stripethree

The third of four events in the Fall series. The course was short, and flew by even faster than the times would indicate. I coned away my best competition run, but still managed to hang on to the top spot in Street Tire 2.

Comps: 33.537, 33.509, 33.593 (+1), 33.172 (+3)
Street Tire 2: 1st of 12 by .511, 1000 points
Overall: 27th fastest time of 81, 30th PAX time
Time Only: 33.428, 33.001, 33.104, 33.155 (+2), 32.995

With the 1000 points in class, I have wrapped up the win in the series (2955 points total). The series is best three out of 4, but there’s no one in the category that can qualify (at least three events) and beat that total. That’s all well and good, but it’s sort of like being the big fish in a small pond; I’m still behind other drivers in my class by a good margin. I also recall getting whooped just last month by my own car with another driver so I will not be letting up for the December event, that’s for sure. I think I have started to figure more out about what is optimal for the car’s new setup. Playing with tire pressures – specifically, running a pretty big difference front to rear – finally got back some of the rotation I was looking for in the back end of the car. Now I just have to keep building on the relative success.

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.

At what point do you cut your losses and move on?

The R is back in the shop again. The larger of the two radiator fans decided there was a particular chunk it didn’t like, so it kicked it off the car. This caused the fan to rotate out of balance and vibrate the entire car while I was sitting at a light, which nearly gave me heart attack as I thought I was witnessing the motor wither and die. It really felt that bad. I managed to get it to the shop after figuring out the problem and giving them a call. Driven without the A/C that fan stays off mostly, and it didn’t hurt that I have an extra fan on the smaller radiator also, thanks to Induktion.

So this is going to be another $500. On top of the thousands the transmission failure cost. On top of the drive shaft coupling and motor mounts. I want to say ‘ok, now she’ll be solid’, but who knows. I said that after the transmission. How am I going to trust this car to not leave me stranded on the side of the road sucking more money out from under me. As Ted said, with the money that’s been dumped into this car this year, I could have enough Mk2s like the GTI for parts that they’d run forever.

Stupid car.

It’s back. Again.

I picked it up from Stuttgart Friday morning and waited very little time to add the parts that have been waiting patiently. The front sway bar end links that Ground Control built are on, as are new front fender liners, and the set of headlights I reconditioned while the car was off in vegetative state. A few hours work last month turned a set of old, clouded headlights (left) to near new (right).

I found some clear turn signal bulbs that illuminate amber, and had extra LEDs from 42 Draft Designs for the city lights, which really made for a clean look once the lights were installed.

It will still be a bit before this car sees autocross again. I will be in Mexico with Summer, Phil, and Katie during the August event next week. I also need to put about 500 miles on the car to break in the new clutch. I am not sure where the next Sierra Vista event is, and I’d be wary of driving it 100 miles away for its first event back to go there or to Phoenix. I may wait until the September event in Tucson to be safe. I also need to get this car a good detail. It needed one before, and after sitting in a dusty shop lot for two months (almost to the day), it really needs one now.

Anand from Induktion sent me some pictures of the transmission damage last week. Parts should be arriving to them tomorrow for them to rebuild the unit. Then back to Arizona it will go.

Both halves of the transmission case are trashed, as is every bearing that they contain. The differential, the cause of this whole mess, is also destroyed, and will be replaced with an upgraded unit, a Peloquin limited slip differential.

Hopefully I will have it back on the road in a few weeks, and with the new diff, I’ve been told it will be even more of a blast to drive.

So passes yet another month; ever feel like you’re just along for the ride?

My foot/ankle/useless stupid appendage is still not completely better after another doctor visit and it better hurry up, because softball starts again at the end of August. My visit to DC went about as well as it could, except for the lack of sleep. It flew by in the sense that I didn’t really get to see anyone outside of family, but sometimes that’s just the way it is. Work has been somewhat better, the big rush to complete one project is obviously now over, but now there’s the new rush to get things rolling on the next project. Oh, and that next project, I have been graced with the status of technical lead or lead engineer, whatever you want to call it. Our program management lead/my old supervisor (re-org time!) informed me of this decision right before the DC trip and I was a both surprised and anxious. Surprised because I had yet to be the lead of a major task, much less a large project, and anxious because, well, you want to talk about learning shit on the fly and on the job training, this will be it. I’m optimistic though and have lots of help, but it’s going to be a big challenge and unfortunately, some long days are ahead.

This past week Tracy was in town, making a stop on her cross country, school visiting, site seeing tour, which was awesome because I hadn’t seen her in, well, years, sadly enough. It was a good combination of catching up and exploring Tucson, which kind of reminded of two contrasting things. First, how much this place has grown on me whereas I used to just think it’d be super short term and second, how much I miss some of my old, long time friends that, even though we may not be in touch that much, can never, ever be replaced. We went to some of my favorite places to eat in Tucson, toured Mount Lemmon, and Tracy even came out to an autocross. I did not run, even with a couple co-drive offers I just honestly wasn’t feeling like it given the car situation, and I got to relax after running registration and took some photos. Hopefully Tracy can stop in again on her way back around this area – drive safe!

As for the car, the trans is in Maryland and the parts bill is already rising. Ugh. I don’t even want to discuss it honestly. There’s no complete cost estimate yet and no estimate for when it’ll be back on the road. Neither of much are encouraging to me.

It has not been a kind month. My ankle is still sketchy at best, and I swear it bothers me more when I walk around with this brace that the doctor gave me. I go back in another two weeks, and I don’t know what to expect since even though there’s less pain, the range of motion isn’t there and it flat out doesn’t feel right. Also, another lesson learned, even with really good insurance and health benefits, emergency room visits are not cheap.

Work has been no picnic either. Next week I fly back to DC Monday through Friday for another software delivery and the work leading up to this delivery, and the official testing that is taking place this week, has been hellish. There have been a lot of 16 hour days, a lot of frustration, and a lot of, well, bullshit to deal with. I guess I feel like a lot of this hellish rush to the finish could have been avoided, but that’s for another time and place. I am hoping this will come to a graceful and positive end with the delivery next week, after which things will return to some kind of normalcy.

Last night was the culmination of the proverbial shit storm, as I left work at 5:30 to have dinner with Summer and friends only to get a phone call asking to come back and fix some absolutely necessary things. I got back there at 8 and was there until 12. Finally sniffing freedom and anxious to get home and try to get some sleep, the R32 crapped out on me about a mile away from work. It crapped out in a big way; something internal to the transmission, possibly the differential, failed and locked up the transmission. A few AAA calls, another to Summer to pick me up, and a trip across town to drop off the car at Stuttgart Autohaus later and we didn’t get home until 2am. Sleep, ha! I was simply way too stressed now having to deal with facing a car repair bill that will, without a doubt, be well into four figure territory. Turns out the R32′s return to the road was short lived and it’s next return, well, who knows. Luckily the GTI is in good shape only needing tie rod ends and an alignment to be tip top. Hopefully I can hopefully get to that stuff this week, provided I get home from work in time. All I want is for the GTI to keep on keepin’ on. The first parts off the donor Corrado, the front brakes, were installed last weekend and are working great so far. Looks like the rest is going to have to continue to wait.

I realize things could be much, much worse and all this crap will pass with no real lasting damage (other than to my bank account, so much for looking at houses… ) but man is it frustrating.mu