June 16th Father's Day Eve was pointless:)

[jbrannon7]

Yeah, I asked a couple-three folks in the afternoon group about the re-map and they all said it was fine.

And by the way, just in case whoever you were are reading this, Drew and I are sure you had great ideas about fixing the course, but, time was of the essence at that point, and course design-by-committee just doesn't work. I hope I didn't come off as rude...

Unfortunately you had to alter the course because of the defects, I liked following you guys around and seeing what your concerns were. I really liked the long 27 paced slalom on the way out after you fixed the too long high speed straight.

[AScoda]

So, some of you may have seen that one of the 2 big puddles I went through on my 2nd run knocked one side of my bumper off.
I fixed it today. I realized after the fact, that I probably should have taken some pics or something.
Two broken plastic tabs, one is a screw hole (that was already barely hanging on) and thus a solid mount, the other is for a plastic pop rivet.
I picked up a plastic welding kit a while back. The soldering iron type, not the hot air kind. Perfect opportunity to try it out. I gotta say, It worked better than I thought it would. Was able to "weld" the pop rivet hole back in place and create a new mount point for the screw hole that was just gone. Replaced a few pop rivets that were missing on both sides, and bumper cover is solidly mounted again. Time will tell if it holds up to a few cone strikes.

[Loren]

sure you had great ideas about fixing the course, but, time was of the essence at that point, and course design-by-committee just doesn't work. I hope I didn't come off as rude...

This is something I would never apologize for. Time is ALWAYS of the essence when we're setting up a course, and "design-by-committee" is always a huge waster of time. Several people know that I won't hesitate to tell them to "go away, you're slowing us down" if they're bugging us when we're trying to adjust a course. Sometimes ya gotta be rude.

[Native]

Yeah, I asked a couple-three folks in the afternoon group about the re-map and they all said it was fine.

And by the way, just in case whoever you were are reading this, Drew and I are sure you had great ideas about fixing the course, but, time was of the essence at that point, and course design-by-committee just doesn't work. I hope I didn't come off as rude...

Unfortunately you had to alter the course because of the defects, I liked following you guys around and seeing what your concerns were. I really liked the long 27 paced slalom on the way out after you fixed the too long high speed straight.

I was referring to after the lightning break.

[dbeng]

I finally had a chance to sit down and get my videos edited. I was just too tired yesterday after a long day in the heat & rain, today I was busy all day on house projects / chores before heading out of town for a couple of days on business.

This was the wettest event I’ve attended so far in my 3-1/2 years with FAST. All my runs were dry being in the first run group, but it is a shame it was so wet for the second run group. The rain breaks were an unfortunate necessity, but it was nice to have some time to chat with a few people during the down time. Thanks to Aaron for letting me take cover in your trailer!

Philip and Andrew, thank you for letting me take some runs in your cars. I enjoyed having the opportunity to drive different cars and experience the different handling characteristics. I took three runs in my car, then two in Philip’s Miata and my last run in Andrew’s Acura.

Philip – I’m sorry for locking up the tires so badly on my first run in your car, I completely forgot about no ABS. I will make it up somehow I promise. Your Miata is really a fun car to drive and on my second run in it I chopped off over a second and was only 0.3s slower than the fastest time in my car which I’m fairly pleased with since it was my first run in a RWD car for over a year.

Andrew - your car of course was much more familiar handling wise being front wheel drive, but I really should have done a ride along with you before my run. In the heat of the moment, I misinterpreted your initial comment “no don’t go into third” as a firm ‘don’t shift to third’ rather that what you meant as ‘not yet – keep the revs up’. Therefore I drove the rest of the course in second with one eye on the tachometer to prevent bouncing off the rev limiter rather than shifting into third. Needless to say this compromised my outright speed and racing line as I was not fully focused. I’d love the chance to drive your car again one day and do it properly!

Thanks to Dan for letting my drive his Mazda, did a 46.550 in his car, Im interested to see how it would drive in Brooksville, it was tail happy on full stiff, but really manageable to drive it on course.

Here is Andrew’s run. 46.550 just outside my fastest time of 46.384 not bad for the first time driving my car:

https://youtu.be/a8eMjmzhpgc


Here is my third and final run for the day in my car 46.384:
https://youtu.be/NEKLSMD-wI0


And here is Philip’s afternoon run on a drying course with plenty of puddles. Look for a little sideways action entering the turn-around. Unfortunately my data for the on screen display didn't record for this run.
https://youtu.be/I_lFSPtdGOE


I really like the Dunnellon venue and hope that we are able to keep it as a semi-regular slot on the schedule.

Dan.

[aw614]

Andrew - your car of course was much more familiar handling wise being front wheel drive, but I really should have done a ride along with you before my run. In the heat of the moment, I misinterpreted your initial comment “no don’t go into third” as a firm ‘don’t shift to third’ rather that what you meant as ‘not yet – keep the revs up’. Therefore I drove the rest of the course in second with one eye on the tachometer to prevent bouncing off the rev limiter rather than shifting into third. Needless to say this compromised my outright speed and racing line as I was not fully focused. I’d love the chance to drive your car again one day and do it properly!

It was fun watching both videos to see which sections you were faster at. I can see that first left corner I went wider, and the entry to the slalom I dropped some speed vs you. Same vs a few other sections in the second half. Next classic event we are both attending we'll have to swap cars again. Its fun driving it, seems a lot similar to how my GTI is setup, just without the turbo.

haha yeah, I didn't want you to drop it out of the powerband when you went into third. You have to take it to at least 7,500 to 8,000 before going into third, this was the biggest adjustment I had when I did the motor swap b/c I'd naturally short shift it at the typically normal 6,500 to 7,000 rpm range

[twistedwankel]

Maybe for the time being we shouldn't publish a course map ahead of time for Dunellon? The necessary changes confused some of the lesser experienced drivers. A number of people did not re walk the course after the two changes and got tripped up at the end section in particular and drove around the new gate. Drew fixed that with pointers. People kept looking at their map to see where they went off course and it wasn't on their map. Solution: I had them ride with others who were on course until Drew totally fixed it.

That new radio was seriously good quality!!!! I could hear everything called in.

[Loren]

Nah, a 90% correct course map is still better than no map. We very rarely deviate that much from the map.

Those new radios DID kick ass! In fact, I just ordered 10 more. Our Motorola FRS radios are now officially spares. Even the new Motorolas flat out suck compared to the sound quality and volume of the new ones. Part of the difference is that we've gone from 1/2 or 1-Watt radios to 2-Watt radios. Doubling the power makes a difference. But, I think the microphone, speaker and amp quality has to be better, as well.

[Glen]

Had a really good time but was probably my worst driving day ever, even worse than my first novice event 15 years ago. I was in the black S2000 in the second run group that was stuck in spin cycle. Not excuses but analysis. 1. The car is new to me, I've have only had it about 2 weeks now. 2. For all the events I've run in the past I can't recall ever running more than once or twice in those wet conditions. Seems like the heavy rain always waited until it was time for me to change tires . 3. Speaking of tires I knew mine were bad but they are horrible; 8 year old, 400 treadwear, all season, run flats. I can't think of a worse possible tire set up.

I'm hoping most of my problems were due to tires and wet/ponding conditions and that there is not a learning curve to this car (past cars include a base mini and pretty well built CSP Miata). I did learn one thing that will probably hold true even in the dry is not to try to hang in first gear. I decided since traction sucked to stay in first for one run to the left that led into the longer leg of the course. I barely hit the gas when I thought it was time to add power and huge spin.

Since I won't be hitting another event for at least a month I'm holding off ordering new tires. Looks like hands down the Re-71's are the way to go. However, I seem to always talk my self into cheaping out and am considering the Firehawk Indy 500's at half the cost. I should probably just order the Bridgestones so I don't talk myself into a future regret.

Anyway had a really good time.

[Loren]

Your excuse game is on point, welcome to the forum!

[Jamie]

Looks like hands down the Re-71's are the way to go. However, I seem to always talk my self into cheaping out and am considering the Firehawk Indy 500's at half the cost. I should probably just order the Bridgestones so I don't talk myself into a future regret.

I have a set of those same Firehawks on the Miata as daily driver tires, and ran the endurocross on them earlier this year just to see how they performed. They're decent tires, and they handle well within their limits, but they don't compare to RE-71s for sheer grip...order the Bridgestones.