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Jim Diesel almost became one of my least favorite people today. He coned away a run that was 0.2 sec faster than mine in my own car - 53.888 vs. 54.100 - his fastest un-coned run was only about 0.45 sec off of mine. If I'd known he was going to be so fast, I would've brought my "A" game with me... (just kidding, I thought I did pretty well today - although I do think I blew a 53.x at the finish )

Jim P. was running on corded Hoosiers (again), and hating it.

Charles beat Donna! So if anybody wants to go up and give him a ride home...

The course was pretty fun (to me, anyway) - kindof fast/ really tight/ fast section into a super-fast section down to the other end of the parking lot, where I was bouncing on the rev limiter in 3RD!!!!! and then into a tricky turnaround, back up into 3rd, through a slalom with randomly spaced cones and into a really tight left to the finish.

Oh, yeah - thanks to timer issues, a red flag, and a cone out of place in a slalom, I got 7 runs! Woohoo! Jim D. got a red flag too, for a total of 12 runs between the two of us. I think we got our money's worth.

Not sure, but from what I heard from others, Jim and I may've gotten 1st & 2nd in DSP on street tires (NOT Azenis!).



Kevin

I told you on Saturday to look out because Jim Diesel just might beat you in your own car. And you thought I was just kidding right?

Note: It ain't the turbo in that little yellow Miata that makes Jim fast. It's that *vertically challenged* nut behind the wheel.

_________________
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)

I always thought it was the tizzite blow-off valve...



PS - just wanted to add that I checked it out this morning, and "banging on the rev limiter in 3rd" translates to 73 mph.

The results have been posted!!! That was super fast...

Sorry, Jim Diesel - no trophy for you...

http://www.marx.ws/autox/vmscevents/200 ... /index.htm

Nice showing, Charles!!!

No trophy? Heh, I never picked up the trophy from when I ran with those guys earlier in the year.

Thanks again for letting me drive the car. It was definitely fun. The only thing I didn't like about the day was waiting around until the 4th heat to make all my runs. When you get there at 8:30am and don't make a single run until after 3:30, it sure seems like a long day.

I was definitely starting to figure out the car with each run. Had I gotten 467 runs like Kevin, look out! Or if Kevin didn't tell that #$@#$@!! trunk monkey to tip over that mystery cone near the end of the course... Well, at least I got him back by grinding 1st gear about 5 times during the day.

Seriously though, it was interesting to contrast with my car in terms of how you have to drive it to be fast. I still don't think I ever got back in the gas soon and hard enough coming out of the corners. I think conditioning from my car kept telling me to ease into the throttle carefully which wasn't totally necessary with the RS. You have to modulate it a bit on corner exit to keep from pushing but you can get into it much faster beyond that point. I also don't think I ever used the brakes to their full potential either. After driving another car that is heavier than mine which seemed to stop much better, I definitely need to take a close look at the brakes in the Miata. Yet another winter project...

I think with a couple more runs and if everything was put together just right, that car was capable of a mid to high 52 second run on that day. Too bad it wasn't the night series. Anyway, I was very impressed with the overall balance of the car and how well set up it was. Kevin has definitely done an awesome job getting it right this year. It gives me yet another project for the winter to see if I can sort out the Miata suspension that well.

Thanks again Kevin and if you ever want to (co)drive the yellow girlmobile, just let me know.

Jim

For the record and to borrow a phrase from Jim P.:

I'm not vertically challenged, I'm lowered!

Jim

- who's going shopping for 6" disco boots when Kristin gets back to help...

I don't know about that; Courtney was only in the 52's in the Mini, and it's a LOT faster than the Impreza - especially on THAT course! I'm sure there was a low 53 in it, though. Too bad we couldn't get there.

I really need to work on the tighter stuff - watching you drive it vs. feeling the way I was driving it seemed like a big difference. Wish we'd had some way of recording the telemetry from all our runs and overlaying them to see what worked the best. Haven't I heard of some handy-dandy little device that does this?

Funny note - I asked Christine how close I was running to the cones because I felt like I way off - like a foot or two in some places. She said it was a few inches, and she thought I had coned a couple of times, but I just wiggled them. Strange.

I think you might be surprised. I know on my 53.8 run I definitely left some out there due to lack of aggressiveness. I'm guessing there was at least a couple of 10ths in the fast section when I got loose and backed off for an instant. Another case of not being used to the car-- I wanted to keep my foot in it but my reactions took over and told me to back out. In my car, if you get loose like that and you don't back out a hair, you're gone. I also think my line was a hair off through there which certainly didn't help any.

I was a little tentative in most of the slow stuff where I usually have most of my trouble trying to feel what the car is doing. And I definitely could have been more aggressive through the slalom and going into the far turn around after the fast section. A tenth here and there in most of those places and it could easily add up to a second. It doesn't take much...

That's another thing I like about the split run format. Immediately after a run my mind is a total blank. Some would say it's like that all the time but that's another subject. It always takes me at least 30 minutes (sometimes much longer) to fully comprehend my run and analyze it for further improvement. It's weird, it seems like after an hour or more I can fully visualize my entire run and everything that went on during it. I don't know if that's the adrenaline or what but I sure wish I could improve in that area. When the runs are split, it gives me time to actually mentally make a plan for my next runs. Whether or not I execute it is again another subject entirely. Anybody else have that problem?

I'm not saying I could have gotten there on that day but I'm pretty sure it was in the car. Put one of the "aliens" from nationals in there with a handful of runs and even my guess could be conservative. That's the whole wonder of racing, just when you think you've maxed out, you find there is a little bit here and there you were missing. Heck, I've been chasing it for 15 years and I still haven't found it. Or since I was 4 if you believe in fairy tales.

Jim

Well, I calculated that if the car still had the STS "pansy" pax, we'd only have needed a 53.5 to take FTPAX. And even with my 54.1 I would've had 3rd...

Why did I have to get that lightweight flywheel!!??

Because worrying about FTPAX is silly...

If you plan on running any National or ProSolo events, it is good to attend clubs that run this type of format. At a tour or nationals, it is three runs and you are done. Add to this, all of your competitors are lined up on either side of you. The pressue is pretty cool.

Granted at a ProSolo, you do get 12 runs (6 per side). But the conditions change throughout the day as does the course. On Sunday morning, the top guns are trying to find that 1/10 or 1/100th of a second.

_________________
Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

Does your arm ever get tired of patting your back

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

I agree 100% with that and it's a great point. It is one of those things that is on my "to work on" list. Like being aggressive right out of the box. And a million other things.

Any ideas on how to improve in that area? It's always happened to me no matter what I was racing. Right after a race, everybody would get together in the pits and chit chat about events that happened during the race. Most of the time, I'd be like "WTF are you guys talking about?" It was only later when the adrenaline worked its way out of my system would I remember what had taken place. It actually happens pretty much anytime I get an adrenaline rush which doesn't have to be racing related at all.

The split run format just suits my current (diminished) mental capacity.

Jim

- who should probably quit drinking so much caffeine before an auto-x

That is what I have worked on all this year. My method was to make consistant runs across the board. Yes, the first run should be the slowest but the following 3 should be within .5 of each other. Pulling that magical run out of your butt is not a very good method. There is nothing more discouraging to come back to grid and be 1-2 seconds behind the leader. Then you start playing a lot of mind games on yourself. On their second run they are working to refine and pick up 1/4 or 1/2 second and you are tyring to figure out where to get 2 1/2 seconds.

The other game I use is to estimate the course time. I have gotten pretty close to guessing what I should run. When running with VMSC, I know I should run raw times close to Gil Smith in his AS vette.

That is why I thought a dail-in competition at a night event would be way cool.

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

I really need to work on the tighter stuff - watching you drive it vs. feeling the way I was driving it seemed like a big difference. Wish we'd had some way of recording the telemetry from all our runs and overlaying them to see what worked the best. Haven't I heard of some handy-dandy little device that does this?

Yep, it's called a Geez Cube. It's most valuable when you have more than one driver in the car and some time between runs or after the event to analize the telemetry, it's not really plug and play unfortunately.

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