stripethree

Starting the trip to Chandler for the first autocross in the R32 since June, my iPod decides the first song on shuffle will be Aerosmith’s Back in the Saddle (Again). I grinned and shook my head, thinking that this was either a great indicator of an excellent event to come or that I wouldn’t make it to the end of the block without something on the car catastrophically failing.

Fortunately, the latter of those things did not happen. The car survived the 100 mile drive up, four ~70 second runs on the west track at FIR, and the trip home mostly unscathed. There’s one stubborn suspension bolt that refuses to stay where it’s supposed to, but that can and will be dealt with.

Rolling the car up to the start line for my first shot at this course was a bit rougher than usual on the nerves, again wondering and worrying about what may go wrong. Nothing did. First run was slow, and dirty, but it got better from there. Ok, it got faster from there.

74.537 (+1), 71.359, 71.611 (+4), 71.536 (+1)

So between the car changes and some category changes, who I’m competing against and how I can compare to other drivers is a little different. I’m now in a Street Prepared class (DSP), which has a PAX factor that assumes race tires, unlike my old class (STX) which was all street tires. Locally however, there are categories that lump together people with cars that fall into a ‘race tire’ class but who are running on street tires. So, I’m running against other Street Prepared and Modified cars, and also, Phoenix is calculating PAX points relative to category rather than he entire field. It breaks down like this:

Street Tire 2 category – 1st (of 15) raw times, 1st PAX, 1000 points
Overall – 23rd (of 97) raw times, 23rd PAX

The next closest ST2 car was 1.6 seconds behind, but there was at least one competitor absent that will certainly eliminate that gap next month. The new limited slip diff worked wonders, as did the all the other new bits that have been added to the car. Some suspensions adjustments need to be made, including making that bolt stay where it should, and things should hopefully get even better.

I also took photos of the two heats I was not running or working, and they are posted here and here. The new battery grip was perfect.