Tsukuba TC2000 07/12/22 (wet)

I checked the weather in the morning for Tsukuba. Cloudy. Great - I thought. The weather is perfect for few fast laps. It started raining around 9am though. We had three sessions. I asked one of the RX-7 guys what he got after he came back from his laps. A 1'15. Damn. That's at least 10 seconds off his normal pace and he said it was slippy out there.

First session arrived, Still raining. DSC all off, I headed out. A 7 spun on the first corner (on the yellow flag lap!). I floored the accelerator to see how much the wheels would spin. Nice. Down into the first hairpin and a little counter steer was required. Dunlop, the post was waving 2 yellow flags. Another 7 spun out. 2nd hair pin, back straight and into the last corner. Nice and cautious. Coming out of the last corner, the back went out and a quick counter got it back. Whew... This is slippy! That was the first lap and the remaining 9 laps were much the same. The track side was littered with 7s who found the going pretty hairy. Not a lap passed with out a yellow flag somwhere.

Second session. The rain had stopped but the track was still very wet. I started to speed up a little in the corners as the track was more clear. Back went out again past Dunlop but I managed to keep it straight. Still tippy-toeing around.

Last session, the line was drying up but on the second lap a car spun out past Dunlop. Hmmm. Still slippy so I played it cautious and just upped the speed gradually lap after lap feeling around slowly for more grip. Turns out though 2 of the boys were right back on pace and they both scored 1'08s! I was still lapping 1'11s.

One thing I learned from Saturday was you can still take a corner pretty fast in the wet although I'm not sure how fast yet. Most of the issues seem to be accelerating too aggressively out of a corner. The rain definitely makes all your senses tingle in excitement as you try to anticipate everything including your own mistakes.

My tire pressure for the first 2 sessions was 275. I let some air out for the third session but forgot to check the pressure afterwards. I was aiming for 260 hot. I think 250 is pretty decent in the dry though. Still not sure what to do in the wet regarding pressures.