Leavin' Vetts in the Dust

[Frankster]

OK, so I tried running Willow Springs Intl raceway Sunday. Have never run a road circuit before so I'm a total novice.

After 5 or 6 laps of "lead and follow" with an experienced driver leading me along in a Porsch (some French race car driver visiting the States), he thought I was a good enough driver to get put into the class just below racer class (TCCA Event).

So on my first run in this class I get a Z06 Vette on my a$$. Of course I'm a beginning driver and he would catch me in the curves but then I would then proceed to leave him in the dust on the straights

He just couldn't keep up or manage to pass me And I'm a complete rookie!

My car? 1996 RT/10 Hennessey Venom 600. That's a 12 year old car compared to his Z06.

I think it says more about the Viper than it does my driving skill.

PS Damm! I didn't know race tires could get so hot!

 

[Leslie]

The Viper is amazing on the straights AND in the apex's. I am surprised they would put a novice in a higher group so quickly. The PCA I run with you have to have at least 5 wknds under your belt just to get into intermediate.

Once you get some seat time you will be able to catch him on the turns also!

 

[Frankster]

Leslie
To be fair I've done a bunch of Autocross events before I ever tried the road circuit. It helped me learn the handling characterisitics of the Viper before ever going open road.

After the "lead and follow" exersize the instructor asked me if I've ever done this before. He couldn't beleive I've never done a road circuit before.

So I asked him if he though I was good enough for a higher class. He said, "if you don't have a problem with it and think your confident enough then go ahead".

I highly reccommend Autocross as a way of learning the Viper without doing any harm to yourself or the car.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Was it a C5 Z06? If so, then yes your GTS can take him. If it's a C6 Z06 you might need to make some upgrades.

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

I highly reccommend Autocross as a way of learning the Viper without doing any harm to yourself or the car.

I agree, that was my path also. Unfortunately getting harder to find AX sites, though.

 

[Leslie]

Leslie
To be fair I've done a bunch of Autocross events before I ever tried the road circuit. It helped me learn the handling characterisitics of the Viper before ever going open road.

After the "lead and follow" exersize the instructor asked me if I've ever done this before. He couldn't beleive I've never done a road circuit before.

So I asked him if he though I was good enough for a higher class. He said, "if you don't have a problem with it and think your confident enough then go ahead".

I highly reccommend Autocross as a way of learning the Viper without doing any harm to yourself or the car.

I was talking about just rules of a run group. The PCA's I run with they would never advance a novice, regardless of what they demonstrated on the track unless they had the required seat time on a roadcourse.

 

[TAILWAG]

No kiddin' - autox or not, you should get a few weekends under your lap to get in and rub shoulders in the advanced mix. Be careful out there...btw - the straightaways is not where it's at...

 

[lankhoss]

The learning curve for road racing is different for everybody, but probably the most important thing is knowing your car's capabilities. It's what hurts me a lot when I go on a road course, I just "guess" when I should start breaking and how fast I can take turns. Of course my confidence and skill is much better by the end of the day, but I do it so rarely it doesn't always stay fresh in my muscle memory. In either case, this curve of learning is VERY steep at first. Just having someone show you how it's done puts you miles ahead of the game of someone who is just out there driving around trying to learn by themself.

Also, if you are on racing tires and have better grip, your perception in the straights may be skewed. If your exit speed is higher than the car behind you (which I can almost guarantee in this case it is), then you will appear to "pull away" in the straight as well. If you are 2 or 3 mph faster at the exit point of a turn than the car behind you, that is a LOT for that car to make up in the short time you are in a straight away.

I recently watched a video where some car show raced a GT2 and ZR1 in a standing mile. The ZR1 had a terrible launch (you could hear the car spinning all over, bad shift to 2nd, more spinning, etc), however its speed was higher by the quarter mile mark. It was also 3mph faster at the mile marker.....but it still lost the race. So even though the ZR1 was traveling at a faster speed than the GT2 for a good 20 seconds or so, it still couldn't make up the distance it lost at the start, and it LOOKED like the GT2 was actually accelerating faster than the ZR1 the whole race.