Originally Posted by Ranger

A small group of the Corvette faithful gathered at Maryland International Raceway at Budds Creek yesterday, Sunday, December 11, to have some fun in the cool fall Maryland air. Racers from Florida, New Jersey, Virginia, and West Virginia made the trek. The lure was running in excellent conditions in a relaxed atmosphere on a racing surface prepared and tended to throughout the day by Royce Miller, owner of MIR. Mr. Miller is a hand-on owner whose work at this track is his full-time endeavor. That fact does most to explain the consistency MIR delivers and the hospitality its staff shows to rentals customers.

The other participants will post (or not) their own results.

A few crew-members graciously took active roles in helping crew other cars and tending the water box/burnout area. That allowed drivers to focus driving tasks. Joely volunteered to shoot video of some passes and Chris brought his nearly three-year-old to stoke interest in this next-gen racer.

Sunday was my fourth track outing in the past month, after a one-year hiatus during which my car was undriven seven months. Started out rusty in mid-Nov and got back to full form after 20 or so runs down the 1320.

The shifting came back quickly, facilitated by endless garage drills. But launching the Z06 on Hoosiers required embedding in muscle memory a different approach than used on the BFG 315.35.17s I’d run since 2006. The Hoosier’s soft tread compound requires 400-600 (or more) higher rpm at the hit of the clutch and a 20-40% faster throttle squeeze to WOT. Done right, the clutch is induced to slip on its own, but locks up quickly, keeping the car’s nose up from clutch-hit to the 1-2 shift. It’s the nose drop that wastes irretrievable tenths in the 60-330 incremental, thereby leaving ET on the table.

My best pass of the day was 10.71 at 130.32. The 660’ trap was 103.59. It reflects good but not perfect driving. As others have shown, the Hoosiers can support a better 60’. A 1.55 or 1.56 on this pass would have shed enough at the 330’ to bring the car to what would likely be its lower limit stock (on DRs) of mid 10.60s. Don’t know who will do it eventually, but someone likely will.

The breakdown

60'................1.604
330'..............4.544
660'..............6.936
660’ mph..103.59
1000'.............8.981
1320'...........10.715
1320’ mph..130.32

The 330’ to 1320’ incremental was 6.17.



Weather conditions: Cool day, full sun, high barometer, average humidity; track surface mid-50s F. Air temp on racing surface mid-40s F. Slight intermittent head wind of 1-3 mph. (That means—no tailwind). I collected DA throughout the day in the shade but haven’t yet downloaded the numbers from my Kestrel weather station.

We should have video footage of this pass. When editing is complete, we’ll post it.

Thanks to the other participants and crews and friends for a fall day to remember. Until next time….

Ranger