THSCC Forums

Were there any T&S issues on Saturday? Start and finish were super close to the bus that day.

Awesome drift course on Saturday. Thank you very much!

Anybody got photos or video?

Results have already been submitted. Saturday's are already on the website. Sundays should be up tonight I imagine.

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Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

There weren't the session that I was working in the bus. As far as I know all was good.

In regards to Sunday, the false trips in the bus seem to go away the third heat when I went and cleaned some water off the lens of the finish laser. That doesn't explain what was going on during the second heat though. (It rained in between 2nd and 3rd heat for those that weren't there).

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Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

Guys, that was a great course on both days. I liked that Sunday's set up resulted in a pretty level playing field for all classes with high HP times close to my lowly CSP Miata's. I really liked Saturday's finish. It wasn't a straight line, but I was flying in 3rd gear as I crossed.

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Colin O'Connell

'94 BMW NASA SPEC 3
'02 F350 tow vehicle (not bad for a tow vehicle)
'97 Miata STO (autoX and sunny day spoils vehicle)
'97 BMW 328i (loaner to the kids when their cars don't work vehicle)
'05 Toyota Highlander

The course was MOSTLY dry. My first run (66. definitely wasn't very dry yet, but it dried up in a hurry. I did have a 64.7 that was dirty, but I know if we're counting dirty runs you had a 64.6. I KNOW there was a low 64 out there, I just didn't put together that run. I'm not sure if I would have been able to dip into the 63's to catch Lee though. The section after the lane changes going into the diagonal slalom was REALLY slick during my runs, I coned in that section twice.

I made the donation earlier in the day since you didn't have any cash, it was just a question of whether or not you were going to pay me back or not.

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

Great event. I didn't do as well as I'd liked, but there are events like that in a season, and it doesn't detract from the event in any way.

Here's what went wrong for me. It was all about the tire characteristics:

I never could get the tyres hooked up properly in the sections after the chicago box. Mostly it was the fronts that weren't sticking, and that meant that anytime I tried to get on the gas hard in that section -- and there were areas I should have been able to take flat -- I got instant wheelspin and associated terminal understeer. I couldn't use the Mazda's power advantage at all in the fast sections.

By contrast, the rears stuck like glue even on trailing throttle and didn't give me the usual drift and rotation, so that contributed to the understeer. Not being able to put the power down didn't let me put enough sideways force into the rears to get them drifting properly, and lack of rotation put more burden on the already understeering fronts to get the car turned.

Realistically I should have been able to get into the mid-low 67's, but Gwen's blistering 65 was so far out of sight she might have been Rosberg to my Schumacher.

New tyres would help, I'm sure, but economic necessities say I'll run these until they cord. They'll last through Greenville, at least. I'll be hoping for a hot day and all-at-once runs.

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Martyn Wheeler
AXing Kit's '05 Mazda 3, #29 HStock
(when The Gonzo Symphonic allows)

I picked up on Gwen's secret which I happily used for myself.
After a hot run she turned down the taxiway to the puddle between the entrance road and the crossover and drove through the puddle to cool down her tyres. No need for spray bottles there.

That got me to thinking how could we setup a drive-thru water trough for everyone to cool tires down. A thick pond liner with a 6 2"x4"x8' as a frame and 50 gallons of water ought to do the trick.
Cost to use is each driver must bring a 1 gallon jug of water.
Oh well, just some out loud musings.

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"Ruttin' is racing"

Chris Suich
Apex, NC
AutoX 2012 Nissan Leaf (Quietly changing the world)
AutoX 2003 Mini Cooper S (on sabbatical)
RallyX 1993 Nissan Sentra - "Le Tigre"
FunX 1970 Camaro LT1 ('95)

I have to say I absolutely loved this course....however I drove it really poorly . The course was fast and yet during the fast sections, you still had to be doing some steering. In my 6 events autocrossing, I generally never encountered much steering while my right foot was on the floor and therefore this was a big awakening for me.

My floor it while straight, brake, turn, floor it noob technique absolutely did not cut it yesterday . Furthermore, given that average speeds were higher than most courses, I had to turn in much sooner than I'm used to to negotiate the slaloms tightly. Keith rode along and told me I was braking too much....I think I was braking to a speed that I'm used to so that I can slalom with more intuitive steering motions, BUT I could have maintained higher speeds and just turned early and understeer around the cones as he put it .

And as a result, Steve ripped me a new one in a damn near identical car (star specs are better than my RS2s...yes, but not 4 seconds better....he killed it).

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2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

Sushhhhhhhhhhh! Don't be telling. I had to laugh that you caught that. Don't think B2 and I haven't had great and LONG conversations on how to do that.


Here's my answer to your statement. You broke to a speed that you were comfortable with. There's no real "trick" to being faster, you just can't do what you're "comfortable" with or "used" to. It's an ongoing struggle for me, but you've got to go past your comfort level, maybe way past. The result will be faster runs. Good Luck...just keep pushing it.

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SCCA Solo Triad Award Recipient 2014
SCCA HSL National Champion 2012
SCCA DSL National Champion 2013
SCCA DSL National Champion 2014
NCR National Driver of the Year 2012
THSCC Heel of the Year 2011
Former Club Secretary
http://www.petscompanioninn.com

Thanks from me too for a great weekend! Both courses were a blast.

I have more and more fun with that car each time out - similar to what Gwen said I need to feel more comfortable with pushing that threshold of where I feel just below 'out-of-control'.

Maybe someday I'll be fast enough to be that loud

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One of those LeMonHeads...
91/95 Miata, 02 Focus SVT, 01 Ford F250, 09 Suzuki SV650SF
rusty 84 C4 Vette, tiny piece of the General Lei
Irish Sport Horse - 1hp NA!

I think Charlie had the best idea for that. A few years ago he suggested adding a window washer nozzle in each wheel well. One flip of the switch and you could cool the tires with no fuss. Actually that's the only good idea I think Charlie has ever had.

I know, it's not stock class legal, blah, blah, rules, blah, blah...whatever.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

What Gwen said. You have to push yourself to a point where you think you might have just had an upholstery moment. Of course deciding where to do that is a good thing. The runway at Sanford is as safe a place as any.

Thanks to everyone who helped get the event together. And it's really gratifying to hear that people had a good time despite the long day.

There's so many trade offs to decide on when getting a course together. Even more that come into play when you you're putting together a two-day event with dramatically different attendance.

While having 30 walk ups is a nice indicator of local interesting coming back around to autocrossing, having them show up at 9:30 after run group and worker station decision have been made was less than spectacular. In hindsight I think we would have punted to 4 groups to allow hot swaps. Hindsight being 20/20 and all that.

Saturday in the ZHP was entertaining despite having an OEM suspension underneath it. And Nitto tires underneath that. If you ever need to win a drifting competition with an open diff. . . I highly recommend the Nitto Inzo. A front bar is in my future. A big front bar with fancy end links.

Sunday the legendary tire cording Type R lived up to it's reputation with cords arriving after first runs. Experienced push in the sweeper which is unusual in that car on any surface.

Congrats to Matt on a great showing in the Civic!

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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.

I had a great time a thought the course had a really nice flow. Slalom course are always fun. The fast lane change was probably the part of the course that had the highest pucker factor. Very fun!

It was definitely a course that was unmemorizable (makin' up words now) to me but it read well and the optional slaloms (optional only by direction to all the novices in the course walk added another neat touch. Did anyone think that the best line was to go right on the first optional slalom when they walked it? I told all my novices to go that way until rode with someone and realized that wasn't the case.

It was great seeing so many novices out there from earlier events this year.

Did anyone else notice that David Wren, the Novice class winner in a blue STi coned away a 61.XX ? Whoa....

Looking forward to Greenville!

Are you talking about the offset slalom?

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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!