stripethree

The last event of the year with the Sierra Sports Car Club. Fun for all, minus the one little scare of a Sunfire blowing a gas line and leaking it right at the starting line. Ahh, whoops. It didn’t cause a problem though, thankfully. First three runs I knew there was more time to be shaved, I knew the car had a sub 46 second run in it. I did not think that it had a low 45 run in it, so I was incredibly pleased with my effort on the final competition run. I ran 47.503, 46.483, 46.231, and 45.355 to finish fourth in raw times and second to a certain CSP Miata in PAX. (Results).

This weekend there is another event in Tucson that might be the last one I run for the year. I’ll need a full weekend with the car to do brakes (spare calipers have arrived!) and some other routine stuff that I want to get done before events pick up again in January.

A small event, only 14 cars, in the slippery, gravel infested Buena High parking lot. After getting back from the Canyon the day prior I was lazy and didn’t feel like packing up or swapping to the Fliks, so I autocrossed on the Montes and SPTs. They did ok, by the fourth and fifth runs they were overheating which helped into some slip and slide ‘this is not a drift event’ action on the figure eight. My times were 54.105, 54.502, 53.804, 58.365, 56.560, as you can see on runs 4 and 5, hanging the ass end of a Volkswagen doesn’t get you a good time. It was fun though, and my best time of 53.804 was good for third overall in raw times behind a highly modified Miata and a Saturn Sky Red Line. PAX times, I came in first, which is pretty freakin’ cool even at a small event.

Good times as always. Last event of the year next month and I should not be lazy about swapping wheels.

The The Bourne Ultimatum was good. Really good. This movie wrapped up one of the best, most complete trilogies I’ve seen. This reminds me, sort of, speaking of kickass summer action movies, that I need to go catch Transformers again before it leaves theaters.

Sunday was possibly the last autocross at Sierra Municipal Airport. The border patrol is building a hanger adjacent to where we usually play so we can’t run there while the area is under construction. Furthermore, after the construction, they might have equipment occupying the same space where we run, so we might not be able to come back. Unfortunate, since I’ve heard many folks say that they thought it was the best autocross venue in the state.

None the less, the last event this past Sunday was wet and wild. My competition runs were in some light rain with the pavement damp and I rang off clean runs of 53.898, 52.047, 52.723, and 52.394, the best of which was good enough to crack into the top 10 in PAX times.

Time only runs in the next heat got a little more interesting with more rain. Rain and 615s with little tread left made for some fun; a tail happy rear end and some all wheel drifting look cool but kill time. The best of my time only runs was a 52.457. Oh well, at least I didn’t smoke my best competition time in a run that didn’t count for once.

Oh, and my new bed rocks, best piece of furniture I ever bought.

Won a small STX class by just under 1.3 seconds, 24th overall raw time, 13th PAX time. Full results.

Comp runs: 47.974, 47.173, 47.474 (missed the shift to 2nd), 47.029 (+1), 47.173
Time only: 45.987 (+1), 46.900, 46.512 (+1), 45.962 (+3)

So basically, I need to learn the courses quicker and know where to be more and less aggressive. It’s not just that I beat my best comp time, but that there was potentially a full second that I left out there during my comp runs.

Saturday made a trip to Reid Park Zoo. I did not have my Llama or Monkey with me, however…

Courtship, Discovery channel style.

And some hungry giraffes.

Good times. Sunday was back to autox with SSCC after not running in the April and May events. Sierra Vista airport was the site, the course was fast, it was hot, and some cones met their maker.

Did pretty well, though results are not up yet. Beat my best competition run in my first time only run, again, and obliterated some cones in the trailing slalom on my final time only run, destroying what probably would have been by best time all day. The new suspension was great; I hadn’t even competed on the Euro springs with the added ride height much less the new shocks and struts. I was very pleased. Now if I could just straighten out the driver… Brake pads should be arriving today. I really, really have to make a strong effort to not do anything else with the car, just drive it and replace the stuff that wears out (read: tires). Nothing else. Period. End of discussion. Do not pass go, do not buy parts, go directly to Phoenix next weekend to compete again. There’s an Evolution driving school coming to the area later this year, but it’s $255 per day. Ouch. Doubtful I will go this time around since that’s the cost of a typical weekend track event and there’s a few of those I have my eye on late in the year. Can’t do it all.

Sooo I’m almost a week late. What can I say, it was a long week.

The concrete was excellent, minus this weeks obstacle that had to be maneuvered around, a plane. A plane, at the airport? I know, but it wasn’t supposed to be in the way.

Anyway the course was fun. I lived up to my prediction that by venturing into the world of ‘time only’ runs in addition to competition runs, I would certainly have my best time in the set of runs that didn’t really count. Not only was it true, the very first time only run was my best of the day. Oh well. For my competition runs, I managed 28th overall in a field of 80 competitors with a raw time of 40.637. I cracked into the top 20 (17th) in PAX times. It was an excellent event at a location that reminded me of Cumberland Airport. Home sweet home.

Here’s a couple pics:

Photos courtesy Ty Holland

Photos courtesy Rob Rockefeller

Lastly, some in car video:
Save as…

Mark this down on the things I like about Arizona: early February, 65 degrees, and we’re autocrossing. Wonderful.

It was a small event, maybe 35 cars ran, but I actually liked that, everyone got their 5 runs in and the show was wrapped up by around 12:30. I held my own in a handful-sized STX class that included a silver WRX that consistently wins PAX and oftentimes raw FTD and to my surprise, another R32 (with two drivers).

The course was fairly straightforward and spanned two decent sized parking lots and was a pretty open design. The pair of slaloms could be entered on either side, there were a few, fast, sweeping turns, and a very fast finish. What made things tricky was the fine gravel that covered a good percentage of the lots. We did some sweeping of the area before runs started, but there was still plenty to slip and slide on.

I don’t remember all of my times exactly, other than four of the five runs were very close, all in the 47.0-47.1 range. For comparison, the fastest STX car cracked into the 45s and FTD was deep into the 44s. I can see now why the Falken RT615 tires are kept in such high regard, because even in a relatively cool environment, they just stuck. And stuck. And stuck. I was very happy with the level of grip, especially when compared to my previous autox experience with all season tires. Now, hat’s not really a fair comparison, but like I said, I was happy. The only run that didn’t go as planned was my second run, during which I came out of the second slalom carrying lots of (read: too much) speed, when into the next left too hot and upon backing off the throttle the rear end decided to step on out. The aforementioned gravel only made things worse and rather quickly I found my passenger side A-pillar right in the line of sight of where I actually needed to be going. Whoops. I got things settled and ended up crossing the finish somewhere in the low 48s. Certainly not one of my best runs, but I had to laugh, because it was still fun.

There is an Arizona Border Region event in Tucson at the end of the month and I think I will hit that up as well. SIR is only an hour away and I hear the WRX and the Saab may make the trip as well. I think one the things I need to get cracking on before my next event is Home Depot headrest camera mount to capture all this insanity.

Forgive the lame title, I couldn’t think of anything better at the moment.

I just returned home from a meeting of the Sierra Sports Car Club, the organization which I am planning to autox with once a month while we are in the Grand Canyon state. It was cool, I’m definitely happy to get involved and it was nice to meet some of the folks other than through an Internet message board. Seems like a fun group that takes the existence of their club and their autox seriously, in a very good way. I’m really looking forward to Sunday, especially since the site is a mere two miles from our place. Rock. Hopefully, in return for some kickass autox action, I’m going to be ale to help them migrate their registration to an online process. So I get to autox and I get to do some fun (I know, nerd) web development. Rock times two.

Outside of my near giddy state and the fast approaching autox, this little town is pretty cool so far. It’s quiet during the day and I’ve been able to get a bunch done and not get distracted while working from home. The only wrench thrown in if when dweedle dee and dweedle dumb (also known as about 20 lbs of kittens) decide to get rowdy and run around. They jump on the ‘desk’ in order to get to the window ledge they like to sit on, regardless of whether the blinds are open or not. Luckily, I’m making headway on breaking them of the habit of walking on my laptop keyboards. They are slowly learning to step over them, or sometimes, with more interesting results, jump over them. I type this as they zip by my feet. Llama seems to be adjusting fine, he’s as curious and bouncy as he always has been and seems to be having a grand old time in the new place. Monkey still seems freaked out for some reason and he’s been more aloof than he was. He’s even made some attempts to get out the front door when we’ve had it open. Hopefully he’ll feel more comfortable soon. Both of them do enjoy hanging out on the balcony, except when the little one decides it’s time to jump and climb the walls. He doesn’t look like he’s going to jump, instead, just seeing how far he can look over the ledge, but I don’t have enough confidence in his ability to realize when he’s going to hurt himself yet. Definitely have to keep an eye on that one when he’s outside.

Other than that, not too much exploring has been done. Most everything is on one main street. Still though, I’m somewhat indifferent. It’s much more laid back here, and I like it so far. I tell you what, and I never thought this was something I would actually take notice of, but the produce here, soooo much better than Maryland could ever hope to be. I don’t know if it doesn’t have to travel as far, if it’s because it’s a warmer climate, or what magically genetically engineering wool someone is pulling over my eyes, but it is magnificently delicious.

Well, that’s all I got for now, I’m hungry and about to wage war on some leftover stuffed shells. There will be more come Sunday. Oh yes, there will be more.