After a long, late-season break, we are back at Nashville Superspeedway for a third time in 2024. This weekend at Nashville kicks off the final series of events that concludes the 2024 regular season at Barber Motorsports Park in November. And even though the Super Touring 6 regional championship is already wrapped up, that doesn’t make the racing any less exciting.
Prepping the Miata
The ST6 Miata has lived on the trailer since the last event, Barber Motorsports, in July. If you are following along, I dyno-ed the car a month ago to revisit the ST6 classing. (Extreme Weight Reduction Plan) With the ghettocet taking up the workspace and my wrenching time, I would execute the weight-reduction plan at the track. And I did just that on Friday and Saturday evenings between sessions. The results were over 50 lbs of weight loss from the car. I documented the whole process as I was also running a few experiments this weekend. You can read about the testing results here: (insert link). But in the meantime, this post is about the racing.
The Return of 944 Spec
But first, the field was a little unusual, or, should I say, nostalgic. I would run in a field of one in ST6, trying to harass a few ST4 and ST5 cars, whereas 944 Spec would see a resurgence with a field of 8. This is the largest the series has seen nationwide in over two years. This is something I will be keeping an eye on as my pink 944 Spec is sitting on the gravel drive collecting dust and waiting for a heart transplant. Something I may be motivated to accomplish if these numbers keep up.
Race 1 and 2
On to the racing. I would start race one behind the ST4 cars and make myself a nuisance early on. I can’t think of anything more fun than a 117hp Miata giving these horsepower cars a hard time. I had a great battle with the Mini Cooper S during races one and two. He easily outpowered me on the long front straight, and I would return the favor by throwing my car up the inside of turn 1. We would do this in the first two laps of race 1. As the driver of the Cooper gained more confidence throughout the weekend, every lap of race 2.
During race 1, I also passed most of the 944 Spec field and drove through some of the carnage they had in class. The footage of race 1 is below, followed by a clip of race 2. Unfortunately, my GoPro died during the second race. Race notes are in the video description on YouTube.
Race 3 – Aussie Pursuit
I’m going to call Sunday’s Aussie Pursuit race the main event. If you aren’t familiar with it, an Aussie Pursuit race is a reverse grid race where drivers are started based on lap times throughout the weekend. These lap times are averaged over 25 laps and drivers are released with a head start over the driver behind. If all drivers run an ideal race, all cars would technically cross the finish simultaneously on lap 25. Running the start this way allows the entire mixed-class field to race each other.
Quick, consistent lap times are what it takes to win at the Aussie Pursuit—that and a bit of luck. And seeing as I would start this one in last place, I would need a bit of both to overcome the 3.5-minute deficit I started with.
During the race, I spent the first eight laps chasing down the leading pack. Once I made contact, I got to work and passed most of them within a few laps. Then, it was a matter of passing the remaining two, which I accomplished by lap 19. However, at this point, my tires were done. In fact, on inspection after the race, the left rear is close to cording. So, instead of continuing to charge, I switched to maintenance mode and maintained a small gap from P2. I had six laps to go, and the race was mine as long as I made no mistakes. That is just what I did: take the win while running from the back of the field to the front, winning the coveted Aussie Pursuit race for the second time this year.
Something Different – Live Streaming
I am still trying to optimize, but I tried live-streaming methods this weekend. During race one, I used Kick.com. The video quality is decent through the Galaxy Flip 5, but the audio did not record. There is also a lot of shaking in the camera. You can check out the stream here.
For race 3, I tried the Facebook livestream. Results were similar to the Kick offering but this time with sound—this time with sound and more waviness in the footage. The FB feed can be viewed here.
Neither method is good enough for race conditions. However, this was a first test, and I will try a few other options to hopefully run a reliable, high-quality live stream of the races in the future.
What’s Next
Next, I am going to show you guys the crazy steps I took to remove another 50 lbs from the ST6 Miata and where another 50 potentially live. All for a cost of zero. Then I am painting the ghettocet.
