Analysis of 2019 NASA Champs Honda Challenge H4 Race with RaceHero

Introduction

Racing is a data-driven sport.  Regardless of the money or car you have, it's possible to make educated decisions on setup changes or tweaks to driving style by using hard work and commitment.  However, without understanding the craft of data analysis, hard work and commitment can often lead to dead ends.

Burning the Midnight Oil with Crew Members Kelley and Andrew at 2019 NASA Championships

In this article, EJ2 Track Rat will show readers how "free" lap analyses from RaceHero can be used to go faster in a race.

RaceHero Logo

How it Works

RaceHero is a free service that shows the provisional lap times, positions, and announcements for races and time trial events with many organizations such as the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) or the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA).

Racers or high performance drivers put a transponder on their car and their racing info is transmitted to this website for the sake of reviewing provisional results.  While the data on RaceHero is not official data used for prizes or points, it is extremely useful since racers can see their own data and and their competitors' data.

Overall Position on Y-Axis, Lap Times on X-Axis

Fast Lap Times

Throughout the weekend, I was keeping an eye on my lap times relative to my competitors'.  I was up against some stiff competition from the West Coast including National Champion, Robert Krider and his teammate, Keith Kramer of Double Nickel Nine, as well as my good friend Carlos Valenzuela and Steve Peterson of Team Beans and Dog Racing.

These Guys Mean Business!

During practice on the first day, with the help of my Crew Chief, Andrew, I made changes to the car after every session.  I did not run my transponder for the first two sessions of five, but I did run it for the third, fourth and fifth sessions.  During the third session, I was about 1.5 seconds off of the leader, Robert Krider with a best lap time of 1:46.882 vs. his 1:45.338.

Results from Session 3 Practice

By the end of the day, Krider had improved by ~0.3 seconds relative to my times.  This suggests my competitor was able to make a significant change to the car's performance or to his driving style which would make my job harder for the weekend.  Regardless, this analysis prepares one to look for more time in more places-- i.e. work harder.

For the first qualifying session, Team Beans and Dog switched drivers from Steve to Carlos and laid down a flyer.  Of note, additionally, was the overall drop in lap times for all competitors, suggesting that the track was "getting faster," providing more grip for drivers.  This is due to cloud cover, ambient temperature, and humidity per experience.

As the day went on, track conditions became further quick as suggested by another overall drop in lap times.  While I wasn't gaining significant ground on the leader for qualifying, I was maintaining a steady deficit utilizing car changes to keep up with a stacked racing team.  In Qualifying #2, again, I was in 4th, but the results were slightly different, running my fastest lap thus far.

Race Analysis

There were two races during the Championship Weekend-- one was a qualifying race and one was the main event for the podium.  

Standing in 3rd on the Podium Against Reigning National Champ team Double Nickel Nine

During a race, the fastest lap time matters, but what matters more?  The sum of the following matters more:

1.) Traffic management

Managing faster or slower, out-of-class cars passing without significant loss in speed/position are facets of good traffic management.

2.) A good start

Avoiding jumping the start which would result in disqualification, having impeccable reaction time when the flag drops, and deciding when to pass or bump help for a good start.

3.) Car/driver consistency

If the driver cannot maintain their level of performance throughout a race due to a lack of cardio or mental conditioning, they will fall off in speed.  If the car is not set up to make the tires "happy," the car will fall off in speed.  A combination of the two is key.

4.) Flag management

You can be leading a 45-minute race for the entire time.  But if you pass just once under a yellow, you will be disqualified.

5.) Defense

How to stop a faster in-class car from getting around you.

6.) Offense

How to pass an in-class car from behind and make it stick.

RaceHero can be used to measure all of these things-- whether one at a time, or collectively.  For example, a good start would be suggested in part by a good lap time for the first lap relative to competitors or a large gain in position.  Car/driver consistency can be gauged by a drop or lack thereof in lap times over the course of the race.  A defending driver may maintain position in front of an in-class car with a faster best lap time.

Photo of #ChelseaTheCivic Leaving the Keyhole at Mid-O (Photo by Herb Lopez of @DriveNASA

For race analysis, I typically take all of the RaceHero data I can get for my competitors and put it into an Excel Sheet like a true engineer would.  Below you will see that I copied all lap times from RaceHero, converted them to total seconds to make it easier for Excel to analyze, then I measured standard deviation of hot, green laps (not first or last lap...no standing yellow laps) and put it in a table:

Getting my Data Nerd on

For the first lap, it's clear that I had a very good start.  I decided to bump Kramer whose start was not as good to keep Steve on my inside while Ken had the best start of all of us, getting the jump on Keith, Steve, and myself to second place.  

However, leading into China Beach, Ken was passed back by both Keith and I with Steve still in tow of Ken.  The rest of the first lap was a game of traffic management.  All of these factors lead me to the second-fastest first lap time.  However, with nearly a 20-HP deficit to my competitor Krider, a better time would have been difficult to achieve:

Starting Lap Times

Next, we'll look at the beginning laps of the race.  In the beginning laps of the race, it's important to play offense, attempting passes on your competitors while the tires are still fresh.  It's also important to get by slower out-of-class traffic as quickly as possible.  During this portion of the race, heart rate and adrenal release should be highest.

Photo by Herb Lopez of @DriveNASA

Below you'll see a graph of overall lap time in seconds vs lap # for Steve, P4 and myself, P3.  For the first half of the race I laid down a killer start and close to the fastest lap I could for my second lap.  After that, variation in lap time was caused by out-of-class traffic.  However my good start allowed me to maintain a comfortable lead:

Analysis of Race Start

In the middle of the race, I try to conserve my tires as best as possible so I can lay down flyers at the end of the race.  This is also clearly noticeable in the next graph I'll show below.  What's important to remember is while you're saving your tires, your competitor in the spot behind you may be catching up.  This was exactly the case as Steve, in his lightweight CRX began to close the gap:

Mid-Race Analysis

By the end of the race, one may note that Steve and I were running very close times.  Keen eyes will also observe that Steve's fastest overall lap time was somewhere near 1 second faster than my fastest overall lap time, suggesting this driver/car combo had more speed than I.  This makes sense because by the end of the race I was driving as defensively as I could within racing rules.  It's important to avoid blocking or other foul play when employing proper defense, but it's also important to maintain position, obviously.

End-of-Race Analysis

Driver and car consistency among the pack will lastly be analyzed.  To do this, we look at standard deviation and average lap time per competitor.  Any laps with yellow flags, red flags, restarts, and aborted starts are thrown out.  Additionally, we do not consider starting and finishing lap from RaceHero when calculating these statistics.

Since this is averaged over the entire race, this heavily favors analysis of driver consistency over car consistency.  Car consistency is better analyzed in segments as shown above.  However, car consistency is a variable feeding into this analysis.

Overall Race and Consistency Analysis

As shown above, Steve and I had the best consistency over the course of the race (+/- 0.80 and +/- 0.69, respectively).  We had an awesome, clean battle that ended up with me in P3 and Steve in P4.  The race video is here:

Champ Race Highlights

Thanks for the read, all.  Looking forward to my next blog post.

Thunder at the Glen with NASA Northeast 9/28-9/30/18

Thunder at the Glen with NASA Northeast

9/28-9/30/18

Two weekends ago, I went to Watkins Glen International with the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) Northeast (NE) Region.  It was their fourth race weekend of the season and my third race weekend ever, so I tried as best I could to apply the lessons learned from my first two race weekends to improve my car setup and driving style.

My journey started at 5:00 AM when I left my apartment near Philly for my job in Central Jersey.  I had recently regreased the wheel bearings on my dolly for the first time ever and replaced the idler and tensioner pulley on my truck to try and remedy a noise that ended up being a water pump.  With no time left, I decided I'd keep an eye on my mechanical troubles and trudge forward.

After the work day was complete.  I conducted my four hour drive with my trusty steed and my speedy race car.  Once at the track, I met up with my friend Anthony and another fellow Honda Challenge driver, Mike Fries, and we all chatted for a while before I set up camp inside of my truck.

Normally I sleep inside a tent, but by recommendation of my friend Alex, I tried the truck.  And I have to say, sleeping inside a truck during the Fall at Watkins Glen is MUCH warmer than sleeping in a tent.  If you get cold?  You turn the heat on and let the truck run through the night.

The next morning, I got up, got in my car, put my NASA NE Volunteer shirt on, and I drove to the garage to help the NASA NE Volunteers with technical inspection.

With NASA NE, you have the option to volunteer and accumulate "credits" for track days.  If you've been volunteering for some time and you get the swing of things relatively quickly, you can even volunteer and drive at the same time.  You don't get credits in the latter case, but it's a great incentive to socialize and develop relationships with great people.

As a volunteer, you'll get to meet racers, learn driving skills, develop wrenching skills, and have a great time meeting new people.  In the pic below you'll see my buddy Alex helping me record data in his NASA NE Volunteer shirt with my good friend TJ who is an instructor with NASA.

Below, you'll see my buddy Ben adjusting scales after a Thunder Group car (a really fast Corvette) came through to check their weight.

The test day went well and the car was well balanced at this fast and relatively loose track.  Though I decided I would need to up my rear bar rate and increase my front spring rate in the long run.  I learned that my top speed was about 113 MPH on the back straight at Watkins Glen at the time.  Ken, the points leader in H4 wasn't there to shake his car down, but Damien was and he and I battled for a long time.  His car was down about 7 MPH on the back straight compared to me due ot his aerodynamics having more drag.  You'll see Damien's car below.

On Friday night, we enjoyed a track walk and a night out on the town.  Mike Fries of Honda Challenge H2 shared his expertise with us, discussing the corners and their constantly changing camber angles.  It served me and Damien greatly as we listened.  Kallie and Ken, our competitors were either off elsewhere or on their way to the track due to life catching up with them beforehand.

Saturday was the first race day.  It was a bright, sunny day, and our first practice and quali sessions resulted in providing the best conditions for me in the 139 car-- pumping out the fastest time of H4.  I blacked out my competitors' last names and times for their own privacy.

However, as usual, Ken pulled a rabbit out of his hat and managed to FLY by the competition.  With Spencer of Honda Challenge giving him LoBuk Motorsports Coaching, he really had some great knowledge backing him up.

I secured P2 by the skin of my teeth, getting lucky when an ST5 car wouldn't let my competition, Damien, by as I struggled with fuel starvation through corners and overheated tires.  Below you'll see a picture of myself and then Damien and Kallie on track (silver Civic and dark silver Integra, respectively).

After Race 1, Ken, Dame, and I went to WalMart to get some beer, some fire wood, and a pumpkin that we put on top of Kallie's car while she was asleep.  IT WAS HEAVY.  They made me grab it from the bottom of the cardboard bin!  You'll see a pic of Dame holding it.

The next morning we woke up and it was damp out.  The radar said that it would be dry for the whole day, but it ended up raining throug practice/quali...  I utilized the conditions to my advantage despite being scared and qualified first once more!

Given the results from the previous race and from previous race weekends, I was confident Ken would secure first, but what I thought would be a predictable race ended up being a tight race between me, Kallie, and Dame.

We all ended up finishing.  There were a lot of incidents and two major full-course cautions accompanying those incidents.  However, Ken, Damien, Kallie, and Myself were able to get through with no major issues.  Kallie did give me a little love tap (my first race contact), but I was able to catch it in T1 and win the race!

In a way, I was lucky that there were so many incidents.

My driver side, 35-dollar axle from RockAuto ended up failing after one practice session and 2 or 3 laps on track.  When I inspected it after the race, the heat damage was apparent...and very blue!

After the race, Anthony and I drove home together since we live so close and we got back safe.

It was a great weekend to be there and I am thankful for people like the Casellas who help organize events like this and to organizations like NASA that make it possible for amateur racers to have such a great time.  Papa Joe Casella is shown policing the event (and his dog Axle) in the pic below.

Lastly, thank you all for reading!  Until next time, keep following my Instagram account at @EJ2_TRACK_RAT and my Facebook Page.

Thanks all :)

#TrashTeg, The Chronicles; Part 1-- A Free Car

In the Winter of 2017, our friend Ryan told all of the Junior Varsity Honda Challenge (JVHC) Squad about a free car he had found on the Chump Car Forum in Delaware.

Within a day at most, my buddy Alex drove down to Delaware from Philly to check the car out. He brought with him: a case of beer to show gratitude, a license plate, and his own self off the couch. Total cost? About $40 bucks.

And so The Chronicles of #TrashTeg began. Alex picked up an Integra for free, with the catch that he remove it from the seller’s property. Not only this, but Alex was told that the car had a bad head gasket! And would likely need serious work.

Figure 1: #TrashTeg

Either the same day, or the next, I went over to Alex’s and with the help of our friend Adam, we started the car and slowly troubleshooted an issue that started as overheating and climaxed in not-starting.

Figure 2: Video of Alex, Adam, and I putting water in the radiator

After some water and a new distributor cap, rotor, and plugs, we had the car running. My boy put the classic PA tag on and he ripped it up and down the block and it didn’t smoke. So we decided we would try and track it.

My Goal? To get Alex in a Honda just because. Alex’s Goal? IDK. Our Goal (I Think)? (I think) our goal was to make a freakin’ race car!

But for real though-- Alex and I both knew we wanted to race wheel to wheel. We both talked, and still talk, regularly, about endurance racing with AER or in Lemons, since our friends do it. We talked about having our own race team together. I was already building my Civic in his garage. So, I guess, impulsively and rationally it was a pretty good decision to pick the car up. What’s the worst it would do? Take up space?

Figure 3: Using #TrashTeg as a Vise to Break a Motor Mount Bolt for #ChelseaTheCivic

As is apparent in the figure above, the #TrashTeg proved to be very useful just in its presence, initially.

I told Alex I would help him get the Trash Teg on track if he would track it. He agreed. So in return for lending me his space, I would give or sell to him second-hand parts from my build and my own services at the least, in return.

Figure 4: Roll Bar, Harnesses, and Seats All Installed on a Budget

Stay tuned into the #TrashTeg: The Chronicles Series on EJ2 Track Rat. And you’ll find a story of building a cheap, capable track car, to use for driver development and (eventually in some way) racing-- including tips on how it benefited the driver and can be applied to the reader’s own driving style.

Figure 5: Trash Teg at Lime Rock

Thanks for reading.

--EJ2 Track Rat