A Look At Some Track Data

Here are some screen shots from my Racepak G2X datalogger analysis software.

This is the track map. I have decided to map the track out as I think about it while I drive. Notably, that means that T1, T7, T4, and T10 (The Kink) are mapped as straights, not corners. By the way, while the track map shows the corners with their correct names, the plots show the corners in sequential order. So 1 is T2, 2 is T3A, 3 is T3B, 4 is T5A, 5 is T5B, 6 is T6, 7 is T8, and 8 is T9.

This is a fast lap. In fact, it is my fastest lap at Pacific Raceways! (Well, I only know for sure that it is my fastest lap since I started taking data, but I can assure you that it is indeed my fastest lap.)

This is the same data with RPMs overlayed. You can easily see where I shifted.

This is the accelerometer data from that lap. I'm not sure how much to trust it, because the datalogger is only velcroed to the carpet on the floor. I suspect I'll get better data when and if I decide to hard-mount it to the car.

Here I have plotted this lap versus one that I ran in September. You can see some speed differences. I have also shown the g-g plots from each lap. You can see that I have filled out the friction circle better in the faster lap. (This is much more apparent when viewing this inside the software, as opposed to this screen dump. When I look at it in detail, it reveals a lot more trail braking in T2 and T8 on the fast lap.)

Finally, this is a closeup of two laps from the same day. It is showing the area of the track around T3A. I have been doing a double apex of that corner, and I decided to compare it against the classic school line. Looking at the data, you can see that I start braking earlier with the school line, but end up not quite slowing down as much at the lowest point. The data seems to say the two lines are almost the same in terms of time, but the double apex line is just a little quicker -- maybe a couple tenths of a second. This could well just mean that I can drive the double apex line better than the classic line, especially since I'be been driving the double apex line all year but I only drove the classic line for this one session.

Contact Information

Email address:
mikegarrison@alum.mit.edu
This address forwards to both home and work. I get a lot of spam, so if I don't know you, be sure to have a descriptive subject line.