I finally made it back from my first divisional AutoX and I must say I have mixed emotions about it. Overall I was very happy that I got to go and I had a blast all weekend even with the 5.5 inces of rain we got Saturday. I am however extremely dissapointed in my performance on Sunday. It was sub par for me to say the least. Here is how the weekend went down.
Saturday. Wake up a little late to an already wet condition, mild rain. I wouldn't be putting the Hoosiers on today. There were only around 60 drivers for the event due to the terrible weather reports. I was placed in the second run group and got the best worker position ever doing waivers inside. I stayed warm and dry. The conditions were rainy for the first run group and most everybody opted for street tires due to the standing water on the course. The first run group definitely got the better conditions on Saturday. Once my run group started the rain really started coming down. Just to let you know how hard it rained during my group, the area got 5.5 inches of rain during the 12 hour period we were racing and the sky cleared after my run groups last runs were cancelled because it was raining too hard to see anything. I ran on my fairly new Azenis 615's and was suprised at how much lateral rip I had on the wet concrete. My only competition for the weekend was Geoff Zimmer's 77 Rabbit (7th place at Nats this year) which has been about a second in front of me all year. I was leading him and his codriver by about a second on day 1. I attribute this to my car being about 1,000lbs heavier than his car and therefore I actually drove through the course instead of floated through it. I dnf'ed my first 2 runs due to a really awkward pointer cone placement and I finally figured it out on my 3rd run. i was looking forward to the 4th run since I still had some improvements I could make, but right as 4th runs started the rain really came down and the wind picked up severly. They issued a few tornado watches for the area and the stewards cancelled the 4th runs. We packed up and got back to the hotel under beautiful partly cloudy blue skies. Go figure.
Sunday. It was nice and dry outside although my car was still a little damp inside. I was a little nervous since i knew I was sitting on a 1 second lead and Geoff's been about a second faster all year. I had a feeling things were going to be close. I had to go back to the old staggered tire setup for this event since I had to borrow some used front tires and I just couldn't get things together. I went out for my first run and I almost spun out twice...69.???. Upon further inspection I noticed that in my rush to get the wheels on the car I had a 205 tire up front that should have been in the back. Ahhh...rookie mistake. I got it swapped in grid, but I didn't have enough time to swap the air pressures before I was staged so my 2nd run was mess as well, just a little faster. I finally got the air pressures close on my 3rd run, but the backend just wouldn't stay put. I dropped the air pressures again since everytime I dropped it was an improvement, but I was now down to my final run. I got the car through the first few turns about as good as I could on the staggered setup, but it was nowhere near as fast as I could have gone with 225's all the way around. I over cooked the next 180 degree turn and had to catch a nasty slide mid corner that cost me at least a second. After that slide I just let it hang out for the rest of the run and ran the fastest I had all day. I finished with a 63.1, but it was not good enough. Zimmer and his codriver had both run in the 60's and 61's. I was bummed because I had left a little bit out on the course and I felt that I could have run a high 61 for the win.
Zimmer congratulated me on my Saturday lead and for a good drive on Sunday, but I knew I had more. I walked the course with him once and had a few good tech discussions with him throughout the weekend. He's a very smart guy and his car and driving show it. I finished 18th in Pax for the weekend, just in front of my friend Anthony in a DSP Neon. Of the 7 people from my club that went we took home 4 trophies. Niether Anthony or I got one even though we were highest in Pax out of the group, but we were the only two with Nationals trophy cars in our class (Anthony was up against the 2nd place DSP BMW at Nationals). I came home happy for the rest of our crew though and with most of them being party animals from Wake Forest the whole weekend was an experience to say the least.
I only took a few pictures because it was too wet to go get the camera out of the car on Saturday and I was a little busy working on Sunday. If I find a link to more I'll post them. Results aren't up yet.
Saturday. Wake up a little late to an already wet condition, mild rain. I wouldn't be putting the Hoosiers on today. There were only around 60 drivers for the event due to the terrible weather reports. I was placed in the second run group and got the best worker position ever doing waivers inside. I stayed warm and dry. The conditions were rainy for the first run group and most everybody opted for street tires due to the standing water on the course. The first run group definitely got the better conditions on Saturday. Once my run group started the rain really started coming down. Just to let you know how hard it rained during my group, the area got 5.5 inches of rain during the 12 hour period we were racing and the sky cleared after my run groups last runs were cancelled because it was raining too hard to see anything. I ran on my fairly new Azenis 615's and was suprised at how much lateral rip I had on the wet concrete. My only competition for the weekend was Geoff Zimmer's 77 Rabbit (7th place at Nats this year) which has been about a second in front of me all year. I was leading him and his codriver by about a second on day 1. I attribute this to my car being about 1,000lbs heavier than his car and therefore I actually drove through the course instead of floated through it. I dnf'ed my first 2 runs due to a really awkward pointer cone placement and I finally figured it out on my 3rd run. i was looking forward to the 4th run since I still had some improvements I could make, but right as 4th runs started the rain really came down and the wind picked up severly. They issued a few tornado watches for the area and the stewards cancelled the 4th runs. We packed up and got back to the hotel under beautiful partly cloudy blue skies. Go figure.
Sunday. It was nice and dry outside although my car was still a little damp inside. I was a little nervous since i knew I was sitting on a 1 second lead and Geoff's been about a second faster all year. I had a feeling things were going to be close. I had to go back to the old staggered tire setup for this event since I had to borrow some used front tires and I just couldn't get things together. I went out for my first run and I almost spun out twice...69.???. Upon further inspection I noticed that in my rush to get the wheels on the car I had a 205 tire up front that should have been in the back. Ahhh...rookie mistake. I got it swapped in grid, but I didn't have enough time to swap the air pressures before I was staged so my 2nd run was mess as well, just a little faster. I finally got the air pressures close on my 3rd run, but the backend just wouldn't stay put. I dropped the air pressures again since everytime I dropped it was an improvement, but I was now down to my final run. I got the car through the first few turns about as good as I could on the staggered setup, but it was nowhere near as fast as I could have gone with 225's all the way around. I over cooked the next 180 degree turn and had to catch a nasty slide mid corner that cost me at least a second. After that slide I just let it hang out for the rest of the run and ran the fastest I had all day. I finished with a 63.1, but it was not good enough. Zimmer and his codriver had both run in the 60's and 61's. I was bummed because I had left a little bit out on the course and I felt that I could have run a high 61 for the win.
Zimmer congratulated me on my Saturday lead and for a good drive on Sunday, but I knew I had more. I walked the course with him once and had a few good tech discussions with him throughout the weekend. He's a very smart guy and his car and driving show it. I finished 18th in Pax for the weekend, just in front of my friend Anthony in a DSP Neon. Of the 7 people from my club that went we took home 4 trophies. Niether Anthony or I got one even though we were highest in Pax out of the group, but we were the only two with Nationals trophy cars in our class (Anthony was up against the 2nd place DSP BMW at Nationals). I came home happy for the rest of our crew though and with most of them being party animals from Wake Forest the whole weekend was an experience to say the least.
I only took a few pictures because it was too wet to go get the camera out of the car on Saturday and I was a little busy working on Sunday. If I find a link to more I'll post them. Results aren't up yet.
