Up, Up, and Away!

G-Fab's PotaTOW Edition rolls 5 + 1 deep, heading to summer camp!

Todd and Jojo (the +1) are in Grand Potato, which is getting fantastically better gas mileage than the mighty Armada, currently housing Nate, Dave, PJ, and yours truly. We are getting 8.3 mpg, and were just warned that Indiana gas prices are $0.40 more expensive than in Ohio, and I just paid $4.18/gal. Yay.

Somewhere behind us is the Big Bear and Queen Kong camp, followed by the Thursbymobile. Wiley will come in on Saturday, BreakingTheLau will follow on Monday, as will Stiff and Grant. I hear Newman and #35 are en route as well....eventually.

We're somewhere in Ohio, the sun is coming up, and I've gotten 3 hours of sleep. I love the road trip. Of course, all my "stuff to do while smushed against the door and having a head using my leg as a pillow prop" is in Grand Potato, but at least there's a pretty sunrise.

More later. I need to tell the "head in lap" person that my leg is falling asleep.

Back To The Future

Wow, it's already August. Obviously you don't care what we've been up to, nor do we care enough to tell you when it's happening.

Dave, PJ, and I did the arrive-and-drive thing for Spring Nats at the end of May. Yes, it was expensive. No, I did not win anything. Yes, I drove/spun a C5 Z06. Yes, I will absolutely be going to this event again next year.  I will say, however, arrive-and-drive makes me feel helpless, and like a girl. No more of this girly shit. 

Photo by Chang Ho Kim

Mobil 1's The Grid was there. They missed most of the good stuff though, like Tornado Party, Heat 3 at Lazlo's, FJA getting ready to gang up on Newman (SUCK IT, F125 finally beat you!), me trying to collapse a kart stand, Sam "just coming down here to tell me something," and all the new Facebook friends I made from that weekend. I watched the broadcast, and for some reason they decided to film a bunch of GP cars, and ignore SS, SM, SSM....obviously they missed the memo that slow sucks and fast is fun.

June saw my return to Panda, which at first went badly, then went awesomely. I used back-to-back Renegade Miata events to practice before I made a fool of myself in SSM at the mid-month Devens Tour. It was actually the best battle weekend of the season, with Brian Kuehl and I fighting for the top spot. In 7 runs, I hit 22 cones. On my only clean run, I managed to take the top spot in SSM by .1. The next day, I managed to hit fewer, and still win the class. Yay.

The Devens Tour also saw my debut in the timing trailer. I think I'll stick to being scanner. Due to all the superstar drivers, the top of SSM was rough. I was in the 4th and last trophy spot at the end of Day 1, and managed to move up to 3rd on Day 2, beating my codriver by a bit over a second (which no one expected, least of all me). I suppose we shouldn't count those results, since the Kuehls added a wing that takes up more of the allowable area than we have, and their bigger budget means they could purchase and install it. 

Photo by Ed Savage

I was unable to attend the Dover Evolution Super Shootout, so I can't comment on it. I was exceptionally sad, however. I did speak to some people on the phone, and they said blah blah AIRWOLF blah blah course is bad blah blah AIRWOLF. I think I missed something - apparently it's some show that debuted and ended before I was born. All these old people in autocross.

We just finished up the Toledo Pro, and it was a hot mess. Bad run/work order, bad schedule, bad courses (sorry Alex). There was some good, too, though. Good to see friends and hang out, good competition in L2 (6/8, again. I need to stop going so slow), and good that Newman finally manned up and found his big boy pants. He drove Panda in SSM. I think he had fun. Good new game too. Battle Pitchers. I will most likely lose this game, but I will put up a good fight.

Photo by James Newman

RAL is this weekend, and somehow we've managed to suck at fundraising. Too bad, PJ was going to shave his head if we got $2,000. Given only 26 people are going into this, it should be easy to solidify another GFab Jeff Gordon Challenge win. At least I hope so. 

Nationals is next...the Big Show....the whole Shebang...let's hope I don't completely choke this time. 

I beat Cox. Hard.

Followed by an ESP win at Fairfield County Sports Car Club.

Maybe GFab's slowest member is finally stepping it up.

Gah. That means I need to find someone slower than me to hold down the fort in DFL.....

2012 DC Not-Amateur Alone Event

Let me tell you something....

3 am comes VERY early. Especially after a massive, greasy burger and a few beers.

Despite all this, we went forth and hopped in the mighty Armada and began our trek to the nation's capital.Thankfully, the way down was more or less uneventful, and we arrived on site around 10 am. G-Fab's newest members, Big Bear and Tim, saved a stretch of paddock, and we set up camp.

Prior to practice, we decided if only one GFab Nissan could run, it would be mine. PJ and Dave set to taking the muffler off. It's a lot louder, sounds a lot better, and I get a lot more high while driving to work with the windows down.

G-Fab secret #825: The way to Big Bear's heart is through Chick-Fil-A. Or maybe through a giant trash bag.

Here's another tip: Ladies' class is not the fun little playground/easy walk in the park you boys think it is. It's highly competitive, highly stressful, and if you're in the wrong one, it will make you cry. Fortunately for yours truly, L2 (the former L1), while hyper-competitive, is very nice, and we had a good time in impound.

Day 1 went more or less ok for me in the newly christened GFabGrandPotato (so dubbed by James Newman), with $1525 worth of new shoes. It's been years since I've been on Hoosiers (and never been on fresh ones), and the two times I've raced this car it was below 50 degrees and the tires were corded. So I guess the only place I could go was up.

The AM was for feeling out the car, and the PM was to try to get a little faster. I pushed it in the second session: I had a great launch on one side, and then promptly redlit on the other for my first pair of runs in the afternoon, so after that my RT's and 60's were pretty pathetic. I finished Session 1 in 6th, and stayed there for Session 2.

On Day 2, things went better, aside from the car understeering and pushing terribly in one corner, which resulted me plowing through a cone wall. I sent the workers scrambling. Sorry Justin. I felt like each Day 2 run was successively slower, but PJ was making little hearts with his hands when I drove by, and beaming, so maybe I didn't suck as much as I felt? Especially after Todd came up to me and said "nice pickup." You know boys, it's not nice to be mean to girls.

Apparently they weren't being as mean as I thought, because I picked up a total of 0.85x.

A word to the wise: If there's a time that should be protested, do it then and there. Don't let it wait, because new pro-solo rules say you can't change anything after you're released from impound, even if the competitor herself wants it done. In impound after the first session, a fellow driver said one of her times was clearly wrong, but no one said anything to the impound workers. She did try to get it changed after impound on Sunday, because she didn't feel right about it, but alas. It was too late. Instead of removing the time, she had found a second cone on said run that was never called in, and they were supposed to add it before final results came out. Unfortunately, they didn't change it, and final results show me in 6th instead of 5th. It's my own fault - I'm the only person it affected, and it's just ONE measly Pro Solo point, but still. :( However, I really appreciate her trying, even if nothing came of it.

There was also wing pong, drinking, giant spitball launchers, and it was a lot of fun. Mancuso even brought his big boy pants.Those are 3 double shots of vodka. He even drank one to "see how it tasted raw." GFab has never been so proud of an affiliate before.

New England brought back a total of 12 or so trophies, with 6 being from GFab. Yay us! Next time maybe I'll get one too!

And So It Begins....

Somehow, blogging took a backseat in this offseason. My bad.

Our trip out to Nationals was a bit more than eventful - I'd try to explain it, but you'd have to be squished into a baby seat, have fumes blowing in your face, and be stuck facing a giant white screen for 30+ hours. I can't figure out how the guys made it to Lincoln in under 24 hours last time. Once we got there it was ok, but I'm pretty sure we might not have made it if we didn't make a pit stop in Ohio for a load leveling hitch. Note to self - if you're following an enclosed trailer, make sure you have a walkie talkie so you can tell them they're about to flip over.

Upon getting to the site (and Wiley drove most of the way, so thanks Wiley!), we were about 60th in line at 3am...wtf? After some much needed shuteye, we got in and managed to save a bunch of (yet somehow not enough) paddock spots, and ended up across from my WDCR friend, is somehow unable to ride a bike.  As I was not participating in the Pro Finale, I took the opportunity to say hello to our friends from far away.

I can't comment much on the Pro Finale - I didn't participate and ended up kicking myself. I was a one-eventer, and one is the loneliest number, so I sat cheering on the rest of the team. G-Fab's own Atlantic States Champion didn't fare so well either, but he can tell you about that.

We took Monday off of car stuffs so we could go and get married - yes, we took the plunge, and no, nothing is different. Aside from the fact that my name was changed at registration on Tuesday and it was broadcast that all over the SCCA Ustream.

I'm now fully convinced that a) you need to be 300 lbs+ to drive CP, and b) CP stands for Casualties Probable. I never want to run with CP or CPL again. I could stand running 5th heat again, but running with them is like just ASKING for a delay, an oiled down course, whatever. There was a huge delay on Day 1 when a CP car grenaded itself, so we sat in the shade trying to survive the hours before we were able to run again. 5th place after Day 1 wasn't too great - At least I was ahead of two people, but let's face it. Being that far off the leaders is no fun.

Day 2 was just as poor, with the Baby problems starting during second heat. The new water pump, with roughly 2000 miles on it, proved faulty and we were forced to take several mechanicals. While the impressed audience gathered around us ("I can't believe you got all those parts out, fixed it, and put it back together in 20 minutes!"), G-Fab and its affiliates pulled the best teamwork since Dover and Panda's wire-harness-eating. Unfortunately, we couldn't run with the water pump seal being blown, so Wiley missed out on his last runs, and Todd jumped into a nearby Corolla for his third run.

I had to work during third heat, so Big Bear and Tim Kong went to the local auto parts store and got a new water pump. PJ worked like the sweatshop Filipino that he is, and the car was back together and in grid, waiting for me, by 5th heat. All I can say is that I was very impressed, and super lucky. Luck ends there though, because there was another CP casualty, and another delay. When you're hot, sweaty, and tired, you don't drive well. I am a prime example. The standings from Day 1 didn't change, so I have a standing 5th place record with Nationals.

Our return home brought the Annual Team Challenge. There was some sneaking around, but I ended up driving a Honda CR-Z on Direzzas in FSP - imagine my surprise when I actually won, by a few seconds! Of course, because PJ is also sneaky, our teams tied for points but his team was overall higher in PAX standings, so I was jipped out of my first place trophy :( It was a good end to a good season.

Photo courtesy of Ed Savage.

We took the off-season to do some things like installing new fun parts on Panda, play around with Baby, get the G35 ready for DS, and buy a house and stuff. Yep, we're homeowners. We've had several small get-togethers since we've moved in, and it seems to handle company well. Now we just have to figure out where the turbo goes.

With LOTS of help, we got the G-Fab tire mounter/balancer in the basement, and experimented with Panda's old shoes on the 18x8" stock-size wheels for the G35. The experiment went well, and 315's on all four corners is just how we roll.



We decided that Baby just might need some rest after such an intense season, and with the G35 being reclassed into DS, it makes sense to at least try it. I'm hoping we can figure out a way to get more legal front camber, but if not, it will still be a really fun car to drive. We're in the process of upgrading the brakes (yay Porterfield). My birthday was earlier this month, and I got something every girl dreams of: A front swaybar.

 

The season has already started (where did the time go?!) with the first non-points event at Fairfield County Sports Car Club in Stratford, CT. Four spins, corded tires, and a new appreciation for warm weather later, I'm feeling more confident about driving a car with 120 more HP, two more cylinders, and about a square foot of more (and stickier) tire. I'm praying to the weather gods that April 7 will give me more of a feel of Hoosiers that actually stick - it's been years and it's not quite like riding a bike. After that is the DC Pro, where I'm going to embarrass myself again, but still have a great time. I'm actually super excited about the season, so I hope I don't suck. More to come....