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Chuck, I really don't understand. Are you saying that the grip level of those street tires in the dry is *less* than the grip level of race rain tires in the wet?


--Donnie

Let's see, think I've got it all packed. Traqmate, jack, torque wrench, cordless drill, wrenches for the swaybar, KONI adjuster thingy, helmet, numbers. spray bottle, cooler, spare shoes and socks, umbrella...think that about covers it.



That's why you guys need to make the trip Donna. Rain be damned!

I've been at this motorsports thing for quite a few years now, and we in AS are experiencing something that's a bit of a rarity, for me anyway. An explosion of talented drivers in good cars at the local level.

I actually love rain driving. Not much experience autocrossing in it (some of that experience I'd just as soon forget anyway), but club racing the ITC car, my best weekend ever was in the rain. Qualified under a tenth off pole on dirt stockers, and was then sent out on drys to "keep the car alive" while we gambled with our decision to not run the wets for the race. It paid off, and we won.

Now, standing around in the rain...that part I hate, yeah. But I'll live with it for an opportunity like this. I hope you guys decide the same Donna.

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

We have definitely bagged Sat, we'll make a decision on Sun tomorrow evening. Like I mentioned we bought a new set of tires Thursday so we are really bummed.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

No, all I'm saying it was not fun to run on the streets on dry Laurenburg concrete, so it definitely wouldn't be fun to run on them on wet asphalt.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

First, too bad for those who didn't come out due to weather...completely dry all day today. Buckley and Peterson put on a show in borrowed S2000's, too. Peterson had him raw but couldn't clean it up, and Buckley laid down some fast clean times. I believe third was Rick Butters, fourth Chris Peterson, and me in fifth. But don't quote me on that. Chris drove really well, particularly her last run. I thought we were overheating our tires, but apparently my crappy third and fourth runs were just me overdriving it. We had to spray the fronts for each of our last couple runs to keep them in the 120s will sitting.

But the STi was still 2 full seconds off Peterson's raw times! And almost two off Buckley's clean times. I'm quite certain there was another second in the car, but not sure there was much more than that. I was shifting to third twice, but data showed one of those was probably dumb. Oh well. Then Chris just hammered me in the return slalom sections. Don't know what's up with that. Well, I know what's up with half that...she drove her ass off. Apparently I need to do the same.



But you implied that if you would have had rain tires you would have come out today. My point is that you'd still have less grip in the wet on rains at Danville than you did on streets in the dry at Laurinburg. I mean, either you're willing to drive when the grip sucks or you aren't...


--Donnie

Really fun and challenging course today, plus it was nice to be home so early! I had a blast even though I threw away two good runs, but that is all part of the learning learning process. I'm glad we got 5 runs, because it took me until the 4th to start catching a clue on how to drive an S2000. Wow - to say those cars are a hoot to drive in an understatement!

I think Chris and Steve St. John (in the Sky on 295s) were either 3rd or 4th. They both ran 48.0's. I think Steve was a tad quicker than hers, but I'm not sure. He drove really well. Rick, Donnie, and Karl were all close behind. So, a lot of fast people packed together.

It looks like it should be dry starting noon tomorrow, so maybe we can delay the start a bit so more folks can get dry runs.

Eric

Most importantly, I forgot to mention that David Spratte put on a driving clinic on his last run in the 1st heat. He is 5 tenths ahead of GH Sharp and even further ahead of Per Olaf Ezelis (spelling). David and GH swapped the lead all morning until he uncorked an awesome run at the end. Great driving David!!!

ep

Yeah, I should have mentioned that, too. It was really fun working on course while those guys drove. They really had those Minis working! David sort of "out GH'ed" GH, I think. By that I mean he was stupid fast while just looking incredibly smooth and comfortable. Great job, David!


--Donnie

If you want to learn just how bad you suck, here's a suggestion. Put Eric in the car for a weekend. That'll show you.



It is, as I imagined it would be, a brutal class. I love it.

Eric's modest, so he'd never reveal that, while dirty, he uncorked a run in my S2000 that was SO fast, it had the president of Triad wondering if the timing equipment had malfunctioned. The cones he hit, to my eye, weren't "to the good" very much, so I think the car was capable of 45s on that course.

I got a lot better, and I'm learning. The learning curve in this car is steep - it's a difficult car to drive at its outer limits, because it's just so capable. Stuff happens FAST in a good AS S2000. The mechanical grip is surreal. I did pop the limiter one run going up the runway - at the very least, that part of that run was pretty stinking fast. I've got the potential, I just need to put it together in one single, good run.

The custom-valved KONI shocks, I'm happy to say, are apparently money. Tim Aro and Mike Johnson both said this at the Evo school, and Eric, today, said something along the lines of "don't send them back to get them revalved, in fact, don't change anything on the car for tomorrow." Score.

Oh, and Spratte, he's one of those guys I really want to hate. He hasn't been at this real long, and he's out there taking some STRONG GS drivers to task. Visually he was obviously the fastest car in the first heat today.

Triad and CCR have come a long, long way in the few years since I've done an autocross with them.

All in all, it was a great time. Can't wait for tomorrow...

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

Walking the course I was thinking it looked pretty straight forward. Driving it quickly and clean was a different matter. There were a lot of cones called. The key for me was the entry to the slalom after the sweeper. I sort of got it right for my final run.

Congrats to Aaron for smoking everyone.

Oh and just so you know, David skipped a couple gates on his last run.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

Another great day of autocrossing. If yesterday had a bunch of cones, today had a much bigger bunch!. I not overly happy with where I finished, but I had a blast battling against eveyone. Special thanks to Aaron for two days of instruction (and for not grenading my engine). As Jinx Jordan said to me before my fifth run yesterday and immediately after Aaron's fifth and FTD run, "well that proves your car is capable, what about the driver?". Much more work to do on that score. All things considered, a most enjoyable weekend.

I'd like to thank everybody for staying home yesterday. We were finished with the event at 3:00 pm and were enjoying freshly grilled hot dogs and Lite beer from Miller courtesy the BRR-SCCA.

I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain?

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Well, today was even better than yesterday. Impossibly windy, but otherwise the weather was pleasant. Nicer, more open course laid out by Jinx Jordan.

14 A Stock drivers today. Eric was predictably faster than heck, doing I think a 43.4 clean. He won the class and was just wicked fast. We worked on bumping up my level of aggression, which is part of the learning curve, I guess, of driving a good A Stock car. Casting aside all ideas of staying off the cones, I went out and did a pretty respectable 45.1. About 1.75 seconds off Eric - much better than yesterday.

Someone once, I think Ron, was wearing a "list of excuses" t-shirt at an event some time ago, and I remember "we missed it on the setup" being on that list. Well, it looks like I've stumbled into just the opposite. The car is positively glued to the pavement with the Auto Pro To Call alignment, custom KONI dampers, impossibly large front sway bar, and giant Hoosiers. We'll see if it's any different at Sanford in a few weekends, but for Danville at least, the car is completely dialed in. Only problem we experienced was picking up a pretty bad push at the 180 at the far end of the course. Eric, true to form, came up with the idea to take 1st gear for this. High up into 1st, this allowed us to be on the big cam coming out of there, giving us plenty of power to rotate the car and get rid of the push.

I think Eric likes the car He's a jedi in this thing after one weekend. I'm playing with the data I gathered with the Traqmate tonight, and hope to find out where exactly he's so much faster than I am. I think the answer is going to come back "everywhere." If you want to learn and get better - and who doesn't - get a hotshoe codriver in your car! We acted as sounding boards for one another on everything from setup to attacking the course. It's like having a driving coach with you the entire weekend. Thanks Eric!

So, mission accomplished. Even missing Quistorff and Osetek, AS was a throwdown of quality drivers. I learned a lot about the car and improved my driving a bunch - there's still plenty on the table, but it's definitely getting better. The setup on the car is nailed. No excuses now - just "needs more loud pedal."

Great weekend. Looking forward to Sanford in a few weeks.

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

I did a little better relative to the class winner today (especially if you go on raw time), but was less than thrilled with the course. It was nothing but a huge cone-fest with a lot of really good drivers struggling to get a single clean run out of *five*. I thought it was somewhat overly-tight. Yesterday's course had a couple more "very slow" spots, but today's course was medium fast though incredibly tight pretty much everywhere, which resulted in a lot of cones. I can't tell you how many times the radio was a constrant stream of "plus one on..." from *each* station a car passed.

It certainly wasn't a *bad* course nor anywhere near the worst I've seen, but I don't know many who left today talking about it being particularly good. But when you've got to squeeze an out-and-back into a runway like that, I guess you don't have a lot of good choices. *grumble*

I definitely didn't drive as well as I could and feel like the car could have definitely been right with Eric on raw time. But my feelings on the course didn't have anything to do with how I drove...I drove worse yesterday but liked the course more. *shrug* I'm sure Eric could get more out of the S2000 with more seat time in one, though. But that's splitting hairs...he was damned fast as it was.


--Donnie

What a weekend!

Thanks guys. Likewise on the spectating. It was an absolute blast to watch all of you tear those two courses up this weekend. Donnie and Chris in the STi against a plague of S2000s. AS was chock full of fast drivers.

I think Saturday was one of my best days of auto-x ever. A bad valve stem almost made the day more interesting than I'd like, but thanks to Wes, Bernie, Jim and Doug Allen (from BRR) we replaced it and I was off to the races. What a great club/sport to be part of.

After being warned of the Evo School Slide (where students tend to tank the first events after attending) I made a real effort not to overthink. I walked the course twice. I thought about a couple of my big points from the school, then put them away and just drove.

It was weird. I knew it was fast, but it was really drama free. But I was getting that hand shaking/adrenaline rush after almost every run.

Unfortunately, all that went out the window with 6 course walks and way too much thinking today. The runs felt fast, but weren't. I was just getting out of the car. No shakes. I started to get my groove on in my fourth run.
but it was way too late.

I'll be looking at tape from both days and see if I can actually see the differences even though they're different course. (I have a pretty good angle that lets me get a real good sense of my steering.)

Sanford: Can't. Wait.[/quote]

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.