continued from above
In order to fix this, we pulled off the pair of thin spacers and put on some that were an 1/8" wider. A minimal change to the track width and feel of the car, but it was apparently enough as we didn't have any more tire rub on Day Two.
Also, while the car was in the air we verified the rebound settings on the Moton Club Sports, which have to be adjusted with this little tool with the tires off. Then we used our RocksOff tire scraper to get the pebbles off the sticky A6 rubber. We didn't have a problem with "OPR" pickup, other than a few strands I could peel off with my hands. I guess the ESP car was heavy enough to scrub off the fronts and powerful enough to keep the rears clear of rubber pickup. I saw lots of
stock class guys madly scraping their tires between runs with cordless cutting tools and at night with torches and scrapers.
(continued from above)
Wednesday ESP Competition - East Course
Click image above for a larger version of the Roger Johnson designed East Course.
After a late night walking the East course and an awesome meal at a place called "Toast", we hit the ground running at 6:30 am Wednesday morning. We walked the course at dawn, then unloaded the car to get it ready. We worked the East course in the first heat at a real cluster-f*ck corner where we shagged upwards of 40 cones. This "ring of fire" section was a real visual mess and lots of people took out 1-4 cones at a time in this section. I'm not knocking the course - it did exactly what Roger intended... caught people out and "separated the men from the boys".
Once we got to grid in the third heat, it wasn't quite as hot and I was hoping some ESP drivers would fall for the many visual traps on Roger's course - and that I would not. Being in 5th place was not where I wanted to start the day, but I was hopeful that I could move up one or two places if I nailed this course.
Left: Wednesday's 33 car ESP Grid. Right: Mark's racing secret Activia yogurt is kicking in!
The plan was to go out and try to lay down a FAST first run, which I did... and promptly murdered the very last cone on course, in the very section where I worked the course!!!
Click above to see the video from Terry's first run on the East Course (69.034 +1).
Grr, I was so pissed at myself. The run time was great and it would have moved me right up into 2nd place according to the announcer, but then he heard the cone call. That "simple constant radius turn" in the "ring of fire" section of the East course was the hardest corner of the event, bar none. There were all sorts of visual tricks, the camber of the surface changed as you went around the corner, and you came into it all kinds of crossed up. I worked on this section all day, and after getting it mostly right on my first run I promptly got LOST in this section on my second run. FFS...
Click above to see the video from Terry's second run (69.802).
Actually I got lost in
two places on that run, after getting through fairly quickly and easily on my first attempt. I let my "coned" first run mess with my head. On my second run, getting lost slowed me down eight tenths and moved me all the way down to 10th place in class. The car felt fine, but I just lost my way and really psyched myself out. After being in 4th place almost the entire first day, I was mired down in
10th place going into my last run of Nationals?! Oh man, was I sweating. It was "hero run time"...
Click above to see the video from Terry's third run (68.735).
I nailed my last run - Hot diggidy DAMN! I knew the run was good before I heard the time or placing, and I got out of the car shaking. Man that felt good! It was really only about 3 tenths quicker than my first run, but it didn't have the cone penalty. This run moved me from 10th place (outside of the trophies) into a solid 4th place overall, only .058 behind 3rd place. After watching some second drivers improve but not bump me lower, I stayed in 4th place. Dave Ogburn pulled off a quick last run and increased his lead over me to 4 tenths in 3rd place.
I was so glad to be done and to have moved into the trophies. I normally wouldn't be so happy with a 4th place finish, but after seeing the car builds and drivers in the top 10, I think I was pretty lucky to have done this well in an emissions-legal street car with A/C, navigation, big stereo, untouched fenders, and all that. And for as heavy as our car ended up being (more on that below). Here is a small sampling of the ESP competitors.
Left: Eight time ESP National Champion Mark Madarash's '88 Firebird (on ASTs). Right: Second place finisher Britt Dollmeyer in Tim Bergstrom's '06 Mustang GT (on ASTs).
Left: Dave Ogburn's third place '01 Camaro on Goodyears. Right: Opie Viets' 3rd Gen '84 Camaro.
Left: Fifth place finisher David Feighner's '95 Cobra R. Right: David Gushwa's Mustang Boss 302.
Left: Twelfth place finisher Mark Foley's '99 Firebird. Right: Dave Heinrich's Mustang Boss 302 finished in the trophies in seventh place.
Left: Tye "Colossus" Jackson's '01 Camaro. Right: Sixth place Jonathan Newcombe trophied driving James Darden's '97 LT4 Z28.
Darden actually tied Brad Owen for the 9th and final trophy spot, down to the .001 second, so they looked at their next fastest times to break the tie, which supposedly went to Owen (but the official results show Darden in 9th?). They brought this up at the awards banquet and gave a free set of BFG tires in the size and model of his choice to Darden, to ease the pain. Pretty cool condolence prize!
During the ESP Impound, we all talked and joked around and nobody even hinted at being upset or protesting anyone or anything like that. The ESP group here at Nationals, many of whom I met at the Mineral Welss ProSolo or the Lincoln Pro/Tour in May, really is one of the nicest, most helpful, greatest group of racers I've run with in my 24 years running in SCCA Solo. We had 33
fierce competitors, but as we saw when the hood smashed into our windshield at the May event (against much of the same group) and again when the Talon caught fire, they are all quick to jump in and lend a hand to any fellow ESP competitor in need. Good stuff - thanks for being so welcoming to this ESP noobie this year, guys!
Wednesday ESP-L Competition - East Course
Texas Region racer and friend Wayne Atkins had pointed out that after my second East course run the left spoiler upright was coming loose. I didn't have tools in grid to fix it and they convinced me to stop worrying about it... it eventually came completely loose on my third run, for an unintended "DRS" spoiler effect (F1's "drag reduction system").
more below