GLTA Elkhart 2020 (Road America, Evo)

Road America is an unbelievable track. Stretching just over 4 miles, it is the largest track I’ve ever been to, and maybe one of the largest in the US. While Autobahn feels more like a country club that happens to have a racetrack, the entire facility at Road America is built with the racetrack integrated into it.

Given that it was my first time there, I decided to start off easy. Day 1 rained for nearly its entirety, with one semi-dry session allowing drivers to put down some decent times. I opted to only drive on the semi-dry session, skipping 3 wet sessions. I think this was a good call, as there were numerous wrecks throughout the course of the weekend. I also decided to set up the car to understeer a little bit more, and even then, the Evo had an off road excursion on the first pass at the carousel.

The Evo felt solid most of the weekend, albeit by the end the brakes were getting weaker and weaker, and the tires were losing more and more grip. I pulled of the tires to find the inners had worn almost completely down – a first for me. I suspect the car has developed some toe-out since its last alignment. The car is very darty in general, extremely unstable in the rain, unstable under heavy braking, and combined with the tire wear typically means toe out. It will have to be checked before the next event. The E85 tune however, felt fantastic. Almost a shame that I’ll have to switch back to 93 for the Time Trials event.

All that said, I feel I underperformed at Road America. I just didn’t push the car very hard overall under most circumstances. I think it was a decent first outing, but the car will really need to be buttoned up before my next time out there. I think I ultimately ran around a 1:36, which is much, much slower than the competition. I’ll have to do some deep dives on the lap to see where I had more time. I think my theoretical showed a 1:34, so some of that is just stringing laps together better. I think with the state of the tires there, it would have been difficult to go much further than I did.

With the tires toast, I’m happy to announce that I have formed a sponsorship with Falken Tires. Falken will be providing me with a set of RT660’s, the seemingly new hotness in 200tw. The design looks VERY similar to the RE71Rs, and overall grip I’ve heard is similar as well. Once those are on and the alignment is checked, I will be heading out to Autobahn & Gingerman next!