The GT4 track journey continues.
This time I was at @racesonoma on a rainy Saturday with @exclusivetrackdays. I’m glad I didn’t check weather report, otherwise I would’ve not signed up and missed out on an amazing day and a rare opportunity to have the track all to myself (only 2 cars in my group last session).
This was only my second time at Sonoma Raceway, and my first time ever running the normal Long/Cup layout (ran here in the Spec Boxster on the Indy layout more than a year ago). Though Sonoma is not the easiest track to master, especially in the rain, I was able to progressively improve after each session and fine tune my driving throughout the day, cutting my lap time from 2:40 in the rain to a 1:51 on a damp track.
Setup wise, I had the front sway bar set to soft and rear set to stiff, as a “band-aid” solution to counter the understeer I encountered last time. The adjustments did alleviate the problem to a certain degree, however, the introduced front-end body roll was so pronounced that the car felt twitchy and on-edge in high speed corners, and yet still understeered in low speed corners. Therefore, wider front tires are needed to increase the front end mechanical grip, and sway bars need to be set back to neutral to restore the confidence-inspiring chassis dynamics.
For this lap, I had to avoid the curbs at a few turns as there was still standing water on them, which compromised my line quite a bit. Going back in a few weeks to see what the track is really like on a good day!
Car is modified with aftermarket rotors and pads due to stock ones warping. Alignment is unchanged from factory.