FASTVOICE
NSX files, project Germany: Track day at
Hockenheim GP 26.03.2004
2 minutes
barrier cracked 
One of my major goals
for track days is improving my best laptime from last year. Usualy
we're attending a track not more than one time per year so I have
always about a year time to improve my skills and the car. At
Hockenheim GP my best track time was about 2:01,5 and for sure: I
wanted to crack the 2 minutes barrier - not that easy when you
know that a Supercup Porsche with a good driver is capable of a bit
less than 1:50 and that are real race cars and professional drivers.
The day started with temperatures
about 0 degrees celsius but with some sun and dry track so I could
drive with the Yokohama slicks. The event included 2 run groups, one
with 2 dozens of Formula cars - (including Formula 3000 and a Radical
SR 3 2seater), the other with about 45 saloon cars - mostly Porsches,
Lotus and Cup Renault Clios. Each run group had 8 sessions with about
30 minutes per session, enough for more than 70 laps on the new
Hockenheim GP track. As always passengers were allowed as long as they
wear helmets and so I invited some guests and played taxi driver at 6
of my 8 sessions.
My first session began with a bad
surprise: Smoke came from my front right wheel, especialy during
braking. After some laps the red brake control (also used for the
handbrake) began to light during braking and cornering. I returned to
my crew (some of my guests where the mechanics that modified my car -
it's always recommended to invite the right persons) to check it. Brake
fluid was very low and dust of smoke came from the wheel. You may have
guessed: A copper seal from the steel brake line failed and the brake
fluid leaked. Track event rule number one: No matter how much tools and
spare parts you take with you, the ones you urgently need are never
there.
No spare seal, no brake fluid in my
boxes - bummer! So my chief technician had to mount the line in a way
that it was okay for this day and the seal was forced to hold the
fluid. Track event rule number 2: If you need something urgently there
is always another team that is glad to help you. So we bought a big can
of racing brake fluid from the team of Porsche Zentrum Inntal that
attended Hockenheim with a big truck and 4 GT 3 cup cars. Thanks again,
guys!
After bleeding the brake system
everything was okay, no more leak. I increased the speed with every
session when the brandnew tires became more and more grippy.
Unfortunately some other drivers where not as relaxed or lucky. 2
Porsches crashed into the barriers, one was nearly totalled (very
sorry, that it was one of the team that helped me with the brake
fluid), a historic Racing Corvette Stingray lost its rear Lexan window
on the main straight, some other cars had minor damages or spun into
the gravel - I never saw this amount of incidents at one track
day. Fortunately no one was injured.
No wonder that the number of cars
dropped at every session. In the afternoon at the last two sessions
there was enough space on the track to try some real hot laps without
passenger. Until then my best lap time with a feather light female
passenger was 2:01,67. The girl enjoyed it very much but had a green
face afterwards and wasn't capable to eat anything. Best lap time in
the first session I drove alone (and the 2nd last of the day) was about
2:00,60 - so I had only one session left to reach my goal.
Track event rule number 3: To use
some tricks to be faster is not cheating. So I filled only that amount
of fuel in the tank that would be enough for the last session to keep
the weight as low as possible and I told myself: There are still some
corners here that you can drive faster, maybe with the use of some
tarmac safety zones (a common method for the DTM drivers at Hockenheim).
Hammering through Hockenheim
Nordkurve (after the main straight) and Sachs-Kurve in the "Motodrom"
So I used the safety zone in the
Suedkurve to carry more speed onto the main straight, slammed through
the Nordkurve with about 145 km/h where I had to use the safety zone to
avoid spinning, hammered the brakes at the latest points I guessed to
be just possible and so on - no cheating at all, just racing. 10
minutes before the end of session the display of my AIM My-Chron Light
Infrared Laptimer (also no cheating possible) showed 1:59,49! Hoorray -
Mission completed!
So I decided to let the next lap to
be the cool down lap and to end the session early. There is no need to
take further riscs by trying to improve that laptime. Above a certain
point that is very dangerous as we saw that day with other cars.
Rumours say that my Yoko tires already wrote a letter to amnesty
international to condemn me for mistreating them.
Next track day was the 1st of may at
the former french F1-track Dijon-Prenois
where I had my next goal:
Breaking the 1:35 barrier.
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