This past weekend was my second time at Road Atlanta.  Back in March when I was at Road Atlanta for the first time, I was quite nervous about all the elevation changes and blind curves.  I was able to go into this weekend much calmer than before and hoping to improve on what I had learned before. 

In the few weeks since last month’s event at CMP, the cobra received many new gifts, including a new set of track tires (still the Nitto Extreme R Autocross tires), an AutoPower roll bar, a larger radiator from Fluidyne (hoping to alleviate those heating issues where the supercharger cuts out), a Steeda rear suspension subframe bracket kit, and an oil separator kit.  For fear of being miserable during the weekend (I had heard that last year’s NASA event at Road Atlanta in August was brutally hot), we decided to rent an RV for the weekend.  This way we could stay on track in air conditioning the entire weekend rather than being exposed to all the elements during the day and only having access to air conditioning at night back at the hotel room.  As it turned out, the weather this past weekend turned out to be beautiful (a bit warm, but not overly hot).  And unfortunately the RV could not tow the weight of the cobra, so we still had to drive two separate vehicles up and back.  Regardless, the RV still made the trip a lot of fun and was a great decision.

Saturday’s first session opened as a double yellow (as it always does) to allow for the cars to warm up and for the drivers to familiarize themselves with the track.  After the first few laps I can’t say I was hitting all the marks I should have been, but I was becoming more comfortable in remembering where the track would take me next.   I was also behind a Corvette that for some reason insisted on not letting me pass.  I noticed if I let a car pass me, he would also allow that car to pass him.  But regardless of how long I stayed directly behind him making my presence known- I came to the realization I was not getting around him.  Just as I was resigning to this fate, we caught up to an entire line of slow traffic, followed by yellow flags.  By the time the yellow flag came down and I went into the pit to see if I could get a little space, the checkered flag came out for our cool down lap.

My 2^nd session on Saturday had only two or three laps before a double yellow flag was thrown that carried us through the end of the session.  I was just managing to clear out the traffic in front of me as the double yellow came out and the rest of the session was spent at approximately 30-40mph.  This in conjunction with the first session had me a bit frustrated since this event only offered HPDE drives 3 total sessions per day on track (as opposed to the typical 4), and my first two allowed me very little time to work on the items I needed to be working on- compressing my braking zones and increasing my speed through the Esses.

The final session on Saturday allowed me some actual practice time, although I ended up behind another Vette who also was refusing to let me pass.  Although he was extremely fast in the straights and fairly quick overall- my speed through the corners would have let me pull away from him.  Coming out of the long straight between 7 and 10a, my instructor James walked me through the entire process of not letting off the accelerator and then telling me at the last second exactly when I should brake as hard as I could.  (I am often a bit too conservative on those items until pushed by my instructor.)  Apparently my brakes coming down that hill weren’t as strong as I (or James) had believed and I ended up having to enter the corner late and hot.  It was a nice learning experience for me (even though I was absolutely terrified as it happened) since I learned the threshold of my braking capacity and that there was more wiggle room in the corner than I had originally believed as I was able to get through the corner without going off track or losing control.  I have a feeling that stubborn Vette driver was also a bit concerned when he looked in his rearview mirror…in fact, I was pretty sure that would mean he’d probably allow me to pass when I caught him on the next straightaway.  Unfortunately, before I could catch up the supercharger started having the same surging issue as it had in previous weekends.  I had to back it off a lot and cruise on all of the straightaway’s to let things settle out.  I still could work on my corners and compressing the braking zones, I just made sure not to push acceleration during the straights.

The fact that the issue with the supercharger was still happening was extremely frustrating after the new intercooler, heat exchanger, radiator, and oil separator.  I had be fairly confident that those combined would alleviate the problem, but I was wrong.  After talking to some people next to us in the paddock, they suggested changing the fuel filter in case that was clogged and causing the engine to choke.  After two separate trips to the nearest auto parts store (one directly before they closed and one as they opened), changing my 2^nd driving session to the 1A group rather than the 1B group to give me more time to work things out, and a number of favors from very kind and helpful people – the fuel filter was officially changed…only to find out that it was in great shape and definitely not the problem.  The whole fiasco did at least lead to a fairly confident diagnosis of a bad coil, however, and I now realize that I was feeling the engine sputter rather than surging of the supercharger.

Sunday’s first session went well.  It was fairly cool out and the car didn’t act up at all.  The brake pads were switched from the previous day’s pads to Racing Blues to offer better braking power after the incident during Saturday’s last session.  The second session also progressed well, even though the car did have some issues and I again had to take it easy on all the straights.  After the second session, James offered for me to run solo on my last session of the day.  Although I was just as nervous as I was at CMP to run solo and my initial reaction was to decline, I accepted the offer knowing I should see how I do on my own on a course that is much more challenging than CMP.  With that in mind, we hooked up the video camera to the roll bar so I could at least document or pinpoint some of my mistakes and successes.  I also want to have a refresher of the track before coming back in future events.  Once out on track I was no longer nervous about being alone.  I noticed a few mistakes in my lines along the way, but overall did fairly well.  I also babied the car from the beginning in the straights and managed not to have any car issues until the last 2 or 3 laps.  With that being said, it turns out the video only recorded for the first lap and a half - the first lap of course being more or less a warm up lap where I was behind a number of cars and going fairly slowly.  Even though I can’t review my entire session for what I did correctly and incorrectly, I at least met my second goal of having a tape of the track itself.

All in all, the weekend offered some great experiences on track, although there were too many cars on track at the same time throughout the weekend.  I still haven’t practiced my heel-toe on a course yet (again, there was way too much traffic on this course for it to have been a good idea to “start practicing”).  I’m not planning on going to the September NASA-SE event in Rockingham, and the next one on the schedule after that isn’t until December when it’s back at Road Atlanta.  I don’t think I can wait that long, so I’m seriously considering joining the NASA-Florida group at their October event in Sebring.  In the meantime, the cobra needs a bit of attention to determine once and for all if there is a bad coil or if there is some other issue that remains a mystery.