Its been a busy morning and early afternoon. After a great breakfast and a run to Walmart for a new folding chair, shop towels, mini-DVD tapes, and a football for exercise, we headed to the local DIY (do it yourself) car wash to clean the old girl up. A quick wash and dry was followed by a fuel top off before making it to the Tire Rack at 9:15. There were a few cars in the lot and registration was officially open.
We unpacked the car for the first time - damn there is a lot of stuff in this car! We then went down to registration and signed our lives away. IN the process they handed us more stickers for the car which we promptly installed in a blistering wind. The weather is quite warm and slightly overcast with a strong breeze - gusting to 20 or 25 MPH is my estimate. There is just enough sun from time to time to require a sunblock lathering.
The sticker application is finished in short order and then I assist Woody apply the stickers to Neil's M-Coupe. The older folks need all the help they can get. While I keep Woody on the straight and narrow Brian works to adjust the harnesses in the car so that they fit both of us. We have installed a four-point roll bar, full race seat, and harnesses in the car for safety this year. Keeping the fat backside planted nicely in a seat also assists greatly in driving the car.
After finishing all this work, we run the car through tech inspection. Do you have all the right stickers? Yes. Do you have a fire extinguisher? Yes. Helmet and fire-proof suit? Yes. Your good to go. They brand the side walls of our Michelin PS2's and we are free to resume our pre-event prep chores.
Just before lunch, Brian and I tackle removing all four wheels and taping over the wheel weights in the event we heat them up enough during track sessions and the weight glue releases. A little added insurance. Lunch is served and it is the usual fair of burgers, hot dogs, pasta, and brownies. Yummy! Neil Simon has arrived (Woody's partner) from his conference in Chicago.
We are now waiting for the drivers meeting to start at 3:00 and then the wet skid pad test at 5:00. From there it will be a quick pack up and hit the road toward Elkhart, WI and tomorrow's event at famed Road America. Brian is driving the wet skid pad and after much debate and conversing with the Tire Rack specialists, we opt for 32 lbs all around and traction control off.
Wish us luck! The next report should be how we did on the wet skid pad and how nasty traffic is getting around Chicago on our trip north.
Cheers!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Friday, September 12, 2008
Autocrossers Inc. Event #2 of 2008
It was supposed to be a battle of the couples, made up of husband and wife teams. The Hairs would be driving my 323is in STX, the Brickners would be driving their Infiniti G35 Sport in STX, and the Boyds running Clint's M3 in ASP. But a few days prior to the event, the G35 was sold leaving Craig without a car. Our wives decided to stay indoors due to the potentially hot weather, and typical standing around all day in it. Clint and Stephanie still shared the M3, but had some competition in my father and Craig in Woody's M Coupe. Things worked out so that I could drive my old favorite ride, Jason Becker's M Coupe, this time with the supercharger! We ran in different classes, though, I was in SM2 and he ran in XP, and boy did he whoop up on the Cobra boys. In fact, had he not coned on his best run, he would've beaten my best run of the day. Jason has steadily improved over the past two years and is an extremely quick driver. He's always asking me for pointers and advice on negotiating courses, when I should be asking him now!
The course was another Lee Piccione special, on the A Lot at FedEx Field, fast and technical. With the addition of the supercharger, making about 100 more wheel hp, the M Coupe launches about the same as before, but winds out through 1st gear with much more pull, and 2nd gear is no less exhilarating than 1st gear! Jason and his father have put in many days and hours of work on that car to get it just right, and it has paid off. It was the fastest car that was actually driven to the event, not trailered... a feat not unusual for it.
Event Results: click here
The course was another Lee Piccione special, on the A Lot at FedEx Field, fast and technical. With the addition of the supercharger, making about 100 more wheel hp, the M Coupe launches about the same as before, but winds out through 1st gear with much more pull, and 2nd gear is no less exhilarating than 1st gear! Jason and his father have put in many days and hours of work on that car to get it just right, and it has paid off. It was the fastest car that was actually driven to the event, not trailered... a feat not unusual for it.
Event Results: click here
Friday, August 8, 2008
WDCR SCCA Solo #4
Videos from July 13, 2008. WDCR SCCA Solo #4 at FedEx Field, Lot A
I am driving a 2003 Corvette Z06, owned by Rich Barrett. What a blast! None of my runs were cone-free, though.
Run #1:
Run #2:
Run #3:
Run #4:
I am driving a 2003 Corvette Z06, owned by Rich Barrett. What a blast! None of my runs were cone-free, though.
Run #1:
Run #2:
Run #3:
Run #4:
Monday, July 21, 2008
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
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, June 30, 2008
MARRS 2 - Rain, Rain, Go Away!!
Saturday morning started off partly cloudy, but rain and thunderstorms were in the forecast all around our region for most of the day. The National Weather Service had Severe Weather warnings until mid-afternoon. I was in Group 8, so the first qualifying session was about an hour before lunch. Tires were my main concern, if the track got soaked, I'd do much better on my full-treaded Toyo RA1s vs my shaved set. I headed over to Gasoline Alley with Rich, of Performance Auto Works, to bring back the rain tires while the first storm was about to hit. High winds, dark sky, Rich's hat blew off, and I almost lost mine simultaneously, but we kept driving to the garage with the rain beginning as we got there. His hat was still on the grass field next to Turn 9 when we headed back to the paddock.
Between showers, I changed to the wets, but I needed to add some air. Then the skies cleared a bit, the sun came out and as I pulled up to grid, the track was drying. I had set the pressures to 34 pounds all-around and pulled into my grid spot. 5 minutes was called, but that was really like 2 1/2 minutes. I wasn't ready so I was held in grid and let out last. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The first few laps, I was contending with damp spots on the track and the full treads, so I was not able to break 1:36. Gradually, it began to get more and more wet as the session went on, more and more cars pulling into the pits each lap. I just stayed out until the checkered to get some practice. Morning times posted quickly and I was 7th in class, 10th overall.
After lunch, the expected violent storms were not a threat anymore, but there was some thunder and lightning and the rain lingered for a few hours. Very few cars went out during the early afternoon groups. Some groups had as few as one car lapping the track! I was debating whether or not to bother going out myself, but as I wandered the paddock, the rain left and skies cleared, so I scrambled preparing to go out again. Not enough time, to change tires, plus it still could be wet, but not so once our group hit the grid. I was ready well before 5 minutes this time, and said to myself, forget the tires, just go for it. The track was dry enough that grip was not an issue, though several cars spun off the track during the session. I improved my time as well as most others, so I ended up with exactly the same time as #15, only he was 5th and I was 6th in class, putting me 8th on the grid (outside row) for the race on Sunday.
I arrived late Sunday morning feeling a bit lethargic, not sure why, maybe it was all the good protein I had eaten on Saturday between the brat and burger for lunch, and then the Famous Dave's wings and ribs over at Jefferson with the NCC BMW CCA. Anyway, after some fluid and preparing the car for the race, I felt better. I made sure to have some energy for the mid-afternoon race by having a hotdog dipped in some 100 mph Chili from Chez Summit. Good stuff.
With the dry tires back on the car, and only a slight threat of rain, I was confident that the race would be run under completely dry conditions. It was, and I got a great jump at the start, falling into 5th by Turn 3. I missed a 2nd-3rd shift and fell back from the leaders going around the Karusel, but it was my only driving error of the race. The #11 IT7 car, whom I passed going into Turn 1 at the start, started to catch me immediately and we battled for several laps, neither of us wanting to lose sight of our competition ahead on track. Is he going to hold me up? Yep, so I'll lead. I'm not holding him up, because he falls back and can't pass and stay ahead. Finally, he did and pulled away. I was left alone for a few laps and then #15 started charging up to me. With three laps left, he was on my bumper, with #27 closing on us both. My only mental error of the race occurred on the second to last lap. It was guessing wrong what a lapped car would do exiting the Chute. He stayed right on line leaving me no room on the inside entering Turn 5, which forced me to pass on the outside in 5. I braked too late and had to rim shot the right edge of the track, dropping two wheels and kicking up dust. When I got all four back on, I was still ahead of #27 and #15, but remained behind #3. I got a run but he almost shut the door at Turn 7 on me, so I short-cut the apex and finally get by him by Turn 8. From there it was a matter of holding off 5th and 6th for one more lap, ten more turns. Coming out of 7, the clutch slipped a bit from my up-shift. I protected the inside going into 10 and again the clutch slipped shifting from 3rd to 4th on the straight. This gave #27 a run on me, so I gave him just enough room on the right edge of the track to pass me if he could. We crossed the line door handle to door handle, not knowing who was ahead. The results had me by .031 seconds for 4th place, 6th overall. We enjoyed talking after the race and agreed that our transponder placement might've had something to do with the 4-foot interval at the finish. It was my best result to date, and I was happy with my driving. There is less than a month until we go at it again. Race Group
#10 next time.
Between showers, I changed to the wets, but I needed to add some air. Then the skies cleared a bit, the sun came out and as I pulled up to grid, the track was drying. I had set the pressures to 34 pounds all-around and pulled into my grid spot. 5 minutes was called, but that was really like 2 1/2 minutes. I wasn't ready so I was held in grid and let out last. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The first few laps, I was contending with damp spots on the track and the full treads, so I was not able to break 1:36. Gradually, it began to get more and more wet as the session went on, more and more cars pulling into the pits each lap. I just stayed out until the checkered to get some practice. Morning times posted quickly and I was 7th in class, 10th overall.
After lunch, the expected violent storms were not a threat anymore, but there was some thunder and lightning and the rain lingered for a few hours. Very few cars went out during the early afternoon groups. Some groups had as few as one car lapping the track! I was debating whether or not to bother going out myself, but as I wandered the paddock, the rain left and skies cleared, so I scrambled preparing to go out again. Not enough time, to change tires, plus it still could be wet, but not so once our group hit the grid. I was ready well before 5 minutes this time, and said to myself, forget the tires, just go for it. The track was dry enough that grip was not an issue, though several cars spun off the track during the session. I improved my time as well as most others, so I ended up with exactly the same time as #15, only he was 5th and I was 6th in class, putting me 8th on the grid (outside row) for the race on Sunday.
I arrived late Sunday morning feeling a bit lethargic, not sure why, maybe it was all the good protein I had eaten on Saturday between the brat and burger for lunch, and then the Famous Dave's wings and ribs over at Jefferson with the NCC BMW CCA. Anyway, after some fluid and preparing the car for the race, I felt better. I made sure to have some energy for the mid-afternoon race by having a hotdog dipped in some 100 mph Chili from Chez Summit. Good stuff.
With the dry tires back on the car, and only a slight threat of rain, I was confident that the race would be run under completely dry conditions. It was, and I got a great jump at the start, falling into 5th by Turn 3. I missed a 2nd-3rd shift and fell back from the leaders going around the Karusel, but it was my only driving error of the race. The #11 IT7 car, whom I passed going into Turn 1 at the start, started to catch me immediately and we battled for several laps, neither of us wanting to lose sight of our competition ahead on track. Is he going to hold me up? Yep, so I'll lead. I'm not holding him up, because he falls back and can't pass and stay ahead. Finally, he did and pulled away. I was left alone for a few laps and then #15 started charging up to me. With three laps left, he was on my bumper, with #27 closing on us both. My only mental error of the race occurred on the second to last lap. It was guessing wrong what a lapped car would do exiting the Chute. He stayed right on line leaving me no room on the inside entering Turn 5, which forced me to pass on the outside in 5. I braked too late and had to rim shot the right edge of the track, dropping two wheels and kicking up dust. When I got all four back on, I was still ahead of #27 and #15, but remained behind #3. I got a run but he almost shut the door at Turn 7 on me, so I short-cut the apex and finally get by him by Turn 8. From there it was a matter of holding off 5th and 6th for one more lap, ten more turns. Coming out of 7, the clutch slipped a bit from my up-shift. I protected the inside going into 10 and again the clutch slipped shifting from 3rd to 4th on the straight. This gave #27 a run on me, so I gave him just enough room on the right edge of the track to pass me if he could. We crossed the line door handle to door handle, not knowing who was ahead. The results had me by .031 seconds for 4th place, 6th overall. We enjoyed talking after the race and agreed that our transponder placement might've had something to do with the 4-foot interval at the finish. It was my best result to date, and I was happy with my driving. There is less than a month until we go at it again. Race Group
#10 next time.
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