Loudon - Awesome - What did you think? (Page 2 of 2)

First and foremost, I need to throw an apology out to the 2 Mr2s that on Sunday I was racing against. I was the driver of the green/red topped Miata number 101 that probably made their drivers crap their pants on the nascar back straight turn onto the uphill. I had overheated tires at this point, I came in hot onto that turn and just put slightly too much pressure on the accelerator losing rear end grip just after turn in. All day I was applying the same amount of throttle at or earlier then that point. The rear end lost traction with pretty old tires (1 full race at Thompson, practice at NH and all of Saturday including up to that point on sunday). Luckily or unluckily depending on your view I put the rear left side of the car into the tire wall. It could have been way worse and I could have spun the car and did major damage. Sorry guys for losing it and scaring your driver.

TheEngineer wrote:

My experience with OBD II readers and gauges, they aren't fast. If you're trying to simply read water temp, intake temp, stuff that changes slowly, it's great. But if you're trying to watch pressures or other fast changing things, you're on a delay and the resolution isn't amazing. I don't like using it for tachs because of that fact. Otherwise it works pretty well, if your car makes all the readings you want available.

I would agree with this.  I have an UltraGauge in my daily driver.  It is great for fuel slow moving values, but there is a noticeable lag when I set up a throttle position monitor.

That is what I figured. I just had concerns about how well the Bluetooth connection held up during race. How easy was the display to read? My thoughts were that the new car would have a regular tachometer mounted in front of the driver and the tablet off to the side to display things like coolant temp, oil temp, etc. the driver could glance at every new and again.

I also noticed a few cars spewing gas during the race. The number 13 (forget which car it was), and Super Grover (#24 I believe). I had our team report those as well. I hate to interrupt someones racing, but when it comes to fuel leaks it's worth it.

I was amazed at how clean the driving was overall (with a few exceptions, like every race). The rain on Saturday made the on-track conditions a nightmare, but it seems as if most handled themselves well.

Normally I'm very impressed by the flaggers at NHMS, but I thought they were sub-par this weekend. One incident in particular comes to mind where there was a flag out coming down the hill and a resulting traffic jam, but the treestand flagger decided to just wave his arms wildly about rather than throwing a flag. Never seen that move before.

Goofracer72, I should also be at all 3 events so we will kick back and share a beer or 12. I actually think we met at Thompson, I came over to the 3PM crew asking about the Civic. Still slowly putting my Civic together, hopefully it will be racing at NJMP, but I intend to put my butt into the Miata again. Once the Sunday race video gets put together I'll send you a link and the time stamp so you can watch how everything played out. Should be a good one.

I'll expound on my original post here a little bit. This was my first-ever Lemons race, I was attending as a spectator. Friday I hit the road at 5:00 AM from my place in Virginia, taking the long way (81-84-91) to avoid NYC, NJ, and all the tolls that come with them. The drive was smooth going until I got to western CT where I hit some hellacious traffic, losing over an hour just trying to get through Waterbury, Hartford, and Springfield. It was made slightly better by the fact that I passed Three Pedal Mafia and their RV towing their giraffe Civic along the way. I finally made it to Bow, where the proprietor of the Lemons Racer Lounge Facebook group was letting me stay the night, around 7:00 PM or so.

Even just watching the race was awesome, even though I was hella awkward and only talked to a few people as I mostly just felt like I was in the way. I mostly talked to the team with the pink Park Avenue, which was my favorite car there, Three Pedal, Futility with their Saab, and the #888 Blue Tang Clan (who sold me the Volvo my team will be racing next year). The best part of the weekend was meeting and talking to Vermin Supreme himself, he was hilarious and actually a really nice guy. He definitely has my vote!

I provided the rainbow DTOM flag in the background, Phil let me hang it up on the wall behind the penalty box and it was the backdrop for most of the pictures people took with him and the debate penalties. He even signed it! I also really enjoyed the pasta and wine served by the Alfa team, the gin and tonic from the gin and tonic cart, and Three Pedal's turkey Saturday night. I would have loved to stay later and enjoy more of the party, but we ended up leaving around 8:30 PM.

Sunday was beautiful, aside from the freezing-cold wind. I mostly hung out by the Winner's Circle and near turn 1, just watching. It seemed like all the teams I was rooting for the most (the pink Park Avenue, Futility's Saab, and #888) had major problems right before the end of the race. The Park Avenue had cracked the top 20 but lost a rear wheel with about an hour and a half to go (but it drove off the track and onto the flatbed under its own power, you can always depend on your Buick!), the #888 BMW was as high as 7th overall but broke a strut also about an hour and a half before the finish, and Futility's Saab was having some misfire issues just 15 minutes before the finish, but all had decent places in the standings by the end.

If I was ever in anyone's way this weekend, I'm sorry, but it was awesome finally getting to come to a Lemons race even as a spectator. I can't wait to come back next year, except with a driver's wristband this time. 2017 is the year of Further Domination!