Formula Mazda at Sears Point, Part II

Well, I don't hate it quite so much.

Started out again with Wolf Woeger's setup but could not get anywhere, and hated the car again. Took a look at his shock settings and found them to be super-soft. Cranked in a little stiffness and the car immediately felt better, and I went a little quicker, breaking into the 1:30's. Still erratic, though, and the thing still feels like a marshmallow.

Tried running a qualifying session but my times were terrible, in the 32's, because I had to back off from what I'd been doing in testing due to the fact that the car and I were still erratic.

There's a theory going around that the F.Maz's aero is off; the fast guys say that using minimum wing gives the fastest lap times under all conditions.

Maybe they're right, but I decided that if any track would benefit by increasing the wing angle and raising the ride height, this was it. Started cranking up the wings and also raised the ride height because it felt like the chassis was bottoming or else going onto its suspension stops.

Raising the ride height calmed it down and made the handling more like race car, less like a lowrider/pimpmobile. Also went still stiffer on the shocks all around (Wolf had 'em at almost full soft in rebound!) and stiffer on the rear springs. It's starting to feel like a race car; I can place it better because its response to steering inputs is more linear.

Finally did a 1:30.5. And I don't hate the car quite so much. Maybe there's more in it if I can get the setup dialed in better, but I like my setup's feel much better than Wolf's. Gotta keep chugging, I guess.