stripethree

The end of the Spring 2011 series in Tucson and again figuring out that running early isn’t worth it. More grit equals less grip.

Comps: 47.068, 46.728, 46.787 (+1), 46.268 (+1)
TOs: 52.971 (+1), 46.836, 46.283, 46.237

Best part of the day was Andrea coming to ride along in TOs and having a blast doing so. There are some changes in store for the car soon!

As far as the series I finished 8th out of the 10 drivers in the PAX category that ran at least 3 of the 4 events and qualified for the series. Not all that great but getting better.

Eh, it’s only about a month late, and I wasn’t all that pleased with how I drove at this event anyway.

Comps: 68.369, 66.366, 66.371, 66.378 (+1)
15th fastest time out of 99, 19th PAX
12th of 22 in SPM category, 895 points

It was hot and I was too hard on the tires. And my need for stiffer springs was very apparent. That’s all I got on this one.

Andrea’s cousin has been a hot air balloon pilot for years and last Sunday we went with her family and friends on a balloon ride up in Phoenix at sunrise. We were in the air for about 90 minutes, traveled 14.1 miles, and reached an altitude of 8000ft. It was a little freaky at first when you think about just standing in a basket over a mile from the ground, especially when you look down. It was very cool though. I did not have my real camera but snapped some pictures with my iPhone.

Hot Air Balloon

Back to the National Tour I wen, to a two day event at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, CA on the first weekend in April. The weather was quite nice (no rain!) and I was running in D Street Prepared in the first heat of each day.

Some photos from the experience:

CSP Miata being put together Friday night.

Ready for action.

Action shots.

Video of all six runs

More pictures

Results:
Saturday: 57.626, 57.275, 55.850
Sunday: 53.237, 51.903, 51.566 (+1)
107.753 combined, 3rd out of 10 (trophy position!)
0.383 out of second but almost 8 seconds out of first.

It was a great weekend. I elected not to drive back until Monday morning so I went to the beach for a few hours after everyone cleared out Sunday afternoon and that might have been the best idea I had all weekend. Very relaxing and an excellent end to a very fun weekend.

My best event in Tucson yet:

Comps: 55.174, 54.595 (+3), 55.097 (+5), 54.594 (+1)
TOs: 55.593 (+1), 54.348 (+2), 53.995 (+2), 54.431 (+1)
8th/54 raw, 10th PAX, 9th/14 in PAX Category, 953 points

Left time out there since I hit a lot of cones, but I am definitely working better with the car and it’s new-found capabilities. On to San Diego!

The R32 also got a full clay bar and detail today for the first time in its life. The paint is smooth as glass and hopefully I will get a chance to take some good pictures before it gets dirty again. Also, hopefully, now that it is very clean I will be more motivated to keep it clean.

First go ’round at Firebird with the new suspension and race tires resulted in my best finish yet at a AZ Solo event. Since the surface is different than Marana (read: much bumpier) I got to fiddle with settings on the coilovers to see how the car reacted.

Comps: 37.190 +3, 37.258 +1, 37.657, 37.052
TOs: 36.945, 36.436, 36.384 +1, 36.439

My last competition run was the 17th fastest time out of 103 entrants and the 12th fastest PAX time. I finished 7th out of 14 in the Sportsman category with 953 points.

There’s one more tune up, the Border Region event at Marana Airport this coming weekend, before the San Diego National Tour.

I started a few galleries on Picasa that I intend to update with additional photos. In addition to specific shoots, I’m going to try to pick up the camera more around the house to shoot while trying to keep things interesting.

The Michi & Lilou set started with an attempt to bring out the killer instinct in Andrea’s cats with some goldfish in the bathtub. Turns out the kids are scared of an inch of water. There’s also a few nicely composed pics of Llama and some shots of the snow (yes, snow!) the house saw weekend before last.

Michi and Lilou	Monki and Llama	Arizona

The Tucson Gem Show is the biggest show of its kind. Sunday I visited the main portion of the show to take some pictures.

Gem Show 2011

The first event of the year in Tucson and we are back at the Marana airport.

Last week while on a work trip in DC I was able to order a set of new race tires, Hankook Z214s in size 275/40-17 to be exact, after being unsuccessful with my procuring a new set of my previous tires (Kumho V710s). They were mounted Saturday to run Sunday and they were fantastic.

Comps: 50.732, 48.88, 47.238 +1, 47.606; 14th of 19 in PAX category, 14th fastest time of 70 and 16th best PAX time for 948 points.
TOs: 47.830, 48.192 +1, 47.777 47.427

Still need to work this car harder as the tires, especially the rears, did not get up to their optimal temperature. Now the real fun begins… tinkering and tuning to make all these new things – brakes, suspension, tires – work well together.

Oh, yeah, and I need to drive the damn car harder.

Ah yes, starting another year off in DSP with the car rebelling against it’s duties. After my first run I hop out, my co-driver Jana hops in, and someone walking by points out a significant coolant leak coming from the passenger side. Under the hood, the coolant overflow tank developed a crack from heat, stress, or whatever and was spraying coolant since the system was fully pressurizing. Once the level dropped below the crack the leak stopped and we kept running after applying some duct tape (see above left).

The upside is that the new coilovers are fantastic. I set them at two clicks below full stiff and the car was an entirely different beast than before. Less body roll, less dive and squat, and more of keeping the tires on the ground fighting for traction.

My comp times: 60.654, 59.361, 58.915, 59.162

Time only runs were a mess as the tires went away (see above right). I finished 8th of 9th in PAX, beating only my co-driver by two tenths. It wasn’t an easy category to run in, there were no weak links in terms of competition (including two past National Champions). Overall my best time was 12th out of 45 and my PAX time was good for 11th.

Here’s some shots of the car on the new coilovers and the new-ish wheel and tire setup for autocross courtesy of Rob Rockefeller.

So, what’s next? Well, the coolant tank has been replaced and a new, even wider set of tires should be here this week just in time to get mounted for the first Marana event of the year next Sunday. The alignment needs some help and a set of Longacre Toe Plates arrived yesterday to help with that. The next fix for the car is likely the smaller radiator fan, it appears to be stuck or seized for some reason. Luckily the larger fan, which was replaced last year, pulls plenty of air, the weather has been fairly cool here in Tucson of late, and I have an auxiliary fan hooked up to the secondary radiator to assist in keeping the car cool. It’s always something with these Volkswagens…