stripethree

The name of the game was braking points. Brake late and your were toast. Come into corners hot on this course and you were done. The R was still pushing like a pig, but I threw it around well enough. I skipped Time Only runs to get back home and work on odds and ends for the GTI.

Comps: 62.507, 62.001, 61.705, 60.960, 62.243 (+1)

Run #4 was good for 10th best fast time and 10th best PAX time – both of out 34 entrants – and put me at the top of a field of seven in Street Tire by half a second with 937 points. I’m dueling it out with another board member driving an A Stock turbo Saturn Sky who is 3 points ahead of me halfway through the series. There’s also a C Stock Toyota MR2 who took the category last month lurking 16 points behind me.

I was actually a bit surprised at the results since I really wasn’t thrilled with what I was able to do with the car. The car was under steering a lot and even when the LSD was kicking power to the outside tire, I was still struggling for traction up front. There were a lot of tricky features on this course, some of which bit me.

I’m going to cut to the chase on this one, you’ll see why.

Comps: 41.734, 41.679, 41.260 (+1), 41.097
TOs: 40.981, 40.868, 40.854 (+1)
Street Tire 2: 2nd, 955
Overall: 38th fast time, 40th PAX time out of 105

So I finished second in Street Tire 2, which you would think I would be pretty happy about. I would, except that there are two important facts about that 2nd place that really frustrated me:
1. The gap between first and second was over 1.8 seconds
2. The first place car was the same car I was driving, my R32

Yup, beaten handily by my own car. I threw my keys to another driver – ok not just any other driver but the ’08 DSP National Champion – after his BMW refused to start and stay running because of a bad battery. I was working out on course and could only watch as Doug kicked my ass with my own damn car running 39.822, 39.082, 39.507 (+1), and 39.236.

Ouch.

In some consolation, I did get some good feedback on the car and some adjustments to investigate in addition to fixing the loose nut behind the wheel. It really makes me think hard about doing Evolution School again, but I’m not sure that’s in the cards. I think part of my problem is that I am not pushing the car hard enough, and that I’m too worried about the next thing to break. Race drivers (and no, I’m not claiming to be one but you’ll get the point) are supposed to look ahead to the next corner, not dwell on the last one. I need a good dose of that, because I know I’ve slowed down, not just by Doug’s times, but by others drivers gaining ground on and/or catching me. I need to stop talking/writing/pondering these things and do something about them.

Photo courtesy of Rob Rockefeller

Almost forgot to post this since I had to run off to DC the day after for work.

The first event of the Fall series in Tucson where I am now competing in DSP, Street Tire. The event went well and I was especially busy: registration, safety steward, and driver. I wasn’t overly thrilled with my driving. Lots of cones and lots of time left out there during competition runs. Oh well. The car feels pretty good and (knock on wood) everything stayed together.

Comps: 51.734, 50.867 (+1), 50.781, 49.521 (+2)
TOs: 50.565 (+1), 49.665, 49.729 (+1), 49.351 (+1)

Third of 8 in Street Tire, 18th raw, 21st PAX, 902. My points and ranks will certainly take a hit being on street tires with a more difficult PAX, but I was only .5 behind the leader in the category. I need to make some adjustments to my driving and the car based on the updated setup. We’ll see how that goes…

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.

I did not want to sit out the third event of the Summer Series after doing so in June, so it was a game of ‘find a ride’ for this Tucson event. My first option ran into a power steering problem, and my second ran into a not-having-enough-tire issue, so knowing I’d be there anyway, I simply registered and figured I would find a ride on site. I got to drive an STU-prepped ’04 Subaru STI owned by one of our other board members and had a blast. The car has a good deal more power than the R32 but can certainly be a bit more of a handful. The biggest difference I noticed was that even with the feedback from the tires on the STI, which are the same Dunlops on the R32, I found it more difficult to figure out exactly how much grip the car had. The all wheel drive system is different and for autox, arguably better than the Haldex system on the R32 but it will bite you. Coming out of the U-turn on my second run I hit the thottle a big too hard a bit too early and after some theatrics from the rear end of the car, I ended up running right over the next two cones in the process. Needless to say that wasn’t my fastest run.

I ran quite well though; 47.925, 47.644 (+2), 47.028, 46.677; which was good enough for 10th raw, 7th in category, and 9th overall PAX with a 959. Seventh through ninth overall PAX were separated by less than four hundredths of a second! The owner of the STI finished a few spots ahead of me with a time of 45.917 and a PAX score of 974. In TOs I took a couple shots with the Subaru WRX that ended up with the top PAX time of the day. It was very different than the STI and required much more adjustment. The car is setup to be loose and I was not quite ready for it – I narrowly avoided taking out the timing lights while going through the finish nearly sideways on one run.

Hopefully I will be able to finish out the Summer Series next month in my own car.

I do not know where April went but it’s gone, passed me right by.

The R32 still isn’t running mainly because upon going to replace the two motor mounts I have, something more fun was discovered, a drive shaft joint that was coming apart. Oh joy. Hopefully this will all be fixed tomorrow and even without the motor mount that I have been waiting on for 4 weeks now, the car can drive again. That’s a good thing, because the GTI is going to be getting some big things in the coming month(s).

I ran my friend Jana’s Mini in Tucson at the end of April again and couldn’t keep off the cones.

Comps: 53.778 (+1), 54.699 (+2), 55.032 (+1, CD), 53.802 (+1)
TOs: 54.270, 54.957, 54.405, 54.392 (+1)

At the Sierra Vista airport the weekend after (last weekend) I drove a CSP Miata on huge race tires. I finished at the bottom of the PAX class, but I beat the car owner, so we’ll see if I’m ever invited drive the car again. It was fun, completely different than the R32 or the Mini; I’d never driven a Miata and never driven on race rubber which made for a fun experience. I can see why people like Miatas (no power, but they certainly can handle!) and why race tires can be an expensive addiction.

I also went house hunting on Monday with a real estate agent, though this trip was more to figure out what I really want in a house than to find the house to buy. The whole process still seems complicated and daunting and I don’t know yet if I’m fully ready for it. It was good to look around at various houses and I figured out that there are many, many more things to think about than I had on my list. We saw about a dozen houses, most of which were vacant, some foreclosures or bank repos. Granted, there could have been things we couldn’t see, but I was surprised at the condition of these houses, I figured they’d be wreck. Probably the worst house needed carpet everywhere and drywall patched in one area of one bedroom. One other house had all the appliances missing, and by all I mean someone made off with the garage door opener and the water heater.

Softball is still going on and we are still looking for win number 1. Most of us are still having a good time even though we’ve only managed to not lose via the mercy rule twice. The season goes through the end of the month, so we don’t have many more chances to get into the win column.

Austin was rainy, so the camera wasn’t out much. Just for the rodeo and even then, the pics weren’t that great since I was without a decent zoom.

Here’s some pics from the San Diego National Tour courtesy of fellow Arizona Border Region members (Rob’s camera, and I think Rob took the pics as well).

Video from San Diego

Me:

Anand:

The two hour drive to Bisbee-Douglas International airport was well worth it Sunday, as awaiting the 20 drivers that showed up just north of the border was an estimated 1.25 mile course with wide open sections that put me well into 3rd gear in multiple places. It was probably the fastest speeds I have hit at an autox course since third gear came early, often, and with liberal amounts of throttle added. The course also rewarded looking way ahead, the pivots at each end and a few deceptive offsets were crushing if you overshot, which was easy to do given the high speeds of the course.

My times were 79.569 (+2), 78.123, 78.373 (+1), and 77.826. In TOs, I dropped another 8/10s, but not without cones. The 77.8 was the second fastest time of the day, out paced only by an A-Stock Saturn Sky Redline on huge Hoosiers which ran a 76.0. PAX times were a different story as I beat out the Sky by just over a tenth of a second for the top overall spot. Now, there’s nothing left for me between now and San Diego other than some work on the car.

Saturday, Summer and I made a drive about 2 hours in the other direction to the Arizona Renaissance Festival in Apache Junction.

The guy in the last picture, where he is juggling a running chain-saw, a torch, and an apple, later went on to set off firecrackers duct taped to his chest and got the crowd to pelt him with water balloons in order to cool the resulting heat. Oh, and I did I mention this was all while he was balanced on top of a ladder? Yes, I got pictures.

That was entertaining to say the least and although I’m betting there’s some trick or secret, I’m impressed he emerged uninjured and coherent, minus not being able to hear anything. There were also some people in the crowd with killer aim as he got nailed in the face with at least 3 or 4 large water balloons. I couldn’t remember if, or when, I’d been to a renaissance festival but it was fun, the shows were entertaining and the steak on a stake was delicious. I think I was also just as amused by the sheer number of people just there to attend who were dressed appropriately. The irony of it was seeing grown men or woman dressed head to toe in period correct garb but who totally ruined the ‘act’ by, say, talking on their so-not-renaissance-era cell phone. Ha!

Comps: 56.654 (+4), 54.887, 53.687, 54.200 (+1)
Time Only: 52.817 (+1), 53.339 (+1), 53.516 (+1), 54.934 (+1)

I don’t have much to say about this event that hasn’t been said before. This was good practice for San Diego since it necessitated more than just the initial 1-2 shift, as I was hitting third outbound into the top loop. Unfortunately I thought about it too much and missed shifts and did not look ahead at the course appropriately, both of which cost me time. While my best competition run was good for 9th out of 16th in the PAX category and 10th of 57 overall, I was still 2 full seconds behind the fastest STX car, and there were two other STX drivers ahead of me in the top 10.

One more event before San Diego and it is next weekend at the airport in Bisbee-Douglas.

Well, I hope. Evo School this past Sunday was excellent. It was well worth the price of admission and has me hoping that here in Tucson we’ll get to run a Phase 2 in November. If we do, I will be there. There were only 8 students and 2 instructors so we certainly got the most out of the day.

Rumor has it that after Evo School you get worse before you get better. Something about absorbing what you learn and trying to do too much with it too soon. I’ve got two more events before San Diego, this coming weekend in Tucson and March 1st in Bisbee/Douglas. Hopefully I can make the most of them.

In the meantime, the R will be due for an oil change before SD, the intake needs cleaning, and she will hopefully be sporting a new exhaust real soon.