So... this year the date for the Larison Rock hill climb finally moved away from the weekend before July 4th. This made it a lot easier to attend, since I feel like there's always a bunch of stuff going on around the 4th and I have trouble getting down there.
According to Travel Oregon: "Larison Rock is a distinctive basalt formation that rises up 1,400 feet above the Middle Fork of the Willamette River just outside Oakridge." I would say that's a pretty good description. There's a paved forestry service road that runs all the way up and over the Rock, and we use 1.9 miles of it for the hill climb. Over that 1.9 miles, the road climbs 900 feet. It's steep, although when you're driving it just feels like a tunnel through endless trees, with some rocks thrown in for good measure. The trees mean there's almost nowhere that you can see more than a few hundred feet ahead.
The hillclimb miata is still undergoing surgery, so I opted to take the M3. I bought it just so I could run hills without putting in a ton of effort fettling a high-strung, heavily modified racecar and dealing with the transit in a stripped out vehicle. So, until I thoroughly ruin it, it's still pretty stock.
My preparations for the weekend consisted of pulling the rear seats, speakers, parcel shelf trim, and a heavy amp and some really ratty wiring.
There's so much sound deadening in these things! I will have to get some dry ice to get the tar off, supposedly that's worth another 30 pounds or so.
It's still a bit dirty but so much better than the manky carpet that was in there. I will need to pull all the factory stereo wiring as well. The factory amp was still installed but totally disconnected.
I then gave the car a really cursory wash and headed out to the wilds of deepest Oregonia.
I will say that the car holds so much camping gear now that the back seat area is gutted. I bet I can get a second set of wheels and tires in there as well.
The pump automatically stops at $66.66. How auspicious!
The drive down was pretty awful, I had to transit through Portland, and traffic was terrible. My AC works, but the blower fan failed a few months ago, and I haven't pulled the dash apart to replace it. I really should.
About six sweaty and frustrating hours later, I pull into Oakridge with an aching left knee.
Tech time! All my gear is current and my extinguisher has a current tag, so I get signed off and head up to the event site to make camp.
As with many of the hills we run, there's very limited space at the hill, so the pit spaces are all marked along the right side of the road with chalk. Like this.
This is basically where your car will live for the weekend when you're not running the hill. I unloaded all my tools and gear and then drove my tent up to a camping spot.
I found a fairly level spot along one of the side roads. It's so quiet! Every now and then I can hear the sound of a race car starting filtering through the trees. The event site slowly fills with competitors.
There are some cool toys here.
And something mysterious under a tarp.
I run down to Oakridge for supplies. This town is funky, it's like one giant extended trailer park plus a grocery store and a handful of motels. I would describe it as kind of endearingly trashy, definitely reminiscent of the places I grew up in. There's no cell signal at all at the hill, and only some kind of roaming voice only service in town. The dairy queen has free wifi so I can sort of sync my phone. It's like stepping back in time.
I kind of like that nobody can reach me. I don't really have a choice, I'm disconnected for the weekend.
It's saturday morning and there's a bunch more cars around me!
Shiny.
Drivers meeting happens at 8, you think autocrossers get up early?
I'm driving in the first session, so I get suited up and take three uneventful runs.
126.258 on the last run is... fine, it's a mostly stock M3 with stock alignment, stock wheels, stock sways and progressive springs. I don't know if there's a lot more in it with the way the car is currently set up. So I'm pretty happy.
Oh, and I got to see what was under the tarp.
It's a Toyota World Sports Racer from a spec series. Looks incredibly fun.
I spend Saturday evening working on the car, it's still losing power steering fluid, and I think it needs a new steering rack. There's some clunking in the rear, so I remove some more trim that might be rattling and tighten the rear shock mounts. Otherwise, the car is running perfectly. I mean, for a race car. My brake light switch has failed and is throwing an error, so I have no brake lights, which should make for a fun transit home, and I also notice that my plates are expired. Whatever, it won't make me any slower.
After working on the car I take a walk up the course.
The road surface has a lot of different dips and imperfections, and I try and remember some of the worst of them for Sunday.
Sunday!
Like Saturday but hotter? Since I ran in the morning session on Saturday, I get to run in the afternoon session. I already know that I'll be down on power because of the temps, but the road surface will be warmer and my tires will get up to temp more quickly. On the whole, though, it will be hard to go faster. Running the morning session on Sunday is definitely better.
I run a 1:28 on my first run. My second run is a 1:26.273 - almost identical to my final run on Saturday, like so close it's kind of funny. I do feel like there's not a lot left. I line up for my last run, and safety steward is like 'Hey you have to roll up all your windows'. Safety first! But I don't have a blower fan. And then they hold me on the line for about a minute. So, if you can imagine, I'm baking, and when they finally show me the green flag I'm like, I'll just do a burnout through the lights because, well, I'm really hot and really annoyed. And then I just kind of... kept going. Why not just spin the tires out of every corner? What could possibly go wrong? I'm baking and sweaty and if I get the run over I can open the window!
This is that run. Please enjoy.
Oh, and I ran a 125.7.
