[RS4Ship]

Had the pleasure of racing up at Dominion on Saturday with NASA, in German Touring Series 2. My gopro quit after 4 minutes so I don't have any footage, but here's video from the P1 car. I get by him after he makes a mistake in turn 1, but then I managed a huge lockup in 10 and he got back by me. I managed to hold on to 2nd place, which is kind of cool since it's not very often you have a chance to podium in the first race ever at a new racetrack.

https://youtu.be/yakiHSj_cs8?t=2m49s

I learned two important things this weekend:

1) Apparently I use the ABS more than I thought I did. I switched all the dash switches off to conserve battery while I was working on installing my coolshirt before the race, and forgot to turn the ABS back on when I went back out....which led to a huge lockup in 10 in the first lap. I drove this car without ABS for a few events when I first purchased it, and my last car didn't have ABS. But apparently I've already spoiled myself after 4 races with ABS. Disappointing.

2) Walk the Track! I was the only person in GTS2 (that I saw anyway) that walked the track on Friday night, and I learned 4 very important things that helped me make up over 2 full seconds from Friday's Practice to the Race on Saturday. I told one of the other racers that I would tell him what I learned after the race, which I did. He texted me after the race Sunday (I didn't race Sunday) and said he picked up 1.4 seconds from my pointers and was only a tenth off my pace. I think it's fair to say my 2nd place finish would have been a much more difficult fight if I hadn't put in that extra effort to try and get an edge on the competition.

The curbs at Dominion are crazy tall, and after a few laps of testing out the curbs in a few spots everyone had pretty much decided that all curbs=bad. When I walked the track I noticed there are actually 2 short sections of curbing that are very usable if you take the right line. It was a huge help to me, and I'm glad I didn't tell my competition The other thing I noticed is there are a few turns where the banking is noticeably steeper on the inside, so I changed my line to fully take advantage of it.

For those that are still planning to venture there with Track Days or one of the other clubs, take it easy in turn 7. It sneaks up on you big time and there were a TON of offs there, including a big one from yours truly on Friday. Lower HP cars will love this track, as it definitely equalizes the playing field with all it's sweeping turns. My guess however, is that there will still probably be more than a few people who won't feel comfortable on the track. In my opinion there are a few safety area's that should be addressed and maybe a few tweeks they could make to a few of the turns to make them more enjoyable and better for actual racing. But all in all, the track is actually a lot of fun. It's pretty technical, and 25 minutes of racing was mentally exhausting for me just because of the level of focus required to bang out consistently quick lap times (VIR and Summit feel like your on autopilot compared to Dominion). I think Dominion is more comparable to a shorter Shenandoah Circuit than anything else we run around here, except that it's at least open enough to race on. I hated Dominion on Friday, and was nervous about racing on Saturday. But after the race we all agreed that we actually had a lot of fun battling it out and making passes in the relatively tight spots. Glad I did it, and I'll be back to race at Dominion again.

[N0tt0N]

Nice! And Congratulations, man!

[RS4Ship]

Originally Posted by N0tt0N

Nice! And Congratulations, man!

Thanks Martin, it was a good Birthday weekend Scott Blair, the guy that got first place, is a hell of a racer and I knew I'd have a hard time running him down. He's the same guy that beat me at Hyperfest even after having contact with another car and breaking a wheel.

Another thing I forgot to add. As easy as it is to point out some of the flaws at Dominion, it's also equally worth noting that there really aren't many people building new road circuits these days. It's pretty awesome that we are able to get another one right here in our backyards. So even though it's not perfect, it's certainly much better than nothing. Hopefully some day they can figure out how to incorporate the oval into the road course

[arob]

Thanks for the feedback, and congrats on the P2!

[chillindrdude]

Nice. I was there as well doing HPDE group 2.

If turn 7 is what I think you are referring to, I had the same issue too. I kept having difficulty hitting that late apex, which would track me out way wide right and I wanted to quickly work my way left of middle to set up for the final set of ESSes.

I hit a milestone (for me) of being signed off for solo. And I was basically consistently ticking laps off in the 1:46 range. So overall, this was a successful day session for me.

[ausgeflippt951]

Which is T7? Southpaw?

[RS4Ship]

Originally Posted by ausgeflippt951

Which is T7? Southpaw?

Yes, Southpaw. She's a sneaky little bitch. I knew everyone was going off wide there so you can see me leave the door wide open for Scott in that first lap...hoping he would try to take me on the outside. He did, but he was able to get slowed down enough to not go off, barely. That was pretty much my last hope, I knew he would probably get me on the back straight if I couldn't shake him before we got there.

[Hunter]

Counter clockwise track?

[Dr K]

Originally Posted by Hunter

Counter clockwise track?

I seem to remember someone saying it was a lot like Shenandoah...

[ausgeflippt951]

You think you'll be able to take the Big Esses flat?