Nashville superspeedway autocross review

M

mmarshall

Member #053
Location
Florissant
First Name
Mike
Last Name
Marshall
I had a blast at Nashville. It was pretty cool running on a Nascar track and I learned alot at my 1st national level event. Thanks Bob S. and John M for all the help! I promise to be faster next time and give you guys more competition. You can hear on the video that I spent alot of time on the rev limiter and did not have enough top speed for the faster sections. Looks like I may have to swap to a 3.27 gear to rectify that situation. Watching dave's videos I can see that the 3.55's are not the right gear.



Here is a video of one of my runs: http://youtu.be/dGnRialVtG4

The guy at the top of the XP class runs a supercharged S2000 with a carbon fiber body. He is really fast! In the 1st heat we had one guy loop out on the back straight and hit the wall very hard. I believe his shiny S2000 is probably totaled.After watching that I was a little intimidated by the close proximity to the wall in the slalom. I eventually picked up the pace in the slalom just a little. During my heat we had another guy go off course and wad it up into a tire barrier. These incidents were in the back of my mind and kept me from really pushing as hard as I am used to.
 
That is one big-assed autocross track. I had no idea that they use courses that large. I've only seen the parking lot stuff. With a layout that big - wouldn't you be better served to run slicks? And for gears - okay 3.55s?
 
Mark I was running slicks. I use Hankooks in a C71 compound which is very soft, similar to the Hoosier A6.

It was a huge course. We used all of the track except for the front straight. The start was on the end of pit row and ended at the beginning of pit row.
 
Nice big course, looks like several "trouble" spots were possible. Liked the in car video, shows some nice technique by you (turning your head looking where you're going, not where you're at). You may be right on the gear change, really not enough time to switch gears unless you have some type of quick change gear box. Maybe that's what you need to do, research your tranny's final drive ratio for each gear and see about changing 3rd or 2nd, whichever you run more on the courses.

How did your brakes perform? Looked pretty solid on the runs, wondered if on a bigger higher speed course if there were any fade issues or if you had any shimmy entering the turns? Nice job!
 
With my change to 3.55s there is no way I could run the local short course auto x in 2nd gear now.
That course had to be 50% longer than family arena and way faster.
 
Very cool course and nice driving Mike. Back when stores were closed on Sunday, for you youngsters, yes Sunday was a day off for almost everyone. Anyway courses were set up in the parking lots sometimes halfway around a shopping center and back. It was great but no better than Nashville for sure. I won the overall title running with the McDonnell Douglas sports car club in 71 and 72 driving of all things a 1971 2 liter Pinto with air shocks and traction bars on the rear and just cut springs on the front. I have been trying to find the results pages from those years and will post them one day when I find them. Those were the days, I'll try to at least find a picture to post. Rambling, sorry Mike.
 
Thanks guys! My driving has a long way to go.

Tim the brakes are working great. I actually was able to trail brake by running deep into the corners. They work so well that I am finding that I am not braking late enough, but that will come with experience.
 
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