Seattle 100 - Post Race Report

[Delray Sandusk]

Just finished up this race a little while ago. I think this enduro now holds the record for Most Coverage, but you can never have too much insight I always say.

Der Alta and neon_duke's input seemed to confirm that the Viper GTS would be the car to beat, so I finally took the Corvette Z06 (which had been in my garage for two weeks, literally untouched) out for preparations. Pretty routine here, getting the customary racing parts, Super Slick tires, and shaving off every ounce that I could. A Stage 1 NA Tune and Racing chip brought the car up to 431HP, which I figured would suffice. (I realize now that I had forgotten to do the oil change.) At this point I remembered that in GT2, I had used a 1.5 way LSD to get my Superbird to work with the track, so I stuck one of those in too figuring it couldn't hurt any.

So I went off to Seattle, ready to do some "happy hour" tuning against the Viper... and when I look at the lineup, there's not a Viper anywhere in sight:

Cobra
Mustang SVT Cobra R
Corvette Z06
Corvette Grand Sport
Camaro Z28
Corvette Z06 (me)

Go figure, huh? I do all that spending to take on the guy, and he's a no-show! Of all the nerve... Anyway, after turning about five qualifying laps I found myself in 2nd with 1'43.774, about 3/10s quicker than the other Z06. I was very surprised to find that the car didn't need to be fought around the track at all, in fact after the tires got some heat into them it was a very smooth ride. No skidding, barely any wall-slamming... a real contrast from my usual Seattle experience. I'm pretty sure the 1.5 differential was what made the difference here, though I'll have to try some laps without it just to be absolutely sure.

Pitting:

Cobra: 2 Laps
Corvette Z06: 8 Laps
Mustang SVT Cobra R: 8 Laps
Corvette Grand Sport: 9 Laps
Camaro Z28: 30 Laps

Out of all the pit strategies, I have to say that my own was the surprising one. My 'Vette not only handled very well on Super Slicks, but was also surprisingly unabusive on them too. I stopped only once at lap 20, with all four tires just barely starting to turn dark yellow. I was expecting that the tires would be trashed by lap 10! I probably could've run the whole race on one set, but decided to play it safe instead.

Final Results:

Total Time: 68'12.913
Best: 1'38.120 (Lap 18)

Corvette Z06: +1 Lap
Mustang SVT Cobra R: +1 Lap
Corvette Grand Sport: +2 Laps
Camaro Z28: +2 Laps
Cobra: +3 Laps

I was expecting this to be a nightmare, but it turned out to be one of the easiest races I've run so far. The other Z06 put up a good fight in the opening five laps, but apparently it got sideways in the railroad chicane and that after that it was pretty much a quiet drive. Still, all told 150,000 Cr and an Esperante GTR-1 is a pretty good haul for an hour's work. There's only one thing that bugs me though... if this race is suppoed to be the Seattle 100, why does my car only have 94.3 miles on the odometer?

 

[Duke]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Siskel and Dogbert give it two big thumbs up, Delray. Indeed this is a well-covered race, but with all the angst and pathos surrounding Seattle, I'm sure the information will help people out. Run something else and treat us to another good writeup!

The computer's balancing of the field does take some odd turns. It seems to leave the middle of the field alone, and substitute the two ends. One wierdity I've discovered is that it sometimes changes the number two car, but leaves the number one car alone.

I'm jonesing to do another enduro on a track I don't know very thoroughly. There's nothing like and hour or two lapping a course to really give you a chance to meet its parents, so to speak.

 

[VentedDisc]

Nicely said I tried the vett too great car, but the tire wear is a little quicker then some other cars.

 

[askia47]

pretty good

 

[ving]

good write-up

did the same track (think it was the same one (40laps is it?)) in my supped-up ruf... lapped all comers (one of them i lapped 4 times!!) but had to pit once every 6-7 laps! think this was the camber on the wheels wearing them out, but then i aint no smooth driver

next time i might go for a more suitable car (ie similar to the rest of the field)

 

[FLYR31]

Heh, I find with most of my enduro races... I absolutely rip my tyres in under like 10 laps

 

[ving]

I totally dont get that!

my tires, regardless of car, are gone in 10 laps too :/

 

[Duke]

Sliding wears tires heavily. So if you brake too late, cut in too hard, and accelerate to quickly, you're going to severely limit the life of your tires.

No matter what you're driving, smoothness is what racing is all about.

 

[ving]

well yeah, but even if i do drive smoo...... oh, nevamind :/