I had completed the official racing part of the day and I had my first fun runs in front of me. I decided to experiment with the tire pressure in the fun runs, and for the first run I let some air from the tires all the way around, arbitrarily starting with 32 lbs in the front and 34 lbs in the rear. I also put some chalk on the tires to see where they were rolling over, which one of my competitors had suggested might be the best indication of how much air to run in the tires. I also made an effort to drive more smoothly, and with less herky-jerky motion of the car—easier off the throttle so as to minimize unsettling the car with dramatic engine braking. On my first run, I was clean and was on the track for 38.307 with a top speed of 37 MPH. The front tires had scuff marks running down the side of the tire, indicating not enough air, while the rear tires showed the chalk nearly undisturbed, indicating they may have too much air in them. So I did’t do anything to the front tires (they had warmed up so were now at 34 lbs) and I let a little air out of the rear tires to maintain them at 34 lbs. This netted about six tenths improvement on my second fun run at 37.639 with a top speed of 36 MPH. My second run during fun runs had already netted me a faster time than my best during the competition—and at a full 3 MPH slower on my top speed! There was something to being smooth—but it isn’t easy to be smooth and fast.
For run number three, I let air from the both the front and the rear tires based on the chalk—in the front I maintained 34 lbs and in the rear I went down to 32 lbs. This run was a little slower than my second fun run at 37.939, but was faster in the sweeper with a top speed of 37 MPH. I decided to let the air in the front tires creep up a bit to 35 lbs while maintaining the pressure at 32 lbs in the rear tires for fun run number 4, and was rewarded with a run of 36.924 while hitting the 40 MPH mark on the course. I didn’t have a chance to check the tach, but I had calculated 40 MPH to be approximately 6200 RPM, and definitely felt the motor loose power in the sweeper, so I backed off the throttle rather than break something or upshift. I was feeling confident enough to get into the throttle and torque steer a bit coming out of the right hand turn just before the sweeper, which was really fun!
For fun run number five, I allowed the front times to come up a bit more, to 36 lbs, and let air out of the rear tires to get them to 32, and tore around the track in 36.542 seconds with no cones and a top speed of 40 MPH. It was a great feeling to shave a full 1.5 seconds from my best run during competition, and I could help but look at the final standings to see where I would have placed had I been able to run that fast during the competition. That time would have placed me 83rd overall of the 122 racers, third in my class of ESP, and in front of all three of the Mustangs representing the blue oval that day. This was a good exercise because it proved to me the car could be competitive, if only I could improve my driving.