April 15, 2016: Watkins Glen Green Grand Prix

[Xist]

Can we jab him anyway?

How many ecomods could we make for a hundred dollars?!



I wonder if anyone ever joins here just for the discount! I always appreciate those.

My number one planned ecomod is always to have adequate work. I should start calling those clients my new boss lined up for me!

[Vman455]

I think I could actually make it this year....

[mloveland78]

In the interest of boosting everyone's mpg I will post my technique again. It's what I've been using to get 1st in class. As usual your mileage may vary and what works for my modded civic with lean burn may not be best for your situation.
Red is EOC
Blue is DWL
Green is hard acceleration

[mloveland78]

Also wanted to mention that having a good navigator is key. My wife went with me last year and she used a stopwatch to keep my lap times within the window that was determined to be the "right" time. I also reset my MPGuino at the start of each lap and try to maximize it by slightly varying my changeover points. There are also several rally apps for your smartphone that will give you an accurate average speed to keep you in the right zone to score points for the overall score. Most points are awarded in the afternoon rally though. Bob has not prioritized the fuel economy event in the overall scoring. Usually whoever does well in the rally wins the overall.

[mloveland78]

My Lap times from 2015. A lot of work has been done here by Brucepick and he found the ideal lap time to be 3:16.5

[Vman455]

So, reading through the rules, I'm unclear on something. They say "target" average speed is 45mph, but "minimum" speed is 35mph. So, do competitors get docked if they average under 45mph or 35mph? If the latter, what's the point of the "target" speed if I never go below 35mph, but only average, say, 38mph?

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by Vman455

So, reading through the rules, I'm unclear on something. They say "target" average speed is 45mph, but "minimum" speed is 35mph. So, do competitors get docked if they average under 45mph or 35mph? If the latter, what's the point of the "target" speed if I never go below 35mph, but only average, say, 38mph?

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by the speed rules. I asked Bob for clarification. You need to average between 44 and 46 MPH. You can't drop below 35 MPH or exceed 60 MPH.

[mloveland78]

The "target" speed of 45 mph is there for points which count towards the overall score for the day. The points from the morning and afternoon events are combined for the overall score with equal weight given to points from each. However you can only earn 30 points in the morning event, and I'm not sure how many points can be earned in the rally event but it is a lot more. The overall winners are those who do well in the rally.
The "target speed" is measured by your lap time which I and Bricepick have posted about before.
If you just want to have fun and / or maximize fuel economy you can do any speed between 35 and 65 although they do not sit there with a radar gun aimed at you the whole time. As long as you are not endangering yourself or others you are OK. We are encouraged to follow the rules of the road while on the track and use turn signals when changing track positions and be cautious of other drivers.
With that said there are always a couple of people who are there in high performance vehicles who are just having fun going round the track. Our Green Grand Prix event is significantly cheaper for the amount of lap time that we get than what people normally have to pay. Some are smart enough to take advantage of this on opening weekend to get some cheap track time. We have had a Toyota Supra and a Jeep Cherokee SRT8 on the track with us before and they were lapping everyone and driving fast but safe.

[Gasoline Fumes]

This is what Bob emailed me when I asked for clarification:

In very practical terms, you are given a window of 3 mph., i.e. 44-46mph without penalty. Many competitors in the event are able to come within that window consistently. We will have data for each lap for each car, so if you can't come within that window for at least 2/3rds of the total laps, you won't win anything.

[changzuki]

mloveland78's post #18 above is exactly my experience there as well. Depending on the group you're in, you may experience a bit of traffic and also have to strategize on the fly. At any rate, it's a blast once you're out on the track with the turns, hills, and of course if you end up side-by-side with someone who's edging you on!
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103 days, 16 hours, 26 minutes and Centurion drives in to the event!
~CrazyJerry