First track day in the GR86 (Mid-Ohio) - debrief

[andys_garage]

I used my NASA coupon to run 2 days at Mid-Ohio in the HPDE2 group and here's my thoughts:


The car:

• 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 (because tirerack only sent me 1 centric rear - but their cust service is great)
• 225/45R17 Falken 660's on 17x8 OZ Ultraleggera. used for 1 autocross by the guy from whom i purchased them.

The driver:

• 7 years autocross experience (2013-2019) in DS GR WRX, STU GR WRX, ES Mazdaspeed Miata, BSP Mazdaspeed Miata, STU Boxster S
• 5 days on track, all at mid-ohio, Stock GR WRX, stock Boxster S, Boxster S with Motons - all from 2015-2017

The conditions:
Both days cool to start, bright sun all day, peak ambient temps high 80's. Honestly as close to prime conditions as you could get, especially just before lunchtime.


The sanctioning body:
NASA - honestly I think this is one of the best DE organizations out there, with Porsche club coming in a very close second. In HPDE2 we were allowed to pass anywhere except where there are braking distance boards. This meant a lot of good experience running side by side through the esses. They promoted me from HPDE2 to HPDE3 for my next track day and I do feel prepared for the open passing zone rules in that class.


Session by session

Saturday: Club course (with bus stop chicane before keyhole)
1 - ~930 am. Cool and dewy, slick conditions. No instructor. 'Track mode.' I set pressure to 33.0 psi square with the gauge from the supra next to me on grid (lol). My intercomp gauge reads low and when the tires cooled down over lunch it measured 28.0 psi on that. Spent the whole time trying to figure out gearing, line, where to and where not to push the car. I was slow and tentative overall, fastest lap 1:51.45 - had a garmin catalyst in the car - very cool device, worth another forum post - but less helpful for me than it would have been in the afternoon.



2 - ~1130 am. ideal conditions, mid 70's sunny, but track not too hot yet. Instuctor in car. 'track mode.' Worked on tracking out further in T1, keyhole, entry/exit of T11. Moved braking point to after end of esses before T11 (see above note about being timid on first session). Overall gained a lot of confidence in the car and the line having had an instructor. Fastest lap 1:49.18. got a point by from a supra which I had let past at the start of the session and then ran him down



3 - ~2 pm. Sunny and high 70's low 80's. track starting to get a little slick, tires getting greasy a little sooner in the session. 'all-off mode' from here on out. did an off-line driving drill which was lead/follow 1 lap on left of track, 1 lap on right of track. After the green I followed the instructor (NC miata with hand controls, same tires as me) through T1 with no brakes, just a lift. He made me earn the point-by for a lap and then gave it to me on the front straight which put me off line for T1 again, all around a good learning experience. Got comfortable running flat out through the esses, ate up a lot of guys through there. lots of clear track on this run, fastest lap (of the day) 1:47.2. had a scary slide coming out of thunder valley where i had to put in 360° of steering to save it, but kept it on the island.



4 - ~5 pm. Sunny and mid 80's. Lots of rubber down from 2 races and time trial that happened in between sessions, track slick and greasy. reverse-grid drill. We lined up in roughly reverse order of perceived speed, which meant i was behind all the momentum cars and in front of all the high-hp cars. Really fun because it created a lot of passing opportunities, I made several passes in the esses. Fastest lap 1:48.2 where i missed a downshift in the carousel and was in neutral instead of 3. Got black-flagged as part of a drill to make sure you're watching on the next lap which was a flyer. May review video later to check segment times but it felt very fast. On pit out after black flag was side by side with a miata so had a fun run down to the bus stop with them.



On the way to dinner the head instructor asked why I didn't sign up for HPDE3 and I told him it was from lack of seat time. The HPDE2 lead instructor told me I'd be getting a check-out ride in the morning.



Sunday: Pro course - no bus stop before keyhole
1 - 930 am low 70's and cool but not as humid as previous day. track was still plenty slick though... Instructor in car giving me a check-out ride for HPDE3. Worked on off-line driving and trail braking as part of the hpde3 check-out, got some pointers on less aggressive brake release (to hammer out an autocross habit). Fastest lap 1:47.3 ... with 2 fewer turns than yesterday. got a sign-off for hpde3 at my next NASA event.



2 - 1115 am high 70's and sunny. perfect conditions. no instructor. Gridded up pretty far back to get more offline/passing opportunities because hpde3 is more open on passing and those guys don't like being held up so you gotta get used to driving off line. passed about 2/3 of the field, mostly eating them in the esses because I can take the esses flat out. Figured out how to use the stopwatch on the dashboard and got a 1:44.6 - which, to me, means that the track picked up 3 seconds because i felt like i was doing the same things. A little more trail braking at china beach and keyhole. no brakes at t1.


3 - 3:50 pm high 80's and sunny. slick and greasy, lots of rubber down from racing and time trials. Paced passing drill - basically 4 cars play leap frog behind an instructor with passing allowed in brake zones to get you comfortable with running side by side and off line. After the drill was chaos because a time trial LS3 swapped FR-S with a big wing passed me and the GT350 instructor 3 wide. I then got held up by a corvette that I'd catch every lap in thunder valley and then he wouldn't give a point and would floor it out of the carousel. If it were a race I woulda dumped him probably. Honestly felt disrespected because he let a supra and a gt350 by and I was running the same lap times as them. Best i could manage was a 1:46.2, i started losing confidence in t1 from the conditions. Still working on braking points and trail braking for keyhole and china beach. Let a supra by just before braking for china beach and hounded him all through the esses. He had a massive slide coming out of Thunder Valley because he was trying to see me in his mirrors - i had to take to the grass to avoid him. went to the pits to check in, and then the out lap was also the checkered.


4 - 4:45 pm - Sunny, high 80's - same conditions as previous because it was only like 30 mins later, except oil-dry from china beach through entry to esses (which made madness a little more slidey and fun). Combined group with HPDE1, so passing limited to straights. I hope i didn't scare the HPDE1 guys because i was typically on their bumper going over the hill into thunder valley and usually already fully pulled out for the pass before getting the point-by. Gridded up just behind another GR86 on 235 falkens, and after passing him he followed so that we could compare notes. he was faster in a couple places like the carousel but didn't trust his car as well through the esses. Worked on trail braking into keyhole and carousel again, really pushing brake point later in both places. got into 5th on the t1-keyhole straight twice, and the second time fucked up the downshifts and way overshot the intended line. staying in 4th better, brake at like 50ft, idk why they bother with a 300-ft sign there. Braking late and diamond-ing the corner was way faster than hugging the curb. Fastest lap time 1:45.2.


Reviews:
The car - 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. I found track mode to be a little too intrusive, especially when the car is light over madness and thunder valley entrance.



Oil cooler (Colorfittings) - max temp i saw upon taking the checkered was 235º. the other GR86 in the last session said he was seeing 255º. ymmv, i'd say it did its job nicely, but on motul 5w-30 255º is probably fine to run all day. Easy to install, quality parts, highly recommend if your 86 is primarily a track car.



Brake pads (raybestos ST43) - 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. Install was tough because they were a little out of tolerance large on the rears. had to sand RR outside pad to be able to fit a shim on the back, also had to file the tabs a little bit to slot them into the caliper. Will check wear tomorrow night, hopefully they last a while because they're really hard to get.



Brake rotors (Centric Blanks) - i mean they're still in one piece which is more than i can say for the oem rotors i ran here on the WRX in 2015 which gave me fits the whole weekend and eventually turned to 150 grit sandpaper.



Tires (225/45R17 Falken RT660) - very good. Not sure they super loved the high track temps in the afternoons, and I didn't quite trust them as much in T1 as the track temp went up. I set them on saturday morning, and left them the same all weekend. watched shoulder wear by using silver sharpie on the shoulders, probably could have added 0.5-1 psi but it was good enough and I didn't feel like chasing the setup on a car that was already handling very well. They were pretty predictable, slid when you wanted, very good under braking. LF screaming on the concrete patch coming out of keyhole but everyone understeers there. Also monitored rim slip, and by the end of 2 days i had about 2" total rim slip on the fronts, the rears slipped both forwards and backwards 1-2" per session, maybe I should tell my tire installer to use less lube idk.


Garmin Catalyst - really interesting device, but also very expensive. I got to try it for the first 2 sessions of Saturday. Biggest drawback is that it doesn't collect any data from the vehicle. It does give you suggestions on how to make up time based on what you showed it you can do. It even visualizes where it thinks you should be braking from a video screenshot so you can get new reference points. It also can stitch together a video of your 'optimal lap' which is the sum of your fastest sectors. If i had the money i'd get one but i'll probably gain more for now by paying for entry fees and tires and just getting more seat time. I wish i had it in the afternoon where i was already comfortable with the car and was getting into the marginal gains territory which is where this device shines. It only knows what you show it, not the full potential of the car, so I recommend you get signed off into an advanced/expert/time trial group before purchasing. It told me after my second session the best i could do was a 1:48.2, and in worse conditions later I did a 1:47.2.


Sanctioning Body (NASA) - excellent. Caliber of instruction is top-notch, though I wish I had in-car instruction the first 2 sessions of both days as I always make the biggest gains with an instructor in the car. They also had the author of Speed Secrets there (i think garmin brought him?) which was a tremendous opportunity to learn from the guy that literally wrote the book on going fast and has coached dozens of pro drivers. Being able to pass in curves is both next level in forcing you to learn AND being able to clear traffic faster for more open laps. Now that i'm signed off for HPDE3 it'll be fully open passing and all people that know how to give point-bys to lower-hp cars. I'm considering running NCM with them in october but it's like 7 hrs away, so i'd likely miss the benefit of being able to drive on friday. I've heard that they cut down HPDE time if the races go long or have reds, or have cleanup, but i never felt like i had been screwed out of track time. maybe 1 lap here or there. It was neat sharing the weekend with all the race cars, and you can learn a lot from watching those guys. Plus who doesn't like to see 20 spec miatas barrel into madness?


I'm not sure i missed anything, but all around the weekend couldn't have gone better and I'm glad I bought the car.

[TommyW]

Nice write up. NASA is one of only 2 organizations I'll drive with. Too bad you couldn't have coaxed a session with Ross (Speed Secrets guy) in the right seat.

[andys_garage]

I offered! nbd though. I talked with him at length a few times.

[jflogerzi]

Good right up! I am guess this is not your first time at the track but just first with the Twins?

[andys_garage]

Yeah 5 'days' across 3 events, lots of autocross experience (also not in the twins), worked in the racing industry for 8 years.

[Pat]

Nice post. Why did you replace the OEM rotors?

[CSG Mike]

What kind of vmax were you seeing going into China Beach?

[andys_garage]

Originally Posted by Pat

Nice post. Why did you replace the OEM rotors?

Bad past experience on Subaru OEM rotors with hawk hp+ pads at mid-ohio in the WRX. The GR86 is lighter and has better airflow, but the front brakes are the exact same, so it was an abundance of caution.



Also, now i have 2 full sets of pads and rotors, can keep them as matched sets so no need to clean/re-bed, and have spares in case of trouble.

[andys_garage]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

What kind of vmax were you seeing going into China Beach?

I hit 6800+ (where i have the yellow light set) in 5th going into china beach frequently, so that puts me in the 123+ mph range.

Maybe could have pulled 130 if I ran 3rd and 4th out further instead of shifting at 6800? Hard to tell. Didn't have good datalogging going in those sessions.



Also if I got the right hander after madness right, I could hit rev limiter in 3rd coming out of the esses before braking for thunder valley.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by andys_garage

LF screaming on the concrete patch coming out of keyhole but everyone understeers there.

I've done the Mid Ohio School Advanced High Performance Course and they really drilled down into each corner and how best to take each. For the keyhole they suggested right after cresting the hill (which is about half way through the turn) lift off a bit to rotate the car and neutralize the understeer (which is caused by the change to the downhill section). This worked like a charm.

[doward]

I was there running TT5 in my red '13 BRZ, but parked with ST5/6 in the upper paved paddock.

Were you parked near the T1 pavilion area? I wandered through there a few times to peak at the Neptune GR86 that was in attendance as I lust after a Neptune pretty fiercely. It always seemed like that group was in a meeting so I didn't chat with anybody.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by andys_garage

Bad past experience on Subaru OEM rotors with hawk hp+ pads at mid-ohio in the WRX. The GR86 is lighter and has better airflow, but the front brakes are the exact same, so it was an abundance of caution.

As far as I know regular Centric (120 or 121) are about the same as OEM. But based on my reading the plain blanks work perfectly fine for most people on the track. Just need to use good pads and fluid.

Originally Posted by andys_garage

Also, now i have 2 full sets of pads and rotors, can keep them as matched sets so no need to clean/re-bed, and have spares in case of trouble.

That's my reason for two sets of rotors as well.

[TommyW]

Originally Posted by andys_garage

I offered! nbd though. I talked with him at length a few times.

Seems like a cool guy

[andys_garage]

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

I've done the Mid Ohio School Advanced High Performance Course and they really drilled down into each corner and how best to take each. For the keyhole they suggested right after cresting the hill (which is about half way through the turn) lift off a bit to rotate the car and neutralize the understeer (which is caused by the change to the downhill section). This worked like a charm.

Yeah I played with hugging the curb vs braking super late and diamonding the corner in the last session and preferred the latter. Just seemed like I spent less time there and exit was faster