Forza Spec Miata Inaugural Race(s)?

[fndrbndr]

The cars should be sent out this evening (See the spec miata giveaway thread).  I'm thinking that Sockmonkey Saturday, if there's nothing else on the agenda, could be a great time to give these cars a proper shakedown.  I have three ideas, and they're not mutally exclusive.  In fact, I'm tentatively figuring on holding one around noon and one later, around 3 or 4 (all times eastern US).

1.  A series event.  I'm thinking either a series of four or five races (5 laps each?) where the last place finisher picks the next track or possibly a pre-determined lineup, since that will give everyone an idea what to prep for.

2.  An enduro!  Enduros are a blast, and with the DOT tires on these cars, pit strategy could be, um, interesting, to say the least.  Also, they take a while to warm up, so this may be a better way to see how they handle peak temps.  I'm open to pretty much any suggestion on tracks, assuming that they have pits (no snake tracks or Sebring Club).

3.  An actual sprint race!  Doing this on a club track could be really interesting.  I'm pretty sure we can go 25 laps on Sebring Club without running out of gas, and this is pretty similar to what actual club racing looks like. 

No matter what we do, there will be warmup/tuning sessions off and on over the next couple of days, and I'll be on 30 mins to an hour before the scheduled start.  Suggestions?

[BarbecuePete]

Yeah sounds cool Fndr, I'd really like to give the enduro a go for sure... and series races are a hoot.... I really like this idea of the specs giveaway series, I think we should do it some more if this one goes as well as I think it will,  I've got about 5 mil so can afford to build up and send out 8 'cheap' spec cars for a series...

[fndrbndr]

OK, so tentative timetable:

Let's say there's a race at noon and one at four.  Again, all times are Eastern Time Zone (U.S.).  There are three options (enduro, series, club circuit full-length sprint race).  Which would you prefer, and which time would you prefer to race?  Note that you can participate in both.  In fact, assuming there's not a space issue, I'm all for just logging on about 11 Saturday and racing til about 8pm, but I don't know how feasible that is (I'm married, and I'm a PhD student, both of which put significant limits on my Forza time).  If it turns into one long session, that's fine.  I just want a feel for what to plan on doing and when.  Pete, I'm getting from your comments that your first choice would be the enduro?  If so, any ideas as far as the track?  And which time would work best for you?

[Spiny Anteater]

I have an appointment furniture shopping on Saturday so definitely won't be able to make the noon/5pm (EST/GMT) slot, but shoudl hopefully be able to get on before 8pm. If you're already in a series/enduro by then just give me a shout when/if you're ready for the next round.

I'd be another vote for the enduro. I've only run one online before which was a hoot despite my spectacularly crap car choice. As for the track, my vote would be for Suzuka. It's a real drivers circuit and the absence of too many long straights and presence of sequences of corners should mean that it suits these cars. The other thing is that being a figure of 8 track we should get fairly even tyre wear from one side to the other, although it might be fun to see drivers bombing through, say left handers, with no problems then skating off into the kitty litter on right-handers

[fndrbndr]

Well, the thing is that with DOT tires on a 2300 lb car, you'll run out of gas before you run out of tires.  I know this partly because I ran the Tsukuba enduro with this car.  It's fun, and you're actually racing the whole time, not just hotlapping, so if you must race offline, that's a reasonably good way to do it and still see some traffic.  That said, part of the interesting thing in these cars is that typical power tracks now just mean that some apexes are more important.  Blow the one heading onto the back straight of SEbring short, for example, and you're just toasted your whole lap.  Suzuka sounds good, though...it'll also force me to drive Suzuka, which I don't do often enough.  Other suggestions?

[bimmerlovere39]

Road Atlanta?

[fndrbndr]

Hm...Road Atlanta would be fun for an enduro.  Other options could include Sunset full or Sebring.  Other suggestions?

[PureStankonia]

I was thinking Suzuka before I saw it mentioned, and also any of the Mugello or Motegi tracks would be fun.

[fndrbndr]

So I'm hearing a lot of support for a Suzuka enduro?  Do we wanna do 25 laps with a required pit stop, or 50 laps and pit whenever you want?  50 will require at least one pit, the way I figure things, and possibly two.  On the down side, a 50-lap enduro at Suzuka would approach the two-hour mark.  I don't know how many people want to race for two hours straight.

[Blooze]

I wonder how long it would take on a 50 lap race on that long of a track before everybody was pretty much driving by themselves.  None the less, that would be too long a race for me.

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[fndrbndr]

50 was really fun on Maple Valley Short a while back.  But yeah, I wonder about that, too.  Actually, maybe the length of the track is part of the issue, too....wouldn't a shorter track cause people to stay in packs more?

[Spiny Anteater]

In terms of the length of the race I think we do have to look at it in terms of time rather than laps. 50 laps of Suzuka would probably be at least 2 hours as Fndr said. While I like the idea of that, I suspect that I would lose all feeling in my fingers before the end (I suppose it could be argued that the point of an enduro is to endure!). I suppose for me the ideal would be about 50-60 minutes which should allow some pit strategy to come into play, but hopefully isn't too long for anyone. If it's a 50 lapper I think we'd have to look at the 60-70 second tracks to keep the race manageable, which probably rules out Laguna and Road Atlanta unless people are happy to run for about 90 minuntes.

If it was 25 laps of Suzuka (or Mugello or Motegi or Silverstone or Sebring or Sunset Long etc.etc.) I'm not sure that it woudl be necessary to make pit stops mandatory. I seem to remember that when we ran the 50 @ MVS a while back that someone (may have been Stank?) seemed to be seriously considering trying to run the whole thing without stopping but finally pitted around lap 40 or so. That could certainly lead to different strategies which can always spice things up a bit - you never know who will be stuck behind the equivalent of a monotreme in a slow Civic when they leave the pits

[JuanOfMany]

anyone going to be on tonight after about 8pmET to run a prelim race?

[fndrbndr]

Possibly.  I suspect the TV will be tied up til 10, but I might run a short tuning session after that.  I get up at 5 MWF, so it won't be long, but if there's one going, I'm all about joining in.

[PureStankonia]

It was the sockmonkey enduro at silverstone international I think.  And I did finish that race without pitting, was firmly in second behind Serial with 2 laps to go before the tires gave out completely to the tune of almost 10secs a lap and you guys all got me on the last lap if I remember.  Pit strategy can be fun if the track is right.  Maybe tonight and tomorrow some of us can get on and try out a track, kinda like the twin 250's or something.