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Old 11-10-2014
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Skippy Masters going F3 racing

Quentin Wahl, Gus Doppes, Bill Shields, John Jastremski, Doug Tuttle, John Schauerman and Pat Daly are going west to not act their age in the former Russel School F3 cars that have carbon fibre tubs, 6 speed sequential gearboxes, big wings, Mitsubishi Evo turbocharged motors, slicks and serious downforce, now run by SimRaceway at Sonoma. What could possibly go wrong?

Jastremski, Tuttle, Doppes and Schauerman have already had some seat time in these cars. That leaves Wahl, Shields and Daly in the steep part of the downforce learning curve when they do the SimRaceway winter series in mid December at Sonoma and mid January and February at Laguna.

Since none of us are spring chickens we figured we should check this off our bucket list before we get too old to wrestle these cars through a corner.

There should be lots of opportunity to put our good Skippy training to work while also teaching these old dogs some new tricks!

Both downforce and Advil will be our friends. :-)

Wish us luck!

Pat
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Old 11-11-2014
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Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

Quote:
Originally Posted by dalyduo View Post
Quentin Wahl, Gus Doppes, Bill Shields, John Jastremski and Pat Daly are going west to not act their age in the former Russel School F3 cars that have carbon fibre tubs, paddle shifters, big wings, motors, slicks and serious downforce, now run by SimRaceway at Sonoma. What could possibly go wrong?

Know Gus has already had some training and practice and perhaps a race weekend as John may have as well. That leaves Wahl, Shields and Daly in the steep part of the downforce learning curve when they do the SimRaceway winter series in mid December at Sonoma and mid January and February at Laguna.

Since none of us are spring chickens we figured we should check this off our bucket list before we get too old to wrestle these cars through a corner.

There should be lots of opportunity to put our good Skippy training to work while also teaching these old dogs some new tricks!

Both downforce and Advil will be our friends. :-)

Wish us luck!

Pat

Have a blast fellas!
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  #3  
Old 11-29-2014
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Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

Quote:
Originally Posted by dalyduo View Post
Quentin Wahl, Gus Doppes, Bill Shields, John Jastremski and Pat Daly are going west to not act their age in the former Russel School F3 cars that have carbon fibre tubs, paddle shifters, big wings, motors, slicks and serious downforce, now run by SimRaceway at Sonoma. What could possibly go wrong?

Know Gus has already had some training and practice and perhaps a race weekend as John may have as well. That leaves Wahl, Shields and Daly in the steep part of the downforce learning curve when they do the SimRaceway winter series in mid December at Sonoma and mid January and February at Laguna.

Since none of us are spring chickens we figured we should check this off our bucket list before we get too old to wrestle these cars through a corner.

There should be lots of opportunity to put our good Skippy training to work while also teaching these old dogs some new tricks!

Both downforce and Advil will be our friends. :-)

Wish us luck!

Pat
when is this happening?
id like to join you folks!!
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Old 11-29-2014
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Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

Hi Greg,
It's happening Dec. 13 & 14 at Sonoma, and then Mid Jan and Feb at Laguna, but the field of 15 cars is full.
Peter Ludwig, John Mayes and others wanted to join but they only have enough cars for a field of 15 so it's done until spring.

How you been? Still doing the Continental thing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by GregS View Post
when is this happening?
id like to join you folks!!
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Old 11-30-2014
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Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

Quote:
Originally Posted by dalyduo View Post
Hi Greg,
It's happening Dec. 13 & 14 at Sonoma, and then Mid Jan and Feb at Laguna, but the field of 15 cars is full.
Peter Ludwig, John Mayes and others wanted to join but they only have enough cars for a field of 15 so it's done until spring.

How you been? Still doing the Continental thing?
wow
amazing that stinks..

is the laguna thing in skippy cars?

lets try to talk on the phone this week

Here is a clip of me in a conti car at cota:

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Old 12-07-2014
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Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

Absolutely let's talk... The link doesn't seem to be working? Can see the picture to click on but link goes to a blank page that never resolves into video?

Quote:
Originally Posted by GregS View Post
wow
amazing that stinks..

is the laguna thing in skippy cars?

lets try to talk on the phone this week

Here is a clip of me in a conti car at cota:

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Old 01-20-2015
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Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

The second round of F3 SimRaceway action happened this past weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Weather was perfect with temps in the high 60's and low 70's all three days.

Skippy masters in attendance were John Schauerman, Doug Tuttle, Bill Shields, Quentin Wahl, Gus Doppes and Pat Daly. John Jastremski was scheduled to be there but work and family issues kept him home this weekend.

Gus Doppes and I went out to Kelly Jones RaceCraft1 simulator training and Jim Leo's PitFit for physical training.
Three days in the simulators and working out at PitFit put us in the right mental and physical state to race the F3 downforce cars.

The first session of all 3 days (Friday practice, Sat and Sun practice, qually and race) gave us a cool track with slippery damp spots under the bridge at turn 6 entry, the corkscrew and turn 9. I managed harmless but embarrassing spins both Sat and Sun coming down turn 9 on the 2nd lap each time. Doh! Impressive how twitchy these stiff F3 cars get in low grip situations. It certainly made an impression on me! :-)

Laguna is quite different from Sonoma in that the application of brakes is, for the most part, more nuanced than at Sonoma. You are brushing the brakes at turns 3, 6 and 10 using full grenade/trail at turn 2 and a very brief stab at turn 5. Approaching the corkscrew is also nowhere near maximum as the grip falls away over the top of the hill with very light trailing pressure over the crest.

The corkscrew, though famous, is nowhere near the toughest corner on the track. You want to carrying as much entry speed as you dare to plant you straight and with a solid landing over the precipice so full throttle down the hill is achieved as quickly as possible. It's a rhythm thing.

Braking in turn 2 defies your belief in what's possible. You take the car well past your brake point in a skippy car at a quantum leap higher speed and pound the pedal with as much initial pressure as you're capable of. The downforce and wheel rotational force is so high that you can't lock up the brakes for the first third of a second of application. But... As speed is quickly reduced so is downforce and the wheels quickly lock if you aren't bleeding pressure off quickly enough. When done right the car slows so fast it almost takes your breath away.

Turn 3 can be done in 3rd or 4th gear. 4th is easier and may be a tick faster but the turbo is spooling up fast so you have to use all the radius to manage the cars tendency to understeer.

Turn 4 is almost flat in 4th gear. You feel the downforce holding the car to the track even when the apex curbing upsets it slightly. The downforce increases with speed and the car sticks all the way to the exit curb. Using all the exit curbing to maximize radius you upshift to 5th and head to turn 5

Turn 5 is a late hard dash of the brakes just before turn in and downshift to 4th getting back to as much power as you dare carry to the track out curbing. You can either run 4th up to turn 6 or do an early upshift to 5th to appease the audio gods that sit in the little shack to the right of the track. There didn't seem to be much difference in time between using 4th or 5th but 5th made it easier to focus on hitting your marks at turn 6 and spooling up the turbo for the run up to the corkscrew.

Turn 7 is a short firm stab of the brakes and downshift 2 gears to 3rd as you crest the hill and trail the brakes very lightly into the corkscrew. You want the car straight down the hill so full power doesn't spin you out.

Turn 9 and 10 are hair raising downforce corners . The faster you go the more grip you get. Strength and courage are both tested as all four tires maintain a four wheel high G scrub/drift to track out. Your mind doesn't think its possible but the car will do it!. :-) After 9 you change direction, lift and/or brush the brakes and do it again in 10. With these cars the front wing will bottom out in the apex rumble strip but there is so much downforce grip you don't really need the apex rumbles to maximize the corner.

Turn 11 you stretch 4th gear and again do an initial grenade and quick trail of the brakes while dropping to 2nd gear for the launch out of 11.

Race 1 managed to qualify P3 and after going side by side with Dough Tuttle through turn 5 on the last lap held on to finish P3.

Race 2 qualified P5 and finished P4 behind a good last lap battle with P2 and P3

Best experience in a race car ever.

The downside was this was the first time SimRaceway had come to Laguna so they weren't on top of the sound restrictions. Some cars were brought into the pits regularly because of sound. My car never had a problem but some had major issues that should have been worked out ahead of time.

The other problem was a timing and scoring software glitch that made electronic scoring dysfunctional for Saturdays race day. We had no timing sheets and scoring was done the old fashioned way by hand in the tower. There was data in the cars so times and data were retrieved later but these were symptoms of taking this show on the road for the first time.

The mechanics, cars, instructors and administrators all worked hard to put on the best show possible and we all got out of the cars laughing and hugging each other.

Driving cars in this performance envelope is a special privilege. Having them so nicely prepared and maintained with full support of a disciplined crew and instructor staff was a professional grade treat the entire weekend. And the food was good and plentiful too! :-)

Hats off to SimRaceway group for putting on a great show. We'll do it again in February!
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You draw 'em a picture and they eat the crayons... (Duck Waddle commenting on the creative ways some people interpret driving instruction.)

Last edited by dalyduo; 02-06-2015 at 09:31 AM.
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Old 01-21-2015
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Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

Quote:
Originally Posted by dalyduo View Post
Braking in turn 2 defies your belief in what's possible. You take the car well past your brake point in a skippy car at a quantum leap higher speed and pound the pedal with as much initial pressure as you're capable of. The downforce and wheel rotational force is so high that you can't lock up the brakes for the first third of a second of application. But... As speed is quickly reduced so is downforce and the wheels quickly lock if you aren't bleeding pressure off quickly enough. When done right the car slows so fast it almost takes your breath away.
Pat,

Loved the story! The above is my favorite paragraph. You illustrate downforce and brake theory so nicely.

Your whole story tells the tale corner by corner. I could almost picture and feel what it was like. Turn 9 is so mental and physical.

Thanks for sharing. Great stuff.
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Last edited by dalyduo; 02-06-2015 at 09:32 AM.
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Old 01-22-2015
cheekychica cheekychica is offline
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Thumbs up Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

We should all also acknowledge the return of the CWC! Glad you had fun Pat!
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Old 02-17-2015
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Re: Skippy Masters going F3 racing

The third and final winter series SimRaceway F3 race weekend will be at Laguna Seca Feb. 21 and 22. The usual suspects will be there and the weather looks to be spectacular, especially when compared to the snowy ice box being experienced in the midwest and east. :-)

Should be fun! :-)
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