mikegarrison

The Mission track is small and tight. Almost like an autox course with concrete walls.

Here's a turn-by-turn description, while it's fresh in my mind:

T1: drop from 4th to second. Trailbrake. Apex normal for a 180 hairpin. Use all the track on entry and exit.

T2: stay in second. Enter about 2/3 of the way out, and stay out until you have completed about half of the turn. Don't start braking until you are in the corner -- you don't need to brake much and you can use the braking to help turn in halfway through. Rotate towards the apex and accelerate out. Mind the wall on the outside. (This is probably the most important corner on the track -- it's the fastest corner that leads onto a straight.)

T3: 3rd-2nd. This is the signature turn at Mission, I guess. The entry is very tight and there is a sharp bump right at the apex (as you go up onto the drag strip). It is a very early apex -- you have not even done half your turning by this point. You accelerate as you complete the turn, in what seems to be an expanse of pavement. End up trying to get to the left side of the track.

Tree: The track kinks around a tree. Go from track left to track right, this sets you up for T4. Shift to 3rd.

T4: fairly high speed, some trail braking will help. I tended to stay in 3rd. Not much to be gained by powering out of T4.

T5: Shift to second and enter turn about mid-track. Very late apex. Ideally, do not track out at all (think PR 5b).

T6: accelerate as hard as possible as soon as turn in has been acheived. Get all four wheels onto the concrete patch. Mind the wall in slick conditions.

T7: Once again, trail brake. Late apex. No need to track out vary far, in fact it probably helps not to. Might want to take in second or third. Depends on whether you can shift to second before T8 w/out unsettling the car. Nothing really to be gained by powering out of T7, though.

T8: want to be in second for this one. Don't really need to hit the apex -- you are just setting up for T9. A touch of the brakes helps rotate the car.

T9: very slow -- you want to accelerate but you can't, because there is nowhere to go. Halfway through the corner a touch of the brakes will settle and rotate the car nicely. Then go down the main straight. 2nd to 3rd to 4th (at about the kink) and then braking zone for T1 again. (T9 is so slow that it is less imprtant than you might think, even though it leads to the longest straight.)

With all these slow corners, being able to rotate the car using the brakes is an important skill at Mission!

JHill

Good review. It is a small track for sure, and keeps you really busy, which shows as the lap times are close to PIR's without the chicken.

Be doubly aware of those damb walls, and make sure you have killer brake pads that like the heat. I lost all my brakes going into 7, good thing there was an escape road (something you don't see a lot on the street ).

The CRX's really like Mission, the short wheelbase is a real virtue there.

mikegarrison

Yeah, you brake hard for T1, T3, and T7 with not a whole lot of straightaway to cool things down.

Tedster

For reference:



Thanks Mike.

I've added a link to here from the Track Info thread.

Ted