Sorry this is late, but IE kept crashing on me. I got there around 7am this morning and there was a huge line! Took me just 30 minutes to get through it and my chalk talk was at 7:40am. Some tips:

1. Don't hold down the brake and throttle like last year. This car doesn't like that and it bogs. Magazines have been saying this car does not like left foot braking. I found out the hard way wasting my 1st run.

2. After the chalk talk go to the racing line/coure section which is to the left at the entrance of chalk talk. I got in 2 runs before people swarmed the tent. Everyone that left chalk talk went right to course dynamics (right outside of the chalk talk) like a bunch of lemmings

3. These cars handle much better than the 6s last year. The course is the same as last year just reverse direction: 3 cone slalom, increasing radius turn, into a box, and into a decreasing radius turn to the finish line. I put the car in manual mode and in 1st at the start. Go through the slalom in 1st and when you get to the last slalom cone tap the shifter to go into 2nd. Accelerate to the turn and brake HARD use the antilocks. Go into the box as fast as you can. I went full throttle into it with no problems in the wet. Then brake hard for the last turn. Remember is a decreasing radius turn so shave off alot of speed. Then turn right and just gun for the finish line.

My best time on that course was a 29.8, (time to beat was a 28.9) which put me 2nd overall (1st place guy was in the novice class) and 1st in Pro when I left at 10am. The slalom course I ran a 6.3, which was also the FTD, and the racing line I think I got a 7.2

Good luck to you guys! I was so close!

Mike

 

What car where you in this time?

 

why don't these cars like left foot braking as the 6's did?

I'm looking forward to next weekend driving them.

Is it true that they got rid of the unlimited practice course sessions and now only give you 8 laps of your choice in the practice course, brakign zone, and slalom?

 

Just saw Terry Baker is winning philly after today. Gotta cheer for the felow STS driver. Hope he keeps the lead.

 

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The Rev-it Up Auto-X schools are now using the new Mazda 3.

Someone correct if I'm wrong. (I'm not )

 

Terry and I skipped the Pro and headed up to Philly for rev-it-up. Once again, I have coneage on a decent run that would have had me sitting pretty 29.3 to the Pro's 28.5. AARrrrggghh. But then it would have been for nought 'cuz Terry ripped a 28.8 to the Pro's 28.5 which put him in the lead for Sat. If it sticks tomorrow, he's headed for California. I recognized some other names on the Pro board, many of them STS guys. Good job Tad K and Thomas B (among others)!!

Anybody with a STS DC Pro report???

Reminder: SEDIV Divisional in late August @ ACU4 in Virginia Beach. Believe me, you guys won't regret this one!

Ed

 

Yup there were Mazda 3s there but also Mazda 6s in the one section.

Wow 28.8, was it dry? I'm guessing not. I wish I had one more run out there

 

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Anybody with a STS DC Pro report???

Ed

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Ed....STS, as all of the other classes came down to 4 runs today....

STS went like this:

1. Billy Brooks (Impreza)
2. Corey Ridgick (Impreza)
3. Dan Shalkowski (Impreza)

Aaron Buckley, Jeff Hurst, and Eric Simmons were the other trophy spots, but I don't remember the order.

other finishes of interest:

Mike Johnson 1st in FS (I finished 4th...one spot out of the trophies)
Rod McGeorge Wins CSP over Tim Aro
Courtney Cormier wins STX over Mike King
Brian Garfield wins GS, Ian Baker second.....

An Evo wins ESP over Sammy Strano.

Donna Frank wins Ladies Challenge.
Strelnieks wins the Super Challenge and does a NASCAR style doughnut
Kriemelmeyer wins bonus challenge in a borrowed STi.

wish I could remember more!

 

My damn windshield fogged up on my on my 2nd run
As soon as I went off the line the whole windsheild fogged up and i was left peering through a tiny peep hole.

I wasn't able to drive the car to its limit.
The first run I only had the cardto its limit a few times. I had the back end rotating just right with a little lift-throttle. It was the first time driving a different car in an autocross, so I did OK. I'm going to need more local events so I can force myself to drive at the cars limit at all times.
Good job on your runs Mike! I only finished 28th in the Club class

 

Who knew a rwd honda autocrosser could stick a run in a fwd mazda? Managed to score a 705 on Sunday. Good for 6th in Philly. I shifted the damn thing into 3rd ( trying to shift to first ) exiting the final corner and basically crawled to the finish line. I'll be stuck wondering what my score would have been if I had just left it in second.

-- Tom