Da Groj

Some of you are probably still on your way home trophies or at least your times in hand. A very large contingent stayed over for FN. General consensus seemed to be times stayed pretty much the same as they had in the Morning session BUT much warmer. The sun was uninterrupted and a nice breeze on occasion. I felt like I had done yard work all afternoon. Little stiff this evening from all the activity. Still a glorious day of autocrossing.

I'm sure Loren is tired by now after working all day at the air strip so times aren't posted yet. Plus I didn't see Ron Rice around so he must have been busy elsewhere. I know the early people froze their tails off as when I checked the outdoor thermometer at my house it said 46F at 9am. Yikes. Makes me wary of the 40F warning on my tires when it gets that cold. My tires were nice and warm in the garage and we didn't get to the event until 12:45pm as promised and the sun was hot at 71F in the shade. What shade?

Well I thoroughly enjoyed this course much more than I realized by improving each run. The really hard part for me was to stay on the throttle going into the 2nd slalom which was a 'trust your tires' imperative. I sort of did my last and fastest run 2 seconds off the fastest people in class per usual. I finished 6th of 10 registered which considering all things is fine with me. 6pts is hard to come by in bigger classes. I'm still trying to use up 2 seasons ago RE71's and they stick well once warm and up to best pressure. My one humorous adventure was looking so far ahead on my 2nd run that I cut in front of the turn around apex cone and pointer:) Far sighted is my excuse.

I was somewhat dismayed by the quantity of lost things left in the grid end of day. Shame on all of you for leaving your empty bottles and cans. I pitched someone's plastic drink box. Turned in a nice compressor, a screw driver and a nice pair of new looking sunglasses. Who wets their pants so bad they cannot get out of their car and pick up their personal items? Buy some depends next time as this stuff will end up at goodwill soon.

Thanks everyone for helping me celebrate my BD one day early with Maria whom also enjoyed the day. I love not sweating to the point of heat stroke!! See you all next time.

The temps weren't too bad this morning, the sun came up and it was nice and comfortable.

I had problems driving the course consistently today, I was just off, from running my slaloms too wide to not being sure what gear to be in on the second half of the course. I kept wanting to down shift into second when I should have trusted the car and carried it in third gear to the end.

I found that this course really required a lot more precise driving and I couldn't do it today. I gotta improve on that.

Anyways here is my run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOceDZ4 ... e=youtu.be

I coned away my fastest raw time I believe. Didn't check if I did hit a cone, but almost certain I did.

twistedwankel wrote:I'm sure Loren is tired by now after working all day at the air strip so times aren't posted yet.

Nothing to do with tiredness, but there was a timing software issue in 3rd run group that affected a few classes and required some TLC that we didn't want to try to tend to on-site. Ken took care of it after he got home.

Results are now posted!

Thanks for sharing your Saturday with us, everyone!

And Happy Birthday, Doug!

This course was a ton of fun, and it was a beautiful day. Great times and was able to hold onto 2nd in S4. Good day.

Ken got my name attached to my times, but I'm still showing up as FN class. Need to be M2. Not showing up in class results.

Drew is in the correct class, where he should be for the rest of the season.

I'll beat the dead horse excuse of my ride not being 100% yet for this event too, maybe had a half a second left on the plate but definitely not a 35.1.. that's damn impressive, hats off.

<sadface>

We'll get Drew's class and Nate's name fixed tomorrow. Will look things over closely for other errors, too.

We should also have a season points update no later than Monday, I hope.

Nate's name is correct.
Nathan 17, the fender mangler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldpAt-dPXq4

Removed the rear swaybar added some camber and still 4th is best I could do.

Damn! I thought this was gonna be the day I finally got that class win. Got beat by nearly 1.4 seconds by the time the afternoon session was over.

Course was a lot of fun, simple design but you really had to be precise to get a fast (and clean) run. I’m thinking my 140k mile engine might be a little tired and not putting out the full 130 hp it came with from the factory. I didn’t seem to be on the limiter nearly as much as other Miatae out there, some of them even needing to shift to 3rd. Or maybe I’m just looking for more excuses

Here’s my run, 37.160 2nd place M3

https://youtu.be/am7N4WqamU4

AScoda wrote:Ken got my name attached to my times, but I'm still showing up as FN class. Need to be M2. Not showing up in class results.

Gotcha Drew I will get you reclassed

AScoda wrote:Nate's name is correct.
Nathan 17, the fender mangler.

Lol.

Thanks for posting the videos.

What a terrific day to be outdoors! Wow. Everybody helped put on a great event too - on time all day, 5 fast, but challenging runs, and lots of general goodness!

Some of you in the afternoon may have noticed a particular station wagon (it's the blue one) that was just a tad tail-happy. I think I scared a courseworker at either 6 or 7, but I did point out an apology on my way by. Bill was messing with the suspension again, as is his wont. He only worked on the front. So why did that make the back so loose? Because he created more grip in front, (yeah, more) and what was a fairly balanced car wasn't, at least for now. M4 can be sure he'll find that balance again, so, look out!

Oh, and just as another data point - we're using Federal RSRs. So far once at the dogtrack, and yesterday. So far I like 'em. Plenty of stick, and the break-away (and recovery) is a bit more progressive compared to the RE71s we just used up. At least that's how it seemed to me...

Good times. It's a great decompression event after a crazy work week.

Anyway I'm proud of Rusty, "the Miata Hunter", a 37.2 +1 we're onto something. Just give us a chance to stop mangling fenders, destroying tires and just focus on driving...

Thanks FAST

AScoda wrote: Sat Nov 17, 2018 8:56 pm<sadface>

The ultimate compliment is half your class wanting you to be booted from it. Ask me how i know

markzeronine wrote:

AScoda wrote: Sat Nov 17, 2018 8:56 pm<sadface>

The ultimate compliment is half your class wanting you to be booted from it. Ask me how i know

Sorry Drew the deadline for FL manual recounts was noon today and you missed it. At least you finished 2nd the FN class in only 5 runs.

Fake news.

So I learned a new lesson yesterday

Always check your vest before donning, especially if it has been on the ground all through lunch...Put mine on without the aforementioned safety check, and was COVERED with fire ants before I knew it. Probably like 40 or 50, mostly on my T-shirt, fortunately. Injury count today looks like about 10 bites.

Word to the wise--if you have anaphylactic level reactions to fire ant stings, BE CAREFUL.