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All day long Amy and I both gave ride-alongs on our autocross runs. Amy ran in the Women's class (so she could support the class which she kind of helped set-up a couple of years ago) and I again ran in the "X" pro class. I don't consider myself a "Pro" but rather I just run in this PAX factored "catch all" class when the heat schedule balances out. The PAX factor for StreetMod class (where this TT3 car happens to end up) is terrible and I had no illusions of winning this class, especially with as tight as this course is usually run, but I had hope that Amy could do well.
This was the first SCCA event we ran with the new splitter and flares. The Mustang had a huge crowd around it all day, with a line for ride-alongs
Event Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...tober-13-2013/
Event Class Results: http://www.texasscca.org/2013_solo_r...13_8_final.htm
Event PAX Results: http://www.texasscca.org/2013_solo_r...tr13_8_pax.htm
This event had some sketchy overcast weather with some spitting, misty rain off and on all day. It made for a slick surface, and in my in-car video where it looks like the front end is pushing out and the rear is loose, well, it was because it was always just a little bit wet. The tires we ran on that day were the old A6 Hoosiers that we well and truly used up at TWS with NASA TT (we can kill a set of new A6 tires at a NASA TT weekend in about 20-30 laps), and not what I'd even remotely call fresh. But for an event we were just running for fun, this was a perfect use for that last little bit of rubber.
As you know we have been concentrating on NASA finishes in 2013, so we've not taken SCCA autocross competition/tires/classing seriously at all, and as a result I've been a lot happier, heh. Honestly, for what we need to do with our test mules here at Vorshlag, running our cars around NASA's somewhat open TT ruleset allows us the freedom to build and test parts that more people will want to use, so we will likely stick to this plan in the future (that means: don't look for our 2015 Mustang to be running in ESP class). We also ran our normal Carbotech XP20 track duty pads, which do NOT work cold, so the first runs on cold brakes are pretty much throw-aways. Last excuse for the day: since I was running in "X" class, only my first 3 runs are counted (they DSQ all of the runs after the 3rd, just for this class), so my fastest run (4th) didn't count for the class or in the PAX results.
Left: Slaloms for Safety! Right: Coming into the finish
That is a shame, since I dropped some time on my 4th run, which would have PAXed about around 6th overall. Instead I was PAXed in 9th, kind of goofing around, on old junk tires and using the
painful StreetMod PAX factor (.867). With ESP's .849 PAX factor (this car is a LOT closer to ESP than SMod) my clean 4th run would have been 3rd fastest PAX time out of 162 entries, but whatever... that's just bench racing. Yes, I have difficulty switching off that competition gene at SCCA events... I'm hoping over time I will care even less.
In my humble opinion, the course designers use too many cones when they do their road course autocross event at TMS, and they make some of the "slow down" elements
EXTREMELY tight. I guess to make it "safe", but the black helicopters make me think it is to keep higher powered/track worthy cars from PAXing well, ha! There were some of the same "Miata straights" that I had to come to a stop in (where a narrow car can take almost flat out), and there were plenty of slaloms and typical "chicanes for safety" course design elements, which inadvertently ends up allowing cars to have spins that can seldom (but predictably) lead into concrete walls. Which happened again, like clockwork. I'm not just saying this to be a complainer, but to offer up some alternatives. "Speed doesn't kill". What causes incidents are big changes in direction in higher speed sections near immobile elements. Whenever I see slaloms or huge offsets into a finish or near a fence or wall, a red flag goes off in my brain. And when they try to slow down cars with big offsets on a straight away near a concrete wall, I can predict with nearly 100% accuracy that somebody is gonna smack it.
This element was entered at nearly 80 mph, after a super tight offset, into this super tight box. Which wrecks the flow of this road course
Sure, it is easy to "Monday Morning Quarterback" this difficult and unusual event they hold each year, but I am actually going to try help do something about it. A few of us are working on a possible new/different road course to procure for 2014 or 2015, for this annual autocross. Why? Because I've set up about a dozen of these super high speed autocross events in the past, have set up over 80 autocross courses in total, and have run on virtually every road course in Texas for dozens to hundreds of laps on each. With some other like minded autocross/time trial racers I think we can ferret out something that is safe for an autocross yet still keeps the flow and flavor of a road course. More on that as things develop.
I ran in the 1st heat, Amy ran in the 3rd heat, and we both worked in the timing trailer in 2nd heat. I was announcer, trying to give the spectators a good show, and Amy worked the timing computer. When I got the car to grid I aired up the tires - I
finally brought an air tank to an autocross event and used it, so my first run I actually had enough tire pressure for once. We had walked this 1.4 mile course once and I knew it would drive tight, but this was a
new level of tight. Almost every year that they have run this course there has been a small "incident" or two, so the next year they just make the elements tighter and nastier, to the point where it was this year where I could barely fit through some gates. I clipped a cone on run 1 and set-up to make a clean "Safety" pass for run 2, which is shown below with in-car video.
click image above for in-car video of Terry's 2nd 46.286 second run
There are some mistakes in that run, as always, but it was mostly decent and had no cones. Again, it was a bit damp and slippery all day, and with nearly bald A6s, driving the car was a constant dance on the head of a pin. I had a first-time-spectator riding along, who had an absolute blast. The last section before the finish is super tight and I had to downshift to 2nd gear to get the car to rotate enough to make the finish. It led to some significant wheelspin, but it was controllable.
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