March 29, 2014 - Brooksville

[Loren]

Well, we almost had a dry event!

Sent from my phone. Expect more errors than usual!

[Solar]

I thought we might get lucky and stay dry the whole event, though we did have a dry morning, it opened up at lunch time. Fun day overall, enjoyed the course and the slalom area was nice to warm the tires and shake the bugs out.

I think I'm going to invest in a set of All Season tires and put them on my steel stock wheels, and swap tires at the event. My car really isnt set up to go "straight" with negative camber and caster. With the tread on my RS3's getting thin, it made for some white knuckle driving in the rain coming home. There was three times I was floating and had zero control, all I could do was hold the wheel straight and let off the gas "oh so gently" and pray the car would hook up again. Now that the real rainy season isn't far off, I think that will be a good investment.

Thanks to everyone that stayed through the monsoon and worked the course on the last group and stayed to help clean up and load the trailer, You all are awesome !

[Loren]

Finally made it home! The ignition completely crapped out on the truck shortly after I left Hungry Harry's. I'm sure I got something wet... distributor cap, old plug wires... probably both. Didn't feel like messing with it in a parking lot, so I call AAA for a tow.

I'll second everything Brian said. Thanks to everyone for sticking around to help pack things up in the torrential rain!

I'll have the results up soon.

[Solar]

I saw you lagging behind me at the light when we left Hungry Harry's, I slowed down and grabbed my phone waiting for the, "come help" call, but figured you got on your way.

I came close to calling AAA myself, I almost spun out just before the entrance to the Veterans, the car behind me backed off when he saw I was losing control and was afraid to pass me after that. I was really thinking about pulling over, unplugging the distributor, and getting a tow home. In hindsight I probably should've, I had the scariest drive over the Howard Franklin.

[Loren]

Results are posted:
Results

For those who weren't there, a lot of people got more than 6 runs, but we only counted the first 6 in the results.

Amazingly, all but 6 people got 6+ runs in before 11:45. Most of them were happy with what they got (they spent some time on the practice course in addition to their runs). We let two of those guys take some runs in the (very) wet before we packed it in. We were fully packed and out the gate by about 1pm.

I saw a few people really taking advantage of the practice slalom and showing great improvement, it was pretty awesome to see!

Gonna make some minor tweaks to this course and use it again, too... good stuff.

[Native]

Yes thanks to all who stuck around...the teamwork was wonderful!

That whole bald tire thing is exactly why I didnt bring out the Miata today. The ride home was hairy enough on all-seasons. Glad you guys got home ok!

See y'all in a couple of weeks.

[jcp907]

What a fun and fast course! Thank you for a great time! I had a brake check on the way home because of a downed tree. It looked like a car went off the road to avoid oncoming traffic just ahead of me. Thankful to be home safe, drying out! Toe out in the rain makes you feel alive!

[AScoda]

Thanks to the workers that went back out in the pouring rain so a couple of us could get a few more runs. Paul's car was far more fun (and capable) in the rain than I expected. I think he was having fun just riding along.
42.8 in the soaking wet BTW. What did Loren run in the dry-ish? 42.8? huh. interesting.

Paul, on this day and this course, with a couple more dry runs, your car could have taken the top spot. The car can do it. As you learn with it, you will get quicker.

[Solar]

BTW. What did Loren run in the dry-ish? 42.8? huh. interesting. :

I believe Loren had a 40.8 but "just nicked a cone" and there was a sudden gust of wind that knocked it over.

[jcp907]

Paul, Drew is right, your car is quick! Thank you for letting take a run in it, it's a blast! Drew, thanks for riding along and offering the advice!

[Loren]

Yeah, I ran a 40.9 and OBLITERATED the last cone before the finish. That was my last fully "dry" run. I couldn't do better than 42.8 after that.

And that was on Ben's Falken 912 "daily driver" tires.

[ExecutiveHydra]

I ran 4 runs, but only got timed on 3 it looks like. No biggie, I still trophied in M2(OK, OK, there were only 3 cars )

[ExecutiveHydra]

Paul, on this day and this course, with a couple more dry runs, your car could have taken the top spot. The car can do it. As you learn with it, you will get quicker.

We've learned today that it's not the car, it's as the Mayor says, "the nut behind the wheel". WEE! Atleast I now know with practice practice practice I can be competitive!

And Jay, I'll see ya in Geneva in the Morning!

[sharkwater]

We let two of those guys take some runs in the (very) wet before we packed it in.

As one of those guys -- an extra big thanks to those who worked to make those last runs possible. I learned a lot pushing my car in the rain.

I saw a few people really taking advantage of the practice slalom and showing great improvement, it was pretty awesome to see!

Yeah. I had been really struggling with slaloms. The practice pad was exactly what I needed! Thanks to those of you who really helped me out as I ran the practice over and over. I definitely suck less!

[Loren]

an extra big thanks to those who worked to make those last runs possible.

Those guys were troopers, weren't they? I wasn't even going to ask anyone to go work the course in that rain for just a few runs... they all volunteered and just ran out there and did it!

Face it, autocrossers are cool people!

[jbrannon7]

Teasing and challenging course. Got there early to help setup with Drew. Freaking Drew is hard to keep up with, he wore my a$$ out running around setting up the cones. My best clean time was 40.7 but I know there was a lot more time I could have shaved off, at least a second.

The course started with a tight slalom that really tested your patience, then had a little dog leg in it to make sure you were looking ahead followed by an offset to slow you a little more. Then pretty much full throttle to the pin, not really, turn. Then came the 3 green gates, if you were bold, and I was, you went tight, wide, tight, the little offset at station 3 looked more scary than it was. I wish I had some video, I believe I was full throttle from before the first green gate until the concrete rubble area hitting third gear between the last green gate and the pinch at station 3. Now here is were this course got me, on most courses the slow down feature before the finish is closer to the finish, so after the slowdown I usually have enough momentum to stay in third. Not here. I lost time by either staying in second on the fast part or staying in third after the last switch back. One last thing, those of us that dried the course early got to enjoy the slime area between the switch back walls before the finish, very exciting.

Was exhausted when I got home.

Learned some things yesterday that I will use next time I see a course like this.

Joe

[BigBlue]

Clean up was a little bit damp...

[Loren]

Just got a text from Ed. He picked the trailer up yesterday afternoon, and just put it to bed with the windows open. Hopefully, things will dry out!

[rab]

Great fun on the course... Slalom practice was a great help. I am having a really hard time getting used to the black beater.. BTW going home on the veterans was bizarre I saw rivers of muddy water flowing across the road. Thank you nearly new ZII's for having very good wet weather grip!

[lddavis91]

Great fun on the course... Slalom practice was a great help. I am having a really hard time getting used to the black beater.. BTW going home on the veterans was bizarre I saw rivers of muddy water flowing across the road. Thank you nearly new ZII's for having very good wet weather grip!

Brings up a point I wanted to make. Just FYI "all season" tires are more about temperature than water evacuation. In most of Florida, the temp never gets low enough for an "all season" tire to be of much benefit. On a warm Florida heavy rain day a full tread depth "summer" tire can be just as good or likely even better than an all-season tire. Buying all season tires for a car driven exclusively in Florida doesn't really make much sense as the benefits of it would rarely be seen and would actually perform less well than a good summer tire in the vast majority of our weather. All bald tires suck in the rain, regardless if its a "summer" or "all season" a tire needs deep grooves to evacuate water and avoid hydroplaning.