Back when there was such a thing as greyhound racing, the announcer would come over the loudspeaker just before they’d release the dogs to begin the race, saying those immortal words, “And heeere comes Swifty!” That was the name given to the fake mechanical rabbit that ran along the inside rail that the dogs would chase around the track.
The dogs needed something to chase, something just a bit faster than they were, so they could run their fastest.
Ask any Time Trial driver and you’ll find they too need a rabbit to chase, or something just behind chasing them. Gridded by time, NASA’s Time Trial drivers chase the faster car in front of them and try to stay ahead of the car behind them, all in pursuit of that perfect lap that’s out there somewhere.
Of course, that’s not all there is to laying down quick laps in Time Trial competition. There’s time spent in the shop, and time spent on the car at the track to get the most out of the machine and the driver.
To find out how some of the best TT drivers in the nation do it, we got in touch with several podium finishers at the 2022 NASA Championships and some other standouts from Time Trial competition. We sent them a host of questions and they answered them as honestly as possible, all in the hopes of helping other NASA drivers achieve greatness. We can’t thank them enough for their candor and generosity.
Name: Svilen Kanev
Region: NASA NorCal
Car: 2018 BMW M240i
Years Racing: Since 2021
Q: When you go out for a TT session, what is your approach?
A: In qualifying, I try not to linger too much. Hoosiers on my car warm up pretty fast, and with many classes usually sharing the track, it’s pretty rare to string together a full clean lap. So, push hard from the get-go and hope for some clean running.
Q: Does your approach change as the temperatures change throughout the day?
A: Oh, definitely. Having a few hundred extra pounds on most cars in Super Touring 4, my car’s way more sensitive to ambient temps, so I have to adapt.
Q: What are the small things you can do throughout the day to maximize the car?
A: I just try to do the basics well; get tire pressures where they need to be and make sure I’m not running too much fuel. It’s very easy to obsess over many small things that don’t really matter unless you have the fundamentals right.
Driver-wise, I treat racing as a sport and train pretty religiously. Keeping your concentration up is much easier if the physical aspects of driving a racecar don’t bother you. If you see someone hauling the mail on track in running shorts, once the cars are done, chances are it’s me.
Q: What role did car construction play in your success in this year’s championships?
A: Car construction and development is key in open classes like Super Touring. Especially so when you stray from the well-known class formula.
Tony and Joe at TC Design have been fantastic so far developing the car from a bit of a barge to something starting to show ST4 (and TT4) potential.
We’ve been treating this as a bit of a long-term project and there’s lots more room to develop the platform—not to mention the driver. I’m pretty excited about the potential.
Q: What role does car preparation play in your success, in general?
A: Same answer: prep is critical. I’ve been pretty lucky to have people who know how to build and maintain a reliable racecar in my corner.
Name: Nic Gerardi
Region: NASA Arizona
Car: 2001 Porsche 911
Years Racing: Since 2022
Q: When you go out for a TT session, what is your approach?
A: Assuming I know the track fairly well, and I’m not getting used to any changes with the car, I generally follow this approach during a TT session: Out lap is just a spotting lap, see which flagging stations are being utilized and to see if any brake zone markers, apex cones, etc. have changed since last session. Second lap is typically done at 8.5/10 to warm the tires, warm the brakes, and get myself focused on the task at hand. I spend a good portion of the second lap in the rear view mirror, to make sure I’m not holding anyone up who may want to go for a fast lap right away. Third lap is usually 10/10, my first flier attempt. From then on, I’ll alternate between cool down laps and flyers until I either hit my time goal for the session or I start to feel the tires going off.
Q: Does your approach change as the temperatures change throughout the day?
A: The approach remains the same, however, as the temperature rises throughout the day, I’ll typically get one less flier attempt. First session of the day I’ll typically get four attempts at a flier, but by the end of the day it will usually only be three attempts.
Q: What are the small things you can do throughout the day to maximize the car?
A: There’s not much adjustability in my current setup, so my main focus has always been tire pressure; Trying to ensure that I’m hitting around 35-36 psi hot on the Maxxis tires. Beyond that, I’m always trying to drive with what the car is giving me on that day. I firmly believe that for 95 percent of performance, TT, and sprint racing drivers, the biggest limiting factor is the driver. The mental aspect of driving and performing plays a far bigger role (especially at the amateur level) than car setup.
Q: How do you keep tabs on your competition?
A: Prior to an event, I’ll check the NASA results page to see historical lap times in order to get an idea of what lap time I’ll be shooting for during the event. During the event we use Race Hero to watch their timing feed.
Currently, my team and I are working on pit-to-car communications so that I can be kept abreast of everyone’s lap time mid-session. I feel like this is super helpful and important to know when deciding what level of risk we need to take in order to secure the next position, or if we can dial it back because we’re safely where we want to be in the order.
Q: What role did car construction play in your success in this year’s championships?
A: Not entirely sure how to answer this question.
Q: What role does car preparation play in your success, in general?
A: Prepping the car has always been an extremely important factor in relation to my overall confidence before an event. Growing up racing motocross, prepping the bike completely was the norm before I ever swung a leg over it — same goes for my car. Before every event, brakes are disassembled, inspected, cleaned, lubricated. Suspension is torque checked. Fluids are inspected, topped off, or are changed according to a maintenance schedule. Wheels and tires inspected for any damage and inflated to a reasonable starting pressure. I really don’t enjoy working on my car during an event, nor do I like the feeling of being unprepared, so I try to leave as little as possible to chance before the car gets strapped down in the trailer.
Q: How did you choose your car for TT4 competition?
A: Well, TT4 competition chose me more than the other way around. When I purchased the car, I had no intention of ever tracking it. At the time, I had a dedicated HPDE car and didn’t really have aspirations of racing. That attitude changed the first time I took the 911 on track and felt like it had way more potential than my dedicated HPDE car, a VW Jetta. Once the 911 took over track duties, I still hadn’t really considered racing TT, but once my now-team co-driver started racing TT, I realized that’s what I wanted to do as well.
I was originally hoping to race the 911 in TT5, so I performed just the right amount of weight reduction, chose my wheel/tire combination accordingly, and tried my best to optimize it for TT5. However, after re-reading the ST/TT rulebook for the third or fourth time, I realized it exceeded the “factory rated horsepower” limit for TT5, despite it complying with every other TT5 stipulation. I asked for an exception to be granted, but it was not. Alas, the car currently sits as a fairly uncompetitive TT4 car. I’m currently planning to reconfigure the car to run TT3 (with weight reduction, suspension overhaul, and slicks).
Q: What do you do during an event to plan and prepare for the next?
A: Gathering data and video during an event helps to prepare for the next dramatically. After each event, I typically spend a few hours preparing videos to be re-watched a dozen times before the next event. I’ve found that watching myself drive from the comfort of my computer chair helps me easily identify areas that I need to improve on. That, and reviewing data from Trackaddict or the Garmin Catalyst with my teammate brings a lot of fidelity to the sometimes vague experience of turning laps.
Name: Justin Ross
Region: NASA NorCal
Car: Many
Years Racing: With NASA, 9 years
Q: When you go out for a TT session, what is your approach?
A: The goal of TT is the ultimate one-lap pace. See who is around you on grid, and how do they make their lap time relative to you (might be an out-of-class car). Also, do not being afraid to back up during the middle of the session to find clear track. Only one lap counts in the end, so beating around being stuck behind someone for five laps is worthless. Either roll through the pits, or stare in your mirror, slow down, and try to find some clear track. It’s not racing. It’s Time Trial.
Q: Does your approach change as the temperatures change throughout the day?
A: Yes, realistically as temps go up, the track gets slow. This is track specific as sometimes a late session in the day may produce good speed, so you should never go “one and done.”
Q: What are the small things you can do throughout the day to maximize the car?
A: We stay on top the basics, bearings, play, fluids, no leaks. Some setup tweaks may be required, but usually focusing on yourself as a driver is the best thing to do. Don’t be afraid to ask guys faster than yourself for help or thoughts on how to improve.
Q: How do you keep tabs on your competition?
A: By being on track with them! NorCal is very competitive, with days often being decided by less than .2 seconds more often than not. There isn’t much planning you can do except try to get the best lap you can and see where/how they are doing on track at the same time.
Q: What role did car construction play in your success in this year’s championships?
A: Massive. The car’s main purpose is actually an endurance car, so we really focused this year on getting one lap and 30-minute pace out of it. It meant small changes everywhere to help be more nimble, active, aggressive than the endurance setup. Luckily, we built the car with service and performance changes in mind, so making changes at a test weekend went easy. Springs, bars, diff ratios, different tune settings not at 100 percent and off throttle all were able to be completed between sessions for rapid testing analysis. That allowed for a deep data dive after the first night to really narrow in on setup. The second day we put the items that worked best on and tweaked from there.
Q: What role does car preparation play in your success, in general?
A: Another big one. We at Magic Developed pride ourselves on car prep. We bring as many as eight cars across four classes to a weekend with the intention of only needing to fix incident damage. Time is spent in the shop before an event to ensure this is a reality and not a false truth. Things from nut-and-bolt checks, regular logs on component time and setting up component timeouts to replace items before they fail.
Q: How did you choose your car for TT5 competition?
A: I think like most people, there wasn’t a “Let’s go out and get this car specifically for this reason.” It was more of a “We have a car that was originally built for Spec E46, but how can we easily maximize it for the 25 Hour?” kind of snowball that rolled into an avalanche and building the car specifically to the 25 ruleset.
Q: What do you during an event to plan and prepare for the next?
A: Think ahead. Super Touring is a builders class. When you get into a repeatable lap time window at your local tracks, don’t be afraid to try small setup changes or even component changes to see if something suits your total setup (driving/car setup/tires/track) a little better. You can start as easily as tire pressures, maybe a small sway bar change. Even think outside of the box. Steering feel to light for your liking? Maybe try a smaller steering wheel diameter. Maybe try a different shift knob. It’s all a point of exploration to find what works best for you.
Name: Austin Kent
Region: NASA Utah
Car: 2004 BMW M3
Years Racing: 8-9
Q: When you go out for a TT session, what is your approach?
A: The obvious intention is to get a clear track and have as many unimpeded laps as possible before hitting traffic. So, I am very intentional about pacing and spacing the out lap. I spent a few years as our NASA Utah TT director, so it was something we would discuss in our drivers meetings and make sure everyone in the session has as many clean laps as possible. Aside from that, just hitting my marks and focusing on any corners or specifics I need to work on based on data, etc.
Q: Does your approach change as the temperatures change throughout the day?
A: Generally, yes. I like to get the job done in the first or second session, because in Utah the third and fourth sessions will never be as fast as the first two.
Q: What are the small things you can do throughout the day to maximize the car?
A: Tire pressure is a pretty critical part of what we do to maximize grip and lap time, so keeping tabs on tire pressure and wear is the main priority. Fluid checks, etc. But I’m rarely making mechanical adjustments to go faster as the car is pretty dialed in for our track.
Q: How do you keep tabs on your competition?
A: We have a pretty big group in TT3 here in our region. Most of us are pretty friendly with each other, with the closest competitor being a good old friend of mine. While we’re competitive, we are all often helping each other get faster as well.
Q: What role did car construction play in your success in this year’s championships?
A: It’s a big part of any success of course. I’ve had this car since the end of 2018 season, so I’ve been building and developing it for quite a few years. But yes, the right parts and build make all the difference.
Q: What role does car preparation play in your success, in general?
A: Prep plays a big role for sure, and while I primarily run the car by myself, I’m no mechanic. So, it’s good to have a shop like Riot Motorsport to help out, but making sure things are tip top is always something that will help with any success.
Q: How did you choose your car for TT3 competition?
A: In my opinion, the E46 M3 is best suited for TT/ST3 class at relatively close to stock power levels and reduced weight so you’re not asking too much of the motor. Locally, the TT3 class has always had a lot of competitors, so that helps as well.
Q: What do you do during an event to plan and prepare for the next?
A: Not much, to be honest. Utah Motorsports Campus has four track configurations, and with the schedule, we always know what’s coming up, so, in terms of planning, it’s just making sure I have adequate tires and that the car is in good shape, or addressing anything that needs addressing.
Name: Jake Latham
Region: NASA Rocky Mountain
Car: 1997 Chevrolet Corvette
Years Racing: 15
Q: When you go out for a TT session, what is your approach?
A: I sort of focus on two things: First, it’s a qualifying mindset. You’re more on the edge and more “full send” than you can be during race laps, so readying myself for that extra intensity level is important. Second, in a Corvette, I’m usually toward the front of the field, so I try to mentally run through the first and second hot lap, knowing that’s about all I will get.
Q: Does your approach change as the temperatures change throughout the day?
A: Yes, I pretty much only count on the first morning session to be the fast one of the day. I’ll often skip the others if I feel like I’m already on my personal limit at a track. It’s hard to go faster as things heat up.
Q: What are the small things you can do throughout the day to maximize the car?
A: If I’m going to do later sessions in the day, the problem is probably the driver, not the car. If I feel like I’m leaving big chunks in some corners, I’ll keep at it and focus on where I can tell by the seat of the pants that I left time out there, or if the video tells me I was doing a poor job of it. As for the car, little experiments can tell you a lot. Add a touch of wing, change the shocks a bit, make a small ride height adjustment, etc. — you don’t know what works and what doesn’t unless you just try stuff. You can always go back to where it was if a change made it worse.
Q: How do you keep tabs on your competition?
A: Whatever the live timing is for the event. I don’t have any in-car timing or radios, so I just focus on myself as much as I can and let the chips fall where they may.
Q: What role did car construction play in your success in this year’s championships?
A: A lot! It’s safe to say the car is a very developed Corvette at this point, thanks to the collaboration with GSpeed and Zebulon MSC. In a development class like Super Touring, you can’t win without the tool to do so, and the car we’ve assembled in cooperation with each other is spectacular fun to drive.
Q: What role does car preparation play in your success, in general?
A: Similar answer to above, I suppose, lots of development from Corvette and aero experts like GSpeed and Zebulon, along with a decent bit of my own experience building cars has thus far been a good combination.
Q: How did you choose your car for TT2 competition?
A: I ran formula cars and sports racers for many years competitively in the Sports Car Club of America, but when my kids were born, I decided I should call time on the open-cockpit, open-wheel cars due to the risk factor. I had actually sold this Corvette to a friend in 2004, bought it back in 2014, and began developing it for NASA ST and TT. The C5/C6 platform has been very successful in many categories for many years, and it’s hard not to love a big thumping V8.
Q: What do you during an event to plan and prepare for the next?
A: I take a lot of notes about how the car feels in each corner, what the setup was, problems/gripe sheets, and bring a long list back for us to work on between events. That way, each time you arrive at an event a little more polished, a little bit better, and hopefully, just a little bit faster.
