While I only got to two HPDE events in 2021, I was 100% hooked. I wanted to fit in as many events for 2022 as my schedule allowed. I was back at Watkins Glen in May 2022 and put in my best lap,
2:11.46.
I did an event at NJMP - Thunderbolt for the first time and worked my way up to a
1:33.30. Loved that track and would like to get more seat time there this season. I mean it's no comparison to Watkins Glen, but it's half the distance from home and the ZLE feels great there.
Then it was back to Watkins Glen in August and something clicked -- I made a huge improvement on my best time. Ran a
2:06.54.
As far as mods, I added the CT5-V Blackwing Deflectors to the car in September. I appreciated the testing a forum member did on the different deflectors and figured it was worthwhile to do. And my son, who just turned 3, is old enough now to help me wash the car.
In October, I went to NJMP - Lightning for the first time. It was an ok experience, but it took me a long time to learn that track. It's a bit tight and technical for our cars and kinda less fun, IMHO, since our cars don't really have the best chance to spread their legs. That may be the novice driver in me speaking though, as I've spoken with other SS 1LE, ZL1 and ZLE owners that love that track. The best lap I could put together was a
1:15.01. Not great. More seat time needed for sure. I also had my first on track incident there --
a small spin on cold tires. Totally surprised me and I didn't see it coming at all.
Then my last event of the season was in October at Watkins Glen and I improved my time again -- ran a best of
2:05.60 and feel there was maybe another half second in that lap had I not gotten held up by the Porsche waiting for a point by.
On a separate note, I saw a best of 24.1 mpg driving up from NJ to WGI.
I also got some proper magnetic numbers for the doors and reusable vinyl numbers for the front and rear from trackdecals.com