We're here at World Time Attack Challenge with Ferris Cartumi with his Corvette that's behind me fresh off , setting lap records pretty much all around the United States . This is Ferris's first time to the land down under and first time around Sydney Motorsport Park .
Welcome to High Performance Academy's tuned in field report podcast series . In these special midweek episodes , we look back through our archives to find the best conversations we've had through years worth of attending the best automotive events across the globe .
We've pulled the audio from these tech filled interviews with some of the industry's most well known figures and presented it in podcast format for you to enjoy as a quick hit of insider knowledge .
First up , ferris , I know we talked on the podcast and , to be super clear to those listening before they jump into the comments , you're not coming here looking to get on the top step of the podium , are you ?
No , definitely not . That'd be foolish to do , I think you know , before you get here .
Yeah , there is some pretty stiff competition and some teams that have been running here for as long as we've been coming and covering this event . What I'm interested to start with is how did you actually prep for this event in terms of trying to learn the track ?
Yeah , so I did a lot of sim time . You know a couple hundred hours ish on the sim . No car really handles like my car around a racetrack . So I was in a GT3 Mercedes just trying to figure out really turn one , turn two and turn six . Those were like the ones that I was like how do you really drive these corners ?
So you've obviously already picked out those as key corners from a driving perspective for optimising your lap time . I mean , turn one obviously is a very , very fast corner . Some of the cars it's really more of a kink than a turn .
But how do you decide , when you're looking at a track map or even when you're on the sim , which are the key corners that you really need to focus on your braking point and your line through those corners ?
Yeah , so one's pretty easy to dictate right it's a very long corner , it's a high speed corner , so obviously the faster you go through it , the more time you're going to lose or gain , whichever one . And then like obviously really slow corners , like hairpins , also like corners that could be a shankane that you can take in different approaches .
Those also can equate to a lot of time gain or loss .
In terms of the platform you're using for your simulator . Obviously there's a lot out there . Can you give us an idea of what you're using in particular ?
Yeah , so I got like a Amazon $90 stand a SimRig and like Logitech stuff off Amazon in an old seat that I have .
Okay , that's actually great , because it sort of goes to prove the point that you don't need to have a $10 , $15 , $20,000 full motion simulator to actually get benefit , correct ? No , not at all .
For you , though , is this more about just getting a sense of knowing which way to turn when you come out of pit lane , having an understanding of the flow of the track and the corners , as opposed to getting really sort of granular with the specifics of what you're going to be doing , where your exact breaking point is going to be , what gear you're going to be
in .
Yeah , just familiarize yourself with the track . Having , like the sight line , some idea of breaking points , turning all that really really helps . If you never do any same time just show up at a track , it's going to take you so long to try to like just get that rhythm going .
And if you already have a rhythm going , regardless if it's 100% to the track or not , you still are kind of familiar with what you're about to get into .
Which leads us on to the next obvious point how realistic has it worked out ? How much did you gain from it ? And , maybe , where did it lack in terms of real life ?
Yeah . So I felt very comfortable yesterday in practice . I immediately felt good to go around the track that pace . I kind of backed out my breaking points a little bit , but I mean I was pretty much wide open everywhere I needed to go . I felt very confident that I knew which direction and where the track was going .
My trackouts and different approaches changed and especially towards the last , the final two corners , I started taking that differently . Then I actually was taking it in the sim .
Do you want to take your car knowledge game to the next level ? Join us in the next free lesson at hpacademycom . Slash free and start developing your own skills today .
In terms of the setup of the car , is there anything that you have changed coming from the United States to Australia or , for that matter , is there anything that you are changing as you sort of learn the track and how ?
the car is performing . So I did raise the ride height a little bit in the front just for the mile per hour . I mean , we are seeing 182 right now and so the car is on the ground and then you are asking it to turn . So I raised it up a little bit and then also I had to add 350 pounds into the car to run this size tire 350 pounds .
Is that just a rule that you had to require that way ?
Yeah , it was a tire rule Now that they are on slick tires . Motorsports Australia said if you want to run a 71 side wall tire you have to weigh 2978 and the car weighed 2600 , so in some weight went .
Is this the same tire that you were running in the United States as well , though ? Yeah , run this tire everywhere I go In terms of your approach to sort of building up speed over the weekend , both with your driving and the car I'm guessing you didn't sort of go out with the thing turned up to 10 out of 10 ?
No , no . So we started out yesterday at 800 , turned the laps just trying to familiarize myself and ended the day at like 950 .
So got a lot of sleep , you still had a little bit up your sleeve .
Yeah , no , we got a lot off our sleeve and I think really the time to be gained is just figuring the track out , getting my braking points dialed in , exit . A lot of things can , I think , will benefit in finding time around the track more than just horsepower .
That was what I was just going to get into . I think a lot of people me included sometimes perhaps try and fix a lack of lap time with more power , but when you're still trying to find your feet on a race track , more power actually can make things worse correct .
Yeah , I know , I mean I'm guilty of that . We all do it . We all have the knob where you just dial in more boost . That's going to equate to lap time , but no , I think in this particular scenario , just learning the track is what's going to find me the time , and then we can just turn on the boost later .
In terms of actual lap times . Can you let us know what you've got down to so far with only a few sessions under your belt , and have you got a sense of where you think you might be able to end up ?
Yeah , so we started out doing 31s at 800 . It's kind of figuring it out . At the end of the day , we're at the 950 mark . I did a 28-3 , a 28-6 , both in traffic , and when MoTek compared those two laps together it was a 26-9 .
That's pretty impressive for your first time to Sydney Motorsport Park and obviously to those listening . If you haven't been here before , it's hard to get a benchmark , but definitely you're in the mix , correct .
Yeah , I think the Pro-Am lap record was set by the Tilton EVO as a 24 . So if I can get a 26 right away , man , that'd be great .
Great to chat for us and thanks for your time . We wish you all the best for the rest of the weekend . Yeah , thanks , man .
If you enjoyed this podcast , please feel free to leave a review on whatever platform you've chosen to listen to it on . It goes a long way to help us getting the word out there . All these conversations , and much more , are also available in full on our High Performance Academy YouTube channel , so make sure you subscribe .
It's a one stop shop when it comes to going faster , stopping quicker and cornering better .