THSCC Forums

I had a blast yesterday it was fun to be back out there, also supprise with how well I did on 4 year old formula v treated victor racers, finishing 16th in overall pax makes me smile.

It also confirmed that I made the right decsion to put the car back to stock as I never seemed to driver the car well in street prepared as it was setup.

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David Teague
2015 Lexus IS 250c
1994 Honda Del Sol HS 39
2009 Dodge Journey R/T
http://teaguefamily.us

Yeah, it was a fun weekend. I was hating my car after the first two runs, but it felt a lot better after I changed wheels & tires. Still went slow (my fault, not the car's ), but at least I sucked less than the other guys in PRO class.

I shot lots of photos, and they will be up within a day or two. Anybody with some good action shots of me?

I don't know if I finally have enough experience to read the course properly or if it was an easy course. I loved the set up and had a great time. Great job organizers!

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Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

I had fun. My car was scary to drive however. Due to large rear bar and slight toe out in the rear it has a tendency to snap oversteer. The course design (which I loved by the way) also tended to aggravate the problem. Usually I can catch or prevent it, but it was MUCH worse than normal on Sunday. I spun twice on my first run and once on my second. Usually I reserve my spins for my last run!

I wasn't sure what was going on as I was using tire pressures, etc. from previous Sanford events that worked well. Between sessions, I added some air to the rear to try to improve rear grip. I was pretty timid on my third run, but the grip was better with the extra air. So I had a little more faith in the car at that point.

I had to beat Wes to keep 2nd in STS (year end points), so there was no use in being conservative and settling for 2nd and went for it on my 4th run. I was going really well up until the point that I spun for the third time that day.

I am not sure, but I think what was going on is that I ran the front tires on the front for WAY to long this year. The fronts had worn down into the casing rubber on the inside 3rd of the tire. When I moved them to the rear for this event (and the better ones to the front) it reduced my rear grip relative to the front which probably didn't help the snap overstear issue.

Congratulations to Chris for 1st in STS and Wes for 2nd.

For me, well there is always next year.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

I'd say the course was extremely easy to follow, not so easy to drive.

I thought the course was a lot of fun and easy to follow - great since this was my first auto-x in a RWD car and first auto-x in a few months. The burgers were delicious and it was a great day to be outside. Couldn't be better (unless I won).

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www.ncvw.org
1993 VW Corrado VR6 - DSP15 (RIP)
1986 MB 190E 2.3L 16v - STX (SOLD)
1997 BMW M3 3.2L - BS for now

I heard the first part of the course referred to as the "no talent" section by someone walking the course

I disagree though. What that very open "dragstrip" section did was make two turns by far the most important on the course: The sweeper after the start and the pivot cone. It became critically, hugely important to nail those to maximize exit speed. This is a very common concept for the track junkies out there.

Unfortunately, I don't think many people gave those 2 turns as much consideration as they deserved!

Now, of course, those sections also gave a HUGE advantage to people with a healthy power to weight ratio. A fast car there was worth what, 0.5 seconds or more?

Mike <-- with only 155 whp in a 3000 lb (with driver) car...

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

At least that. Probably more like a second for an STi - IF you nailed the turns. My last run I felt like I drove the first part almost perfectly, but those damn tight slaloms are where I screwed it.

125 whp & 2800 lbs

Still went slow (my fault, not the car's ), but at least I sucked less than the other guys in PRO class.

Gee Kevin, I'm glad you didn't have a good day then b/c you still pounded most everyone else....

I certainly didn't feel like I sucked....I felt like I drove pretty well, there just seemed to be a lot of folks in Pro and other classes having a really good day...e.g., Scott Johnson, Donnie, Buckley, Kevin A.....Mike Whitney and then Keith taking FTPax was very impressive. There certainly are a lot of fast drivers in our club.

Eric

Oh, and when I arrived Sunday morning & saw that the first section hadn't been changed after the Viper school, my reaction was "g.. d...it - I'm screwed."

Thanks! It's been fun running with you guys this year and learning how to autocross. I look forward to hanging out with y'all next year when I try to sort out a 0.5 lb/ft of torque RWD car.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Well, I guess I've been around Hoppe too much. Didn't mean to insult anybody, just figured if I was having such a bad day & still won PRO class, that everybody else probably felt pretty bad about their runs, too (since I know I'm not THAT good ).

Yeah I heard a lot of people comment that they though the start of the course was going to be easy, but obviusly by the amount of tire smoke and rubber laided down on the pivot cone I guess it was not as easy as some thought. I went in there thinking I had good breaks then was reminded that I was not running p+'s just autozone pads and locked them up good, after that rude awalking I did pretty good on my piviot cone except for my last run when I was like 3 car lengths from it.

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David Teague
2015 Lexus IS 250c
1994 Honda Del Sol HS 39
2009 Dodge Journey R/T
http://teaguefamily.us

I took the pivot cone on the passenger side every time. Anybody else have success doing it the other (wrong ) way?

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Well, I thought the course was very fun, I thought it was easy to follow, but it definitely wasn't really "easy" to go fast on. I do still think that Azenis were better tires than Hoosiers on that surface, but that's because a lot of guys on those beat me, I guess. I definitely think that you AWD folks had an advantage in a major way. Sure, there was 1/3 of the course that was horsepower, but 2/3 of it was still handling on what is a very slippery surface. That was the first time I've ever driven my Miata when it was loose...it tends toward a slight push on higher grip stuff. *shrug*

As for the "no talent" section, I think Mike inferred a little more than was intended from that comment. We were past the pivot walking back and were just in what was a long straight, which was all the person making the comment was referring to. I seriously doubt the person who made the comment thinks that pivot cones or even that first left hander out of the start were corners that anyone could be fast on. That's *my* interpretation having heard the same comment, anyway. One thing that seems to be a trend at Sanford is that you can take no feature for granted.

But heck, I got a pretty decent time and had fun doing it. Sorry to those who had to get re-runs as we in timing should have probably caught that glitch during the third heat a little sooner at least. Hard to tell why it happened, but I think we may have missed *one* finish trigger from the wireless stuff. That was just while I was in there, but that's the only one that I heard about, too. If so, that's pretty good. If we can just get better at recognizing them when they happen instead of 12 cars later, we'll be in good shape. What would help a bunch would be to have a wireless video feed from the finish to a monitor in the bus so we can still *see* what finishes when it happens. Might even be possible, too, but it's more gear. Probably better discussed in a different thread, if at all.


--Donnie