Da Groj

I didn't get any videos. I didn't have any clean runs that were good anyway, and I don't ever post my dirty videos online!

That's sad. Alrighty then. Please, enlighten us. What was EVERYONE else doing wrong that you were doing... if not "right", a whole lot closer to right?

My guess is that you were doing your usual "pretty damned tight line" while staying smooth and right on the edge of what the tires could do. But, was there something more? Were you flat-footing some element that nobody else was... like, maybe the hard left-right kink on the outgoing side?

I mean... Charles turned a quite respectable 45.2, and your best clean time was a full 1.5 seconds faster. Where was that second and a half?

And your last run was a second faster still (yeah, you hit a cone or two). Damn near two seconds faster than EVERYBODY. Actually, more than two second faster than everybody other than Chris Hammer.

I know you're fast. You've always been fast. But, this is even faster than usual!

Just making sure to nail the exit of the turns before each of the fast parts. I think there were four of them. 2 on the front and 2 on the back. I got all four right on my last run but hit 3 cones. The other runs I messed up one or more.

Okay, that's basic theory stuff that we should all be practicing (but, don't always). The two on the front side are easy. The turn before the middle straight, and the turn after the kink (and also the kink itself) leading into the straight feeding the turn-around.

On the return side, I guess you're talking about the exit of the turn-around itself, which led into the "wiggle" that anyone should have been able to accelerate full-throttle through... and stay full-throttle all the way to the slalom... and then getting the last 2-3 cones of the slalom right so that you can maximize speed through the finish?

Crap, I felt like I pretty well nailed most of that stuff. I'm betting I left some on the table at the kink. Though, I'm not sure I could have carried any more speed past the apex after the kink.

Maybe I'll just stick with my "no LSD" excuse?

Good to be back. Lots of work to do. See you out there!

That was fun, sorry to the course workers, I'll be getting my car on a cone free diet.

I got up on the wrong side of the bed so that didn't help. Just lacked concentration and any sort of discipline to "SLOW DOWN". Well next time.

Amazing how some people just nailed the runs. It really makes me want to get better.

EDIT: Also, next time I need bug spray for my car

Whew, what a DAY! Even though I had my rear end handed to me in s4, I feel I learned a lot.
1 Austin's car is faster than mine.
2 I need to replace my shocks
3 learn how to push harder and suck less

Thanks to everyone who made this event possible.

Okay, so I got a little sidetracked writing this post. But, not that I'm done with that...

The usual THANKS to everyone for helping us make this a great event. If today was any indication, we're in for a very exciting season!

The forecast for the day was all doom and gloom, so the morning decision was to stick with just 4 runs to ensure that we didn't get ourselves into a situation of not being able to keep up in the afternoon. I think everyone would have loved another run or two on this course, but it just was not to be. As it was, we somehow dodged ALL of the rain for the entire day. The rain was out there. You could look around at any point during the day and see the rain falling in the distance somewhere, often in more than one direction. As we were packing the trailer at about 4pm, we got a hint of rain. Just enough drizzle to be noticed... and then it stopped. The weather gods definitely smiled upon us today.

For the course, I wanted to do something a little different. That started with a very early crossover that actually crossed through the finish chute, which ran diagonally across the runway. I think it made for a more dramatic finish than start, but it was fun.

Once you set off on your path to the far end, there was a series of increasing offsets that begged you to dive in deep and overdrive the last one... which a lot of people did. But, if you gave it up a little in the middle, you could almost effortlessly accelerate through the last one into the longest straight of the course.

After that straight was a harsh left-right maneuver that was designed to scrub off some speed. It really wasn't all that hard to get through if you braked a little (probably less braking was required than most people did). And an interesting feature of this element is that it allowed enough room for you to OVER setup for it. Setting up too much for it by going all the way to the right before the entry would get you through it, alright. But, you could easily end up pointing in completely the wrong direction to make the next apex. A shallower setup resulted in less "reverse angle" on the next gate, making the whole thing easier and faster.

Beyond that was a narrow channel (literally 10-feet wide and 75-feet long) that kept you straight and limited your space to get setup for the turn-around. The entry apex to the turnaround was a bold-faced lie! The actual correct entry apex would have been 10-15 feet to the right and at least 20 feet beyond the apex cone. I pity the fool who didn't figure that out!

If you ignored the entry apex, got out wide enough, and focused on a medium-late apex of the exit cone, you'd be right in line for the "wiggle" element. This was a piece that I picked up from one of the 2014 Solo Nationals courses. As soon as I saw it on the map, I thought "that's COOL, I've got to try it!" So, I did, and... it was COOL! Sort of like a really closely spaced slalom, but with an offset so wide that you could almost get through it without turning. Almost. A little wiggle was all it took, and you could easily accelerate right through it.

After that, a decent straight that fed you into what ended up being a straight 8-cone slalom. The trick of the slalom was that the last 4 cones decreased from 62 feet to 55, 50, and 45 feet. There was NO accelerating through this slalom! But, you had to stay focused on getting the last few cones right so that you could get on the gas early enough to blast through the finish with maximum velocity.

We did make one small change to the course after setup. Drew pre-drove it, and it seemed okay... but the course was a little damp at the time. As things dried out further, and people hit it with fast cars in "full competition mode", it became clear that the finish was too fast. Actually, that's not right. The speed wasn't crazy fast. But, it was a little faster than you could take the last turn without requiring braking. And seeing people going really fast and trying to brake/turn right before the finish... while expecting rain at some point during the day... made me nervous. So, we changed the original slalom (which we'd set up as a straight 7-cone 62-foot spaced slalom) to a decreasing 8-cone slalom. This worked perfectly to slow the speeds approaching the last turn so that even the fastest cars could safely accelerate through the last turn without even a lift. Well, except for Paul. But, we won't talk about that.

So, all-in-all, it was a really fun course. A great day of unexpectedly nice weather.

The only thing "weird" that happened, and you could have easily blinked and missed it, was the CAR FIRE in the last run group! Yep, another car fire. This one was relatively minor. A battery managed to shift in its mount and short out the positive terminal causing a small fire. Course workers (sorry, I didn't catch who was on-call) were ON IT with not one, not two, but THREE fire extinguishers almost immediately! Only one extinguisher was partially expended to put out the fire. But, I know the other two were at-the-ready, because the pins were pulled! Awesome work, guys! Nobody got hurt, and there was no damage to the car (other than smoke stains, fire extinguisher residue, and some charred wire insulation). It was able to be restarted and driven home.

Hey, during the afternoon driver's meeting, a couple guys rolled up on an aircraft tug or something. I know a couple people went and chatted with them. But, I never heard anything about it. Anybody know why there were there? Everything cool? PM me if necessary. Totally forgot to check on that during the event.

I had a great time but I had my butt hand to me bye just about everyone. I'm hoping it was a just a bad setup on the car other wise I'm going to have to pick up knitting or some thing.

Chris, don't worry...Jeremy schooled everyone.

Your CRX looked very stiffly sprung and tail happy as has been commented. Seems like they are a great chassis...Grassroots Motorsports has a contributor that appears to have CRX's science out for road course and autocross (Andy Hollis).

https://www.facebook.com/HollisRacing

Different topic...anyone get pics of the event??? Few cameras in attendance...people will pay money for that stuff!

Loren wrote:Hey, during the afternoon driver's meeting, a couple guys rolled up on an aircraft tug or something. I know a couple people went and chatted with them. But, I never heard anything about it. Anybody know why there were there? Everything cool? PM me if necessary. Totally forgot to check on that during the event.

I think Buzz was there. And maybe Hammer? I think Buzz held them and Chris beat them up just like he did everyone in Mod.

Wow, was the course that much faster in the afternoon or did I just suck 50% more than usual?

I think it's a myth that the afternoon is faster unless there are weather issues. The fact is that most of the faster drivers tend to run in the afternoon. Some because they believe the myth. Others just because they want to be there for the head-to-head competition.

The first 10-15 cars through the course on their first runs at Brooksville will generally clean the driving line of what little there is out there to clean.

The way we're doing car numbers in results now, anyone who was in the afternoon will have a "20" prefix on their number. Anything that's 3 or 4 digits and begins with "20" was a driver that ran in the afternoon. Pretty easy to see that there were some fast times in the morning.

I think a few people, like you, Jason... but also Joe and Mario, for instance... might have run faster in the morning had there been more faster drivers there in the morning running in the 45's and even 44's. As it was, there were only three drivers in the 45's. Mario (still getting used to his new suspension) was in the 46's. So, anyone running 46's might have felt like they were doing okay. Most of us think that way. The ones who don't (Jeremy is a good example), just keep getting faster because they're basing their expectations on what they know the car can do rather than on what times others are driving.

twistedwankel wrote:

Loren wrote:Hey, during the afternoon driver's meeting, a couple guys rolled up on an aircraft tug or something. I know a couple people went and chatted with them. But, I never heard anything about it. Anybody know why there were there? Everything cool? PM me if necessary. Totally forgot to check on that during the event.

I think Buzz was there. And maybe Hammer? I think Buzz held them and Chris beat them up just like he did everyone in Mod.

Buzz, Chris, and Ron went down and talked to them. Didn't see any contentious body language, and the tug departed back down the runway.

Over the years, I've just come to expect that the rest of the world is clueless...and that includes when the course is hot and cars are running at speed. At various places, have seen pedestrians enter the course (including going under/over marker tape), cars enter the course (looking for a parking place, of course), and even airplanes enter the course (the pilot also ignoring the large "X" marking a closed runway, and the probability that loose gravel and concrete chunks picked up in the propwash would do a number on his expensive airframe). And of course, they all don't understand why we can't just work around them....

Okay, so I guess they were just checking us out? Somebody should have given them some of our handy-dandy FAST "What is autocross" cards!

Loren wrote:Okay, so I guess they were just checking us out? Somebody should have given them some of our handy-dandy FAST "What is autocross" cards!

Loren - I'm just not sure if an aircraft tug would be all that competitive...

No, but aircraft mechanics are often very technically-minded and mechanically-creative people who might like to autocross. Anyone who takes the time to come ask about what we're doing should be given as much info was we can give them. That's why we printed those cards!

jaball77 wrote:Wow, was the course that much faster in the afternoon or did I just suck 50% more than usual?

Well you were only .4 seconds behind Drew who was bummed out getting beat by a S3 car. How much does he normally beat you by? He wished he'd have run in the morning when it was cooler and of course he could have gone home by noon instead of 4:30.

Here's my take on speed vs time. This is my second event on new RS-3 (ver 2.0). They are supposed to get warmer faster than (ver 1.0 200's). Yes they do. Somewhat. They also stay the same when hot which is awesome.

I personally think tires matter a lot. I loved the Rivals for their quickness when cold or hot. I loved the used Dunlops for their steering precision. I still love the old 140 RS-3's on Shamu for durability. I love the wider 255 RS-3's for their grip when hot. Not much good when cold first run. Car was very loose in the backend especially. After that great. S2 was in the first run group of the afternoon.

Chris Hammer loves the new RS-3's too. He will be getting some soon for his own car. (Borrowed cars are faster.)

I think being limited to only 4 runs bit most of us in the butt. We are all spoiled. That said: Greg A. saved my butt on the first run as I got all screwed up on the first section which looked alien to me at speed/sideways but I didn't hit any cones thanks to my spirit guide/mentor (who sadly was not happy with his personal results but still got #3). My car was very loose. My brain was ill prepared even tho' walked course twice and sleeping in that morning.

#2 run was nearly 2 seconds faster +2 cones but tires were really starting to hook up. No problem finding driving line.

3rd and 4th runs were within .002 seconds of each other but only .3 seconds faster than the second one was so I felt I was as good as I was gonna be without making some changes to the car. Took it predictably right to the edge all three last times.

Rob and Loren were a full second ahead of #3 BUT from #3 to #6 was only separated by .245 seconds. The lone morning guy in #7 still beat the remaining two excellent competitors. But I'm sure he accepts his finish time related to the other drivers?

Car by car I pretty accurately predicted which cars/drivers would do well and those who would suffer in the late session. Certain setup and driving styles did not lend themselves well to this exercise. I actually lightly repulled a back muscle on certain parts of the exercise. But that's where wives come in.

Yes. Virginia, there are advantages to running the late session. You get to sleep in, have your coffee, read the paper, see your wife awake with her lipstick on, pack your car up, grab a sandwich, run with 98% of your class AND help pick up the course while packing the trailer in full heat of the day. Oh AND learn the event results.

jaball77 wrote:Wow, was the course that much faster in the afternoon or did I just suck 50% more than usual?

It's the car, that thing's a turd. I'll give you 2K for it if it will make you feel better.

I liked this course, but it took me until my last run just to get a clean run in. Don't think I've ever hit that many cones. I think I left a little time out there in the turn around. Every time I went through I was too slow. This was one of those courses where I couldn't keep it in second or third. Had to downshift in turnaround, which I hate, because I suck at it. I always slow down too much. That surely cost me 4, maybe 5 seconds.