stripethree

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:

Double trouble in Tuscon this weekend, with a double event to make up for no event last month due to an issue with obtaining the site. We ran the course pictured above in the morning then switched the start and finish to run the course again, with a few additional tweaks to account for some bad pavement and gravel. The afternoon course actually turned out better than the morning course; it flowed better and wasn’t hampered by a large gravel trap in the loop.

During the morning event I ran 49.995 +2, 48.846, 49.141, and 49.378 which was good for 13th overall, 8th with PAX, and 970 points. The afternoon event I did just as well running 48.995, 47.845, 48.055, and 47.830 which put me 13th overall, 9th with PAX, and 957 points. Both events I beat the rest of the STX Open field (5 cars in the morning, 4 in the afternoon) but over a second and a half, and I was on the heels of the top set of drivers running in the PAX category. The PAX category is usually were the top drivers run and go head to head with one another despite having cars in different classes. I’m considering running in the PAX category for a series or two next year to see how I can fair against the toughest competition.

Here’s the video, again a little washed out. Either the tape is bad or the camera is not doing well, I really hope it’s the former. My passenger on some of the runs is a local Mini driver who has never autocrossed but I managed to convince her to come out, watch, and ride along. Jana got to ride in a nationally competitive G Stock Mini driven by the current DSP National Champion and I think that sealed the deal in convincing her to bring her Cooper S out to drive soon.

It was almost a very frustrating day. I put down a decent time on my first run and proceeded to slow down by a tenth on my second run. Then another tenth on run number three. Run number four was a big turnaround, dropping nearly nine tenths from my previous best time. The numbers were 40.359, 40.429, 40.519, and 39.529. The 39-second run was good for the 44th best time (out of 136) and the 35th best PAX time for 894 series points. I’m happy with the results, I just want to be finding those really good runs before my 3rd, 4th, or sometimes 5th shot at the course. None the less, it turned out to be a good day.

The video is a bit blown out, I’m not sure what was up with the camera.

The last event of the year for the Sierra Sports Car Club and back to the airport we went. I managed 12th overall and 7th PAX, with 932 points. I also happened to be the second fastest car on street tires, behind only a ’95 BMW M3 n STU. My times were 43.057 (+1), 43.125 (+1), 42.795, 42.734, & 43.406 (+1) for my competition runs and 43.177, 42.402 +1, 42.814, 42.875 +1, & 43.372 in time only runs. During my second heat I had another driver ride along and drive my car, he was interested in seeing how it performed as he is considering moving classes and cars next year, and I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to get feedback from an experienced and competitive driver when he asked about driving my car. He had some good pointers for me and we also talked about the car setup as well as driving style and how I could do less ‘fighting’ with the car. If you watch the video you can see that on my faster runs I was throwing the car around to make the last two gates, which cost me time and cones. We’ll see if I can apply some of the driving tips this weekend in Phoenix, and I have some plans for the brief off-season in late December and early January.

Photo credits to Rob Rockefeller

Today proved one thing, leaving very little doubt. My own worst enemy when I’m out on an autocross course is, me. Well, ok, it’s a dead heat between me and cones, and I certainly took out my share of pylons today. I ran a 38.629 (+3), 39.322, 39.506, and 39.068 (+1) which put me 54th (out of 105). I placed 1st in STX Open by a full second, but there was a competitor in STX Novice that was only 2/10ths behind me. I was able to PAX in the 900s (908, barely…) which was 40th out of 105. The results of my time only runs were the slap in the face of what I was doing wrong. I was not driving aggressive enough, not even close: 38.484, 38.280, 38.017 (+2), 37.940 (+4) were my times in my second heat. So that was, minimum, a full second faster and I probably could have cracked off a clean run in the 37s or at least been damn close. For some perspective, the clean 38.280 would have jumped me almost twenty spots in terms of fastest times and into the top 25% of PAX times. While the event was certainly fun, it’s frustrating to know that I am leaving so much time out on the course.

I have three weeks to mull this learning experience over. Next event is the first weekend of November at the Sierra Municipal Airport. That will start three straight Sundays of autocross with events in Phoenix the next weekend and a double event in Tucson the week after that. Time to put up or shut up.

Video of all 8 eight runs:

I missed the last two Sierra Vista events (New Orleans in March, flu in April) and in since this one was back on the sticky concrete, there was no question about getting to this event.

Save for starting it and taking it on a short drive Friday night, the R hadn’t even moved since the Tucson event in April. The day before this event I finally got the patched tire back on in and checked everything out for the event. Despite the layout, the car was in tip top, minus being dirty, and drove perfectly.

All my comp runs were clean: 45.904, 45.786, 45.246, 45.273. TOs were frustrating, too aggressive on tires that were too hot: 45.590 (+1), 45.746, 45.920 (+1), 46.216. I really need to get a sprayer, the summer series events are only going to make this worse (the tire heat, not the aggressive driving). My best comp time put me at 17th and 10th, raw and PAX, with a 946. I was less than a tenth out of 9th, and slightly more than two tenths out of 8th. On the other hand, 11th was less than three hundredths behind me, a close shave.

Video:

Almost forgot, some pics I took at the event are here.

Competition runs: 56.909, 54.254, 53.914 +1, 53.796; good for 27th in raw times, 22nd in PAX with 903 points. Glad to be in the 900s and happy to see other STX cars out there also. An ’87 BMW 535 gave me a run for my money and had me beat on his last run had he not hit a cone in the final slalom. I ended up ahead by 0.012 seconds. It was that close.

Video:

There is it, the first autocross course I designed. There were some minor adjustments wen we laid it to pavement, simply because said pavement has some issues. The course was tighter and more technical than the usual courses run in Tucson, but overall reaction the day of and the day after appeared to be very positive. I was nervous when we were setting up the course as parts of it, specifically the area after the first slalom, looked not only difficult, but appeared not to flow as well as I would have thought. Fortunately, it seems that I was wrong and most people seemed to welcome the challenge.

What made things more interesting was that the lot was not vacuumed prior the event as it usually is, so the first heat had to deal with all sorts of slippery pavement clearing out the line for the later heats. I ran my competition runs in the first heat and time only runs in the second, and the latter heats definitely had at least a slight advantage. The course was fun and faster in some spots that I would have thought; drivers setting up properly for the box in the upper corner as well as the final slalom were rewarded well.

My times were pretty good, but not my best, as I hit a lot of cones. My times were 45.513 (+1), 45.860 (+1), 44.884 (+1), and 45.288 in heat one and 45.081 (+1), 45.846 (+2), 45.430 (+1), and 44.738 (+1) in heat two. Like I said, lots of cones, only one clean run but still a lot of fun. My competition runs were good for 26th in raw times, 16th in PAX out of 59 entrants. I didn’t reach my goal this time of PAXing at least 900 but I was close at 889.

Summer attended this event and rode shotgun in my time only runs. I think her experience can be summed up by this picture…

…and the big smile on her face. After the first run I asked her, ‘So, did you breathe for that 45 or so seconds?’. Her response: ‘Ah, I don’t think so!’. I’m glad she came out and got to see and experience this crazy addiction of mine and that she had fun doing so. Now, can I get her to drive? Hmmm…

Here’s the video of all 8 of my runs:

Back to SIR we go to start a new year and a new series in Tucson.

The course was fast and fun and the rain just added to the sliding fun that the gravel laden surface provides well enough on its own.

Things went well though, despite the added challenge of the weather. I managed clean runs with times of 44.947, 43.768, 42.457, and 42.992 whereas the fastest time of the day was a 38.306 in a Super Stock C5 Z06 Corvette. In terms of the overall results, my best time put me at the 12th best raw time and the 8th best PAX time. It also put me at the top of a small STX class, however, the E30 M3 that usually kicks my ass was absent, and there is always the STX prepared WRX that runs in the PAX category rather than Open which always keeps me humble. This time, it was by a hair under 2 seconds.

Here’s video of all 8 of my shots at the course, 4 competition runs followed by 4 ‘not even time only’ runs. The turnout was light and there just weren’t enough before to score the time only heats.

Back at the airport!

Wasted my first two runs missing gates. Oh well. Here’s video of my three clean competition runs and my first couple time only runs.

Finished 11th out of 37 in raw times and 8th overall in PAX. I also took some pics with my new camera and got some good action shots. They are posted here.