Project Update for September 8, 2012: We are back from the 2012 SCCA Solo National Championship and we have two new trophies with us. Amy took 1st place in ESP-Ladies and I managed 4th place in ESP open. I'm very happy with that result, especially after seeing how serious the competition was in the 33 car ESP class. Sadly, our daily driven car didn't look too serious among this crowd, but I kind of expected that.
New Graphics and Switch to Hoosier Tires
I really liked the 315mm Kumho V710 tires we have been running in ESP and for some track use, both because of the taller height (315/35/18) and better wear they give over the shorter lifespan Hoosier. The V710s fared pretty well at the Mineral Wells ProSolo in April, then we ran them at TWS with NASA, an ECR track day, and at some autocrosses. These tires still looked pretty good after all of this abuse, but our test event the week before Nationals tore the crap out of the front tires.
At the May Lincoln Pro and Tour events, we ran the
gigantic 345/35/18 A6 Hoosiers in the rear and the 315/30/18 A6 Hoosiers up front. The rear tires rubbed everywhere (inside and out) and the fronts were almost completely destroyed after those two events (we brought these fronts to Nationals as "emergency spares"). The car pushed badly with the big front-to-rear grip imbalance as well. So whatever we chose for Nationals would be a "square" set-up with 315s mounted all the way around. We were more comfortable with this after the switch to the Whiteline rear sway bar, which gave us better rear tire clearance.
I thought about sticking with the Kumho V710 tire, but looking at event results proved that it really is no longer competitive against the latest gumball "DOT" Rs (Hoosier or Goodyear), so we begrudgingly made the jump to 315/30/18 A6 Hoosiers. It was the lessor of two evils: I know the A6 is very fast, but wears poorly. I also know the Goodyears wear terribly, but I was not convinced it could be as quick after seeing them at the April Mineral Wells ProSolo and the May Lincoln events. This Solo Nationals would answer that, as the Goodyears won in AStock and placed 3rd in ESP.
Amy has been bugging for some damned stripes on the car for the past two years. She fell in love with the dual stripes she saw on some early Mustang Challenge entries and worked with JasonM here at Vorshlag. They came up with what you see below.
I thought this new graphic layout "was a bit loud", but surprisingly we had dozens of people come up to us and complement the new graphics at Nationals. I'll give the credit for this design to Amy and Jason, as I was against this new look from the start. It's starting to grow on me and I like the car without any graphics better, but we have to sell parts and this kind of look helps people know who we are. After street driving the car these few days after Nationals, the new look definitely attracts more attention from random people on the street than driving naked in a convertible. I don't know if that is good or bad, heh.
Once the graphics were finished being applied (wet) on Friday (Aug 31st), we left them to dry overnight and I came up to the shop on Saturday to finish up. I peeled the backing off and it looked... pretty good. I loaded the car in the trailer and got everything strapped down, then took the truck and trailer home to wait. After watching the crazy Belgium F1 race Sunday morning and getting packed for the week in Lincoln, we pulled out of Dallas at about 4:45 pm. We drove 10 hours north to Lincoln, arriving a little before 3 am on Monday. The 10 hour tow was completely uneventful, just like I like it. We made food on the way, never stopped for more than 10 minutes to refuel, and made great time.
Left: Setting up our trailer in paddock. Right: I had to move the crapper, which was sitting dead center in our paddock spot
Once we got to the event site we parked in our paddock spot, slept for a few of hours, then set-up the trailer and unloaded at about 6:45 am. Grabbed the event decals we needed, applied those, and took the car through Tech. We then bought somebody's Test course entry ($45 for four 30 second runs = ouch) for 1 pm and headed over to the Test Course.
Monday - Nationals Practice
It is always a good idea to take at least a couple of practice runs on the same surface as the courses before a National Championship event, to get the car adjusted for the new surface and conditions. We had also switched tires from Kumho to Hoosier, so a few runs could hopefully help us see any potential problems. Amy had never driven the Mustang on this "new Whiteline set-up", with the new Whiteline Watts link, UCA + mount, and front and rear sway bars. We happened to end up in the grid at the same time as Tim Bergstrom, a Vorshlag customer on AST shocks and Vorshlag camber plates who has a yellow 2007 GT (see above). He was running in ESP (with co-driver Britt Dollmeyer who eventually finished 2nd in ESP), and also in grid were two other ESP racers in a Boss 302, as well as Amy's lone ESP-L competitor. So at least we could see how she fared against some ESP competition - always a bonus!
Click above to see the video from Amy's third run on the Test Course (30.5) - you can still see the Hoosier stickers on the tires in this picture.
Amy took three runs and I rode through with her twice to try and push her a bit. She was quick, running both 30.5 to 30.6 sec runs, which was exactly what the yellow GT was running and a bit quicker than the Boss302 and some others we saw in ESP cars. She felt good after three runs and let me take her fourth run, so I strapped in and pulled to the line, as the rain started to fall.
Oh great! It wasn't that bad, but raining enough that I had to run the wipers a bit. The car felt GREAT and the timers showed a 29.7 second run, which was quicker than anyone in ESP was running that we could see. The run felt good. Dave Ogburn (ESP racer who finished 3rd, on Goodyears, in Sam Strano's old ESP Camaro) later told me he was running mid 30 second practice runs also, so I was running what I needed to in practice.
Click above to see the video from Terry's first and only run on the Test Course (29.7).
But looking back, I've "won a lot of Nationals" by looking at times from the Nationals practice courses, yet sadly these have never translated into actual Nationals wins, hehe.
Women of Solo Luncheon
After the practice event we parked at our paddock spot and got ready for the Women of Solo Luncheon, for which Vorshlag was the title sponsor. I couldn't go (women only), but Amy was there and Brianne Corn went as well. They had over 130 attendees at this two hour gathering, talking about the various contributors to women racing in SCCA Solo for the past 40 years.
Left: Women of Solo Luncheon. Right: One week in Lincoln + copious amounts of beer + lots of boring rental golf carts = StreetModGolfCart!
Sadly it was decided that 2012 would be the first year at Nationals (in 40 years of running) where a minimum of three entries are needed to crown a "National Champion" for any class. This affected several Ladies classes that had only two entries, including Amy's win in ESP-Ladies.
Mark my words: this three car minimum will be the end of Ladies classes. It definitely will be the end of
Amy running in Ladies class, as we have decided to avoid this nonsense for 2013. We actually tried to move her into ESP open class on race day, but at 7:30 am Tuesday morning (when we finally found the new "three car minimum" note, buried in the event's supplemental rules) she was told "it was too late" to switch classes... even though late registration was still open until 8:30 am. Was it just lazy registration people or a legitimate restriction? Who knows. It doesn't matter - we should have known about this change to the minimum entrant rule beforehand.
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