2011 SCCA Solo Nationals Street Modified WORLD CHAMPIONS

That's right. We're kind of a big deal.

Armed with an Armada and an arm full of hopes and dreams, we set off on our journey to the 2011 TireRack SCCA Solo National Championship and Pro Finale with high hopes of hopping to the top of the Street Modified class. The last time we visited Lincoln, our Pro Finale finish wasn't so fantastic, and our final day on Friday of the National Championship was filled with F-bombs of F-modified failure on top of a freaking monsoon. Dave's single cone on his last run prevented the G-Fab team from fulfilling its goal of finally sitting at the top of the class as champions, but that was all last year, and last year was behind us. This year, we came packing. In fact, we were packing so much, we had to acquire a new enclosed trailer (thanks Ray!).

The trip out was pretty horrible. To really fill you in on how horrible it was, I'd have to strap you to a chair for 30 straight hours and shake you every time you were about to fall asleep. I'll spare you the details, but we made it to Lincoln alive.

(more to come. this is about as far as I get on break.)

STupid Late: MSNE, Engines, NE Divs, RAL.

This entry is stupid late...and stupid long.

PJ finally installed the Nistune board after getting the base image changed:

After some tuning, it is far better. At least he didn't ruin the ECU in the process!

He also swapped the Greddy EVO TT exhaust from Panda to the red car. It looks as though it fits the general location, with only a few minor modifications to the brackets and hangers.

We decided that Dave should try for the Triad Award...I mean, he accidentally won the Northern States Championship by winning the Toledo Tour, so why not try for the Triad? However, that meant he would have to drive SM at Divs....Panda + Divs = waste of time and money. That means Baby would inherit some 5-year old Hoosiers from the Sentra's former GS life.

Of course, Dave would need to test how Baby handles, and I needed to familiarize myself with the Toyo R1R's. GFab trooped down to the Dirty Jerz (again) for an MSNE event at the Meadowlands, the week before Divs.

Then, disaster struck.

MSNE Sunday: Meadowlands is great. Rod knock is not.


Quick tire review: Toyos have interesting grip compared to the Kooks. It's not instant -- It's kind of like "OMG WHERE IS IT? I AM GOING TO SLIDE....Ah, ok now it's sticking." The shorter sidewall means faster acceleration, and the light tune means more power, so overall it wasn't bad. The course was long enough (and laps were hot enough) to make it so the tires would overheat and drop off by 3/4 way through the run, which sort of sucked, but at least it was good indication of how to take care of the tires.

Despite the tire problems, the car felt great, probably due to the new front ball joints and bushings. Also probably due to the fact that we greased the crap out of the swaybar; it was binding as all the grease had squeezed out. We were considering dremmelling out a channel in the bushings, but it hasn't gotten that far yet.

Photo courtesy Perry Aidelbaum

Because of the setup (Dave + me in the same heat, and 8 runs each), I took all my runs at once, instead of switching tires between us, which would not have been possible. I might not have been pushing as hard, but the car felt good, despite the 95 degree weather and 100% humidity.

We pulled a pit stop with F1-enviable tire changing times (<7 minutes), considering we had one impact gun and one jack. Dave went out for two runs and the ancient Hoosiers were not so bad after the first run. They were actually pretty sticky. In the first two runs, Dave went fast enough to take top time in class. By Dave's third run, I heard something not so good from the grid (500' away?), and our friends working the course heard it too -- which is worse. After he pulled back into the spot, he stalled, and then tried to turn the engine over....which sounded like pain.

PJ was already sprinting in from his corner, having heard the noise while Dave was running. It was unmistakable. And unfortunate. AAA stranded us for 2.5 hours, and after getting a little feisty, the flatbed finally came and towed us home.

We pulled the engine Monday night. We were a bit low on oil, but not THAT low, so we have a few theories as to why it happened. Perhaps the sweepers were just too big? Perhaps the heat thinned the oil too much? Who knows. All we know is that the bearing was TOAST:

The other half of it seems to be fused to the connecting rod. The block looks like it is ok, but the crank is all scored. Sigh, oh well.

Also, a weird little round cap was rattling around in the oil pan:

Engines! We had purchased a freshened up block and head a while ago in preparation for this season. The motor was already bored 0.020" over (first overbore and legal limit for Stock class), new rods, pistons, bearings, oil pump, timing chain, and of course, all new seals. We put the bottom end together on Tuesday, overnighted more parts from Japan than should be legally possible, and decided Wednesday would be "Assemble the rest of the Engine" night.

I think we forgot how long it takes to rebuild an engine...

Wednesday started off with the bottom end mostly assembled, but PJ ended up loosening and re-tightening everything to spec. Since he didn't have a degree wrench handy, I ended up guessing the angle for the rods and head bolts, with all bolts at least to the alternate torque spec.

Taking time torquing things down - Check out the veins in PJ's arm!

Getting the new timing chain and front cover on were easy enough, since it's all relatively bolt-on:

Things slowed down after that, with all the old RTV to remove off of the PCV, upper chain cover, and removing the gaskets from the intake and other accessories. Removing the rear main seal from the old engine was a pain with it still on the stand, but it eventually came out and a new seal was tapped in. The finished product isn't as shiny up top, but oh well.

Divs Recap: I hit lots of cones, which put me solidly in 3rd place in STL. Without them I would have been ahead of 3rd by 0.7. I also had the worst DNF of my racing career. It's on video somewhere. Awesome.


We had exactly 3 miles of break in on the engine before my codriver, Solo Mom Kathy Barnes, took her first run. And you know, it wasn't half bad! We are admittedly the slower of the 5 drivers in the car for Divs, so it seemed ok...but the gentlemen were quite unhappy.

The car on Toyos requires a completely different suspension setup. The guys used day 1 to figure it out, and it was better. Though, my codriver (in ST) said that he felt he needed to drive the piss out of the tires, which shouldn't be happening.

Photo by Dan Boudria

By Day 2, it was much better. FYI, Toyos like to be run at stupid low pressures.

Good thing Toyo pays out to third place (stupid cones....), and Kathy ended up in 4th. The guys in open class were 2 and 3, so overall, we won $400 and learned some valuable lessons. With 55 miles of break-in by the end of the weekend, the engine felt pretty good. It's only been getting better since then, too, which is encouraging.

ST*L had a pretty good showing, too. 1 in STSL, and 5 in STL:


Even Nationals only has 6 in STL....

Despite the driving failures, it was a pretty fun weekend. Probably the only one where it's acceptable (and fun) to attend, and not drive:

Fast forward to the NER annual charity event, Racing Against Leukemia. G-Fab was able to raise over $1700, and I think as a program, Solo raised nearly $7000. We raised more than the other divisions, and though I don't have a total for the entire weekend, I'd say NER might be on the UMass Memorial Foundation's list of favorite organizations.

We returned to stock sways, since the 30/27 mm ones were binding like crazy. The car feels a little more controllable with them on, but I don't know if it's due to size or lack of grease. Or the fact that we were testing it on a 28 second course on a postage stamp of a lot.

We datalogged the Toyos vs the Hankooks, and there isn't much difference. Codriver #1 says he doesn't feel a difference, but the Toyos were run in the rain/drying, Hankooks were run in the dry and overheating. It's hard to say which is actually faster overall, but given the time constraints, financial constraints, and the supply/demand issue, the ST team will be purchasing a set of full-tread RS-3's for Nationals.

Personally, I prefer the Kooks (as does codriver #2). The response is instant, and when at temp, the grip is incomparable. I think the car accelerates and brakes slightly better with the Toyos, which might be due to the lower amount of grip and the shorter sidewall, but in the rain they're absolutely better. We'll be bringing the Toyos out for rain, but I don't think they can compete with Hankooks if it's going to be hot out.

We ran into some fuel pressure issues again, but PJ threw a new pump in, and it's far better. The car definitely pulls a lot harder, as illustrated by our THIRD double header in a row...Wiley was able to take first place in ST over two EF Civics. In the rain. On Hankooks. Yay for us!

Right now, we're just taking a bit of a breather, only doing "comfort and convenience" modifications yesterday. Baby now has working rear speakers! They play the Glee Pandora Station quite well. I feel like this season has really been quite the learning experience, both in driving, assembly, and just how expensive shipping costs are.

Catching up on Events: Part II

Oscoda is a long drive.... 15 hours each way. Despite that, we arrived super early to the site and locked down prime paddock spots (important at National level events). Unfortunately, we encountered a similar problem to Dover, as SM did not have enough cars to make a full class. To make matters worse, we couldn't change classes since we needed to get season points for SM. On top of that, we would be "bumped" into the same class as the ASP land rocket that dominated the overall PAX index in Dover, and also have deal with the PAX disadvantage that SM has to ASP. Things were not looking well for the class win perspective.... until we were about to leave the site on Friday.

At around 6pm (or maybe earlier? the sun seemed as though it never set) a familiar face drove by. It was Jarrod Hoops towing his SM Evo onto the site. From him, we found out that Andy Lieber would be showing up, but not racing. Having Jarrod meant 4 cars in SM, but we would still need a 5th. After trying to convince him to convince Andy to race on Saturday, we found a DSP car willing to swap to SM under the condition that we would do his work assignment at the Finale..... luckily, it never came to that as a 5th SM car showed up on Saturday morning as a late entry! SM would make a class.

Making a class was only the beginning of the weekend, though. We would still have to get out there and drive.... Back again was Corey Ridgick, with him and Cy Lee having fixed their BSP/SM Evo after a tranny failure in NJ. On top of that, Jarrod's car was as monsterous as ever. It's also a past National Champion car, as well.


Corey Ridgick in the BSP/SM Evo


Jarrod Hoops' SM Evo

Round 1 would have everyone hitting cones, which put me in position to take over an early lead with some cautious driving. Dave would pull his usual antics, having a super fast runs negated by cones.

Round 2 wouldn't be quite as easy, with everyone showing that times could drop much further. I kept it clean, shaving a few tenths on each side while Dave would catch a single clean run to put him in 2nd. Hoops and Ridgick both hit cones on their fastest, with times fast enough to show that they were still just as big a threat to take the lead as ever.

Round 3 came the next day, where I managed to keep just in front of Hoops on first driver runs. The co-drivers came up and Dave would slot himself momentarily into 2nd, before Ridgick put down a pair of runs that nearly took over the lead. A single cone would negate it, though, and he would fall into 2nd place between Dave and I.


Panda at the line

After normal competition came the Super Challenge:
My luck would have it that I'd be paired up again with my fellow NER member and good friend, Scott Thursby, in the first round. Having coned away the win to him in NJ, I went with a fairly safe line on the first run. Ironically, Scott hit a cone that basically handed me the win


Thursby's Marshmallow

Moving into the 2nd round, I was up against another good friend and former SM ProSolo Champion, Chris Travis. Chris would also hit a cone, despite me taking the win in raw time anyways.


Chris Travis' (girlfriends') BS S2000

The rounds would just get harder, as I'd have to take on multi-time National Champion (and also NER member) Paul Kozlak. Somehow, I put down a couple good runs to get past him, and move on to the final four.


The Kozlaks' BS Pontiac Solstice

Unfortunately, my run would stop there, against Sam Strano. A bit of intimidation from Sam being a regular Challenge winner, and also from not cooling tires off enough, would result in a poor first run on my part. Getting the car a little loose into the first slalom would cost me my line on the return trip, resulting in a 0.7 sec deficit into the 2nd run. Somehow, I got my composure back, and clawed back 0.6sec of it, resulting in a 0.1sec win for Strano.


Strano's ESP Mustang

The consolation round started off well enough, but although I had a slim lead coming off the first run, I red-lit the 2nd, pretty much forfeiting the round to Matt Braun.

Matt Braun's SS Lotus Elise
All in all, it was a pretty exciting weekend, and in the end I have enough points to be the Atlantic Zone Champion going into the Pro Finale next month

All photos courtesy of Brian Keuhl

Catching up on events: Part I

The 2011 Delaware National Tour ended up providing a few interesting challenges. The first was attendance, as Street Modified was pretty slim at only 3 cars. Because of this, Hoosier contingency only pays out for 1st place, so in order to have a shot at a 2nd contingency win, we needed to swap one driver to another class. Having come off a good drive at a local event, Dave opted to run in SSM. Unfortunately, so did ASP overdog Mike "Junior" Johnson in a "600hp Land Rocket". The second challenge was the course itself. The course was divided by an island separating 2 parking lots. One lot had excellent traction, while the other was a larger aggregate that was also breaking up (much less traction + bumps). Handling each in a single run required a lot of concentration, and presence of mind to change driving style halfway through a run.


600hp ASP Vette of doom


If you look closely, you can see the debris picking up from crappier surface

I started off in SM, with Dave in SSM running the heat after. On my first run, I made the transfer from crap surface to good surface, and was putting down a good safe run when I bit off a bit more than I could chew through the finish and tagged a cone. Despite the cone, I had the lead in SM going into 2nd runs, where I put down the clean run (probably being a bit safe). With a 1 second lead, I went full bore into run 3 and tagged a cone halfway through. Knowing I hit a cone, I tried forcing my way through a tight offset slalom and DNF'ed when I couldn't get the front to bite. Knowing how fast I couldn't go through a section would provide some feedback for Dave in the next heat....

Dave ran SSM flawlessly, despite being at a disadvantage in power. He was still able to outrun Jake Namer's RX-7, and Jason Becker's powerful M-coupe. Ultimately, he would end up in 2nd place.

The Monster Mile

Dover is over, but the lessons learned are sticking with us.

• Don't mix Korean BBQ, sushi, beer, and racers. You get challenges like our last one. 
• Nine cones in one run, while a lot, is not a record.
• If you even mention something close to the word "illegal" be prepared to deal with the consequences.
• Talking to myself actually helps, and it also makes for funny in-car video for later.
  
  Most importantly, however....
  
• CHECK THE TORQUE ON YOUR WHEELS!
• HAVE A SPARE TIRE!

We started the weekend off with a bang or two. After bleeding the brakes on Baby Panda, the wheels were not torqued down. While driving home from the garage on Thursday (and almost reaching the highway), I heard a severe rubbing noise, and before I knew it, the left rear tire was rolling ahead in front of me. The damage to the car was not terrible. I'm just lucky I have such a stiff setup, and the car was low. I called PJ, he came with the truck, and we swapped on a shaved tire. We searched for about 90 minutes and couldn't find the wheel...Black wheel + black tire + 930pm = no dice.

The next morning, Dave, Todd, Roger, Bryan Mancuso, PJ, and I set off for Dover, at the ripe time of 5:00am. By Exit 27 on 95 (20 exits and it's now 5:30, mind you), we had another issue: The trailer tire had blown out. We sat in the area between the on-ramp and the highway for hours.

At some point, Dave and Roger ventured off into the lovely towns of Bridgeport, Stratford, and Fairfield to find a place--any place--that might be open and selling trailer tires. Of course...no where was open at 6:00 am. Bryan, PJ, and I hung around, playing poker in the truck and betting theoretical tires while traffic was picking up. Yay rush hour! A phone call and an hour later, the Davises showed up with their spare trailer tire, which (of course) didn't fit. So much for "standard" size trailer wheels!

A CT State Good Samaritan and two exits later, we were sitting in a strip mall parking lot. It was 8:00, and PJ and Bryan went to meet Dave and Roger at DeSantie Tire Co in Fairfield; the only place that would have a tire. I sat by myself, and 30 minutes later, we had a new tire, as well as a spare. We were back on the road around 9:00...20 exits in four hours...with no traffic...WINNING!

We arrived in Dover around 3, when practice runs were ending. Ah, well. It was obvious one half of the course would be grippy and awesome, and the second would be far less so. We went to a Mexican place for dinner, Nate drank a margarita, and we called it a night.

Day 1 saw NER with a strong showing of firsts, seconds, and thirds. The course was super fast, and with a bit of better suspension adjustment and braking, I'm pretty sure that Baby Panda would have done a little better. Not to mention less crap on the low grip side of the course. Marbles galore. A slight tire dip into the marbles, and you were f'ed for the run.

Photo by Perry Aidelbaum

I ended up in the marbles on last run...hitting a cone at the very beginning of the course. So I did what any other racer would do. BALLS TO THE WALL! I believe the grand total was 9 cones, though results only show 7 since two of my cones were put on Joe Austin, and then never put back on me (sorry Joe!). I hit a cone so hard, it wedged itself behind the tire, around the shock, and into the springs. A jack, a Roger Whipple, and some elbow grease and it came out, though I nearly needed a 10 minute mechanical.

Day 2 was....less good for Baby Panda. Cones galore, less focus, and a hero run by the competition. We can leave it at that. Todd and I finished 7th and 11th, respectively. Hey, at least we would have won at craps! (Though...I guess in a way, we did, because we drove like crap?)

Panda was leading in SM after Day 1, by over 2 seconds, and finished with over a full second lead over second place. I think it was PJ's Post-Day-1 massage that really helped him to relax and focus on Day 2:

After reviewing video and data, I realized I wasn't trying to go faster for some reason. I don't know what's up with that. Maybe I should change my goal from "not-DFL" to "mid-pack or higher" because I think the "not-DFL" mentality is no good for competitive edge.

Interestingly enough, I didn't do much better at the Devens event on the 12th, but I blame that on the rain. And the additional pressure of the GFab Street Competition. And the fact that we changed things on the car so I had to adapt. And the fact that the event was trying a bunch of new things like number of heats and new people in work assignments. And the fact that I didn't get a break. And I think I'm out of excuses.

Ah well. At least I got my Nationals "Tour requirement" out of the way. Perhaps I should use the time between now and then to learn how to drive properly.

What happens at the bar goes very very public

How is This Fair?!

G-Fab misses you. And is jealous. 

STRaight trippin' in Derty Jerz

Last weekend brought the inaugural SCCA NJ ProSolo at the New Meadowlands stadium. After finally getting somewhat comfortable with the car as well as getting the suspension fairly dialed in, it was time to see what the car could do against some "real" competition.

Up until this point, I hadn't experienced any real STR competition and I hadn't had the luxury of time to learn the car and develop the setup. It didn't help that the forecast leading up to the weekend called for rain. And as well all know, the Hankook RS-3's + rain = FAIL. Weather was such an issue that I had sourced a set of Toyo R1R's from a local distributor that I planned on having installed the morning of practice starts. At least the weather looked like it would be pretty nice, so I skipped the Toyos. Still, the fact that my car (and me) were untested against National level competition, I was still nervous.

Unfortunately Friday practice starts were in the wet/damp so I didn't get much useful practice. At least I got to get the feel for launching the car. There's one less thing to worry about during actual competition.

Coming into Saturday I was still nervous, but at the same time I knew I just needed to keep a cool head and I stood a chance at a decent showing. I made the point of introducing myself to the other STR drivers just to show I'm a "good guy"...at least on the outside. Don't tell them I sabotaged their tire pressures (just kidding!). They were all really cool dudes and it actually calmed me down a bit since we were all "cordial" at that point. That calmness would soon disappear as we strapped on our helmets just before our turn to run. Sitting in the car I was shaking from anxiety. I didn't come close to hurling like jdrop did, but I was starting to freak out.

We pull up to the start boxes and my hands are shaking like crazy. Thankfully, jdrop was working the helmet scanner and gave me the "Good luck!" wish as I pulled up to the burnout box. That, combined with some deep DEEP breathes, brought the shaking back to "normal". The second I launch on my first right side run things fall back into place and I put down a decent raw time. Over on the left on my first run I throw down a decent 32.7xx which would end up being 2nd fastest in class, but I get called for a cone penalty. I had no idea which cone I hit so I was a bit dumbfounded, but oh well I'll have another shot. My 2nd right side run would go much better as I lay down a class leading 32.088. Moving back over to the left for my last run of the morning, I knew I just needed to do the same thing as my first run...just cleaner! Unfortunately I would redlight the start thus negating the run. It wouldn't have helped anyway as I ended up 1/10th slower.

So going into Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in 5th place and 2 out of trophies even though I had two of the fastest raw times in class. All thanks to a cone and a redlight on the left. Thinking ahead to Sunday, I knew weather might not be as good as Saturday, which meant if I wanted a decent chance at a trophy I needed to get a clean time in the books on the left side. Unfortunately the afternoon brought about some cooler and slightly wet weather compared to the morning. So if I was going to find time, I would REALLY have to work at it. I end up not finding any time on the right so I would have to settle on my 2nd run from the morning. On the left, I drove like a little girl just to make sure I stayed off the cones and didn't redlight. My times really showed it too, as I was ~0.3xx slower than my fastest morning run. But, by virtue of not coning or redlighting, I actually move into the 2nd position in class. I would ultimately drop to 3rd after a 2nd driver in an S2000 takes advantage of the heat in his 'Kooks and throws down fastest times on both sides in class.

While I'm on the bubble in terms of trophy positions, I feel relatively relaxed. Certainly compared to how anxious I felt before morning runs. I'm actually pretty upbeat. I stay relaxed all night by having 1 or 10 beers and serving 1 term as President in our NER game of "A**hole". I think this is key, as I don't spend all night obsessing over how tomorrow's going to go.

The same upbeat feeling would stick Sunday morning as I feel confident that I know exactly what I need to do to drop time and potentially put myself into 2nd or 1st. Sadly, mother nature would not cooperate as we were greeted with cold/cool temperatures and overcast conditions. F*'n great! Those Hankooks are going to be tough to get working so it's going to take everything I've got just to keep the car in check. As expected, the tires had nothing for me to work with as I struggled just to keep the car on line. I refuse to accept this and push as hard as I could which would end up resulting in not one, but two spins. Coincidentally, I spun in the same location on both the right and left courses. Well, if I'm going to lose a trophy position it's not going to be because I wasn't driving hard.

So my 2011 NJ ProSolo would end with me sitting on my Saturday times. It turns out that none of the other top 5 drivers in STR found anytime on course either as well all struggled to get the Hankooks to work in the cool temperatures. Grrrr...I may be seeing Toyos in my future. Well I wasn't able to move up, I at least held onto my 3rd place finish. This would signify the first time I've ever trophied at a National event. Considering this is only my 1st year ever autoxing a RWD car and I've barely developed the car, it's still a significant milestone! It must have been the G-Fab Racing t-shirt I was wearing since that obviously played a major role in my performance. Still, there's a lot of work left to do - both to the driver and to the car. Next up - Northern States Championship in Toledo, OH. Hopefully I don't blow it against some stacked STR talent.

And now, for your viewing pleasure/displeasure, my fastest runs from the weekend:

LEFT

RIGHT

There's No Crying In Racing: 2011 NJ Pro Solo

I used to go to big national events and just watch. I also used to cry when I didn't do well. Yes, I know. Both kind of stupid.

That being said, from watching and not driving, I got really familiar with the pro solo format. So when it came to the Dirty Jerz, I figured it was about time I stop spectating and start driving. I finally have my own car, so if I don't drive it, what the F was the point of a small diamond ring?

Given that the car has made it through exactly ONE event without some sort of issue, I was a bit concerned. Or maybe that's an understatement. I was terrified. Baby Panda has never seen national competition, so I was worried she'd get scared and decide to crap out. On top of that, the 48+ launches it was going to endure had me worried about the clutch as well. On top of that....I suck at launching on command, I don't do well without getting out and taking a break, and I haven't gotten the shakes yet. But....screw it. I'm going to drive!

When we got to the site, as if all the car/driver worries weren't enough, somehow the Nationals Staff had somehow overlooked my three emails about having two drivers in both ST and STX, so we were all in the same heat, and in the same group. FML. It probably contributed to the amount of stress we were all under when the event began, but by the end of first runs, it wasn't terrible, aside from the grid guy who couldn't seem to get it through his head.

Despite my nerves almost getting the better of me (I almost threw up before I ran, and almost cried for the first time), after my first launch, I was hooked.  What a great adrenaline rush. I've never gotten the shakes while driving before. And my worries about launching were unfounded. I did that better at launching than the actual driving part. Go fig.

By the time the AM heat was over (with only one RL, due to staging WAY too deep), I was beating Wiley (by only a little)....which never happens....and was also in far better spirits. 

Of course, my spirits would sink, as the sky got pretty dark and it started sprinkling right before my afternoon runs. I had to turn the wipers on, and was on the left to start, which had been my weak side anyway. Of course. The ground was wet, I hate you rain. Somehow, I still managed to hang on to 4th place out of 6. We went to dinner, reviewed some data, drank some beer. Or a lot of it.  

Going into Sunday's runs, I knew I needed a better left side time. I got to start on the right, which for me, was a lot more comforting. My right side was ok--I ended up picking up a second on the right on my first run, but I pushed far too hard on the left. Both times. Sigh. Not the best finish at my first national outing of the season. I did learn a lot, though. In no particular order:

• "Mommy needs a new pair of shoes" doesn't coerce your car to turn in. It's probably better that I don't have video yet. There will be much profanity when it's finally posted. 
• Eric Chiang's Relaxation Techniques should be taught to all noobs at every race. They really work.
• Well-made, suede steering wheels are totally worth it. I hit the steering wheel several times after my bad runs, and it didn't bend or break.
• Thanks Peej, for buying the MaxQ. It really, really, really helps.

I almost cried again, because I didn't improve as much as I needed to move up in the standings. But--THERE IS NO CRYING IN RACING. A few minutes later, I was smiling again, because I'm very lucky. I have good support networks and I have good friends. And thank God there was some estrogen at this race. It's nice to have your girls around when you need them.

Photo courtesy of Wiley Cox

 All in all, I'm pretty please with how Baby Panda did. She didn't get scared, lasted the whole race, finally got comfortable with her new shoes (shaved RS3's, and I am never having TireRack shave again as they did a terrible job), and finally decided to come out and play for real. By the end of the event, I was exhausted, but ready for Oscoda. 

Photo courtesy of Wiley Cox

Dover up next, then Oscoda! I probably won't cry there.

2011 NJ Pro Solo: Street Modified Parking Lot Pimpin'

Last year ended on a good and bad note for my little race team. On the upside, we had a car capable of winning a National Championship. On the downside, we let that National Championship slip through our greedy little fingers.

This year we've got one goal: win big

So far things have been hectic. Work on the ST car has gone slow, and development of the Panda has suffered. Besides basic maintenance and a new transmission, all of the new aero and weight reduction has hit the back burner. With everything getting hectic, we only had 1 event to get ready for our first ProSolo of 2011.



Thankfully, we rocked that 1 event. Placing 5th in the overall PAX at an event where Pro class went 52 cars deep, all while on shot tires from last season. Going into the NJ Pro as a huge overdog, things were looking up....

Things looked so good that we never bothered to check the grid sheets. Had I looked, I might've not run on the old tires. Pulling into grid, I found that a new challenger had arrived. Corey Ridgick of BSP fame (placed 2nd in BSP last year at Nats) had decided to move up to SM in Cy Lee's BSP Evo. Despite the class limitations, the Evo guys have combined E85 and the unlimited boost rule to make near SM power. The suspension development is also pretty deep due to the number of cars built for the class. To top it all off, the advantage of AWD adds another 0.3 to 0.4 sec per side before reaching 60ft. Initially, I felt we were a bit under prepared to go up against that kind of heavyweight.



Into the first round, things actually looked decent. Corey nailed some good runs as expected, besting Dave's best raw times by roughly a tenth on either side with a 30.3 on the left, and a 29.3 on the right. Dave started off with his usual hi-jinx, having cones on both of his left side runs, despite posting raw times right up there with Corey. Having been beaten by Dave all of last year, that wasn't very comforting.

Going into my runs, I took it easy at first. With the car at only 14psi, it was easy to drive, and I felt like the car had never handled better. It was confidence inspiring, and because of that I was able to kick things up a notch. The next left side run would be one of only two sub-30 second runs for the class on that side. Carrying that speed over to the next side might've had me a bit over zealous at the light, tripping it just 0.008 seconds early to negate a 29.6 that would've put me into the lead. That one was a heart breaker, and many profanities were yelled into the camera beside my head.



Sitting in second for the following heats was painful. The clouds in the sky were about as dark as they get, and every now and then some raindrops would tickle my face. It was enough that Jenna had the wipers going for one of her runs, but thankfully that's all it amounted to, and things were dry by the time SM came back up.



The afternoon heat went well. I started off with a 29.8 to knock my right side below 30, and eat into Ridgick's lead. He was able to dig deeper into the 29's, posting a 29.2 while I botched the left with a 30 flat. The next set of runs would eventually determine the overall winner, as I hit the right side running. Posting a 29.2 would give me the slightest lead, which was followed up by a 29.7 on the left that one of my favorite XP guys (Dave Newman) wouldn't even match (which was actually one of my highlights for the weekend, even though he obliterated me on the right with a 28.4).

Right side run:

YouTube Video

Left side run:

YouTube Video

Sundays at Pro Solos are usually the make-it or break-it day, and unfortunately the latter occured to Cy's Evo. On its first run on some fresh Hoosier A6's, it cracked the transmission case and wasn't able to run the rest of the day. Despite swapping the fresh tires to Micheal Fineberg's BSP Evo (which also runs on corn), Corey wasn't able to better any of his times. In the end, it feels more like a lucky win, as my final run resulted me in pushing the Panda so hard I had my second ever ProSolo DNF as I locked up the fronts cresting a hill, pulling the car to the left while I needed to go right (my first ProSolo DNF was due to a broken transmission, oddly enough).



Sunday afternoon came with the Gumout Super Challenge, which I qualified 14th of 32 for. This is probably the part of ProSolos I enjoy the most (even just watching from the sidelines). Unfortunately, I paired up with a good friend, Scott Thursby of ES in the first round. Fortunately, that gave me the chance to screw around, so I mounted a couple GoProHD's to watch him get his 2 second per side head start Coming off the first run, I had a 0.8sec advantage (running the faster right side). Knowing it was going to be close, I pushed a bit harder going into the slalom, and paid for it basing a cone with the back tire. Despite having the faster overall scratch time by a few thousandths, I had to concede the win to Scott (only to watch him red-light against a fellow New Englander later on).




That's about it for NJ. Next up is the Dover Tour in 2 weeks!