So last Tuesday I took my Renegade to a SCCA "Track Night in America" event. These a relatively low key events with (3) 20 minuet sessions on Track. The Renegade did surprisingly well all things considered. The event was split into Beginner, intermediate, and advanced run groups and because of my previous experience in other cars I was placed in the intermediate class. At first I was nervous because of the ride height of the Jeep, and the tech inspectors suggesting the chance of a roll over. 1st session went well and I had real trouble trusting where the "limit" would be for the Jeep. With all the other cars I have tracked, once you start entering a turn the car will transfer weight and settle so that you can trust the car's capabilities. Due to the pitch and roll of the Jeep's soft suspension and 16" tires I was struck with just how vague it is. 2nd session went out just after a rain delay and the track was very wet. This gave me a chance to charge harder knowing that I would lose traction before anything might happen. While I am sure the Jeep is perfectly safe my subconscious was getting in the way. I did however get a chance to drop lots of time each lap and even pass a Mini Cooper! No small feat considering what cars where in my run group Passing the Mini: 3rd session was FUN. I finally was trusting the car, just need to let it lean way way over and getting faster each run. Got the car to enter hot, started to smell the brake and get a bit of fade and had a little tire squeal on exit. Now were going good and getting 95-96mph. As I get more of the videos edited I will post them up.
