A few extra comments:
Loren wrote:A lot of people failed to track out toward the cone wall on the outside after taking the first left apex. Failing to do this made it difficult/impossible to late apex the 2nd apex... and failing to late apex there made the next right-hander difficult. All of that conspired to keeping you from being on the throttle as much as you could be for one of the only two long straights on the course! Missing out on some acceleration there was HUGE.
In my mind, this was the key to the whole course. This is also one of the most common tricks on an autocross course (and more than a few road courses) -- a compound turn that modifies the obvious line through the first corner.
The loop. Oh, the loop was such fun to watch people screw up! From the crossover through the first apex, all the way to the second apex was one constant arc that you should have been ACCELERATING through!
Well, in the FASTiva, maybe.
Best I could do was constant throttle. And although it's not on the video, not much change to steering angle for the first half of the loop.
Man, a lot of people tried to make an S out of that next straight! It was a straight! Even in a wide car, it was a straight! Yanking the car to the right before making the left just set you up "scandinavian flick" style to kick your car into oversteer for that hard left. All you needed to do was drive that straight, STRAIGHT, brake STRAIGHT, and then make the left... not super sharp, but just enough to comfortably track out CLOSE to the wall on the right.
Like I said on the video, putting the car all the way out on the wall made the line through the in-and-out hook difficult, and the hook was the key to the finish....
From there, it was a quick in-and-out to the right. Focus on the exit of that to try to maximize your approach to the final right turn and get on the gas as early as possible. I think that whole last sequence was actually the hardest part of the course to get right.
This line started with the left at the end of the straight, as above, and turning in as early as possible. Be late, and the exit from the hook led right into the outer wall before the finish. Get through it, and there was enough room to get a little throttle through the lights.
Loren wrote:Phillip, your hand position is atrocious!
And, yeah! Too much sawing around and one hand-action, especially in the first half of the run. And the car was pretty stable! You calmed down a bit after the loop, but still more motion than the car justified.
Watching my hands isn't terribly exciting, which is as it should be for a Miata -- the steering is fast enough to not need much hand-over-hand, and the long corners you want to hold a pretty constant angle.
. Come to think of it, watching the RX7 drifting a good portion of the course in the rain was quite entertaining too!
, I had no idea I had DNF'd it up at the time until I looked at the timing screen! After re-studying the course map I thought I'd figured out what went wrong and the video confirms it. - So much for remembering what I'd learned on the course walk...
