SOW laps

[Jason@SportsCar]

We were working at the Streets of Willow last Wednesday. Had an opportunity to take some laps in a number of cars including the 99 Yaris. Its been years since I ran that track in anything with stiff suspension, forgot how rough the surface is.

We had some guests come out and drive as well, so we tuned down the 99, lowering the rev limiter and running the bigger front bar so none of the newbies would spin out.

My best lap was a 1:28.2. I think in full race trim a 1:26 would be possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJL_b61C9xo

[baseballfan416]

great videos (I came accross the road america vid too)...

As a novice looking to get into road racing in the near future, one thing I think that would help would be to see footwork too. The yaris is particularly challenging to heel-toe in. I can do it in my other cars, but the gas pedal seems oddly positioned? Not sure if other people have had this issue.

Just an idea, I'll probably race the subaru or get something rwd.

[cali yaris]

CCW, that looks fun - I've never done it. You get a nice bump down into the long straight, how was #99 on the long uphill climb?

[xnamerxx]

Yeah, you're really hauling @ss down the back and front straights.

It looks like you're doing 100+ on the back straights no wonder how you were 10+ seconds faster than me on the same configuration ;)

Its amazing what gears and a bit of hp and lower weight will do on these cars.

[Jason@SportsCar]

great videos (I came accross the road america vid too)...

As a novice looking to get into road racing in the near future, one thing I think that would help would be to see footwork too. The yaris is particularly challenging to heel-toe in. I can do it in my other cars, but the gas pedal seems oddly positioned? Not sure if other people have had this issue.

Just an idea, I'll probably race the subaru or get something rwd.

The stock Yaris pedals are a challenge to consistently heel/toe with, I was reminded of that on the same day when we took laps in our old B-Spec car. You need really big feet or to be double jointed to hit all of those pedals accurately when you are going 100%.

In the Prod car we have Sparco pedal covers. Problem solved.
You can kind of see them in this image:
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4135/4827957610_58770c2112_z.jpg

In the B-Spec car we really don't worry about it... The speed is so low, relatively, and the gear splits are massive with the stock gearing. We just brake, then drop it in gear. Nice thing about FWD, if you don't rev match perfectly you really don't have the consequences (rear axle hop) like with RWD. This is similar to the practice we used in autox - left foot brake, then jam it in gear - if you are taking the time to heel/toe on an autox course you probably slowed down too much.

Video with left foot braking, downshift without rev match. If you downshift and uptake the gas at the same time the car really does not get upset, almost like you did a standard heel/toe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVhTnOrjgNE

[Jason@SportsCar]

CCW, that looks fun - I've never done it. You get a nice bump down into the long straight, how was #99 on the long uphill climb?

Yes, its a nice long run down the front strait. We like this setup for media/guest events because even if they screw up big time you have the entire skid-pad area to get the car slowed down. I have seen way to many newbies in the dirt coming down from the bowl the other direction.

No problems up the big hill, well in to 5th gear.