Da Groj

The Results are up.

Before you get all giddy with the results just like the Kentucky Derby which got 2.6" of rain the very last group of the afternoon only had 2 dry runs and then a 1/4" of rain fell ending any FTD hopes for me For the first time "ever" I beat Elliot in the very wet by about 8 seconds which means "any" tread is good and I left all the Nannies ON and started in 2nd gear and drove with my wife coaching me like nearly on ice with little steering, no acceleration and few brakes to a 58 second run to Elliot's 64 = awesome but I know he wasn't trying at all = too crazy on full slicks hydroplaning on all the standing water. (When I saw his time I thought he had a 54 and beat me by 4.) It's weird to run 14 seconds slower bang. As normal he beat me by 4.7 seconds in the dry. It was a great course and I should have been a lot faster on it from the get go. Sadly out of nowhere came that one big cloud. I put the top up to try and make it stay away. No luck. I actually enjoyed driving the "line" as the track dried and got 8 seconds faster by the 5th run. A great reminder of the reality of driving in FL.

I doubt anyone had a bigger hat than I did today? Casey beat me by a couple seconds 'cause he's a hot shoe BUT his first two runs were double dirty so he didn't beat me so no cigar for him this time.

Phillip for pete's sake don't offer me a run in your car ever again. The first time you took the keys with you and today it rained....arrrrg. I'm sure with thin tread your car was much safer than my fat pig with size XLLL.

Now we're going to watch the wet Derby and then go out for our anniversary dinner. My wife is a great sport

Ron I hope you recover quickly. Nothing worse than having a fever in the heat!!

Happy Anniversary to the Mayor and the First Lady!

Great day of autocross today. The morning was business as usual. We had a full house, and we knocked out 5 runs like clockwork without issue. Badaboom badabing. The afternoon was a little more challenging due to only having 28 drivers. But, with everyone pitching in and working perhaps a little harder than usual, it all worked out pretty well. Huge thanks to all of the Late Session folks for putting in the extra effort, and for sticking around to help clean up!

We did get some rain at the end of the day. The final run group got two dry runs, and then wetness. Not so much rain that it made things miserable, just enough to make it thoroughly wet!

Everybody got some dry runs, just not quite as many as they wanted. But, why not look at the wet times?

Top 10 Best Wet Times:
44.034 Philip Petrie (also ran a 41.855+3... in the wet )
45.270 Loren Williams
45.523 Soraya Juarbe-Diaz
45.971 Jamie Sculerati
47.993+1 Ken Tuerff
50.625 Aaron Williams
50.791 Doug Adams
51.428 Curtis Shively
49.582+1 William Lynch
51.751 Steven Stryker

^^^ Y'all better be keeping your eye on Ken.

Quite the weather day - started out in the early a.m. more like October. Felt great. By 11 or so, it was getting warm, and by lunch-ish it was actually hot - not August hot, mind you, but it was really warm. Then the clouds started to build, brought some floating shade. Then it rained, off and on light and heavy - just like a Florida summer should be.

As Loren said, thank you very much to all of you who helped. And especially to Vanessa (and Ken, too), for the mighty fine lunch they brought in for the all-day folks.

I got dry runs, in the hot. My co-driver swept the Dunnellon runway with me last time, so I was really looking forward to returning the deed, but he got rained on. Next time. It took me a few runs to really start to trust those RE71s, but once I did, I shaved .8 off on my 5th run. And there was more...

Good times! See y'all at the next one.

I almost got a video of my second run, which was my fastest. Instead, I got a lovely photograph of the staging lane and the back of Drew's head. But, I did manage to get one of my wet runs recorded. Not the fastest one, but it's not bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F5CawcYMpo

I had a blast. Today was a day that being the photographer really paid off. Jason, Ben, and Casey all ran in the morning and I was observed some very different driving styles yet they all seemed to run the same time.

On the trip out Casey looked very fast. Just press the throttle and turn the wheel. On the return side Ben was definitely faster. Looked like a very different line through the turnaround and was first to the redline by a large margin. Jason was quick on both sides but looked smooth and not as aggressive.

My plan was copy Casey on the way out and Ben on the way back. I got lucky and had 2 dry runs to figure it out. If I wasn't in "MUST RUN CLEAN" mode being a bit more aggressive on the trip out I think I could have made a mid 40. Rain had other ideas. Not sure why but my car handles 100% better in the wet than the dry. If I didn't waste 2 runs trying to see if I could drift the course my car had a 41.8 clean in the wet. not much more but it had it.

I'm sorry to find out you all go dumped on!

This was a really fun course and I was excited for a slalom course as I usually do well with slaloms... I just couldn't put a full run together. I was slowed slight from shifting issues, but not 2.5 seconds worth! Ryan was simply the better driver today with the third overall time, less than 2/10th from FTD!

Taylor will maintain a 1 point lead on me for the season. It's still a close battle for the last two events of the season and with Ryan in the mix anything can happen!

Taylor - 59
Me - 58
Nate - 56


**I've tried to post this three times since last night... Tapatalk keeps failing me.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

The forum is due for an update, which includes a Tapatalk update. Philip is working on it.

Lava Speed 05 wrote: Sun May 06, 2018 8:06 am
I was slowed slight from shifting issues, but not 2.5 seconds worth! Ryan was simply the better driver today with the third overall time, less than 2/10th from FTD!

I wouldn't be too tough on myself, he did a fantastic job of driving but that car is seriously well put together and 240whp in a 2100lb car is no joke!

I drove Ryan's car at the Firm. Once we got the shocks dialed in, it was quite nice!

Not much to say besides sucks rain appeared the last part of the event and sucks you weren't able to get all your runs in Ron due to fever?

Heres my run, my clean fastest from my first run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_sywu_mUng

Loren wrote: Sun May 06, 2018 10:35 am I drove Ryan's car at the Firm. Once we got the shocks dialed in, it was quite nice!

Now that sounds fun, I still have to make the trip out there. Probably when I get some stainless brake lines and a new set of tires.. I'd like to be able to drive back too lol

Carracer wrote:I had a blast. Today was a day that being the photographer really paid off. Jason, Ben, and Casey all ran in the morning and I was observed some very different driving styles yet they all seemed to run the same time.

On the trip out Casey looked very fast. Just press the throttle and turn the wheel. On the return side Ben was definitely faster. Looked like a very different line through the turnaround and was first to the redline by a large margin. Jason was quick on both sides but looked smooth and not as aggressive.

My plan was copy Casey on the way out and Ben on the way back.

If you weren't paying close attention, you might have missed this.

Philip is telling you how to be fast. You want to be faster than your competitors? Register as a guest for the Early Session and WATCH them all drive. (and not just your competitors, watch everybody!) Figure out what they're doing, who's doing which segments better and why. Then pick the techniques that are working best for each section of the course and make a plan. Drive the Late Session and execute that plan.

No camera required. But, you might find a stopwatch to be helpful if you want actual data.

All I can say is that I loved this course! For me it was one that I felt additional runs would have continued to get faster. I've done 4 runs on some courses where I may have turned down a 5th run, sometimes they just beat me. Glad I was able to get in dry runs, sorry to hear that many of you didn't. I snuck out and thankfully beat it on the way homer.

Below are two of my runs. The first is my clean 41.05, second was clean but with a different angle at 41.6. Unfortunately I coned my best at 40.7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u20KzCZKzFk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6IeGXw3ACw

Another great day, I enjoyed driving the course a lot more than I thought I would after the course walk.

I hit way too many cones with only the first run and last run clean. I absolutely know I could have gone faster as my third run was a 44.1 with one cone on the lane change slalom, my best clean time was only 44.8. I think the slower time from run 5 was partly due to being a little over cautions knowing it was the last chance to improve on my first run!

Here's my fastest clean run:
https://youtu.be/MR8hZX6gyko




Here's my fastest raw time. I haven't had time to compare the two side by side yet to see where I lost .7 seconds, but generally the whole outbound side seems faster with better flow through the short offset slalom and continuing all the way to the turn around.
Oh and I guess it's NSFW. There is an expletive after I hit the aforementioned cone as I knew I was on a quick run up until then . It reminded me of Matt's outburst a few weeks ago, but not nearly as impressive
https://youtu.be/fuOyafJlqOg

So, after all that I ended up 7th in class, which is not what I was looking for. Even if the above run was clean I would have only placed 6th. Is it due to the weight & handling of my car vs a Miata in a course that required quite a bit of agility? Or am I still missing something fundamental in driving? Any comments are welcome. I need to find some time from somewhere but I'm running out of ideas where to look

Also, congrats to Bill & Steve for dialing in the wagon to the point where you got the better of me for the first time
I ended up below both lines of shame in this event.......

that was a really good course. too bad I didn't figure it before the rains came.

came in to the second slalom too hot on my first two dry runs.

first experience in the rain...didn't get the hang of it but will approach it differently next time.

Steve had a decent run in the wagon.
Loren, you seem untouchable in M4 :respect:

Bill, I still think you guys can catch up. And I know for a fact that Soroya can. When she gets fired up, she's a force to be reckoned with!

But, I can drive faster, too... my theory is that whatever Philip can do in his Miata, I should be able to get within a second of. Philip was running 41.0 (and could have gone faster with more dry runs) So, I should have been in the low 42's or better. And I'm confident that I'd have at least seen a 42.5 were it not for the rain.

markzeronine wrote: I wouldn't be too tough on myself, he did a fantastic job of driving but that car is seriously well put together and 240whp in a 2100lb car is no joke!

Thanks, Mark. I now have another excuse of an ill prepared car. ;-)

I still need to drive much better than I did yesterday if I am going to have Ryan, in his well prepped Miata, as competition.