I can officially call Bee a racecar. Last night I decided to join some friends up at Bandimere speedway for one of the weekly Colorado State Patrol "Take it to the track" nights where for $30 you get to run as many 1/4 mile races as you can from 4:30pm to 9pm (weather & #of cars obviously effect number of runs you can take).
I got there about 4:15 to go through tech inspection, and my first run was right at 4:30. I was lucky to show up just as one of my more "seasoned" friends was getting ready to run, so he talked me through some of the initial tips, etiquette, strategy, etc, then we went off racing. It was warm and clear for most of the evening, but got delayed for rain a little after 5:30 for about 45 minutes. Track was closed again at 8-ish for another light sprinkle. I was hoping for another pass before the track closed for the night (they close the lines at 8:45pm), but called it a night when it started raining again.
Here is a copy of the time slips (I can post close-ups if you want to see individual times better):
Summary of the times:
Race 1 ET 14.198 @ 105.13, R/T .875. 60' 2.387
Race 2 ET 14.107 @ 105.98, R/T .301, 60' 2.359
Race 3 ET 14.407 @ 105.60, R/T .263, 60' 2.572
Race 4 ET 14.493 @ 105.40, R/T .061, 60' 2.586
Race 5 ET 14.101 @ 105.14, R/T .042, 60' 2.361
Race 6 ET 14.521 @ 104.95, R/T .428, 60' 2.683
I was in car #44. First 3 passes were against my friend. He has a similarly equipped Gen 5 Camaro except his has a cam, 3.91 gears, and nitrous. His first two runs were without nitrous, the 3rd was with it but he didn't get any traction and shifted from 2nd to 5th. My 4th pass was against an early 2000's Red Mustang. Really wasn't as close as that driver had hoped. 5th pass was against a 2013 Black Charger (rental car) driven by a friend of a friend. 6th and final pass was against a '90's Chevy 1/2-ton truck.
A couple observations on my own performance: 1) My friends's advice of going on the 3rd yellow really helped with my R/T's, 2) I can't start with anything better than 1700 RPM without spinning my tires halfway down 1st gear, and 3) I prefer Mustangs with honey mustard dipping sauce (Race #4)
As far as launching, I was dumping the clutch and just mashing the gas pedal to the floor (lifting slightly when shifting). I was getting wheel spin in all 6 races, but it seemed to be worse when I started at a higher RPM. When I was in the 1500-2000 range I had my better times, but when I was launching at 2500 RPM it just kept spinning. For my worst 3 races: In race 4 I forgot to turn off traction control. Race 6 I was a little "psyched out" by the truck with slicks in the lane next to me and wasn't focused on what I was doing. Race 3 was one where my friend in the left lane was using nitrous and got a little squirrley so I lifted a little when I saw his car starting to point at my lane.
Other factors for the night:
I have never run a 1/4 mile track before
Track is at over 5000' elevation
I am running Continental Extreme Contact DWS all-season tires.
Said tires are at the treadwear indicators on the rears.
It was fun. I was just trying to go as fast as I could, wasn't really trying for consistency. Will I do this again? Definitely. Will this be a weekly event? Probably not until I get another car. Despite having the suspension upgraded, I still had a couple launches with wheel hop and it makes me nervous racing something I use as a daily driver with no backup.