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Traveling to get seat time. Don't want to make this trip often, as it is about 4 hours each way. I was the only car in STS, as they are to lazy to properly class the cars out there, but that's OK as I didn't come to beat anybody, just for seat time.
This event is held at a dragstrip in the middle of nowhere (Goodletsville, actually), and the lot is huge ( 60 sec avg.). This course consisted of a long, fast downhill, 2 slaloms, 2 hairpins, a 360 skidpad type section.
The guys I rode down with were complaining about it not being as wide-open as the usual events here, but I think it was just perfect for a guy like me, who's just trying to learn how to drive.
I couldn't have asked for a better course to practice, as I had to break really hard at the end of a long downhill, slalom multiple times, and try to balance the car through a skidpad. I really tore up my tires in the first session (2 3-run sessions) as I overcooked the hairpin and tried to turn at the same time.
And I was smooth through the slalom, but just wasn't getting much faster. It wasn't until I hitched a ride and was talking with Trey Commander (interesting name, eh?) in his Type-R that I began to see how I should drive. Man that car was hauling, and I know I can't expect my car to grab like that, but it really helped.
He was just attacking that slalom, at speeds that seemed insane to me. On my 4th run I tried to put all of that together; brake harder before turning, and drive more aggresively through the slalom. I shaved off 2 seconds on that run! (63.3) I was bummed to find out that I hit a cone though, so it got tacked right back on.
The next run, I overcooked the hairpin again, and wound up with a 65.1.
Not a bad day, overall. I feel like I really, finally learned how to handle my car. I learned more in one ride with Trey Commander than I have in 6 autocrosses. He is a really cool guy, and I really appreciate his help, as I was having a hard time getting any help from the other guys.
It will be interesting to see how I apply my new understanding in the next event. If I can be that much faster on 1 run, I should be able to do it all day.
Cones Killed: 1
Total: 2
This is my first points event in STS. I was felling pretty good about my chances, since I had a couple of good weekends, but I was quickly reminded that I am still a novice. Over 80 drivers turned out with 16 in my class, including Hart Kaudewitz in his fast Neon.
This was another short course, and although we did 2 laps, it was still sub 30 secs. The key here, I believe, was going fast and clean through the slalom, which I am not good at yet. The car was OK, and the STB really seemed to help some with the understeer, but when you go in too hot, there's just not much you can do with it.
I noticed at the end of the session that I am really eating my tires up, by going in too fast and letting them slide. I ran clean, and everyone says I look smooth, but I'm just not terribly fast. I hit my first cone, ever, on my 3rd run (had a pretty good streak going).
I tried braking with my left foot throught the slalom, and, even though I botched it up a few times, sure enough it was my fastest run of the day.
I came in 7th out of 16, beaten by several of the guys I had finished ahead of the previous 2 weeks, including the Golf 1.8T, and brought back down to earth. I was a little frustrated at first, but I started learning a new skill (left foot braking) so I am encouraged to know that I can do it, and can get faster.
Only now I wonder if I really will be able to catch the faster guys (Doug Allen's Civic SI won) who were nearly 3 sec faster than me. I thought I would surely be faster this week, but I guess I just never nailed the course (never nailed any of them actually).
It's going to take a lot of improvement to win STS in the ETR.
Points: 1 (thanks for coming; you get a point)
Total: 1
Cones Killed: 1
Total: 1
I figure seat time is the only way to truly get faster, so I thought I would make this trip. I still have the same setup as a week ago, and I expected the competition to be really tough, but the turnout was light.
This course was longer, with a couple of tight turns and a really big sweeper, that ran into moderately tight 180. The higher speeds turned out to trow off the balance of my car as I tried to carry too much speed into the corners.
The NX seemed to be understeering worse than last time, but I think it was the higher speeds that just magnified it, and I just didn't brake soon enough. I finally got my tire pressure right and it did help, but tire pressure can't overcome poor driving.
I tried some different stuff on my fun runs, but it didn't really pay off, as I got all screwed up trying to go way too fast and screwing up the braking points. I never liked understeer, but it never really bothered me as much as today; I am really starting to hate it.
One scary moment: On my first run, on the launch, I dropped the clutch at about 3000 to 3500, and the car barely pulled out of the start. The clutch just slipped insanely all the way into second gear. I almost got sick, because I thought I had burned out my clutch. I eased it out on the next run, and got a little more aggressive on each successive run, and it was fine.
I still am not sure what happened.
I finished 1st out of 4. My first win. The only real driver there was Stuart Gibson, from ETRSCCA, in his VW Golf 1.8T. He was fast (and really smooth), but I nudged past him on the last run.
I came, I ran, I left with the T-shirt. I soon hope to have one with "ETRSCCA" on it. I need to keep working.
This was my first run in STS, and my first with the Azeni's. Weather was OK, but really windy. This was not for points, but a lot of the guys that race for points were there, so it was a pretty good barometer.
The car definitly has better grip now, and is more responsive, but still pushes hard, making it difficult to be smooth or precise. I really need to work on braking harder before a corner to get better exit speed.
I finished 3rd out of a field of 9, so this is my best performance yet. I was very pleased. The two cars that beat me ('01 Focus ZX-3 & '99 Civic Si) were much newer, with more HP and mods than the NX (still pretty much stock) and I was only .4 seconds behind the winner.
An even bigger surprise for me, was that I was only .2 secs behind Yoder's time, and he is on Hoosiers. I think things are getting interesting.
IT RAINED. AND RAINED. THE TYPE OF RAIN you don't even like to drive in, much less autocross in. The good thing about it: Only the harcore guys show up in this weather, giving us more runs. The bad thing about it: Only the hardcore guys show up, so you'd better be fast.
You can see from my pics how much water was on the course. It was fun, though. I really expected the high-horsepower cars on slicks to spin out and have trouble getting traction, but I think this event was the best show of driving I've seen, as everyone (except White T-Bird) seemed to be in total control.
I did OK, peaking on my 4th run, which was over 1 sec faster than my 3rd. I kinda screwed up my 5th run trying to heel-and-toe, when my foot slipped of my wet, bare-metal clutch pedal and I missed a shift. I DNF'ed my last run.
Don't know what I was thinking, I was just trying to go fangs out and forgot what I was doing, I guess.
But as good as I felt I drove, Yoder had his Hoosiers on and was fast as all get-out, and Gib drove well in his SVT, managing to snag 2nd, leaving me in last... again.
I keep getting better, but I know my car isn't capable of much more, without, at least, some better tires. Right now, I have no chance of winning an event unless Yoder is a no-show. I will have some tires before the next event.
Points:
Yoder = 15
Gib = 8
ME = 7
THE SECOND EVENT IS BETTER than the first. All of the first time jitters are gone, you kinda know where to go, what to do, and what kind of time frame you are working within.
Not to say that there is no adrenaline, it still made my hands shake a little before my first run, but I felt much more in control of my car. Everything seemed to slow down a little from the first event; I was able to think about where I wanted to go on the course, and how I wanted to position my car in the corners.
Funny how that changed from the last time, when I felt I was just flailing around, yanking the wheel from left to right. Heck, I even got in a little Heel-and-Toe action (although it may have slowed me down a little, this time, as my timing was a little off).
After the first run, in which I lost sight of the exit point and had to completely stop, on course, I was able to really think about how to go faster. I tried a radically high front tire pressure (50 lbs, most recommend 40), which helped tremendously against the brutal understeer my soft, street Yoko's had previously induced.
I braked pretty good, and hit the apexes pretty much where I wanted to, and carried good speed in the straights, while never hitting a cone. I never quite got the exit speed from the corners that I wanted, as I couldn't match the revs as well as I would like, but that just takes practice.
The class changes this year put my car in G-Stock, which includes a lot more cars, many with much more horsepower than mine. Competing in my class were: '85 CRX SI, Yoder's NX2000, '99 SVT Contour, MX-6 V6, '99 Ford ZX-3.
as you can see, there is not a lame car in the bunch. I was a bit worried to see the line-up. Two of the cars (NX and CRX) are tuned to the max allowable in Stock class, while I think the others were pretty stock (albeit much newer than my car).
My car is bone-stock, with crappy (for autocross) tires, 10 years old, and has 141K miles. Usually each class has a few guys who don't really know what they are doing, and there is a great variance between 1st and last place, but not so in this GS. Everyone drove clean and fast, with less than 2 seconds seperating 2nd from 6th place.
I finish 4th, just nudging out the Contour (a first timer, named Gib; pretty cool guy) and the MX-6, while less than 1 sec behind Yoder's NX (who wasn't using racing tires, today).
4th out of 6 may not sound great, but I'll take it for now, especially considering my car's handicap. From what I have read, an NX2000 should be able to out-brake almost anything, so I think that may be one my only advantage, right now. I doubt if I will be able to hold off Gib's Contour at the next event, though, as he will get much faster with practice.
If I'm going to be competitive, I need to start upgrading, now. New slogan... "Daddy Needs Racing Tires".
AUTOCROSSING IS THE TEST OF ALL that you think you know about driving fast. Knowing how to drive is one thing, but actually being able to drive is an entirely different story.
Entering a corner fast is easy; exiting a corner fast is yet another story. For those of you who have never seen an autocross (aka. SOLO II) event, a course is composed of a vacant parking lot, strewn with orange cones forming gates and placed at devious angles by an even more devious mind.
The cars are divided into classes and run individually, with one car launching the moment the previous one hits the finish line. The tracks are intentionally challenging, and points are deducted for knocking down cones, while missing a gate results in disqualification.
THE DAY BEGINS WITH preparing to race. I arrived, registered, got my car through the tech inspection, and did my first walk-around of the track in a relatively relaxed fashion, but the driver's meeting seemed to arrive much sooner than I had anticipated.
Since this was my first event, ever, I was hoping I would get to watch the first group run, before my group lined up, but no such luck. I'm in the first group. Luckily, there were some very helpful guys, who had been doing this for a long time, who showed me how to get around and what to do.
Before I new what was going on, I was buckled in and flailing around the course, for what seemed like 2 seconds, and then it was over. This ride had been provided by a nice gentleman in a nice Benz, I can only remember as "Bill". Now it was my turn.
In autocross, there are no practice laps. I line up, I launch; wide open throttle (WOT), left, right, riiiiiiiiiiight, braaake leeeeeeeeeft, WOT leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeft, right, riiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhttttttt, LEEEEEEEEEFFFFFFTTTT, WOT, LLLLEEEEEFFFFFFFFFT, brake. Exactly like that. It takes longer to say it than it does to drive it.
I WAS PLEASED JUST TO see that I had made it through without getting lost or hitting any cones. I was disqualified (DNF), however, for passing on the wrong side of a cone. I didn't feel bad, though, since about 80% the drivers DNF'ed on the first run. Everything happens so fast; you just have to imprint it into your brain, because you just don't have time to think about anything. My second run was the about the same, only faster, but I still DNF'ed, only in a different spot. On my third run, I finally got it all right. I hit all the gates, and was still faster. After my last run, I got out of my car and took off my borrowed helmet (never did quite get used to the extra weight of a helmet on my skinny little neck), and immediately noticed my quivering hands, I guess from the rush of adrenaline. You never really want to get out of the car, you just want to check your time and do it again, but three to four runs are usually it.
WHEN ALL THE SMOKE HAD CLEARED, the dust had settled and the cars were back on their trailers, I was well satisfied with my Second in Class finish, in my first event. It matters not that there were only two cars in my class. I never expected to beat the other guy, anyway. He has an NX just like mine, but it's tweaked as far as it can go and still be considered "Stock". I think my primary handicap will be the cushy tires that I recently bought. I never felt like I was able to feel the road very well, and traction in hard cornering was abysmal. It kept pushing to the outside (understeer) and I could never hold a good line. My car handles, very predictably, however, and I never felt out of control. When I was losing traction, I could simply let off the throttle a bit to tighten my line some, but I never had the level of control I wanted, thanks to those syrupy Yokohama's. Mainly, I am just glad I didn't screw up. Even my DNF's were not that bad, and I did manage two, very clean runs (my fastest run was in a Fun Run after the official event was over). I certainly did see many people do much worse than I. Several got lost on the course, some took out pent up aggression on cones, and a couple just never did seem to get it. Not that I am making fun, I can easily see how it could happen on this course, and I hope they have better luck next time.
I WAS BADLY SUNBURNED, tired, starving. and ready for home, by the day's end. I had fun, but didn't really realize how much fun until this morning, sitting at work telling everyone about my weekend. I am suddenly preoccupied with the thought of my next meeting and how I can get around the course faster. I know what my first investment towards Autocrossing will be: Racing tires. Then you'd better watch out, Yoder! Maybe I should've never started this.
