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SCCA Town Hall Meeting + Welcome Party
After the Women's luncheon, we both walked the West course a bunch of times and attended the SCCA Town Hall Meeting. This meeting, traditionally held on the Monday of Solo Nationals week, is where actual members get to talk face-to-face with SEB (Solo Events Board) and various category and class Advisory Committee members. I always go to this meeting if I am at the Solo Nationals to listen, to learn, and to ask questions (and since I write dozens of letters a year to the SEB, "they know me"... if not in a good way). The SEB opened with introductions for the five members in attendance. Then they began a lot of talk about the new 180 minimum treadwear rule for Road Tire class, as well as the plan to replace all Stock classes with RT classes in the future. I think it is a great idea - Hoosier A6 tire costs and the radical differences in performance from "real" street tires to R compounds make Stock class an expensive place to race, and not at all the "entry level class" this category was intended to be.
The SEB members had argued around 140, 180 and 200 treadwear minimums, but 180 was chosen for: more tire choices and a "progressive level of grip" from RT -> ST -> SP. After hearing their arguments, I agreed with their thinking and do hope the RT class continues to grow and eventually replaces the R compounds in Stock class altogether. I'm sure this will anger about three dozen people within the Stock class Solo community, but make hundreds of people happier.
Annnnd then on Thursday there was
another open meeting about "the future of Road Tire", where I heard that Howard Duncan back-tracked
everything the SEB had stated about the intention of RT classes (such as this was always a test with the goal to eventually replace Stock classes, Stock class moving away from R compounds in a few years, etc). So yeah, they caved to pressure from the loudest minority within Stock class. Hopefully this was just hot air and the SEB sticks by their guns.
The other big topic at the Town Hall meeting was the lack of ST classing for the new FT86 Subaru/Toyota chassis, but the unusual fact that it
was classed in C Stock. The SEB said it will be classed right
after Nationals - I and strongly suspect it will be placed in STR, and they basically confirmed that without actually confirming that. And were quick to say that it could then be moved to STX or elsewhere within 12 months or something. Personally I think this was a cop-out, and put in my two cents about this subject in our BRZ Project thread and privately to SEB and STAC members. Next, the theme of the meeting shifted to "we have too many classes" in Solo, where I again agree. That open "question and answer" portion gobbled up an hour so they broke up into groups, and Amy and I sat in and chatted with the SPAC (Street Prepared Advisory Committee).
I learned a lot about what the SPAC is thinking, with some members asking for more allowances and some asking for "SP-Light", with no fender cutting and emissions rules of ST. Another nugget was the fact that the RX8 is going to be moved to DSP "very soon". Interesting stuff. I have begun a big letter about my thoughts on the age old problems in SP (some extremely dated rules) and the weird overlap between ST, SP, SM and XP. I will talk more on this in a future post.
After the Town Hall meeting and some more course walks, we went off site to the Solo Welcome Party, where the food was once again awful. Your choice was a single soggy Sam's Club burger patty or a single dried-and-burnt hot dog, plus some beans and a cookie. And I knew better than to go there expecting decent food, as it's always sponsored, so it ends up being cheap food whenever it's a free welcome party like this. I don't mean to be a hater - Vorshlag has sponsored a number of these welcome parties at SCCA Tours and Pros, it
can get expensive, and we haven't done a
whole lot better. So I can't complain, but I can warn people
. On the way out we saw some fellow Texas Region racers and convinced them to skip this free-food-fest, and we all had some great local beers and better food in the Haymarket area in downtown Lincoln. This is where we usually end up when eating in Lincoln, as there is a great variety of restaurants there.
Tuesday ESP Competition - West Course
Results: http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...%20Results.pdf
Vorshlag Picture and Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...CCA-Solo-Nats/
Click above for a larger version of the West Course map.
After working a hot and lengthy two hour and ten minute heat one (blame all goes to the "special needs" and slow response in grid from the junior karts), it was time for heat three where ESP ran. We lined up with 33 cars in our class, the largest Street Prepared class at the event. My first run started right about 1:15 pm where it was warm at 79°F, and it only got hotter as the day progressed. The west course was set-up nicely by Karen Babb, with big sweepers and some faster sections, and frankly I thought this one would play to the strengths of the Mustang - some room to stretch the legs of this Coyote 5.0 motor. I also feared a shift to 3rd for many competitors. I was dead wrong on all counts...
Click above to see the video from Terry's first run on the West Course (59.803). The front looks like positive camber?!
Well that run was a bit of a mess. The course was easy to see and flowed well, but the large number of 90°, 180°, and 270° sweepers were not what the 3540 pound Mustang excelled at when compared to the many 3100-3300 pound competitors - almost all of whom were on the same 315/30/18 Hoosier tires. I didn't get lost or hit anything, but the course just "drove a lot slower than it walked" and I wasn't anywhere near topping out 2nd gear like I thought. I also made some errors in judgement about braking and under-drove the course a bit.
I was way off on the slalom timing, especially the final few before the finish. Some of my friends were watching the run and said it looked like I was coasting around the showcase turn (big 270° left-hander in front of the crowd) and that I was leaving two feet to the cones at the big offset gates in "double-down". The course had a LOT of left turns and the right side tires got
HOT! I was kind of glad I didn't have a second driver. The car's orientation when parked in grid also kept the right side tires in the burning sun, so we sprayed those two tires after every run. My time of 59.803 was a solid second behind class leader Mark Madarash, but I was still in 4th place after the first runs were completed. I decided to push it harder in my second run by tightening up on the cones, focusing on getting on the throttle earlier, and try to stay ahead on the slalom cones.
Click above to see the video from Terry's second run on the West Course (59.727).
Well my second run was sloppier than my first, now over-driven instead of under-driven. I was much more aggressive on throttle which made for some pushy corners, but I still managed to pick up a tenth of a second (59.727). It was quickly getting hotter and I was the only driver in the top 5 to improve on the second set of runs, with 2nd and 3rd place slowing down considerably and Madarash almost matching his first run. This gave me hope that maybe I could move up if everyone else stayed about the same. I usually run quickest on my 3rd run, so I had some hope. With so many mistakes on that second run, I knew there was more time in the car. I had the car crossed up hard in two places on course that I knew were costing me time. I was going to go for a hero run on my last shot at the course.
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