Back from Mid Ohio. I don't want it to be over yet! :((( (56K killer)
06-14-2004, 05:44 PM
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Back from Mid Ohio. I don't want it to be over yet! :((( (56K killer)
I raved all about Mid Ohio last year, so if you want to know more about the track, search. In short...GREAT track! If you haven't been to it, it's worth the trip, and if you're a beginner...it's a large track, but OOOOOOO so much fun! 
This year I managed to drag three locals out with me...silver streakin, digit@lex, and turbodog! None of them wanted to go, so I bribed them (just so I wouldn't get stuck in a hotel room with markbradford).
Anyway, on to the good stuff...PICTURES!!
We started the drive on Friday morning. The 4 of us met somewhere west of the poconos for breakfast. Oh, McD's stops serving breakfast at 10:30?! WTF is that all about? Who is eating hamburgers at 10:30 in the morning (well, we were)? Anyway, we jump in our cars to head west, and Alex's car turns over, then stops. He cranks and cranks and cranks...nothing. Uh oh!
After 15 minutes of sweating, Alex traces the problem back to the ECU, he pushes up some of the contact points on his GIAC socket, and viola...the car starts! *phew*
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2804.jpg">
The rest of the day went without issue. After half a night's sleep, we woke up at 5:30AM to get ready and head over to the track. Here's a few track shots over the 2 days we were there.
First half of the front straight...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2824.jpg">
Second half of the front straight and the pit area...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2822.jpg">
TT rounding turn 7 (end of the LONG back straight, downhill, righthander)...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2842.jpg">
Quattro Coupe rounding turn 7...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2851.jpg">
My instructor (in the A4) rounding turn 7...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2852.jpg">
The two days went by with a few hiccups, but mostly nothing unexpected at a track event. One 350Z found it's way into a wall, as well as a Mustang (turbodog has a video of that one). Both drivers were fine...but the cars...not so much.
For my own part, I decided to be a little more aggressive on the last lapping session. Well, with speed come mistakes. I kept pushing harder through turn 1 to see how much speed I could carry through there. That went well...until on one lap I realized...I had a bit too much. Mistake #1 was lifting off the throttle. As the rear started coming around, I put my foot back into the throttle, and tried to recover. I never got the car totally settled as I entered turns 2 & 3, and more shenanigans ensued. Fortunately, nothing bad happened...I just taught myself a good lesson! :-P I was totally comfortable with the car getting loose at 50 mph, but at 80 mph, you need to be a LOT more smooth when trying to settle the car after a mistake. After 1 more mistake (too much speed again), and finally, overheating my tires (air temps and track temps spiked late in the day as the sun came out) and scaring the crap out of myself yet again, I decided to give up my last 10 minutes and call it a day. Shortlly after that Mustang hit a wall and they shut down the course for the day.
All of our cars ran more or less flawlessly. At one point I developed a "clinking" noise in my right rear tire area. Here I am cinching down every fvcking nut and bolt I could find in the rear brakes and rear suspension. Ultimately Fred Baker's techs helped me out and traced it to a loose spring clip on one of my backing plates *phew*.
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2806.jpg">
Here's markbradford taking a nap between sessions...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2834.jpg">
On day 2 we finally had time to take a breather. Alex spotted an Ethernet cable, and low and behold...AUDIWORLD at MID OHIO! :-)
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2853.jpg">
And here's a gratuitous picture of my car (because I know you want to see it!)...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2855.jpg">
Overall, a really great weekend, and a really fun track! This is only my second event, and I already feel like I've learned a LOT. I have to give a HUGE thanks to the Ohio Valley Chapter of the ACNA (including all the instructors, volunteers, and organizers). They put a lot of time and effort into planning a great event, and those that attended sincerely appreciated it!
Our return trip home was interrupted by a 1.5 hour drive through Cicada Forest. All we could hear was the sound of cicada's hitting our windshield. There were so many of them that you could see the dead ones being swept around on the road as traffic passed. Off to the side of the road you could see even more dead ones accumulating. These suckers are nasty!
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2863.jpg">
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2864.jpg">
We have a TON of video footage between the 4 of us, just no time to sift through them and pick some good stuff. Over the next several weeks you'll see some good on track footage.
This year I managed to drag three locals out with me...silver streakin, digit@lex, and turbodog! None of them wanted to go, so I bribed them (just so I wouldn't get stuck in a hotel room with markbradford).Anyway, on to the good stuff...PICTURES!!
We started the drive on Friday morning. The 4 of us met somewhere west of the poconos for breakfast. Oh, McD's stops serving breakfast at 10:30?! WTF is that all about? Who is eating hamburgers at 10:30 in the morning (well, we were)? Anyway, we jump in our cars to head west, and Alex's car turns over, then stops. He cranks and cranks and cranks...nothing. Uh oh!
After 15 minutes of sweating, Alex traces the problem back to the ECU, he pushes up some of the contact points on his GIAC socket, and viola...the car starts! *phew*<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2804.jpg">
The rest of the day went without issue. After half a night's sleep, we woke up at 5:30AM to get ready and head over to the track. Here's a few track shots over the 2 days we were there.
First half of the front straight...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2824.jpg">
Second half of the front straight and the pit area...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2822.jpg">
TT rounding turn 7 (end of the LONG back straight, downhill, righthander)...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2842.jpg">
Quattro Coupe rounding turn 7...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2851.jpg">
My instructor (in the A4) rounding turn 7...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2852.jpg">
The two days went by with a few hiccups, but mostly nothing unexpected at a track event. One 350Z found it's way into a wall, as well as a Mustang (turbodog has a video of that one). Both drivers were fine...but the cars...not so much.
For my own part, I decided to be a little more aggressive on the last lapping session. Well, with speed come mistakes. I kept pushing harder through turn 1 to see how much speed I could carry through there. That went well...until on one lap I realized...I had a bit too much. Mistake #1 was lifting off the throttle. As the rear started coming around, I put my foot back into the throttle, and tried to recover. I never got the car totally settled as I entered turns 2 & 3, and more shenanigans ensued. Fortunately, nothing bad happened...I just taught myself a good lesson! :-P I was totally comfortable with the car getting loose at 50 mph, but at 80 mph, you need to be a LOT more smooth when trying to settle the car after a mistake. After 1 more mistake (too much speed again), and finally, overheating my tires (air temps and track temps spiked late in the day as the sun came out) and scaring the crap out of myself yet again, I decided to give up my last 10 minutes and call it a day. Shortlly after that Mustang hit a wall and they shut down the course for the day.
All of our cars ran more or less flawlessly. At one point I developed a "clinking" noise in my right rear tire area. Here I am cinching down every fvcking nut and bolt I could find in the rear brakes and rear suspension. Ultimately Fred Baker's techs helped me out and traced it to a loose spring clip on one of my backing plates *phew*.
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2806.jpg">
Here's markbradford taking a nap between sessions...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2834.jpg">
On day 2 we finally had time to take a breather. Alex spotted an Ethernet cable, and low and behold...AUDIWORLD at MID OHIO! :-)
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2853.jpg">
And here's a gratuitous picture of my car (because I know you want to see it!)...
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2855.jpg">
Overall, a really great weekend, and a really fun track! This is only my second event, and I already feel like I've learned a LOT. I have to give a HUGE thanks to the Ohio Valley Chapter of the ACNA (including all the instructors, volunteers, and organizers). They put a lot of time and effort into planning a great event, and those that attended sincerely appreciated it!
Our return trip home was interrupted by a 1.5 hour drive through Cicada Forest. All we could hear was the sound of cicada's hitting our windshield. There were so many of them that you could see the dead ones being swept around on the road as traffic passed. Off to the side of the road you could see even more dead ones accumulating. These suckers are nasty!
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2863.jpg">
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/MO_2004/Dscn2864.jpg">
We have a TON of video footage between the 4 of us, just no time to sift through them and pick some good stuff. Over the next several weeks you'll see some good on track footage.
06-14-2004, 05:52 PM
#4
Yep. I'll get them uploaded when I get back from Denver. AWESOME time!!!!
I can't agree with you more! What an awesome place to learn. I am definitely planning on going there again next year. Kudos to the ACNA group, especially Craig for organizing this. It was very well put together. I had a great instructor as well so I was able to learn at a much faster rate. Good times hanging with a bunch of the Chi-town peeps as well. I want more track time now!
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06-14-2004, 06:20 PM
#9
AudiWorld Super User
Re: sick.. are those bugs still around?
Yes,They are!Sounds like Raj hit the same stuff my wife and Sis-in -Law did coming this way(Ohio) from Phillie.They are big and ugly, the whole front of the Cherokee looked like something from a horror film .They really got them bad.I'm from the south and I've seen these in the Carolinas like this but never as bad.RKA sounds like you had a great time ,glad you didn't hit the wall and knew when to back off for the day.later.