My first track day in the UrQ- report

[Bill Elliott <wcelliot@concentric.net>]

Well, I had my first track day... a high speed autocross event at
Blackhawk Farms Raceway.  What a blast!

First, it was great to get to see so many historic Corvair racers and
their drivers.  They ranged from dead stock to fully race prepared to a
race-prepared mid-engine V8.  By far the fastest time of the day in this
group was a prepared Corvair turbo.  You have to give it to this guy as
the conventional wisdom is that the turbo cars can't run reliably enough
to run on a road course (mainly due to cooling problems).  Maybe if the
seesions had been longer, it would have been another story.

Two other Quattro drivers were there: Larry Boyer running a modified 4kq
(and doubling as an instructor) and another terrific driver (whose name
I didn't get) driving a modified 5kqt as my teenager put it "like he
rented it".  He put on quite a show for the crowd and was obviouly one
hell of a driver. He was turning times similar to the Vette and Viper
crowds.

Yes, it rained.  And rained. And rained.  The novices in the Mustangs,
Corvettes, etc. were all over the place. My Quattro always felt stable. 
I had Larry as my instructor and he forced me to go slowly until I had
the correct racing line.  This paid big dividends dring the timed runs
and in the rain.  He was terrific and I hope to learn even more from him
in the future.  

Both he and the other driver were adament that I drive with the diff
unlocked.  The 5k driver considered it a power drain.  Larry said it
complicated matters for a novice, but that after I was comfortable with
the car and the track after a few autocrosses, I should experiment with
it to see if I could go faster.  (He ran locked in the rain his first
run and spun the car.) He also warned me about the turbo... which did
end up biting me later in the day in the dry.  Boost came on at the
wrong time and I went around an otherwise uncomplicated turn kind of
sideways... but stayed on the track... and turned in my best run!

Unfortunately, I was way down on power.  A couple of weeks ago, I had
noticed a little cloud of steam on startup.  I didn't think much of it
with the high humidity we've had. It got a little worse until the
autocross.... now I'm _actively_ recyling coolant out the exhaust. 
Also, I'm convinced that the K24 turbo and stock intercooler are not the
optimal combination for the track.  The longer I ran, the less power I
had... and it was a _significant_ difference.  

Still, I was able to turn in some decent times.  I even beat several of
the race-prepared Corvairs with good drivers...in the dry even... but
was easily trounced in my class by expert drivers in Neon ACR's and
Miata's. 

BTW, there was also a novice there in a stock Syclone.  WHAT A VEHICLE! 
(And I seriously doubt he was running stock boost, but he showed himself
well.)

I had so much fun that I joined the club that threw the event and I will
be back... maybe next time with compression in all the cylinders!

Bill Elliott
Lake Mills, WI