cbhaywood

We have been looking forward to this event for a year. Covid travel restrictions locked us out of it 4 days prior in 2020... We can't wait for our maiden visit!

Bit of a hijack, but just learned that daypasswireless is no longer offering Verizon hotspots, just T-mobile/sprint. Does anyone have any experience renting from any other services that still use Verizon?

We are big fans. We ran one unit last year. Worked through some teething issues, mostly on the telemetry side. Onboard cell coverage is the way to go. Added a unit for second car for this season. Having worked very well at a testing session several weeks ago, we are excited to implement our #fingerscrossed fuel flow sensors this weekend for the first time in real action. We hope this will translate into the our pit having an accurate real time view of our fuel level, something we found quite lacking our last time at WGI. Good luck with your implementation, and if you have any questions, happy to share my limited knowledge. Brett

Mark, I believe there is a typo in the Friday Schedule on the supplementals. Times and descriptions are not aligned. I believe this is how it is meant to read, based on previous years, with the Drivers Meeting and Novice School to be done virtually per Dana's note above. 7:00am - 6:00pm Registration Opens ALL TEAMS MUST sign waiver and get wristband at Gate 4A Registration Building 8:00am - Gate 2 Opens 9:00am - Tech & Registration begin 12:00pm - Test session drivers meeting* 1:00pm-3:00pm - Point-by passing test session 3:00pm-5:00pm - Open passing test session 5:00pm - Novice school* 5:30pm - Pitlane closes and Pit Gates locked 6:00pm - Tech & Registration ends

I think DeeDee might be referencing the schedule of events on the first page of the supplementals being one carriage return off the intended times. Before the event was ultimately cancelled last year, WGI was not allowing onsite camping. Has that been specifically discussed yet for this year? Will overnights be allowed again in the paddock?

I picked up the Proxicast antenna suggested above and am seeing a significant increase in connection rate (avg 1.5 - 2X upload rate) in poor connection areas (two "bars" and below) per Speedtest app. Disclaimer that my current tests are in a fixed position, not moving, but also that I am just placing the antenna down, not adjusting the orientation to find the strongest signal. Thank you!

Thank you for noticing the post and appreciative of your suggestion!

Has anyone had noticeable improvement to their hotspot performance using an external antenna? We use Verizon hotspots (8800L) in both our cars for live streaming purposes. Yi4k streaming at 480. Had solid performance at Thompson but very spotty performance at PittRace at certain parts of the track. Is there a recognized "oh, you need to use __________" antenna, or is there really no performance difference? Hoping to add Nelson this year as well, which I seem to remember hearing had limited cell coverage. Any helpful suggestions?

I am sure it has been discussed and dismissed, but would simply disallowing any tire changes during refueling pit stops be enough of an equalizer?

When the responder's username answers your question for you.

Bill may correct me, but the person at the other end of the phone at PittRace told me that the grounds will be open for arrival and camping Thursday evening. This is our first time at PittRace. Friday practice looks like it could be a little frantic with 4 30ish minute sessions for a 60-70 car rungroup sharing the track with a second non-champcar run group of a handful of road cars. Has this gone smoothly in the past?

Haywood Racing had a great experience. Last winter we tried to make some significant aero improvements to my blue/yellow miata, we purchased a very well sorted red miata, and we badgered encouraged four friends to try champcar racing with us. Then Watkins Glen was cancelled twice, Mosport was cancelled/border closed, and Ohio was added to our list of quarantine states 2 days before our scheduled departure. Like it has been for most people, things were not going to plan... so I really hoped Thompson would pan out for us, especially the newcomers. Even though they don't know me from a hole in the wall, Friday started with very good conversations with Bill and then Jay. That set the tone for the weekend. Everything that I saw was well organized, well run, and a blast. Everything went smoothly on test day until the very end, when temperatures in Blue rapidly spiked. Found that one of the plugs on the back of the engine had worked itself out. We fashioned a replacement, pulled the valve cover, torqued down the headbolts, put it back together and I said a quiet prayer. It started right up and seemed to hold temp and water. Win! Everyone worked terrifically together getting both cars otherwise prepped for the race and we fell into bed exhausted and excited. Everyone knew race day was going to be wet, the only question was when it was going to start. We purposely started the race with two of our new teammates who had PCA club racing experience in the wet, so of course the rain held off until their stints were over. Let me interrupt myself to apologize to the White MDR Motorsports Miata #830. In reviewing the video, I saw that on lap 2 our excited driver of red put his nose into a gap that was always going to close and spun you around. I had no idea that it happened, and it was completely our fault. Had I known, we would have come down to apologize in person. The rain started right on queue for our two least experienced drivers, of course, and they did a great job of keeping it on the track and turning laps. I jumped in Blue for my first stint and promptly looped it on lap two entering the oval. Then I proceeded to explore EVERY part of the track and its surrounding landscaping for the next two hours. I cut some grass, but fortunately didn't do any masonry work. The only corner I think didn't lose it on was turn 10, and it made me pucker everytime I went through. A little push at the entry and then felt like it was going to snap around on me everytime. ugh. We were running around 8th and 9th 6 hours in, but Blue was going to have do one more fuel stop than Red. I have to get to the bottom of why we were only able to get 1:45 out of the opening dry stint in that car. 8hrs in the differential on Blue let go. Day over for that car. At that point we were around the top ten with the red car, and we wanted to make sure everyone got a second stint in. We did the last four hours as 4 stints and everybody got back in the car. I got back in at 7 PM and found the track completely bone dry. Chomping at the bit to have some fun, my lap times instead were total crap and 3-4 seconds down from the practice day. Our crew chief politely encouraged me to pick up the pace, and then when it wasn't happening, less politely suggested I get my head out of my you-know-what. Probably took me 6 or 7 laps and a concerted effort to rediscover the amount of grip I had available to me, and I finally started turning some good laps to finish up nicely. Our new teammates loved the experience, which was goal number one. We improved our pit stops and outright speed from last year, which was goal number two. We had a great time racing with all of you and hope that you enjoyed it as well. Thank you Champcar for a great event!

Per the last email I received, pit assignments are here. I was hoping to see that quick yellow miata again this year!

Edited... I said something stupid and unnecessary,

Crushed to learn this morning that Ohio has been added to the list of states requiring 14 day quarantine for us folks in CT, NY, and NJ. That impacts 6 of our 8 members, 4 of whom are new to Champcar. Forces Haywood Racing to withdraw. First Watkins... then Watkins... now Nelson. Now somebody else is going to have to bring up the rear of the field. Not gonna lie... I could use a hug. But that's what got us into this mess.