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Blackhawk Farms Raceway - July 12, 2000

Yet another event at one of my favorite small tracks at Blackhawk Farms Raceway was sponsored by PCA Chicago Region. Finally I'm back at this track on a nice dry sunny and hot day. One thing I like about weekday events is the turnout is smaller. Today was no exception but since this was Chicago PCA, the turnout was still higher than I expected. Fortunately I was in the middle group so traffic problems were kept to a minimum. This day had two highlights for me. First of all, I broke my previous best lap time by 5 seconds!!! Second, I saw a Lotus Elise up close. Nice car! I'm finally getting more comfortable with both the car and the track. I was also braking a lot harder than I did before. The brakes didn't let me down. I was also flat out through all the turns. It's amazing how stable the car feels with the power on, and how unstable it gets if you lift!!! I nearly lost it in turn out when I turned in a little too early then lifted. The rear started to come out on me so I got back on the throttle and the car stabilized and I made it through the corner just fine! My lap times were frequently in the 1:30 to 1:32 range with my best lap being 1:30.21. I was pretty happy with that. I still think I can knock off a couple seconds easily by being more agressive in corners 1, 3 and 5. As far as the Lotus, it was pretty cool to see it. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures. The car comes with a rollbar stock and the body appears to be made of some sort of composite material. The owner said it weighs in around only 1400 lbs!!
Click on thumbnail to view full-size image
My car ready to go. Viewed: 13 times.	Dan giving his famous 10 rules speach. Viewed: 10 times.

Yet another event at one of my favorite small tracks at Blackhawk Farms Raceway was sponsored by PCA Chicago Region. Finally I'm back at this track on a nice dry sunny and hot day.

One thing I like about weekday events is the turnout is smaller. Today was no exception but since this was Chicago PCA, the turnout was still higher than I expected. Fortunately I was in the middle group so traffic problems were kept to a minimum.

This day had two highlights for me. First of all, I broke my previous best lap time by 5 seconds!!! Second, I saw a Lotus Elise up close. Nice car!

I'm finally getting more comfortable with both the car and the track. I was also braking a lot harder than I did before. The brakes didn't let me down. I was also flat out through all the turns. It's amazing how stable the car feels with the power on, and how unstable it gets if you lift!!! I nearly lost it in turn out when I turned in a little too early then lifted. The rear started to come out on me so I got back on the throttle and the car stabilized and I made it through the corner just fine!

My lap times were frequently in the 1:30 to 1:32 range with my best lap being 1:30.21. I was pretty happy with that. I still think I can knock off a couple seconds easily by being more agressive in corners 1, 3 and 5.

As far as the Lotus, it was pretty cool to see it. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures. The car comes with a rollbar stock and the body appears to be made of some sort of composite material. The owner said it weighs in around only 1400 lbs!!

Click on thumbnail to view full-size image

My car ready to go.
Viewed: 13 times.

Dan giving his famous 10 rules speach.
Viewed: 10 times.

Since I don't see these things every day I took a lot of pictures. The car is pretty much set up for the track as shipped from the factory. I spoke to the owner for a little while and he said the only option you see on the car is the passenger seat. Since he was still pretty much a track novice he wanted to have one of those for the instructor.

The Lotus Elise has a very small engine with out 187 bhp mounted in a mid-engine configuration but the car weighs something like 1400lbs!!! The published 0-100 km time for the car is 4.4 seconds! Unfortunately the Elise is not legal for road use in the USA otherwise it would be very tempting to get one.

$Since it isn\'t street legal it needed to be trailered in.$
Since it isn\'t street legal it needed to be trailered in.
Viewed: 8 times.
The only option visible here is the passenger seat.
Viewed: 11 times.
The tiny but powerful engine and what almost looks like a trunk behind it.
Viewed: 10 times.

Kevin suited up and ready to take his student out for a spin in the Elise.
Viewed: 8 times.
Ready to go at the start/finish line.
Viewed: 10 times.

Viewed: 9 times.
Viewed: 6 times.
Viewed: 10 times.

Viewed: 5 times.
Viewed: 9 times.
Viewed: 8 times.

I always try to take some in car video when I'm at a track. I find it very helpful to review some video before I return to the track to remind myself what the layout of the track was like and remind myself what areas I need to work on.

More video of me taking a lap around blackhawk. This was one of my faster laps. You can see that I'm starting to go a bit faster if you compare this to one of my older videos.

QuickTime Movie - Approx. 5.8M
RealVideo - 56K modem or faster stream (1 minute 40 seconds)

Here's another lap this time trying out something new. I brought an external microphone with me and zip tied it to one of the seat belt latches in the back seat. I was hoping this would give me more engine sounds without all the wind noise. I ended up getting mostly transmission whine. For some reason this video also has a lot of those annoying beeps. Those seem to be the result of errors on the digital tape when my camcorder gets vibrated. Blackhawk Farms is a very bumpy track and most of the beeps occur on the really bumpy sections.

QuickTime Movie - Approx. 5.9M
RealVideo - 56K modem or faster stream (1 minute 40 seconds)

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$Since it isn\'t street legal it needed to be trailered in.$ Since it isn\'t street legal it needed to be trailered in. Viewed: 8 times.	The only option visible here is the passenger seat. Viewed: 11 times.	The tiny but powerful engine and what almost looks like a trunk behind it. Viewed: 10 times.
Kevin suited up and ready to take his student out for a spin in the Elise. Viewed: 8 times.	Ready to go at the start/finish line. Viewed: 10 times.
Viewed: 9 times.	Viewed: 6 times.	Viewed: 10 times.
Viewed: 5 times.	Viewed: 9 times.	Viewed: 8 times.