Pocono east is a pretty technical course, especially compared to Pocono north. I found it much more fun and challenging. I only hit about 105 or so on the straight (on Pocono north I went 125). so I think HP plays less of a role on this east course. the day consisted of three 25 minute sessions; you run with other cars in your color group (student group doesn't have a color; red is slowest, blue is next up, and white is fastest. they combined blue and white for this event and that was the group I was in; no cars passed me all day).

At the end of the day, we do time trials. you basically run the course alone for these "timed runs". first 1/2 of the course is your warm up. then you get two full laps and those are timed; then you get 1/2 lap cool down. so your two timed laps are what is compared against the other cars in your class. I came in 3rd place. 2nd place was a newer z06 on Hoosiers and first place went to a shweet 911 twin turbo on Hoosiers. not bad cars to lose to. I actually think I could have beat them had I more experience on this course and.... here's the excuse section ... my first timed lap was fine, but a little slow since my tires were so cold (about 7 psi under normal since I was waiting for like 90 minutes to go on track again). I figured the first lap I would go 9.5/10's and my second lap I'd go 10/10's. so in the middle of my second lap, I really late braked on the straightaway and missed the "turn-in" into the infield! doh!! it was a quick recover and I was only about 2 seconds behind my first lap's time. oh well.

man, this stuff is addicting! open tracking is fun (obvious understatement), but now with the added "timed" part, its like a whole new aspect.

I would start the event with front tires at 35 psi and after 25 minutes, they would be at 42 lbs.

my oil pressure is usually at 60 psi at WOT, but after 15 minutes on the track, I was only seeing 40 psi. at first I was really worried, but after asking around, it seems the extreme heat really brakes down the oil and lower pressure is the result. after the cool down in-between sessions, pressure at idle was back to normal, 40 psi. but again after 15 minutes or so on the track, it was only maxing at around that level as well.

also, the temp gauge went pretty high, I'd guess around 225. so on my next session, I kept the hot/cold dial on "HOT" and kept the fan "OFF" and that seemed to keep the temps around 210 (stock gauge does suck though). in the middle of the session, it gets real hot in the cabin even with both windows down, so I moved the dial in the middle of hot/cold.

I heard LG has a big radiator with a built-in oil cooler. I think that would kill two birds with one stone.

the new c5 brakes took a complete @ss-kickin and didn't flinch. they worked awesome. the new bigger front-sway bar felt good as well and i didn't notice much body roll, although the photos should show more, as well as the video.

so my best timed run was 1:16:xx. I will go back to my in-car footage and see if my first half of my second lap was any faster before I messed up. I think I had the 6th fastest overall time out of 53 cars entered in the event. official results should be posted in a week. I'll put up some laps of video as well. I'm waiting for Joe to post up his still shots.

worthwhile notations:
-joe flat spotted his front tires; don't know how since he has ABS. seems he has a flare for doing that

-young punk in new m3 crashes into hay bales so hard, the other side of his car (the side that didn't hit the hay/crash barrier) dented front fender. Rumor is he crashes or does something stupid pretty often. when they tried dragging car onto the flatbed, complete front bumper ripped off, since it was dragging on the ground, because the pass side suspension was basically torn apart from the impact.

-tom and joe both used street tires, which seemed to wear really welll (besides aforementioned flat spotting). i think they both want to use their "R" compound tires next time out.