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So that's the class we ran, and my pre-made list of excuses... always have to cover the bases in case we lose badly; Glad I got those in there. We were in SMod and were prepared for a whipping. No worries, we were there "just to have fun" and to support our local region, plus to test the new bits added since our last autocross in 2012 - comparing times to classes like SS, ESP and other similar classes. If either of us got beat in SM too badly we could always compare our PAX times to other classes, using the old
ESP PAX factor.
The Texas Region SCCA folks gave Amy and I our usual work assignments: she worked Control (radio) and I was the Announcer in the 2nd heat (of 4). In the 2nd heat we worked we got to watch an epic battle in the "X" pro class (full of our regions National Champions and other uber-competitive drivers), which only counts the first 3 runs and is ranked via PAX. Then we had another break for heat 3, and finally got to run in heat 4 at the very end of the day. It was sunny and into the mid 90°F range by then, with temps 20+ degrees hotter than the earlier runs (where we usually find the best grip on A6s). But the course was cleaner with more cars running before us, so that evened things out a tick. By the 4th heat it was just getting so hot that the A6s might have trouble. Having been gone from Solo for 6+ months, I forgot to load the tire sprayer in the trailer - a stupid mistake.
The Mustang was already sporting a used set of 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires, left over from the NASA @ NOLA TT event, and I had another set of Hoosier tire winnings on order for our next TT event, so... we just left those old ones on for this autocross. We left everything on the car identical to the last NASA TT event, actually, except it was extra clean from the Five Star Ford Car Show the day before. Same track pads (Carbotech XP20 front/XP16 rear), too. This was the least prep we've ever done to a car for an autocross as we used to have to swap brake pads and rotors, the rear wing for a spoiler, and more to go from NASA TTS to SCCA ESP. Once we got to grid I bled down the tires (30 psi front and 27 psi rear, cold), fiddled with a shock setting, and slapped on some blue tape numbers. An old racing buddy of mine (and owner of the
Alpha Miata LS1 project we are building, slowly but surely), Jason Toth, was on hand to ride shotgun with me on my runs. He saw on FB that we were racing in his back yard so he popped over. He was also kind enough to drive us to lunch in heat 3, so we could leave the truck connected to the trailer and not drive the Mustang on A6s on the street to lunch (always a bad idea).
The above two pictures are courtesy Channel Z Photography
So all of my autocross runs are with the car at TT3 weight (3775) with me in it, plus about 175 lbs for Toth, plus a whole lot of fuel (more than we'd normally run for autox).
Plenty of road hugging weight! I was running as the first driver in the car, and we were gridded in the 2-driver line, with Amy running 2nd (also with passengers on most of her runs, just to give people rides). We switched out drivers for each run and managed to get all of our runs in proper class order. The run heat was a little on the small side so it was a frantic rush to swap drivers, seating and wheel positions, change numbers, bleed tires, cool the engine (hood up), set the vidcam, and and get everything reset between runs. We had about 5-6 minutes between each run, so it was tight, even with Toth helping on each run. And it was hot. I was also shooting pics when Amy was running throughout the 4th heat, as well in heats 1 & 3.
As you can see in the results above, we got 5 runs each, and I managed all of them clean. I sometimes can find a little time after my 3rd run, but this time we had a rapidly overheating set of tires and no water to spray them with. It was 92°F when we started running (hottest day of the year, to date - still in May) and the Hoosiers were too hot to touch after my 3rd run. The course was all 2nd gear for us (touching 7200 rpm at one point), with no big "gotchas" other than some oddly spaced slaloms that got increasingly tighter. The big long run from east to west was quite fun and there was a lot of room in the next left-hander (big 180° turn) to make up your own line. The end was pretty pinched off, too, but that's nothing new.
My first run (39.544) was on dead cold tires and cold brakes, and after our first runs I was in 2nd place, behind Henry Lin in his '04 Subaru STi. My second run finally had some heat in the A6 tires and the 38.665 run put me in the lead, and then I put in my quickest lap on my 3rd run, a 38.065 second run (see video, below).
Click above for in-car video. You can set options for resolution (up to 1080P) and go full screen
Great video by Brandon - funny comments he added, color correction, 1080P resolution; we're starting to figure this stuff out. Next time we autox we'll try to get data from the Aim SOLO and merge that also. By my 3rd run the tires had quit "growing" in pressure but they kept getting hotter and hotter. If I would have thought to bring the water sprayer I would have been water cooling them after my 2nd runs on. Tim Bergen (Henry's co-driver) put in some hot runs, and even managed a quicker 38.011, but coned it away. His 38.255 sec 5th run put him in 2nd, with Henry having cone trouble in 3rd. Amy was struggling all day, hitting cones on her first 3 runs, but put in a good 39.301 sec run on her 5th attempt, only .020 back from 3rd. We borrowed a water sprayer from a fellow competitor and drenched the tires before Amy's 5th run, the final run for the car, which seemed to help a lot (she dropped 1/2 sec from her previous best). This region has extras timers for split sector times, and my quickest S1 and S2 times came on my 4th and 5th runs, where the tires were
boiling. But even then it was only a composite 37.942 run... so there wasn't much left, on the super heated tires. Sure wished I would have sprayed the tires on my last two runs, tho.
This was a great event overall, with solid competition in the SMod class that gave us a serious run for the money. The course was well marked and flowed well, and there were no major DNF or spin problems, which is always a good sign. The Texas Region SCCA folks put on a very good show, and the event ran smoothly all day - even with the new 4 heat format being tested for the first time. The weather was nice overall, and the 135 entrants all seemed to have a great time, with at least 50 people sticking around for trophies. You can see more events from this club and many other Dallas/Ft/ Worth autox events, at
www.dfwautocross.com. With the temperate weather here in Texas we have autocross events virtually every Saturday and Sunday from February to December, and sometimes even January.
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