Da Groj

shakedown067 wrote:I had a blast and have to agree with Tim. I certainly do miss running with your class all at once and 9 of the top 11 all ran in the afternoon. I'll probably plan to run in the afternoon in Sept to see if it really matters much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRalvtI ... jarjau95LQ

Afternoon is always faster unless it rains. I ran this event in the morning because Tim and I we nearly tied and I wanted to run against Tim head to head for the Championship. Congratulations Tim.

Joe

I get what you're all saying about your class all running together, but there are too many benefits to running the split format. (not the least of which is that most people really like it)

We had 106 drivers at this event and did 5 runs and a relaxed lunch. It takes every bit of four 1-hour run groups to do that, plus a minimum of 1 hour for a course walk, 0.5 hours for a driver's meeting, 0.3 hours between groups 1 & 2, 0.75 hours for lunch, and 0.3 hours between groups 3 & 4. That adds up to an absolute minimum of 7 hours not including setup and teardown time and not allowing for issues that sometimes happen. (timing problems, pushing busted cars off the course, etc) To accomplish that with a single session would require EVERY driver to be there all day from 8:00am until 4:00pm or later.

As for the afternoon being faster, I think it's mostly just that a lot of the really fast guys choose to run in the afternoon. Many of them drive in from out of town, or have friends who do and they want to run with them. (that's most of the BRZ/FR-S guys) Some just aren't morning people or have co-driver's/friends who aren't morning people and they want to run with them. (Ben usually wants to run Late, so I've been running late with him)

Of course, any event is likely to see faster times throughout the day regardless of course conditions (short of rain) simply because most of us tend to drive to a target time. If we know that 6 drivers hit a certain time, we know it's possible, and we'll chase that time. If we're sitting on FTD, or at least what looks like a respectable time, if we don't feel we've made mistakes, we might keep doing the same thing through all of our runs without pushing the envelope or exploring different lines looking for another tenth or two.

I think if we're driving in the morning, we all need to assume that someone in the afternoon is ALREADY faster than us, and keep chasing the tenths no matter how far ahead we might think we are. It's easy to get complacent.

But, if y'all really think the afternoon has an advantage... pretend it's an all-day event and you HAVE to run in the afternoon... and register Late session. Problem solved.

Personally, I think I do better running in the morning, at least in the summer. By the time the first Late run group starts at 2pm, I've been standing in the sun for at least 7-8 hours already! I'm a lot fresher in the morning. (that's on my list of excuses for "sucking more" at the past few events)

Yep, hence why I need to try running in the afternoon. Test the waters. At the end of the day, it's about getting the most out of the car when you drive and having fun doing it!

In the cooler months, there is a distinct advantage to afternoon runs in that the pavement is hotter and grippier and the tires get up to temp more quickly, this is just physics. In the summer, not so much. I ran in the morning this event and it was already in the 80s, sunny and 80 or so degrees is probably the ideal condition for most paved surfaces and grip. Surface temperature can be too high as well, particularly on street tires as you can get the tire temps above optimal and have a much harder time getting them back down even when spraying.

He speaks the truth.

There is the "mental" advantage in the afternoon. That is knowing what time you need to beat. I think they call it "benchmarking" or some other term.

So, here are the videos from Scott and I in the Solo Vee. Sorry for the crookedness, my fault for not bringing the right mounting hardware, just tilt your head to the left a little an you'll be fine. :-)

Scott's Best:
http://youtu.be/nReNkCKTsUA

My Best:
http://youtu.be/G-0psYs4zSo

Notice the "Push Harder, Suck Less" dash plaque. It is the original.

First time autocrossing with FAST. This is one of the better organized autocrosses I've seen.

Here's some photos my wife took. Do we know if photos are getting posted anywhere else?
https://www.behance.net/gallery/1864958 ... -July-2014

Welcome to the forum, Art! Thanks for sharing the pix, glad you enjoyed the event.

Most of our photographers take a BUNCH of photos and it sometimes takes a few days to get them sorted and available online. Links usually get posted here, though.

Thanks! I figured as much, but I wasn't sure if there was some sort of photos section that members get access to after X posts or X days. Looking forward to doing this again with you guys. Haven't raced in about 5 years now and that was in a Miata. My new car definitely can't use those same braking points. Regardless, it was good to get back out on the track.

I typically post the link to Sarah's pics in the "past" thread for the event. So keep an eye out.

It was good to be back out and see everyone after a long schedule-conflict induced hiatus. Knocked the rust off and then put together one good run. Kept the rear under the car, and left-foot braked the finish just how my mind told me to. I wish I had a data trace to see how much better I did the finish on the 39.5 run. After that I just tried too hard and spun the rears too much and got too much heat into the tires. But it only takes one

shakedown067 wrote: I had a blast and have to agree with Tim. I certainly do miss running with your class all at once and 9 of the top 11 all ran in the afternoon.

Not so sure about this. P2, 3, 4, 6 were all morning cars.


And kudos to Jesse. First run sealed the class. Should've just parked it at that point

That's what I get glancing through the results at work. Good, it's just my bad driving. LOL

Dunno. P6/21, on the same second as P1, in a "fat" car on that course with narrow gates and no place to use torque? I wouldn't be losing too much sleep over this.

Yeah, I felt like I could have benefited by trimming a few inches around the waste this past weekend. LOL I'm not losing sleep over it, just having fun and like being competitive.

rojeho wrote: And kudos to Jesse. First run sealed the class. Should've just parked it at that point

Thanks Ron. Sounds like's the car is back in order from the radiator mishap in Orlando. Congrats on a very fast time. You beat both Joe and Tim in the same session...that's no small task.

I should have parked it, but this was a shakedown event for me with new suspension. So I was trying different things on each run. Sadly, Kurtis got me for Street Tire FTD by just a hair.

I think most of the wins at this event were by "just a hair".

I also want to say the saga of something happening to my car EVERY event continues! This time I left parts on the track. So nice of Loren to make a long and loud announcement during lunch looking for me to return my parts