Over the course of this past winter, I took the time off to do some tweaks on my race car. I've not mentioned it here because, quite honestly, it was a secret. I was experimenting and, if it worked, I wanted to have the edge, at least for a while.

Well, last weekend was the first race of the season and I can tell you now that my winter's work did not go unrewarded. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, I need to set the stage.

You may have noticed, in the photo here, the teeny-tiny little wing on the back of my car. OK, not so teeny-tiny. That's new. Thanks to my friend Charlie Burke and his boys for helping me build it in his amazing wood shop.

Yeah. Wood.

The frame is oak. The skin is aluminum, but it's riveted into the oak. Old school, baby.

I've talked to a lot of guys who "know" about what you can and can't do with race cars like mine and--without exception--they all agree that these cars don't have enough power to be able to use a wing effectively. Every one.

The problem is, I've also read a few too many books on race car aerodynamics and they all say wings make you faster without equivocation. So, after months of deliberation, I trusted the books.

The books were right.

Along with the wing in the back is a newer, bigger, splitter in the front. That's the black protrusion at the bottom of the nose in the photo below. It creates downforce in the front to balance out the wing's downforce in the back.

Also, I'm now running rear tires at all four corners. Previously, I ran 245s in front and 285s in the rear. Now it's 285s all the way around. This, too, I was advised can't be done but, well, same story.

It works.

(Great.)

And, hidden behind those bigger front tires are bigger front brakes, all the better to take advantage of all the new stick when it comes to getting the thing to stop.

And how did it all work?

Rather spectacularly, if you must know.

We ran three races over the course of last weekend, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. I won both of Saturday's races handily, with winning margins of 25.5 and 34.9 seconds, respectively. In the second Saturday race I was able to post a lap of 1:40.381, which beat the previous GTS2 lap record for the Mid-Ohio club course by 2.998 seconds.

Now, a three-second drop in a lap record is pretty spectacular under almost any circumstances but it's worth knowing that I spent the weekend driving on used tires. Left-overs from last season. On Saturday afternoon the tires were on their 14th heat cycle, which is to say they were just about worn out. New tires, a set of which I had with me but left on the trailer, would likely be a second or more a lap quicker. For perspective, the next-closest GTS2 lap time of the weekend was a 1:42.182 (and done on new tires).

So, that was pretty great.

I think we can safely assume that all those who say you can't run a wing on these cars doesn't know what they are talking about. Also, I can tell you for sure there is more speed out there, still. I know without a doubt that the car will go faster than I was driving it, which makes these times all the more amazing.

I find this particularly interesting because one of my goals this year is to get into the 1:37s on the slightly-shorter Pro course at Mid-Ohio. The Pro course is the configuration we normally run and experience says it is about 2-3 seconds a lap faster than the Club course we ran this weekend. My best time last year on the Pro course was a 1:39.161 (.12 seconds off the GTS2 lap record). If last weekend's results are any indication of things to come, a lap in the 37s seems pretty do-able and, in fact, now I'm wondering about the possibility of a 36....

Our next race weekend is May 16-17 at Putnam Park in Indiana where I am already the current GTS2 lap record-holder. I'm hoping to bring that one down a few notches, too, with the help of my next tweak, a hood vent from Mike at IFC Racing, which should improve the front downforce a bit more.

1. Vitor Pereira04/15/2009 05:58:36 AM
Homepage: http://www.vitor-pereira.com

Looks like it's going to be (another) great racing year for you. Looking forward to read about it.

2. Paxton04/15/2009 09:56:04 AM

Excuse me, oak? Car looks great Scott, congrats on the track times. Hope everything else is well on your end.

Cheers,

Pax

3. Lance04/15/2009 10:22:25 AM
Homepage: http://www.gundluth.org

Ok Scott, but what about Sunday? You said you ran 3 races...

4. David Vasta04/15/2009 11:54:58 AM
Homepage: http://www.davidandkelly.com

The car looks good Scott. I love the wing and the front splitter. I would have done what you did. More mechanical grip from the tires is good.

Let me know when you are going to be at VIR and I will help come wipe it down and change tires or tyres. Which ever you prefer.

-David

5. Chris Blatnick04/15/2009 12:12:19 PM
Homepage: http://interfacematters.com

Very awesome, Scott. Congrats!

6. Scott Good04/15/2009 12:36:53 PM
Homepage: http://www.scottgood.com

@Lance. You're right, we raced Sunday, too.

Sunday, which was Easter, I skipped practice and qualifying to do my Dadly duties (egg hunt with the kids). Because of that I had to start 9th overall (at the back of my class). We had a really good battle for a few laps between myself, Brad Waite, Mike Ward and Paul Milligan, but by sometime in the 5th lap I was in the class lead and went on to win by about 28 seconds.

I have some pretty good video I'll post if I can figure out how to get it converted to something useful.

7. Ryan Bohman04/24/2009 08:59:43 AM

I don't know Scott, a nice mild stain and three coats of varnish (due to racing conditions, gotta protect the wood) would have made that oak wing look good.

8. Scott Good04/24/2009 01:13:33 PM
Homepage: http://www.scottgood.com

Hi Ryan,

Yeah, I thought about it but I'm not sure the wood alone would have been quite effective enough. Here's the wood part...