clyde
09-18-2004, 06:37 PM
Sunday morning I headed out to the local BMW club autocross. Laid down two reasonable runs. After the second run, I identified a couple places where I was losing a lot of speed. Fixed them on the third run and wound carrying way too much speed into the last section and blew off course in a short slalom and coasted the rest of the way into the finish. On my fourth run, I still didn’t bleed enough speed and went OC the same way.:wutblau:
After my heat I went home and finished packing for Topeka. Tried to do a test fit of Nick’s chasecam with my new MiniDV camera and found that I need to get another adapter to use the chasecam. That was actually a mild relief since it mean a couple fewer things to pack and possibly forget later. Then I sat by my front door waiting for SuperShuttle to pick my up for the airport. A few minutes after the pick up window passed, the driver called and said he would be there soon. Traffic was really bad. He arrived about 30 minutes after that and traffic was horrid all the way to the airport. Thankfully, the check in and security lines were very short and I got to my gate with some time to spare.
Arrived in Kansas City a little after 9pm and picked up the rental car. Drove the 85 miles to the hotel (for some reason I thought it was supposed to be ~45 miles from MCI to the hotel in Topeka) and called Doby who had already checked in for my room. When I got inside, we talked briefly and then I went to sleep.
Monday morning, I woke up bright and early and headed over to Forbes field. Signed the waiver and eventually found the paddock check in and got the third to last open paddock spot. Parked there and then walked ALL THE WAY OVER (it was really far) to the courses and walked each course once. After that, I found out where I had to go to register and walked ALL THE WAY BACK to the car to drive over to registration. Registration went smoothly and then I called Doby to find out where he was (one row and a couple spot over from my paddock spot). I drove over there, we futzed with his car (an E36 M3 in SM) a little bit and then we rode over to the north course which both of us were going to be driving on Tuesday. On our second walk, we saw Greg, another friend of ours from DC in an S2000 (and the guy that stole Mark’s preferred “99” :eek: ) and chatted for a little while. Then we all walked more, discussed the course and what we thought, wondered how much speed we were going have by the end of the long ass straight with the “Kenny” cone, :blah: :blah: :blah:. Walked some more.
Heard a rumor that a guy in a Mazdaspeed Miata was going to protest about half of the entered S2000s. The S2000s have an issue where some metal starts to separate around the front suspension mounting points in cars that see a lot of track/autocross use. Honda has not issued a TSB specifying an authorized repair for this failure. As a result, there are several methods being used for repair. The two primary ones are 1) just welding it back and 2) welding it back along with an additional plate (maybe as a reinforcement?). Some people seem to think that both types of repair are illegal in Stock class without some sort of authorization from Honda. I’m not familiar enough with the applicable rules, the specific S2000 issue itself or the repairs to have an opinion.
Had lunch with Doby and his father and got a little spooked. I now know what it’s like for others to watch my father and me. It was really creepy how much the two of them interact like my father and I do. I also realized that my father would not have been bored out of his skull if he had flown out to meet my in Topeka like he had originally planned. Oh well…lesson learned for next year (one of many to come).
Went back to the site and walked the north course once or twice more. Somewhere along the way, I ran into Mark at the Koni truck and he reminded me about the SEB Town Hall meeting that afternoon. I also walked the course some with Mark and Mark Presley (who would go on to turn the fastest AS time on the north course). Walking with the two of them was helpful. Anyway, if you can’t tell, I was doing a lot of walking on Monday.
At 3:30 I went to the SCCA building for the SEB Town Hall meeting. One of the first things mentioned was with respect to some classing and reclassing for next year. There are more than a couple big decisions to be made on new cars and proposals that are currently outstanding (where to put the Elise, where to put the S2000s/Z4s/Boxsters, etc). They tried to get everyone to disregard rumors about decisions already having been made but not yet published, saying that the decisions have not been made. Then we heard about SCCA’s efforts to secure their own permanent Solo facility at either Forbes field (which, if I understood correctly, would mean making substantial repairs to the concrete we run on now) or purchasing and paving an asphalt location at Heartland Park (which is a couple miles down the road). We were told that one of those things will happen, but they don’t know which yet…but they should know in 30-60 days.
Then it was time to move on to the open Q&A, which Mark had warned me would turn into a general b:tch session. After watching it, I would guess that Mark has been to one or two of those meetings in the past. ;) The main griping was from old timers in DM that have lots of time, money and experience invested in their cars. They are afraid that with some new rule changes, Miatas (and some Toyotas as well) are going to come in and dominate their British based cars (mostly of the Lotus 7 variety). I’m not too familiar with the issues, but it was clear that they are very upset. The (sometimes heated) discussion about the DM issues and some of the other things that came up made one thing very clear. Solo II is a constantly evolving entity. To keep up with reality and conditions in the field, the rules and classes need constant/regular updating for the benefit of all. Unfortunately, just about every classing decision and just about every rule change/addition/subtraction is going to hurt at least some people. Sometimes, those decisions are going to hurt a lot of people. Not making changes can be just as harmful to the whole in many cases though because it just creates problems elsewhere. There are a lot of rules that I’m not wild about and there are lots of classing distinctions that I completely disagree with, but after sitting and listening to everything said, I have to say that I don’t envy the people on the SEB. About the only thing that seems to be assured is that they will p:ss off someone with everything they do or don’t do.
It was pretty hot on Monday (and Tuesday’s weather was almost identical). I think it was up around 90 degrees but not humid. There was a constant wind (20-30mph?) blowing from the south that kept us from sweating much. We were constantly feeling little bits of “stuff” hitting exposed skin. It was during the meeting that I realized just how bad it was. Sitting in the air conditioned room, every time I touched my arms or face, I could feel the fine layer of grit made up of dirt, concrete dust and probably particulate matter from jet engines being warmed up south of the paddock. It was really pretty nasty stuff.
After the meeting, I went back to the hotel and cleaned up. I wanted to relax for a little bit and visualize the north course for a while before heading back to the airport to pick up Eric. He called to say that his flight was being delayed and that he would call again when they were leaving. The delay turned out to be pretty short. My timing turned out to be pretty good as I got to the airport about 2 minutes before his plane pulled up to the gate. The ride back was quick and painless. We talked with Doby for a bit, I realized that I had some massive blisters forming on my feet from all the walking in a too-new pair of shoes and then went to sleep visualizing the north course.
Got up at 6am, got dressed and headed over to Forbes Field. Eric and I walked the course once and then he went to go register. I walked a second time and milled around until the things got underway around 8am. The first heat went smoothly. I worked the second heat and then walked the course once more during the break before the third heat. The key thing we noticed was that people had been driving tighter through a couple key turns than we expected. That left all kinds of marbles on our intended lines. Even though it was all swept up during the break, it stood to reason that people in the later heats would drive similar lines and the marbles would be back when it was time for Mark and me to run in the fifth heat.
Eric and Doby ran the M3 in the third heat. Eric finished up mid pack and Doby was just a little bit out of the trophies. The front of the pack in SM was a lot of fun to watch and they were doing great battle. Vic Sias was just a few thousandths in front of Bob Tunnell at the end of the heat and Jeff Reitmeir would have been right there with them if he hadn’t coned each run. Those guys are fast and they’re in fast cars.
Soon enough, the fifth heat rolled around and it was time to go. There were 49 drivers entered in B Stock, 36 of them driving S2000s. :rolleyes: The rest of the field was made up of five Boxster drivers, four 350Z drivers, three Z4 drivers and an M Coupe. This was my first time driving on concrete, first time on a truly bumpy surface (DC locals, think Rosechunk as concrete instead of asphalt…and then make it even patchier and chunkier), first time on Hoosier A3S03s… :blah: :blah: :blah: I was hesitant and tentative and it showed. Still, though, I wasn’t really disappointed with my time of 50.561 which put me solidly mid pack in 25th place after first runs. I didn’t think I’d have much trouble holding onto that…but WTF did I know? :tsk:
Second run I was a lot more aggressive in Frankenslalom, and found myself getting a little ahead (of all things), clipped a cone and then the next one. As I tried to recover, I found myself on the wrong side of the next slalom gate. I took my foot off the gas and wanted to coast back to the finish but I took a breath and pressed on instead. I hit the rest of the course hard and did pretty well through it. My scratch time was just a few tenths off my first run time, so I figured that I must have been pretty quick everywhere other than my excursion. I felt pretty good about being able to climb back to mid pack, or maybe even placing a little better for the end of day 1.
Third run I went out and tried too hard. I was overdriving and really blew the two big turns. My time was a 51.026…a half second slower than my first run. So, at the end of the day, I was sitting in 37th place. There is a bright side to doing so poorly on day 1 of a two day competition. All the pressure is off for day 2.
Soon after we were released from impound, Lee Grimes of Koni Shocks NA gave a seminar. While he may have talked a bit more about non automotive applications for shocks more than I would have liked (although it was kind of cool hearing about how they measure rates on shocks made for bridges…hanging them and counting the days it takes for the shaft to fully extend) there was lots of good info on how shocks fit into the suspension system and the really good stuff: the how and why of adjusting them. He also talked about different types of shocks and related systems and their pros and cons. Over the past 10 months or so, I’ve read a lot of theory and tips from a lot of sources, but after Lee’s seminar, it feels like my understanding of how dampers work is greatly improved and I now have a mental road map of how to approach tuning them that seems to be vastly superior to what I had before.
I left the shock seminar a little early because I wanted to try to get a few walks of the south course in before it got too dark. My mother called when I was finishing up my first walk and she went on and on about a few things…and then kept on keeping on. By the time I got off the phone with her, I was only able to get one more walk in. Went back to the hotel, showered and went to sleep visualizing the south course.
Waking up at 6am, we saw that it was raining. Checking weather radar maps, we saw that there was a pretty intense band of thunderstorms heading our way from the west. We were at the site shortly after 6:30am and went to work on Doby’s car in the light rain. We changed to softer springs in the rear and reduced the camber up front. I bought a water resistant windbreaker and then we walked the course a couple times. A little after 8am, Mark arrived and we proceeded to test fit his Hoosier rains on Doby’s car. On the initial fit, there was some rubbing in the rear on the inside. They put on a larger spacer in the rear and that seemed to do the trick, except the studs weren’t quite long enough for the nuts get enough turns to be safe. Luckily, Doby had lug bolts that would be long enough. Then the race was on to find something to get the Loctite’d studs out. The call went out for second heat workers, so I left them to go to the tent at the south course.
There was no one there to check workers in, but a number of people were waiting. The rain was steadily picking up and I decided to just stay under the tent for a while. After a few more minutes, it was really pouring. A little more time passed and the thunder and lighting started. The event was halted and the workers came in. There were probably over 100 of us standing under the tent. Jokes were made about TV news headlines that were sure to come that evening…”100 Soloists killed in a lightning strike at Forbes Field today…film at 11.” It was either chance it or make a long walk in pouring rain to safer shelter. Staying under the tent sure wasn’t the safest choice, but sometimes you have to live a little. :tsk:
After about an hour, the lightning (mostly) stopped and the rain started to let up a lot and the event resumed. Eventually, we workers got checked in and we waited for the first heat to end. While working the second heat, it completely stopped raining and the sun started to come out. By the end of the heat, the south course was rapidly drying, but there were still some big puddles. I walked the course twice more during the break. As I made it back to the grid, I saw that Doby and Eric were just finishing swapping the rains back for the dry tires. During their heat, the course dried up the rest of the way. Between the second and third runs, we swapped the rear springs back to the original ones. Unfortunately, neither Doby nor Eric were able to improve their positions on day 2.
After the third heat grid cleared out, I started getting a little nervous over the fact that I couldn’t find Mark and his Crown Vic wasn’t in his paddock spot. The Z4 was there though. Memories of the DC Pro were racing through my head when we were with the car early Sunday but the key was back at his hotel. Of course, Mark had found a second key for the car and given it to me on day 1, but I left it in the ignition at the end of the heat, so I was keyless. When I couldn’t get Mark on the phone when the fourth heat drivers were well into their second runs, I scrambled to find arrangements to drive another B Stock car (read: beg Greg) in case Mark was in a terrible accident a mile or two down the road (hey, we all have priorities ;)). I checked my phone again after that and saw that I had missed a call from Mark. I ran out to the paddock and saw that his Crown Vic was there, but the Z4 was gone and I started to breathe a little easier.
On my first run, I alternated between hesitant and overdriving and laid down a lousy 53.967. The upside was that I knew where there were a bunch of places I could make up time. My second run was going pretty well until I was nearing the end of the long slalom on the far end of the course and I turned in for the right hander. Note that I just said, “nearing the end of the long slalom.” You see, I didn’t exactly finish the slalom before I turned in. I realized it, but it was too late. Turned an awesome scratch time that put me up with the leaders on the south course. A few seconds passed and they still hadn’t called me off course and I began to wonder if maybe my OC hadn’t been called in…and if it hadn’t been called in, would it show up on the audit sheets…and if it wasn’t on the audit sheets, if I would have been able to live with myself if I didn’t “turn myself in.” Thankfully, I didn’t have to face those more difficult situations as a late off course call was made. Other than that, I was pretty happy with the run. Third run, I was overdriving again and screwed myself, but I picked up almost a full second, turning a 53.035…but plus one. It was a good cone to hit and I hit the right way, but I still hit it. :wutblau: Day 2 turned out to be about as ugly as day 1 for me, maybe even uglier.
After impound, all the B Stock cars went to get weighed for “informational purposes.” Mark’s Z4 weighed in somewhere around 2,700 lbs IIRC and the other Z4 was a little over 3,000. The S2000s were mostly in the mid 2,600s as expected (although Greg’s was something like 2,744 and he had almost no gas in it). Mark and I talked about the event (not sure whether to think of it as a debrief or a post-mortem, though) and plans for next year. I was really falling over myself thanking him for everything as he has been incredibly kind, helpful and generous to me and others this year. I really can’t say enough good things about him. :thumbup:
After that, I went back to the hotel and got cleaned up before the banquet. Eric, Doby and Doby’s dad piled into my rental Neon and we went to the Topek Expo Center (or something like that). We found an empty table and then others we knew came by and sat with us. Even more tried to sit with us but there wasn’t enough room. We bailed a little early and went to a casino about half an hour outside of Topeka. Somehow I managed to resist the urge to gamble while we were there. Eric played some Pai Gow and Blackjack (and was amazed to see a $5 table for the first time in his life) while fending off some horny hacking drunk chicks. Doby played a bunch of roulette and aside from getting abused by another patron did okay. Doby’s dad won a few bucks in a slot or video poker machine. Then it was back to the hotel and asleep around midnight. Alarm sounded at 2:45, loaded up the car and drove back to Kansas City for a 6am flight back to DC.
So…
I learned a lot of valuable lessons for next year (everything from planning logistics to things to bring to how to drive on concrete to all kinds of other stuff). All in all, even though I drove like crap, I had a lot of fun and am really looking forward to next year. I want to do more Tours and Pros in 2005. Not sure where I’m going to find the time to take off work and the tire money, but I’m resourceful. :D
I also learned a lot about what I don’t know, or more accurately, I identified some of what I think are the key obstacles currently blocking my continued progress. I better understand what questions I need to ask myself and others. It’s pretty cool, actually.
There’s so much more, but at near 3700 words this was way longer than it needed to be. I’m just too lazy to edit. :twisted:
If you autocross, I highly recommend spending a few days in Topeka during September in the future. :thumbup:
After my heat I went home and finished packing for Topeka. Tried to do a test fit of Nick’s chasecam with my new MiniDV camera and found that I need to get another adapter to use the chasecam. That was actually a mild relief since it mean a couple fewer things to pack and possibly forget later. Then I sat by my front door waiting for SuperShuttle to pick my up for the airport. A few minutes after the pick up window passed, the driver called and said he would be there soon. Traffic was really bad. He arrived about 30 minutes after that and traffic was horrid all the way to the airport. Thankfully, the check in and security lines were very short and I got to my gate with some time to spare.
Arrived in Kansas City a little after 9pm and picked up the rental car. Drove the 85 miles to the hotel (for some reason I thought it was supposed to be ~45 miles from MCI to the hotel in Topeka) and called Doby who had already checked in for my room. When I got inside, we talked briefly and then I went to sleep.
Monday morning, I woke up bright and early and headed over to Forbes field. Signed the waiver and eventually found the paddock check in and got the third to last open paddock spot. Parked there and then walked ALL THE WAY OVER (it was really far) to the courses and walked each course once. After that, I found out where I had to go to register and walked ALL THE WAY BACK to the car to drive over to registration. Registration went smoothly and then I called Doby to find out where he was (one row and a couple spot over from my paddock spot). I drove over there, we futzed with his car (an E36 M3 in SM) a little bit and then we rode over to the north course which both of us were going to be driving on Tuesday. On our second walk, we saw Greg, another friend of ours from DC in an S2000 (and the guy that stole Mark’s preferred “99” :eek: ) and chatted for a little while. Then we all walked more, discussed the course and what we thought, wondered how much speed we were going have by the end of the long ass straight with the “Kenny” cone, :blah: :blah: :blah:. Walked some more.
Heard a rumor that a guy in a Mazdaspeed Miata was going to protest about half of the entered S2000s. The S2000s have an issue where some metal starts to separate around the front suspension mounting points in cars that see a lot of track/autocross use. Honda has not issued a TSB specifying an authorized repair for this failure. As a result, there are several methods being used for repair. The two primary ones are 1) just welding it back and 2) welding it back along with an additional plate (maybe as a reinforcement?). Some people seem to think that both types of repair are illegal in Stock class without some sort of authorization from Honda. I’m not familiar enough with the applicable rules, the specific S2000 issue itself or the repairs to have an opinion.
Had lunch with Doby and his father and got a little spooked. I now know what it’s like for others to watch my father and me. It was really creepy how much the two of them interact like my father and I do. I also realized that my father would not have been bored out of his skull if he had flown out to meet my in Topeka like he had originally planned. Oh well…lesson learned for next year (one of many to come).
Went back to the site and walked the north course once or twice more. Somewhere along the way, I ran into Mark at the Koni truck and he reminded me about the SEB Town Hall meeting that afternoon. I also walked the course some with Mark and Mark Presley (who would go on to turn the fastest AS time on the north course). Walking with the two of them was helpful. Anyway, if you can’t tell, I was doing a lot of walking on Monday.
At 3:30 I went to the SCCA building for the SEB Town Hall meeting. One of the first things mentioned was with respect to some classing and reclassing for next year. There are more than a couple big decisions to be made on new cars and proposals that are currently outstanding (where to put the Elise, where to put the S2000s/Z4s/Boxsters, etc). They tried to get everyone to disregard rumors about decisions already having been made but not yet published, saying that the decisions have not been made. Then we heard about SCCA’s efforts to secure their own permanent Solo facility at either Forbes field (which, if I understood correctly, would mean making substantial repairs to the concrete we run on now) or purchasing and paving an asphalt location at Heartland Park (which is a couple miles down the road). We were told that one of those things will happen, but they don’t know which yet…but they should know in 30-60 days.
Then it was time to move on to the open Q&A, which Mark had warned me would turn into a general b:tch session. After watching it, I would guess that Mark has been to one or two of those meetings in the past. ;) The main griping was from old timers in DM that have lots of time, money and experience invested in their cars. They are afraid that with some new rule changes, Miatas (and some Toyotas as well) are going to come in and dominate their British based cars (mostly of the Lotus 7 variety). I’m not too familiar with the issues, but it was clear that they are very upset. The (sometimes heated) discussion about the DM issues and some of the other things that came up made one thing very clear. Solo II is a constantly evolving entity. To keep up with reality and conditions in the field, the rules and classes need constant/regular updating for the benefit of all. Unfortunately, just about every classing decision and just about every rule change/addition/subtraction is going to hurt at least some people. Sometimes, those decisions are going to hurt a lot of people. Not making changes can be just as harmful to the whole in many cases though because it just creates problems elsewhere. There are a lot of rules that I’m not wild about and there are lots of classing distinctions that I completely disagree with, but after sitting and listening to everything said, I have to say that I don’t envy the people on the SEB. About the only thing that seems to be assured is that they will p:ss off someone with everything they do or don’t do.
It was pretty hot on Monday (and Tuesday’s weather was almost identical). I think it was up around 90 degrees but not humid. There was a constant wind (20-30mph?) blowing from the south that kept us from sweating much. We were constantly feeling little bits of “stuff” hitting exposed skin. It was during the meeting that I realized just how bad it was. Sitting in the air conditioned room, every time I touched my arms or face, I could feel the fine layer of grit made up of dirt, concrete dust and probably particulate matter from jet engines being warmed up south of the paddock. It was really pretty nasty stuff.
After the meeting, I went back to the hotel and cleaned up. I wanted to relax for a little bit and visualize the north course for a while before heading back to the airport to pick up Eric. He called to say that his flight was being delayed and that he would call again when they were leaving. The delay turned out to be pretty short. My timing turned out to be pretty good as I got to the airport about 2 minutes before his plane pulled up to the gate. The ride back was quick and painless. We talked with Doby for a bit, I realized that I had some massive blisters forming on my feet from all the walking in a too-new pair of shoes and then went to sleep visualizing the north course.
Got up at 6am, got dressed and headed over to Forbes Field. Eric and I walked the course once and then he went to go register. I walked a second time and milled around until the things got underway around 8am. The first heat went smoothly. I worked the second heat and then walked the course once more during the break before the third heat. The key thing we noticed was that people had been driving tighter through a couple key turns than we expected. That left all kinds of marbles on our intended lines. Even though it was all swept up during the break, it stood to reason that people in the later heats would drive similar lines and the marbles would be back when it was time for Mark and me to run in the fifth heat.
Eric and Doby ran the M3 in the third heat. Eric finished up mid pack and Doby was just a little bit out of the trophies. The front of the pack in SM was a lot of fun to watch and they were doing great battle. Vic Sias was just a few thousandths in front of Bob Tunnell at the end of the heat and Jeff Reitmeir would have been right there with them if he hadn’t coned each run. Those guys are fast and they’re in fast cars.
Soon enough, the fifth heat rolled around and it was time to go. There were 49 drivers entered in B Stock, 36 of them driving S2000s. :rolleyes: The rest of the field was made up of five Boxster drivers, four 350Z drivers, three Z4 drivers and an M Coupe. This was my first time driving on concrete, first time on a truly bumpy surface (DC locals, think Rosechunk as concrete instead of asphalt…and then make it even patchier and chunkier), first time on Hoosier A3S03s… :blah: :blah: :blah: I was hesitant and tentative and it showed. Still, though, I wasn’t really disappointed with my time of 50.561 which put me solidly mid pack in 25th place after first runs. I didn’t think I’d have much trouble holding onto that…but WTF did I know? :tsk:
Second run I was a lot more aggressive in Frankenslalom, and found myself getting a little ahead (of all things), clipped a cone and then the next one. As I tried to recover, I found myself on the wrong side of the next slalom gate. I took my foot off the gas and wanted to coast back to the finish but I took a breath and pressed on instead. I hit the rest of the course hard and did pretty well through it. My scratch time was just a few tenths off my first run time, so I figured that I must have been pretty quick everywhere other than my excursion. I felt pretty good about being able to climb back to mid pack, or maybe even placing a little better for the end of day 1.
Third run I went out and tried too hard. I was overdriving and really blew the two big turns. My time was a 51.026…a half second slower than my first run. So, at the end of the day, I was sitting in 37th place. There is a bright side to doing so poorly on day 1 of a two day competition. All the pressure is off for day 2.
Soon after we were released from impound, Lee Grimes of Koni Shocks NA gave a seminar. While he may have talked a bit more about non automotive applications for shocks more than I would have liked (although it was kind of cool hearing about how they measure rates on shocks made for bridges…hanging them and counting the days it takes for the shaft to fully extend) there was lots of good info on how shocks fit into the suspension system and the really good stuff: the how and why of adjusting them. He also talked about different types of shocks and related systems and their pros and cons. Over the past 10 months or so, I’ve read a lot of theory and tips from a lot of sources, but after Lee’s seminar, it feels like my understanding of how dampers work is greatly improved and I now have a mental road map of how to approach tuning them that seems to be vastly superior to what I had before.
I left the shock seminar a little early because I wanted to try to get a few walks of the south course in before it got too dark. My mother called when I was finishing up my first walk and she went on and on about a few things…and then kept on keeping on. By the time I got off the phone with her, I was only able to get one more walk in. Went back to the hotel, showered and went to sleep visualizing the south course.
Waking up at 6am, we saw that it was raining. Checking weather radar maps, we saw that there was a pretty intense band of thunderstorms heading our way from the west. We were at the site shortly after 6:30am and went to work on Doby’s car in the light rain. We changed to softer springs in the rear and reduced the camber up front. I bought a water resistant windbreaker and then we walked the course a couple times. A little after 8am, Mark arrived and we proceeded to test fit his Hoosier rains on Doby’s car. On the initial fit, there was some rubbing in the rear on the inside. They put on a larger spacer in the rear and that seemed to do the trick, except the studs weren’t quite long enough for the nuts get enough turns to be safe. Luckily, Doby had lug bolts that would be long enough. Then the race was on to find something to get the Loctite’d studs out. The call went out for second heat workers, so I left them to go to the tent at the south course.
There was no one there to check workers in, but a number of people were waiting. The rain was steadily picking up and I decided to just stay under the tent for a while. After a few more minutes, it was really pouring. A little more time passed and the thunder and lighting started. The event was halted and the workers came in. There were probably over 100 of us standing under the tent. Jokes were made about TV news headlines that were sure to come that evening…”100 Soloists killed in a lightning strike at Forbes Field today…film at 11.” It was either chance it or make a long walk in pouring rain to safer shelter. Staying under the tent sure wasn’t the safest choice, but sometimes you have to live a little. :tsk:
After about an hour, the lightning (mostly) stopped and the rain started to let up a lot and the event resumed. Eventually, we workers got checked in and we waited for the first heat to end. While working the second heat, it completely stopped raining and the sun started to come out. By the end of the heat, the south course was rapidly drying, but there were still some big puddles. I walked the course twice more during the break. As I made it back to the grid, I saw that Doby and Eric were just finishing swapping the rains back for the dry tires. During their heat, the course dried up the rest of the way. Between the second and third runs, we swapped the rear springs back to the original ones. Unfortunately, neither Doby nor Eric were able to improve their positions on day 2.
After the third heat grid cleared out, I started getting a little nervous over the fact that I couldn’t find Mark and his Crown Vic wasn’t in his paddock spot. The Z4 was there though. Memories of the DC Pro were racing through my head when we were with the car early Sunday but the key was back at his hotel. Of course, Mark had found a second key for the car and given it to me on day 1, but I left it in the ignition at the end of the heat, so I was keyless. When I couldn’t get Mark on the phone when the fourth heat drivers were well into their second runs, I scrambled to find arrangements to drive another B Stock car (read: beg Greg) in case Mark was in a terrible accident a mile or two down the road (hey, we all have priorities ;)). I checked my phone again after that and saw that I had missed a call from Mark. I ran out to the paddock and saw that his Crown Vic was there, but the Z4 was gone and I started to breathe a little easier.
On my first run, I alternated between hesitant and overdriving and laid down a lousy 53.967. The upside was that I knew where there were a bunch of places I could make up time. My second run was going pretty well until I was nearing the end of the long slalom on the far end of the course and I turned in for the right hander. Note that I just said, “nearing the end of the long slalom.” You see, I didn’t exactly finish the slalom before I turned in. I realized it, but it was too late. Turned an awesome scratch time that put me up with the leaders on the south course. A few seconds passed and they still hadn’t called me off course and I began to wonder if maybe my OC hadn’t been called in…and if it hadn’t been called in, would it show up on the audit sheets…and if it wasn’t on the audit sheets, if I would have been able to live with myself if I didn’t “turn myself in.” Thankfully, I didn’t have to face those more difficult situations as a late off course call was made. Other than that, I was pretty happy with the run. Third run, I was overdriving again and screwed myself, but I picked up almost a full second, turning a 53.035…but plus one. It was a good cone to hit and I hit the right way, but I still hit it. :wutblau: Day 2 turned out to be about as ugly as day 1 for me, maybe even uglier.
After impound, all the B Stock cars went to get weighed for “informational purposes.” Mark’s Z4 weighed in somewhere around 2,700 lbs IIRC and the other Z4 was a little over 3,000. The S2000s were mostly in the mid 2,600s as expected (although Greg’s was something like 2,744 and he had almost no gas in it). Mark and I talked about the event (not sure whether to think of it as a debrief or a post-mortem, though) and plans for next year. I was really falling over myself thanking him for everything as he has been incredibly kind, helpful and generous to me and others this year. I really can’t say enough good things about him. :thumbup:
After that, I went back to the hotel and got cleaned up before the banquet. Eric, Doby and Doby’s dad piled into my rental Neon and we went to the Topek Expo Center (or something like that). We found an empty table and then others we knew came by and sat with us. Even more tried to sit with us but there wasn’t enough room. We bailed a little early and went to a casino about half an hour outside of Topeka. Somehow I managed to resist the urge to gamble while we were there. Eric played some Pai Gow and Blackjack (and was amazed to see a $5 table for the first time in his life) while fending off some horny hacking drunk chicks. Doby played a bunch of roulette and aside from getting abused by another patron did okay. Doby’s dad won a few bucks in a slot or video poker machine. Then it was back to the hotel and asleep around midnight. Alarm sounded at 2:45, loaded up the car and drove back to Kansas City for a 6am flight back to DC.
So…
I learned a lot of valuable lessons for next year (everything from planning logistics to things to bring to how to drive on concrete to all kinds of other stuff). All in all, even though I drove like crap, I had a lot of fun and am really looking forward to next year. I want to do more Tours and Pros in 2005. Not sure where I’m going to find the time to take off work and the tire money, but I’m resourceful. :D
I also learned a lot about what I don’t know, or more accurately, I identified some of what I think are the key obstacles currently blocking my continued progress. I better understand what questions I need to ask myself and others. It’s pretty cool, actually.
There’s so much more, but at near 3700 words this was way longer than it needed to be. I’m just too lazy to edit. :twisted:
If you autocross, I highly recommend spending a few days in Topeka during September in the future. :thumbup: