Da Groj

Perfect day of autocross! I loved the course, even though I didn't have the power to really compete on it.

Results are here:
http://drivefast.org/results/results-archive/

50 drivers completed 8 runs each, plus lunch, and we wrapped up right at 2:30. Can't complain about that! Thanks for being a part of it!

5 1 S1 20 Randolph Barrera 2004 Honda S2000 32.521 0.026 1.082
6 2 S1 173 Dat Nguyen 2007 Mazda RX-8 32.546 0.025 1.107
7 1 S0 60 Ken Marion 2004 Porsche GT3 32.585 0.039 1.146
8 2 S0 78 Joe Brannon 2004 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 32.831 0.246 1.392

I wasn't even there but these results made my day.

Here's my best time. Found out I coned it after I got home! I'm guessing I hit the 4th slalom cone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiNFgir4a5U

Thanks all for the great second season and the exciting, friendly competition. I'll be trying to keep my wheels on going forward! Then back in December...at least that's the plan...
B

The lack of discussion with the offset slalom and the way POS's rule.

bluesight wrote:Thanks all for the great second season and the exciting, friendly competition. I'll be trying to keep my wheels on going forward! Then back in December...at least that's the plan...
B

I rest my case. Bad dude next season bring some Cheese.

Thy Mayor

bluesight wrote:Thanks all for the great second season and the exciting, friendly competition. I'll be trying to keep my wheels on going forward! Then back in December...at least that's the plan...
B

next time we need to figure out when to swap a few runs at an event, I think you'll have fun with the acura.

See you next fall.

My run from today, posted on Facebook, but for those not on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7chorc7lzc

Slightly off my game but that was a fun challenging course. Got my best run on #4 but I wasn't fast until my 8th!

bluesight wrote:Thanks all for the great second season and the exciting, friendly competition. I'll be trying to keep my wheels on going forward!

Just make sure there's four....

Post mortem on the busted trailer lock: Inconclusive.

It was fun hacking it apart. But, the only worn part I found was the brass part that the notch in the shackle slides over when you lock/unlock it. There are actually two of them, one for each side with a little spring that pushes them out. One side was pretty significantly worn, the other side not so much.

But, that's not what the lock to not open. Something in the tumbler mechanism was messed up. Maybe just some dirt got in the wrong place? I couldn't actually find a problem with it... nor could I get it to unlock. I further hacked the mechanism apart to look at individual pieces, and nothing looked worn at all! Everything looked just fine. Springs were all in place and working. Spinny bits seemed to be working correctly.

It's a mystery. But, we can't complain about 8-10 years of good service from a cheap padlock.

Thanks very much for the co-drive, Ken! Miatas are fun, and the company good, too!
The videos above are good. I guess my turn-around line wasn't as bad as it felt...

Just about the perfect day of racing, imho. It all went along smoothly and at a comfortable pace, and all the help from everyone to make it happen is much appreciated.

It was a pretty fun day! As the runs went on I found more and more time to make up, unfortunately I also found a cone on my fastest run [emoji23] oh well. Gotta grind harder on the "suck less" part of the philosophy haha. Open for someone to co-drive at the event on the 7th. If anyone wants some runs in a stock miata with all seasons and blown shocks I'm more than willing to offer the seat up.

Dat didn't bring his rx8 (booo). My fastest "clean" time had a cone so Dat won by .4 seconds, thats why i looked confused during awards. Don't drive with a sinus infection guys.

Thank jesus for Soraya. I didn't realized the sway bar was too stiff for the concrete so I was fighting the car, but at least I now have data to tune with.

The course had a lot of critical points but also lots of space to open up. Very busy for a 30 second course.

Here's me surprising Ken with a slide through the cross over

https://youtu.be/KA_58UnlCWo

Rpwolf wrote:Dat didn't bring his rx8 (booo). My fastest "clean" time had a cone so Dat won by .4 seconds, thats why i looked confused during awards. Don't drive with a sinus infection guys.

Thank jesus for Soraya. I didn't realized the sway bar was too stiff for the concrete so I was fighting the car, but at least I now have data to tune with.

The course had a lot of critical points but also lots of space to open up. Very busy for a 30 second course.

Here's me surprising Ken with a slide through the cross over

https://youtu.be/KA_58UnlCWo

nice run, I find it interesting you downshifted before the slalom. I tried it and didnt trust myself to do it there on more than one run consistently so I gave that up and kept it in 3rd through the slalom. Wasn't going to risk a money shift into 2nd lol

Finally got around to editing and posting some video. I know I was a little late on the slalom entry, kinda why I nailed that cone but please let me know if you see other suggestions
https://youtu.be/icp1qQphb4Y

You're making the tires sing! I'm not seeing any major issues. Maybe a little late on the initial turn-in for the turn-around, which maybe could have gotten you around the turn-around a little faster. But, that was a really hard sequence to get right.

Loren wrote:You're making the tires sing!

Yea I seem to do that quite a bit, I'm assuming I'm just being a bit too aggressive with my inputs. That's definitely something I've been trying to work on.

No, that's a GOOD thing! You want the tires to sing at you a little bit. The crappier they are, the more they're going to protest. But, when I say "sing", I mean just that. They're not squealing bloody murder... they're just "singing" at you. That means you're right where you want to be.

I don't think it sounds like you're overdriving the tires at all.

SlowMiataDrew wrote:

Loren wrote:You're making the tires sing!

Yea I seem to do that quite a bit, I'm assuming I'm just being a bit too aggressive with my inputs. That's definitely something I've been trying to work on.

Most street tires of any type will talk when they get to the limit, and that's useful to keep from overdriving them. You didn't seem to be pushing them too far. Maybe a bit smoother on the inputs, but that's probably a looking/thinking ahead issue, which is always the skill that takes the most practice. Everything else follows from that.

Another fantastic day of autocross, perfect weather and good company.

I had a great time jumping in for some passenger rides - thanks to everyone for who let me ride along, always fun to experience such a variety of different cars.

I felt like I made some pretty good progress during the day, I've managed to attend more events than usual this season and I think the seat time is starting to pay off. I had four clean runs and four with cones so at least I know I was working on the push harder side of the equation. During the day I dropped my time from a 38.2 to a 35.8. Also ended up closer than I can remember to Loren's line of shame - only .161s and two places below in the overall list. This sounds like a "suck less" result to me.

Here's my fastest time, I don't feel like I mastered my approach to the turn around in any of my runs, but otherwise pretty happy with this one.

https://youtu.be/RwzlgV509eA

Any feedback or words of advice are welcome.

Dan

Well it's good to know I'm at least on the right track, more seat time is needed. Thanks!