On Friday I drove the 2 hours to Nelson Ledges for the weekend event there. I enjoyed the track a lot more than I was expecting (I think because of the high average speed and some banked corners) but I was nervous because I had been warned by several people earlier in the the trip who had crashed there that there's not a lot of runoff before you reach the tire barriers and you can flip your car if you go off wrong. Thankfully I kept it on the pavement. I got 4 windshield rock chips in 1 day, more than I got in the previous 2 years. Others I talked with reported similar problems and I read the same type of complaints online. My windshield was already in bad shape so it wasn't a big deal but
put some protection film over your windshield before visiting this track if you care about your windshield. I've heard Stek is a good brand but it is not cheap.
Signs your road trip is too long:
Before Nelson Ledges I did an oil change with Mobil1 0W-40 ESP X2 that I picked up from AutoZone. And replaced the front brake rotors because they had reached minimum thickness. And found a local tire shop to install the set of takeoff SC3 tires I had shipped myself to a nearby UPS store so my spare set was not corded. On Saturday after the last session I changed my transmission fluid in the paddock since it was due based on the number of track hours although I had just changed it right before the trip started.
On Sunday morning the weather was cooler and I went full send on the one clean lap I was able to get during the first session, shaving a second off of my best time from Saturday. I scared myself going back to full throttle for a moment in the carousel because I had overslowed and then wondered if I was going to understeer off of the track...thankfully I didn't. I didn't try that again. I was quite happy with my lap time although I went a few tenths faster in the first few corners during the next session with another SS 1LE driver as my passenger but I left some margin in the higher risk areas that session because of the passenger. After that I packed up the Camaro and left early at lunch to make the 400 mile, 6 hour drive to Autobahn for the event on Monday.
Track = Nelson Ledges Race Course
Time = 1:12.81
Year/Model/Trim/Trans = 2017 1SS 1LE M6
Date = 6/4/23
Tires = OE SC3
Mods = Track alignment, SPL Rear Toe Links + Eccentric Lockout, BMR BK063 Diff Lockout, FEA front lower front control arms, 2021 SS 1LE EBCM, SRF, GM track brake cooling kit
After my trip I found an extremely fast driver who's not on this forum that went 2 seconds faster than me:
https://youtu.be/7te8WNEJ0Dw
He took turn 11 much faster but there's a bump near that apex so I was not comfortable trying to go that fast because I was afraid of ending up like this or worse:
https://youtu.be/v-g9V3X77Nw&t=10m28s