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
No comments:
Post a Comment