SCCA ProSolo (June, 2008)

The "DC Pro" fills up early every year. Registration opened in January and I think it filled up in less than 48 hours. Many folks travel cross-country to FedEx Field for it, but there are plenty of locals and East-coast autocrossers that participate, bumping a lot of National would-be competitors. I registered on time thinking that I would be co-driving a '95 BMW M3 in B Street Prepared, co-driving with my friend, Scott Blair. More on that story later. I want to thank OG Racing for sponsoring me at this special event.

I don't like that these are really two-and-a-half day events, for just over 6 minutes of actual driving, BUT, they are the most challenging, competitive, and intense of any Solo events or time trials. The drag-style starts, the short mirror-image courses, having two sessions on Saturday, and one on Sunday to get your best time on each course for your total time for the weekend. It really is fun.

Thursday, I was in contact with Scott, and he told me that he planned on fixing the car and meeting me Saturday morning. He opted to skip registration/tech, practice starts and course walking on Friday afternoon, and just show up early Saturday morning. I was unsure that the car would be ready, so Friday I went out to FedEx field to try to secure a back-up ride. I ended up agreeing to drive Brad Burns' '04 BMW 330i (Performance Package) in D Stock. He even let me do four practice starts, after he had already done four, then, he went back for four more. Brad is local hotshoe, and has won class championships, but thought his chances were mid-pack, at best, this time in DS. Afterall, his car is still using the factory shocks. I guess he wanted to ensure his starts would not hinder his chances at doing well.

Saturday morning, after my final course walks, Scott shows up and says his car is fine. He had to fix the radiator expansion tank that he blew at Summit Point doing a track day the previous weekend. Well, I chose not to drive his car two weeks prior, after we discovered a stuck brake pad, so this was my chance to finally drive it. After a BSP competitor had switched classes to make SM2 a "full" class for the later Challenge rounds, that left BSP one short of a full class... so that made the decision easy for me. At the last minute, before they were going to start the event, Scott and I went to the timing truck and I was back as #150 BSP, where I had initially registered back in January.

The M3 was a handful to drive, and we both knew it going in. The shocks were slow in rebound, making it impossible to put the power down, and it was lifting the inside front tire at almost every turn. On one of my runs, I felt the car get light, and I realized I was WAY up, with only the left side tires touching the pavement. It took a second for the car to land back on all four. Surprisingly, this occurred in a relatively slow corner, but it stuck in my head the rest of the weekend. Scott said he could see it on two wheels from across the lot in grid.

We struggled with the car Saturday morning, swapped the 650 lbs. rear springs for 550's before the afternoon runs, which helped settle the car some, but not enough. With the 2005 BSP National Champion, Lee Piccione's insight, we determined the shocks were probably done, and they just couldn't keep up with the springs we were running. We just had to adapt our driving styles and be very gentle getting on the power. Those darn AWD cars in our class, getting a second head-start at the lights, were just too quick for us to make up that lost ground. With my too-early starts, I had a clean run on the left course but two red-lights on the right side. Was this going to be a repeat of the Red Light demonstration I put on the year before? I got clean runs on both sides by the end of the day, but Scott was ahead of me, and we were 4th and 5th in class, out of 5 drivers. Sunday, we drove the best we could with the car we had, but the times were still back there behind the Evo's and an STi. It was a fun event, nonetheless. Thank you for letting me drive your car, and congratulations, Scott, on beating me that weekend!



See more pictures from the event HERE

MARRS 3

After finishing 4th in class at MARRS 2, I was excited about possibly repeating at MARRS 3. Most of the talk in the paddock all weekend centered around the track surface breaking up in several turns and the possibility of thunderstorms both days. Since I was in Group 10 this weekend, the chances my rain tires would be used on a really wet track, finally, were pretty good. With several laps on them already this year, in drying conditions, they are quickly becoming "intermediate" rains. With the dry tires already on the car, prior to my first session, I moved my right front tire to the rear, due to a bad flat spot. I did not want a vibration in the steering wheel to distract me or slow me down. Surprisingly, I couldn't feel the flat spot once the tire was on the right rear corner. Having new rotors and pads on the front, and having just flipped the tires on the rims made the car feel sloppy and harder to drive well. A 1:33.746 would be all I had, it turns out, for the entire weekend. How is it possible that the Saturday morning session would be when I turned my best lap time of the weekend? Maybe it's the autocrosser in me that drives well out of the box.

In the afternoon session, the car felt better, I felt much faster, and my driving was cleaner, but my times were slower. I was a little disappointed with my 7th position in class after the morning session, since a few others had improved and moved ahead of me. On the cool down lap, a strange noise and feeling from the right rear corner suddenly became very noticeable, and I thought the car was broken. It turns out that it was just the flat-spotted tire which had found the right speed to make itself apparent. It made the car shake and creak at cool down-lap speeds. The rain had held off until everyone was off the track, and gave me time to try to diagnose the problem with the car, but we all agreed that it was the tire and not something broken in the rear. So I could have 4 good tires for the race, Billy, of Performance Auto Works, took my flat-spotted tire and a tire that was on a bent wheel to the tire guys and put the good tire with the good wheel before I left for home. Thank you so much, Billy!

I was 14th on the grid, 7th in class, for Sunday's race... I was SEVENTH! With rain in the forecast, SCCA managed to get in 6 race groups in before the lunch break. It was steamy, and clouds kept rolling by, but no rain... until Group 8. Once it had passed the paddock was collecting water, and the track looked like it would be wet the rest of the day. I kept debating whether or not to change tires immediately, or wait until closer to the race. I finally decided, let's go with the rains, and had done three of them, when the sun came out and I changed my mind. The track dries out very quickly, once the sun comes out and cars are circulating. Got the dry tires back on the car, and was ready for Group 10.

On the outside of the 7th row, I was back in a familiar starting position, at least from last season. Everyone kept going and checking up and going and braking before the green flag, but I tried to give myself a little room in front and stay at a more constant throttle position than others. Once I stayed in it, I took off past a few cars right up the middle, falling into line in the inside lane approaching the brake zone. That lane looked too slow for my taste, so I passed a couple others, up the middle again, and charged for Turn 3 on the outside exiting Turn 2, putting me on the inside for Turn 3. Once we had cleared the Chute, I was in 8th overall! #15 got into a puddle at the apex of T6 which covered my windshield with mud water, and he almost lost it in front of me on the wet track after the puddle. I managed to not hit him and hold my position, and I eventually passed him by pit-out by the end of lap 1. From there I watched the top three Spec 7's slowly walking away from me throughout the race. I played with an SSC Chevy Cobalt for a lap or two, trying to get a tow in the big hole he punched in the air, but that just made the water temp go up so I stopped driving in his draft. Later, the debris flag was displayed at Turn 1, and he almost stopped, so I drove on by and left him in my mirror. The rest of the race, I was all alone just lapping. I was trying to be consistent and still turn my best lap times. I tried pushing harder in the turns, but I couldn't improve upon my qualifying lap. I ended up 4th again, and was very happy with my drive, but was curious about my relatively slow best race lap of 1:33.925, more than two seconds off the pace of the leaders. Maybe that's all the car has in it... then again, maybe not.