pointers on the line, while I have him pointers on driving technique. I’d say it was a fair trade, and we both learned from it.

    I did another session, and while the car felt great, I still had just about no concept of the line. I tried following people, but without knowing where the track went, it didn’t help me very much. For the third session, I wanted to ride with someone, so I didn’t have to learn the track by myself. Abe Anderson was nice enough to take me, and riding with him really helped me a great deal. He is a good, smooth, fast driver, and his explanation of the line made a lot of sense. In the fourth session, I put his lessons to work, and I had a great time. The track is really very nice, and when you’re at speed, it’s great fun.

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    Let’s see, oh yeah, this was a joint Metro and Rennlist event. So I actually got to meet The Man himself, John Dunkle! John and Jen were there, and it was very nice to talk to him in person, in real time. I also met a lot of other Rennlist members. The event included dinner, and I was looking forward to chatting with everyone. Unfortunately, there was no time to mingle. The place seemed to resent the fact that they were open on a Monday night. Dinner was served, then they basically kicked us out! Next year, let’s find a place that has a cocktail lounge or something, so we can all chat.

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    For Tuesday we ran a slightly different configuration. Instead of the north oval, we ran the double infield. I like that configuration much better. The oval is kind of boring, very hard on tires, and not technically challenging (and too much risk if you do challenge it). The double infield is very technically challenging, and is safer too.

    My car ran great all weekend. I used about ½ a quart of oil and 30 gallons of gas. The only time I even opened my toolbox was to help a friend change a tire. That’s the sort of event I like! We got very lucky with the weather, no rain at all during the event, and it only rained at night. Some-one up there must like Metro and Rennlist!

    After one of the afternoon sessions I convinced a friend of mine to take pyrometer readings. There were:

        LF                    RF

150 166 172    162 164 171

     37 psi                    38 psi

        LR                    RR

155 149 154    178 169 156

    38 psi                    39 psi

    The air temp was mid 80’s and the track temp was 100. The readings are pretty good. Next time I drive at NHIS I would run less chamber on the LF, and more chamber on the RF. I can’t do much with the rear, I’d probably add 1-2 psi to the LR. Otherwise the readings look good. The car was handling well, and I was turning good lap times.

    The day ended, and I packed up all my gear. I had a business meeting in Concord the next morning, so I slept in the hotel parking lot. Did the meeting the next day, and drove home around 12:00Pm. Made the 3:30 ferry with 15 minutes to spare, and was home by 5:00 Pm. A very successful event.

    Next up, Pocono club race, June 3-4.