Road America QCLUB Report - Long

[QSHIPQ@aol.com]

A very interesting couple of days last week, solid rain both days of the 
event, made for some great videos, wish I brought the camera.  Here's the 
skinny from my seat.

EVENT:  Road America 4.5mile multiplane road course (one of the best in the 
country)  Monday and Tuesday 9-27 and 9-28.

Entries:  Way over 100, 120something if memory serves.  4 run groups (by 
seed, IV instructors).

Cars:  Everything from mild to really wild.  Nice to see the 90 chassis cars 
with turbo motors getting to more events, definitely puts some perspective to 
those S car racers (and you know who you are:).  I managed to swap instructor 
duties around to get a Revsport prepared 4kqt, and that turned out to be 
quite the ride.  Also, lots of big reds (mostly under 16in wheels), mucho 
mods.  I remember the days when qclub events ran mostly stock, less tweeked.  
That has reversed itself in the past 8years.  

Most curious factoid:  All cars off were torsens (er + a couple SHO's).  Go 
figure.  More experience with the lockers, or statistical anomoly?  The Lava 
Machine spun, but was on track at the time, crazy Jones with his racing 
slicks in rain.  

Best laps:  Moving the 4kqt up to group 3 (most experienced, not 
instructors), mostly tweeked S cars.   After some complaining to me about my 
student not allowing passes, I watched closely as the two that spoke to me 
got passed the second day.  I watched in awe one spider bite at speed 
trailing 30feet to an S cars backside, and it was a bizarre experience 
watching the driver fight the wheel, sliding sideways, + we got full view of 
the torque transfers.  Needless to say, after that lap, the guy moved right 
over to let us pass.

Best off:  One of my students was a elderly lady with an A8 (and 6 events of 
experience, now that's a mom I'd love to have).  Coasting a little too fast 
thru the turns (my lecture, "you coast around a turn in a quattro just 
steering, you're really just praying").  At one point we were too hot into 5 
(downhill 90left to uphill), she tried to recover, I uh, *urged* her to take 
the off.  We hit the pea gravel like a submarine, and she ended up on the 
grass by the gravel at about 2 mph.  If only Vivaldi was playing 4Seasons, it 
would have been perfect.  She declined the second days events, not being 
comfortable.  Great, neither was I, visions of a 2 ton aluminum ball hit me 
the night before.

Best Improved:  The young son of the father's prepped SHO.  Both SHO's went 
off, the father of my student as well.  My student did very well, never went 
off, and had a very quick line (er, that's for a taurus).  By the second day, 
the left foot braking was really working for him.  (and the dad put the wild 
chip back in, figuring his son was safe:)

Wild Ride:  The usual 3 ticket ride with Keith Anderson.  With the late MC 
motor being more torquey, it was extremely fast, but not as much fun as in 
prior rides.  It's so smooth now, we both were looking for the porsches to 
play with.  

Best off:  Coming up behind an A4 in turn 1, spider bit him hard.  Went off 
on the INSIDE of turn 1, smacked a barrier with the pass side, he needs some 
body work.  Luckily there were two strategically propped tires preventing 
full metal contact (that's a movie, isnt' it?).  

Worst Idea (my opinion here):  Allowing drivers with no track experience to 
start at Road America.  One particular driver was so slow in groupe 1 that 
the pack behind got really ugly.  I had my SHO driver pop to regrid, waited 
1/2 a lap, still caught the car within a lap.  With cars spread out, one can 
accomodate a huge run group at RA.  1 car can turn that into a really bad 
idea.  BTST.

Best rain view.  Following the Vortrag bewinged A4 in the rain.  Not 
convinced at all about the idea in dynamic function, but it sure made a neat 
spray pattern.

Monday Morning QB:  Finding out exactly 1 day late about Chris Covingtons' 
warning on wet Optispark in the second debut of the LT1Q.  Let me say exactly 
what happens Chris.  In the pouring rain, our skid plate got really wet.  
Water goes around the edges of the skid plate, hosing down the optispark 
(crank fired ignition) with water, making sparks jump from wire to wire.  On 
Bob D's second lap 1 spark fired correctly, the other didn't.  Bent a rod.  
Before we got back to CC's warning post, I spent a long night trying to 
figure why the safety marshalls were running at us yelling fire.  At track 
teardown, we found no evidence of fire.  That's cuz it wasn't fire, it was 
sparks!  Big Bummer for Bob, I think I had 1 more lap than he did, and the 
car was handling beautifully too (locked center, btw).  Ah, to be the first 
on the block...  

Deja Vu:  The banquet at RA was almost as big as Monterey.  No Hurley 
Haywood, but the food was as good, if not better.

Best trailer:  Following Mark Wasils pristine 91 200tqw (tornado red - 3rd 
year concours winner) go around the track.  The 3in stromburg sounded 
fantastic, watching that much car dance the track, was quite a sight.

Most frustrated sponsor:  Amsoil rep giving 'presentations'.  Little interest 
at this track, a bit controversial feedback from some of the other sponsors 
as well.  Hopefully, this wasn't a smashing success.  IMO, it doesn't belong 
at a track, it belongs in the QQ.

Worst ascribed 'safety' rule:  Windows down, both.  Got really wet, maybe 
fine for the lava machine, but the A8?....  Track rule.  Bummer for some 
leatheretters.

Best words of the day:  Gary driving the 4kqt with me yelling the lines at 
him (most who've been with me, know this is a good thing).  I stopped a 
couple groups before the end of the day (nothing to yell at him for:).  He 
started yelling at himself.  Pavlov would be proud.

Most words heard by Larry Boyer:  "Slow down..." ad infinitum

Most prayers rumored to be heard from Karen C:  "Pleeeze slow down" :)

Most words ignored by students and instructors: see above

When the rain stops:  Most had fun, 1 car with some body damage.  Considering 
the offs - one can say that RA is very off-friendly.  All instructors 
breathed a collective sigh 1700h tues.  Should have done that ealier, the 
rain stopped right afterwards.

Summary:  A great National Event at one of the best tracks in the country.  A 
true quattro event, many learning early the limits of low cf conditions.  My 
own opinion, is more learned about quattro here, than in most of the other 
events this year.  On dry, folks can pretty much do what they want and not 
get into trouble.  When cf gets low, the steer and pray quattro cornering 
technique loses it's forgiving nature.   

Thanks:  Larry Boyer, humor is the best in stress, great event, as always.  
Karen C, second to humor is keeping busy.  Jim Blau (and his friend Peter), 
thanks for all the pronto help on the LT1Q (we still trailered home, but not 
without a valiant effort).  Scott D, for the use of the wheels chasing pieces 
parts.  

END OF REPORT

Scott Justusson
'87 5ktqwRS2 -10vt
'84 RS2URQ - 20vt
'87 4Runner turbo - LT1Q RESQ