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| I packed my bags for two weeks and set off for sunny California. Running with P1 Racing last year makes this year a continuation of where we left off last year. On this trip I would be testing for 3 days, a Sneak Preview Media Day, and hopefully a few days at the beach. But to my surprise I came down to colder weather than I left. But I was told it wouldn’t be like this for long. Waking up to a cold rainy day on Monday January 28, 02 in Buttonwillow, California, lead the team to a decision of choosing not to test. Since the Toyota Atlantic Series only allows us 14 days of testing after January 1st, 2002, we choose not to waste a day. The following day we woke up to a cold day again, at least it wasn’t raining. It was still pretty cold and wasn’t going to be ideal testing temperatures. But since I hadn’t been in an Atlantic car for a few months, I thought it would have been a good idea to get some seat time. It took about 6 laps before the tires would develop some temperature into them. So the first sessions was just getting myself back into the rhythm. On old tires turning a 58.1s was impressive for how cold it was. So the crew made the decision to put the new tires on and get a read on the car. Putting the new tires on brought me down to a 57.9s. I was feeling pretty comfortable in the car but the cold track conditions were making it hard to generate proper temperature in the tires. Over the hill, a section of the track, it was hard to get the car to steer through the corners. For the first day out on the track we didn’t have anything serious to test like shocks or different parts for the car. I was still testing in the Swift 008a since the new car the Swift 014a wouldn’t arrive till April. Although, my teammate Dave Cutler's car had arrived in the first shipment. So I was able to test the cars back to back and see what the difference was between the two. Not being fully fitted in the car it wasn’t as comfortable as my car. The main difference I noticed between the two was how well the Swift 014a felt in the high-speed corners. The times between the two were pretty equal, but we didn’t spend as much time running the new car. But overall we felt that we could still be competitive for the first few races. That night we drove to Laguna Seca for the following day of testing. Going here would give us a fairly good comparison to where we stand at the beginning of the testing session. There were four other teams that had been testing the previous day. So not being there for the first day we knew we’d be a little behind. Laguna was the last track that we had raced at last year, at which I qualified second with a 1:19:392s. At 10:00am the sun was shinning so the team pushed the car out onto the pit lane, and I got strapped into the car. The first session of the morning is usually about getting yourself acquainted with the track, and the car. You don’t push yourself too hard or the car on cold tires to force a mistake in the first laps. Getting back around Laguna on a test day felt great. Being there away from a race weekend is a completely different atmosphere. The first few laps around the track were reacquainting myself with braking and apex points. Around half way through the day we had gotten down to a 1:20:00s. Trying many different things such as spring, aero, and shock adjustments, throughout the morning we kept improving our time. Not having our engine build Arnie Loynings present with us at the test didn’t allow us to do any engine testing. For most of the day I dealt with a turn in oversteer and an exiting understeer. The characteristics were similar to when we had raced there last year. By the end of the day I was feeling fairly comfortable in the car and was turning 1:19.400s. Having to push fairly hard for this time it almost felt like a qualifying effort. Meaning that it was a time that I could consistently do. We ran about 3rd at the test against a total of 7 cars. Not been as quick as I would have wanted to be, but it gave us an idea of how much we would have to improve our program to stay competitive. So as I write this to you I am sitting outside enjoying sunny California at my head mechanic, Alex’s house just getting ready to watch the Super Bowl. So for next week I’m off to Buttonwillow again to do another day, which we will be doing some intensive shock testing. So until my next week write up, drive safe and have fun. Also, if you have any questions that you’d like to ask me email me at: jonathanmacri@rogers.com and I’ll email you back or address your question in my next write up. Until then Go Rams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jonathan Macri. |
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