Was a mixed bag. Lots of issues with the timing system, a broken wheel on course, and a flipped Kart (among some other things) caused things to run wayyyy late, but the weather was great and we finally got a chance to try out the Neon in its new street touring trim.

First off, we expected Ryan to win, but he severely kicked ***. Not just ours, everybodys. We have alot of work to do to catch that guy. Brian Flanagan was there getting some seat time (not running for points or position) in his new Civic and I think Ryan may have beaten him as well.
Very nice work!!!

The Neon actually was better than we expected. I expected it to push pretty badly, but it wasn't bad at all. That said, I simply could not get the rear end to step out on it, even when I tried stupid stuff that should have caused me to loop it. I guess the verdict is that the car is a little too neutral (if that makes sense). Its easy to drive and totally drama-free, but you can't get the rear end to rotate. That 130K motor was sucking wind on the long uphill section as well, but we're just going to have to suck it up and deal with that.
Renee had a terrible day, making big mistakes on every run. The good news for me is that I actually beat her, the bad news is that she was making major errors and I still only beat her by 4/10ths. Oh well, I'm just the tire warmer anyway .

In the end I'm not even sure where we finished because there were so many cars in STS and most of the times were pretty close (about 5 or 6 cars within a second of each other). All I really know for sure is that Ryan was WAYYY out in front of everybody.

On another note, 2 novice drivers acted like ******** today, which is absolutely nothing new. The new part was that neither of them were in a Honda (VW and Supra). This is a welcomed change for me. Seeing the honda boyz do burnouts and donuts at every event was getting old. Variety is the spice of life ya know.
The story... Same as usual.
Guy goes out, gets lost, cant find the course, blah blah blah. His girlfriend and his cr3w are watching, so having ********* the size of a pea and a brain only slightly larger he decides that the thing to do is gun it and fly through the paddock area at about 50 or 60mph.
That's sooooo cool. Someday when I grow up I want to be like that guy.

Yes, he was asked to leave (a little too nicely in my opinion).

 

Oh .. but you mised the Supra guy pulling the e-brake, taking out 10 cones, and almost a worker in his attempt to pull a cool drift out in the corner Towne and I were working while his buddy was riding shotgun. Towne called in asking them to have a talk with him. That was before the loop in the middle of the cours, getting lost, and going WOT up the back half without even doing the part at the bottom on the hill.

My fav part of today's AutoX: Working 3 hours, running 1 hour!

 

I had a great time today. Great weather and a great course. I was working in the trailer as usually helping out with timing so hopefully i didn't mess anything up because most of the 1st afternoon sessions firsts runs rely on what i wrote down. I think just about everything that could go wrong did. Most of you didn't see it but stuff was blowing across the timing lights very frequently making the job for joel on the computer very difficult.

I'm not really sure how fast i was compared to everyone else but my best time was a 52.8 by the time i got everything working out right. The end of the slalom was throwing me off on my first 3 runs because i was lifting so on my fourth run i took the last part of the slalom WOT and worked out much better for me.

I'm sure you two will catch up to me, its only a matter of time i think. I'm still on es100's and i'm not quite sure if i want to go back to the azenis yet. I've been having such good results with these i think i may stay on them for awhile.

I'm exausted now from being out there for 10 hours today. I'm goin to bed.

 

Oh man, Ryan was definitely cookin out there. I need to figure out just why the hell he is so fast and do that stuff (easier said than done right ).

The course was a ton of fun though...I improved from a 58.x to a 55.x...Im curious if I managed to avoid DFL in STX...I only saw one other car in my class there and it was one of the mighty WRXs so Im sure he was much quicker.

I cant believe that guy flipped his cart! Was pretty scary! I hope he was ok...he seemed ok just a some road rash and shooken up I think. I am surprised those guys dont wear leathers or something like bike riders.

Hope to see you all at next event!

 

No kidding! I told you that you'd be 53s easy. Congrats!

 

I managed a 54.9. Not bad for the first time out in the car but well off of Ryan's pace.
We'll hopefully have a rear sway bar added before the divisional. That should help quite a bit.

The guy in the Supra was pretty much a lower life form. It should be legal just to go ahead and kill people like that and donate the car to charity.

The Kart driver was Perry Degionne. Perry is a friend of mine with years of autocross and road race experience. I was only about 30 feet from him when the kart flipped and I was amazed at how quickly it went over. He just kicked it in sideways (like he typically does) and it went right over. After we got things sorted out I went back to look at the spot and sure enough there was about a 1" wide crack in the asphalt with a scratch at just about the exact spot where it flipped. I went up to look at the kart and sure enough there was a gouge in the left rear wheel (and the wheel was bent). Yep... he got flipped when his wheel caught a crack in the asphalt.
He was OK, but had some serious road rash on his arm and leg. It could have been worse as the kart landed awkwardly on top of him.
After watching that, and seeing the minor little crack that caused the whole thing, I'm not so high on karts anymore.

 

What's up with that?

 

Flipped kart, supra doin burnouts, people being "asked to leave"? I missed it all! (I hope Perry D was doing ok.)

Since we're telling stories, here's mine. The talon suffered from one main mechanical problem today. Basically the steering wheel and gas pedal were not properly being engaged at the right time... But I'm looking at getting it fixed one of these days. So this mechanical difficulty was responsible for hitting cones on 3 of my 4 timed runs, leaving a painfully slow (for SM!) 51.7 clean run. That's disgusting. So after meditating for a long time in the car prior to my last run, the car ran pretty free of any mechanical difficulties and I was sure I finally broke the 50 second barrier. As it turned out I ended up being slower by 19 seconds than what I expected. And being so out of it all day, I would have believed it if it weren't for the announcer quickly questioning the time thereafter. On the re-run, I swear had I been a meaner person, I would have got yet another rerun as this worker innocently decided to run straight in front of me. Hey at least he was in a genuine rush to get out of the way, so the effort was there... and no need to demand yet another rerun and have those poor workers who have been out there working for what seemed like 5 hours for our run group hate me even more! Still that's about when I heard a nice clunk noise as I guess I killed a cone, which was really strange since I was coasting at about that time watching the enthusiastic worker. A previous 50.7 (plus a cone of course) with a passenger plus this last run’s 50.3 raw time only teased the heck out of me as the car totally rubbed it in my face the kind times it was capable of, had it not been suffering from the steering/gas mechanical gremlins of course...

Summary: three yr old used roadrace compound hoosiers still kick serious ***. However it was mostly my *** being kicked around, as driving on R compounds is a completely different discipline than sliding around on street tires. And 5 runs were clearly not enough for me to realize it. Now... why didn't I take that 6th run?? Ah, next time!

btw, when is the next event?


[Modified by Hracer, 12:52 AM 3/10/2003]

 

Sounds like I missed a good day, and the weather couldn't have been nicer. Bummer for me. Congrats to Ryan. I saw all the times that the timing chief posted on the Atl. Solo II e-list -- most impressive, Ryan. But did you notice that Flanagan, who ran time only, was about 0.2 secs. faster than the STS winning time? I guess he's being a gentlemen and running TO in Atlanta so he won't screw with all of us competing for class points. Those of us going to the SE divisionals won't be so lucky, I'm sure.

Scott, glad to hear you and Renee had good weather to do some sorting. Being in its early phase of development, I'm not surprised to hear the kar wasn't able to do exactly what you wanted it to. If you think you had a hard time getting the ACR to rotate, you ought try driving the family truckster, tho I believe the new GCs have helped in that regard.

Looking forward to getting out soon with my Atlanta brethren and seeing if I can hang with the likes of Ryan again. Nice job, Mr. Points Leader!

 

Shook down the Protege. Really fun car to drive. Absolute hoot. Went into the turn at the end of the slalom full rally-style one run. Not many stock suspensions let you do that. Very controllable, and a whole lot of fun. Then, going up the hill, I seem to have forgotten where the horsepower was kept. Wait, I remember now. It didn't come with any from the factory. Hmm... Can't run in SM (WAY uncompetitive now that Tommy Pulliam is running in that class), can't run in STS in a stock Protege without getting slaughtered, but... My times were right up there with the GS guys, and I was on street tires. Thinking...Something needs to add up...not sure....what.
Actually, I won't have the luxury of using the protege anymore, as it will be the primary mode of transport for the bambino and wife from now on. Maybe I'll be able to score a co-drive for the rest of the season. <ahem, Casey>

-On a side note, not having to change tires at the end of the day, and having A/C and a RADIO, to drive home with--

 

how fast is flanagan. I know i've seen the name around but what kind of a driver is he. I just want to compare myself to see how i'm doing.

 

Nationally competitive. I think he's placed 3rd and 5th in DSP in a 325i. If you are running with him, you are in very good company.

 

Good job ryan
Ill have to come out one of these days and give you a run for your money...uhhh

 

I almost think every first time autocross should be required to have an experienced racer ride shot gun for his first time out. I did this several times last year with newbs and would act as a rally co-driver if the guy/gal didn't know where he/she was going. This seemed to work well and the driver would pretty much stay on course, and was much less frustrated than they would have been if they were out there alone in the sea of cones. Plus, with a co-driver, the newb is less likely to drive like a shmuck.

 

That is a great idea! Even though we have n00b course walkthrough and ATL region chalks the course, it is still easy to get lost your first time or two. I will voluneer for this job! Better then ******** cones any day!

 

i think the problem with that is we probably have 60+ novices so it could get kinda hard. At least they are doing a few novice schools which should help as well.

 

Ya, with those numbers it can be a problem. I'm talking first timers here though, not novices who have run before. Its usually the first time out that we see people getting lost, once they do an event or two they seem to be able to see the line better AND they walk the course enough so that its not a problem. I think a lot of newbs walk the course one time and expect to be able to know where to go.


[Modified by Brett@SoloRacer.com, 7:56 AM 3/10/2003]