Last Waterford day of the season and I left feeling pretty good about it! I was feeling pretty fatigued and out of it leading up to the event. I was psyched out and worried that I was going to be rusty after nearly 2 months away from this track, but I managed to pick up where I left off and I feel like this lap was some of my best driving to date.

The track was ROUGH at this event. It was quite cold (I don't think it ever went over 55F), the surface seemed to be dirty in spots (the weird off coming out of the last corner in the intro was the result of some very abrupt understeer in a spot where I've never encountered it before) and it was misting/raining on and off throughout the entire day. This was definitely some of the busiest driving I've ever had to do on this track, especially in the first couple of sessions. Still, in spite of all of this as well as being back on slower tires (245 RS4 vs 255 RT660) I was able to cut nearly a half second off of my PB. 

This was my first time running E85 as well, and I have to say the hype seems to be real. The car feels much better through lower rpms and I picked up a solid 4mph on the back straight over my previous best lap, which seems to have offset the 1.5mph I gave up on min speed running these tires. There was a catch, however...

I knew that I would likely begin fuel starving when I started running E85, and sure enough it started to happen coming out of the final corner when I was down to about half a tank. I had been pressing my luck with it just to get a sense for how consistently it was going to happen at different levels and...well it probably cost me my first 15 as a result. As you can see at the end of the lap, it cut hard on the front straight approaching the finish line and I crossed with a 16.1.

I'm honestly not as upset about this as I could be. I still wound up with a very solid time and I really feel like I was driving exceptionally well on this lap. The rough track conditions and these tires made the whole event an excellent opportunity to dial in my limit-driving sense/feel and I feel like I'm making very solid progress as a driver overall. I have no doubt that I'll be able to break into 15s in better weather, and I managed to establish comfortable consistency at or faster than my previous record. 

This was also the first official Waterford Hills 86 Cup event, and I'm feeling good about putting down a new PB to establish the initial class record.

Mods: 
-Borla UEL Header
-OFT Stage 2+ E85 Tune
-Tanabe Concept G
-Jackson Racing Dual Radiator/Oil Cooler
-SPL RLCA
-Fortune Auto FA510 (8k square, Rebound: 20F 18R)
-Enkei RPF1 17x9 +35 w/ Hankook RS4 245/40/17 33psi 
-CounterSpace Garage Brake Pads (C1 Front, C2 Rear)

Alignment: 
-4F / -2.2R Camber
-6.2 Degrees Caster
0 F Toe / 0.18 R Toe In
~5.15 inch ride height from pinch weld