Morning Lap Times VS afternoon

[nbjeeptj]

A buddy and me have been going to track days for a few years now and have noticed that our morning lap times are usually 2 ish seconds slower in the afternoon than in the morning on a 1:46 ish track. Over this past weekend we did our first SCCA time trail, and as expected our afternoon times fell of some. There were a handful of people that stayed about the same all day. One guy even stayed around 1:43.25 for every session over both days. As best as we could tell he ran the same tires the whole weekend. Anyone have any idea how some people are able to do that? We assume we are falling off due to track getting hot and slick, and probably getting a little tired, but I would think that would affect everyone.

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[bnightstar]

A buddy and me have been going to track days for a few years now and have noticed that our morning lap times are usually 2 ish seconds slower in the afternoon than in the morning on a 1:46 ish track. Over this past weekend we did our first SCCA time trail, and as expected our afternoon times fell of some. There were a handful of people that stayed about the same all day. One guy even stayed around 1:43.25 for every session over both days. As best as we could tell he ran the same tires the whole weekend. Anyone have any idea how some people are able to do that? We assume we are falling off due to track getting hot and slick, and probably getting a little tired, but I would think that would affect everyone.

Usually the best time to give lap times is early in the mornings or very late in the afternoon when the sun is setting down. If you watch Endurance racing you will know that Golden hours is early morning when the sun is just coming up and this is when most of the lap records in such races are set. With that been said Mustang is not great in thermal management especially out the door so if you didn't do all the coolers on the car like oil cooler, trans and diff coolers and brake cooling you are going to have troubles with heat in the afternoon settings. I suggest you also start monitor your CHT and Coolant temps and brake and tire temps. You will see that in the afternoon when it's hot your temps are higher and your engine is pulling timing out of the car which will result in lower top end speeds and loss of time. Overall better cooling of the car will help you run more consistent laps which is the reason why Ford put all this coolers into the Mach 1.

 

[TeeLew]

^^^ This

Usually the best time to give lap times is early in the mornings or very late in the afternoon when the sun is setting down. If you watch Endurance racing you will know that Golden hours is early morning when the sun is just coming up and this is when most of the lap records in such races are set.

^^^This. Track conditions are huge. 2 seconds during a day, especially if tire wear is included, is completely expected.

If a guy stayed consistent all day, then that means he improved during the day.

 

[nbjeeptj]

I thought he is either improving or he is not pushing as hard as he can. It was just odd that in a Time trial event when only your best lap on each day would be what sets your time that he would not have let it all hang out early in the day and set a better time, if he was holding something back.

 

[bnightstar]

I thought he is either improving or he is not pushing as hard as he can. It was just odd that in a Time trial event when only your best lap on each day would be what sets your time that he would not have let it all hang out early in the day and set a better time, if he was holding something back.

There are a lot of variables in play here for example most Time Trial events (Gridlife) are 2 days. So on Saturday people are just setting up the car like tire pressures, camber, suspension settings, aero package etc. Which mean that during this setup phase the car will progressively get better (but on old tires) so lap times will stay relatively the same but the driver will have more confidence in the setup/car. On Sunday usually they put new tires on start with the already known good setup/pressures and probably add different more agressive Map or settings for the car. And use the good weather in the morning to do the optimal lap time of the car.

 

[Grintch]

Track conditions are huge. 2 seconds during a day, especially if tire wear is included, is completely expected.

If a guy stayed consistent all day, then that means he improved during the day.

Right if you are unfamiliar with the track, the driver getting better at the track can more than makes up for less favorable conditions. In additionally, some people adjust better to changing conditions, and/or might like a hot slidey tire.

2 seconds sounds a bit high to me. 1 second is more my usual range. But this will depend on the car and track.

 

[nbjeeptj]

The way they score this event (SC region SCCA Time trial) was they take your best lap from Saturday, but not from the practice sessions or the grid session (first 3 sessions), then they take your best lap from Sunday and add them together. The sessions were full 20min sessions they were taking the best lap from. A lot of fatigue on an old guy and on the car can happen with 20min sessions in South Carolina summer heat. It was a really fun event but I did leave there really wandering how this one guy was so constant all weekend. This is a younger guy that I had been trying to catch for the last 3 or 4 track days, I could never catch him, but it was not until we all had lap timers on us that I could see just how consistent he was.

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