looks like Shawn covered it, though I'd add about 10 bucks worth of ice and gatorade for the cooler :)
--
ok, so my full wrap:
Ok, finally I'll get around to reviewing the last event......thought I'm still annoyed about it.
After Saturday's rain-soaked (but fun) test and tune, Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day with nearly perfect weather. Blue sky, 75 degrees, nice light breeze...couldn't ask for better.
The course for the day was the "barn course" which is my personal favorite because its long and it flows well but has good technical sections as well. Also because it's not very deep dirt and I'm faster when there's less dirt (the autocrosser in me, I guess).
The setup was great and VERY long....using pretty much the entire course and then some. The longest course I've done this year, IMO. In the morning it was still a bit wet from the night's rainfall, but it was graded and pretty smooth. There was a grass crossover section as well which proved to be very slippery (and my downfall in the end) when it was wet, especially since it was uphill turning right in the morning.
Here's a map of the course:
As luck would have it, the MR and SR cars ran with PA in the first session, so it was still wet-ish and fairly slippery (though not terrible). I had some traction issues, but mostly killed myself in a muddy switchback area (top left in map above) every time. Also coned on 4 of the 6 runs. After the morning session I was sitting 3rd behind Shawn (a ways ahead) and about 15 seconds or so behind Gorka in the other RX-7 (with fresh rally tires on it, so he was biting well into the softer surface where I was not).
In the afternoon we ran the same course reversed (clockwise), but by then it had hardened up and dried out considerably. Since we ran 2nd in the afternoon, it was pretty much like a tarmac surface filled with potholes and loose dirt here and there. Here's the surface:
Over lunch both Gorka and I considered swapping to our street tires (mine Star Specs, his Azeniz 615s) but I guess we were both too lazy. Chris Nonack in his MR2 did switch over and was almost as fast as Shawn in the PM (after being far back in 4th in the morning). Chris was too far back to catch the top 3, but if we had had a few more runs he might have gotten up to 2nd.
Roberto Moreton's PR-leading RX-7, also driven in MR by Gorka Arrieta
Chris's MR2
Anyhow, this kind of surface is my strong point and I started putting up runs just a bit slower than Shawn (who was already way out ahead) and much faster than Gorka, since his new rally tires weren't really helping here. After 5 runs I was about 1.5 seconds up on Gorka with one to go, and I had been faster on every run than him. I was going to take it a bit careful since I had found a fast line and the car was feeling great. Made the run, and it was one of my best times, and better than his last run by 0.3 seconds. This put me 1.8x seconds in 2nd.
BUT.....I got my only cone of the afternoon on that run. So I ended up losing second by 0.17 seconds. This after 967 seconds of comp time for the day!!!! Looking back it was a dumb cone too, at the end of the downhill left grass section where I just cut the turn a bit too tight and the rear end didn't slide like it had been doing all day, thus getting the cone with the back wheel. Pretty frustrating to say the least.
Anyhow, it was a fun day and now Gorka and I are dead-even on season points for 2nd place. Shawn will not be caught barring him just not showing up for the last two events (and maybe not even then).
Anyhow some pics from the day, though I have none of me running yet.
Stuart's 318is, running in PR.
Carl's burple peeling probe, first in SF
Adam Kimmet's two GC 2.5RS's (welded into one), currently holding 2nd place in MA
taking a break by the barn with Jesse Reitz's nice SR 325i, which won the class over the reigning champs Scott and James in the ETA
DCRallyDave Shindle in the obnoxious-blowoff-valve rally scout DSM
The ETA boyz
Old Man Scott
our grid
)
