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GRAND-AM
IN THE COCKPIT: Jeff Segal, Homestead-Miami
I was ecstatic that our AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari emerged victorious in the GT class, a huge victory for our effort...
Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato emerged victorious in the rain-soaked battle at Homestead-Miami. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)
At the conclusion of my last entry following the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, I promised that our next race from Homestead-Miami Speedway would be as scrappy and unpredictable as it gets. I think it’s safe to say I was right on the money with that prediction, maybe even a bit too modest!
The race weekend in Miami featured two days of monsoon-like rain that flooded the track surface (and most of the South Florida area for that matter) and caused havoc for the teams and drivers, especially on race day. After an incredibly difficult run in the rain-shortened race, I was ecstatic that our AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari emerged victorious in the GT class, a huge victory for our effort. It was the first victory for the Ferrari 458 Italia in GRAND-AM competition, and our first victory for our new team collaboration in only our third race attempt.
Our weekend started out much like our last race at Barber did: We had a huge list of questions that needed to be answered right away, as we were visiting the Homestead-Miami Speedway facility for the first time with this car. Established teams with proven cars have the advantage of extensive setup notebooks to use for a baseline setup at each race, but with our new Ferrari each weekend starts with a clean sheet of paper and a bit of anxiety by the engineers.
While the Porsches, Mazdas, BMWs and Camaros can afford to use their track time and tire allocation very carefully, for us every mile we run helps and we need all the time we can get.
Before we could focus on fine-tuning the car or hunting for the last little bits of speed or refinement, we would need to do at least one session to establish that all of the major components were working properly. Things like gear ratios, spring rates, ride height and other major adjustments also need to be locked down as quickly as possible, especially since these are generally changes that take quite a bit of time to carryout for the crew.
Homestead-Miami Speedway presents a unique challenge in the form of the very tricky banked corner. This portion of the track is especially sensitive to setup and an area where you really can’t afford to have an ill-handling car. Unlike the banking at Daytona, Homestead’s oval is not easily driven flat-out by the GT cars, and teams are usually forced to make big compromises in the car setup between the tight and technical infield and the ultra-high speed banked corner of the track.
The very tight layout and low-grip infield section wants a soft and compliant chassis, while the banked section demands a stiff platform and rock-solid feel for the driver. With the cornering speeds so high and the walls so close, any issue in the banking would be catastrophic for the car and likely the end of the weekend, so generally the banking wins any of the setup compromises.
Fortunately for us, the first few laps calmed some of our nerves as we did not experience any strange behaviors from our 458 Italia on the banking, and everything felt pretty good in terms of handling.
In my past experience with other cars at Homestead, the high g-loading of the banking has caused myriad issues ranging from engine oil starvation to steering-rack difficulties, and even outright suspension failure in the most extreme cases. I had joked with the team that if we made it through the first few laps without wrecking the car we would almost certainly have a good weekend—the scary part is that I was serious!
With each successive session we continued to tinker with the setup of the car, chipping away at the lap times of the leaders and making our car better and better to drive. We were initially struggling with a slight braking instability, power-down traction issues, and a car that was a bit nervous and edgy through the banking. With each change we improved each of these categories, and ultimately I think we arrived a setup that was not only well balanced, but also most importantly seemed consistent and easy on the tires in longer runs, which is really the ‘holy grail’ for Homestead.
It sure was a good thing we spent so much time and effort painstakingly fiddling with our dry setup because Saturday morning brought the wet weather, and from this point forward all of our dry setup work went straight out the window. It was a bit frustrating when I think about how our car was poised to perform in the dry weather, but the upshot of this is that we were able to put that dry setup knowledge into our notebook, and hopefully we can draw on some of that knowledge at other races to come.
Qualifying was a washout due to the appalling track conditions, so Emil would lineup in fourth position for the race based on our championship points thus far. In a wet race your number one concern is usually fighting visibility issues stemming from other cars’ spray, so starting toward the front would be a nice advantage for us. We spent a bit of the remaining practice sessions ensuring that basics like our defroster, windshield wiper, and cockpit waterproofing systems were all up to spec, and then packed everything up to sit safely in the garage until race day.
The race weekend in Miami featured two days of monsoon-like rain that flooded the track surface (and most of the South Florida area for that matter) and caused havoc for the teams and drivers, especially on race day. After an incredibly difficult run in the rain-shortened race, I was ecstatic that our AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari emerged victorious in the GT class, a huge victory for our effort. It was the first victory for the Ferrari 458 Italia in GRAND-AM competition, and our first victory for our new team collaboration in only our third race attempt.
Our weekend started out much like our last race at Barber did: We had a huge list of questions that needed to be answered right away, as we were visiting the Homestead-Miami Speedway facility for the first time with this car. Established teams with proven cars have the advantage of extensive setup notebooks to use for a baseline setup at each race, but with our new Ferrari each weekend starts with a clean sheet of paper and a bit of anxiety by the engineers.
While the Porsches, Mazdas, BMWs and Camaros can afford to use their track time and tire allocation very carefully, for us every mile we run helps and we need all the time we can get.
Before we could focus on fine-tuning the car or hunting for the last little bits of speed or refinement, we would need to do at least one session to establish that all of the major components were working properly. Things like gear ratios, spring rates, ride height and other major adjustments also need to be locked down as quickly as possible, especially since these are generally changes that take quite a bit of time to carryout for the crew.
Homestead-Miami Speedway presents a unique challenge in the form of the very tricky banked corner. This portion of the track is especially sensitive to setup and an area where you really can’t afford to have an ill-handling car. Unlike the banking at Daytona, Homestead’s oval is not easily driven flat-out by the GT cars, and teams are usually forced to make big compromises in the car setup between the tight and technical infield and the ultra-high speed banked corner of the track.
The very tight layout and low-grip infield section wants a soft and compliant chassis, while the banked section demands a stiff platform and rock-solid feel for the driver. With the cornering speeds so high and the walls so close, any issue in the banking would be catastrophic for the car and likely the end of the weekend, so generally the banking wins any of the setup compromises.
Fortunately for us, the first few laps calmed some of our nerves as we did not experience any strange behaviors from our 458 Italia on the banking, and everything felt pretty good in terms of handling.
In my past experience with other cars at Homestead, the high g-loading of the banking has caused myriad issues ranging from engine oil starvation to steering-rack difficulties, and even outright suspension failure in the most extreme cases. I had joked with the team that if we made it through the first few laps without wrecking the car we would almost certainly have a good weekend—the scary part is that I was serious!
With each successive session we continued to tinker with the setup of the car, chipping away at the lap times of the leaders and making our car better and better to drive. We were initially struggling with a slight braking instability, power-down traction issues, and a car that was a bit nervous and edgy through the banking. With each change we improved each of these categories, and ultimately I think we arrived a setup that was not only well balanced, but also most importantly seemed consistent and easy on the tires in longer runs, which is really the ‘holy grail’ for Homestead.
It sure was a good thing we spent so much time and effort painstakingly fiddling with our dry setup because Saturday morning brought the wet weather, and from this point forward all of our dry setup work went straight out the window. It was a bit frustrating when I think about how our car was poised to perform in the dry weather, but the upshot of this is that we were able to put that dry setup knowledge into our notebook, and hopefully we can draw on some of that knowledge at other races to come.
Qualifying was a washout due to the appalling track conditions, so Emil would lineup in fourth position for the race based on our championship points thus far. In a wet race your number one concern is usually fighting visibility issues stemming from other cars’ spray, so starting toward the front would be a nice advantage for us. We spent a bit of the remaining practice sessions ensuring that basics like our defroster, windshield wiper, and cockpit waterproofing systems were all up to spec, and then packed everything up to sit safely in the garage until race day.
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