Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community - FT86CLUB - 2nd track day in the GR86, TNiA @ Pitt Race

TNiAs are short and sweet so hopefully this debrief is as well. Not a lot of time to think between sessions at TNiA because they run a pretty tight schedule.

The track:
Pitt Race Full Course

The car (no changes since last time out):

2022 GR86 Premium in Track bRed, ~1200 miles
Camber bolts in front, got to like 1.8° LF, 2.0°RF. Not ideal camber but zero toe all around.
Colorfittings Oil cooler, Motul 5w-30 synthetic (though a quart of 0w20 was still in the cooler when the oil change happened and i wasn't about to siphon it)
Raybestos ST-43 brake pads F/R, stop tech 600 fluid
Centric blank front rotors, oem rear
225/45R17 Falken 660's on 17x8 OZ Ultraleggera. Same set as last time, but i swapped fronts and rears, and put the rears on the "wrong" sides to hopefully alleviate the apparently-famous falken tread splice issue.

The driver:

7 years autocross experience (2013-2019) in DS GR WRX, STU GR WRX, ES Mazdaspeed Miata, BSP Mazdaspeed Miata, STU Boxster S
7 days on track, all at mid-ohio, Stock GR WRX, stock Boxster S, Boxster S with Motons (2015-2017) - got back in at Mid Ohio with my GR86 in September.

The conditions:
Low 70's, overcast to partly cloudy, sunset.

Session by session
1 - overcast, high 60's. Really found out how the car behaves over the wild elevation changes here. Was stuck behind a shelby mustang for most of the session, managed a 2:10.whatever. A couple big slides in the last left-handed S in the 'new track' before going back on to the 'old track.' Took the whole session to really figure out shift points. This track is really really fun.

2 - sunny, 70. Started pushing limits harder, but trackaddict crashed on the out lap so not super sure on lap times. Was able to use the stopwatch in the car and got a 2:05.87 on it. I pointed a corvette by early in the session but by the end of the session we were running the same lap times, and with traffic I reeled him in. He hit the brakes HARD before the kink before the last braking zone, and I damn near rear-ended him a few times because of that. Also, for some reason my shift light and gear number settings were turned off for this session, which led to me hitting throttle cut several times because I'm used to seeing a yellow-orange light on the dash when I need to shift. Turned them back on for the following run and they stayed on. Maybe because I had an OBDLink LX in the car and turned it off and on a few times? It makes no sense.

3 - Sunset, some clouds, 70. Pushed T1 harder and was rewarded with a couple tenths, but overall running close to the limits of my abilities + car capabilities. lap time 2:05.606 To me, this track rewards bold late braking points and high entry speeds, and you really have to hustle around, lots of fun and lots of places where the car likes to slide. First flying lap was my best. Figured out that it seems that taking T1 in 4th is best, and taking the hairpin at the bottom of the hill in 3rd is best, even though outta there it bogs down. In 2nd you get too much wheel spin and have to shift up while cornering and going up a hill.

https://youtu.be/FyPrGcxKR2M

Reviews:
The car - still excellent. lots of confidence in every part of the track. easy to recover in the event of a slide, and the limit is easily approachable. A blast to drive around here where the track tends to rise and fall in the corners.

Brake pads (raybestos ST43) - still excellent. light squeal even when properly bedded (done a week prior). Low dust. Initial bite not at HP+ levels, but super easy to modulate and peak force still high. ZERO FADE.

Tires (225/45R17 Falken RT660) - After 10 sessions now it does feel like these are starting to give up. Lots of sliding around here, hard to keep the rear under me at this track. Hard to tell if this is just because of the surface, or if i had too much air, whatever. I set them to 32 psi and left them because I was satisfied with the amount of rollover. After the last track day the rears had the tread splice peeling open and I rotated and flipped the rears this time so hopefully they don't show tread splices (tbd when i take them off).

Track Addict - Fine. When it doesn't crash it is easy to use, but doesn't have the best user interface for analysis (though it can export just about any format you need, theoretically). In order to get video overlays you have to use their proprietary software that throws a giant watermark on there and limits you to 3 mins at a time if you don't pay $50, and can't manage multicam unless you pay $60 (i slapped my in-car view in on davinci resolve).

The sanctioning body:
SCCA TNiA (intermediate group) - Good. They ran pretty close to the proper schedule and actual on-track time was like 17 mins out of a 20 min session. not bad. They had paced laps for the novices at the start which anyone could join - this was very helpful as I'd never been to the track before. Only one small gripe - they didn't say in the driver's meeting that there wouldn't be anyone in the flag stand at start/finish. This meant that the checkered was given at the flag stand inside turn 1, which is hard to see at sunset. They had another flag stand in the esses that also waved a checkered flag, which I've never seen before - which meant that my cooldown lap was ... half a cooldown lap. Also they had full course yellow for 2 full laps in the first session which was weird.

Video of full last session:
https://youtu.be/q-sQ8nSu3oM