Getting Prepped for SCCA National Tour

[ldstang50]

Getting ready for my SCCA National Tour event. I'm heading up to Romulus, NY early tomorrow morning. I'll be camping there and racing Saturday and Sunday.I didn't realize how much work it took as a driver to make one of these events. I preregistered by in March for this and all season long I've been working on car set up. Well now my car set up has changed. I've been running 275/18 front, 295/18 rear Hoosier A6s this season. That would make me illegal in stock class because the car comes with 19s. I was able to locate some 19” R comps on Monday and today I'll be getting them mounted on my stock wheels. Everything but the tires/wheels will be the same. Fronts now will be 295/18s and the rears 315/19s. I have to thank GJ Dixon (SCCA National Champ and Chevy Rev It Up National Winner) for the tires. GJ was also nice enough to volunteer to take my tires down to DC for the Pro next weekend. The car as it sits now has K&N drop in filters, Stillen cat back and Cobb FSB on full stiff. The set up all season was understeer with throttle provoked oversteer. I know the bigger tires will cause more understeer, but I'm hoping in the test and tune tomorrow I can figure most of it out. Also, most of the courses I run at during the year are small, which means the car will be tight. A faster bigger course usually loosens up the car, which is where I hope my big tires will come into play. And seeing as the lot we are on has tons of grip and is known to chew up tires.....I'm hoping the extra meats will play out to my advantage for day 2.Of the guys I'll be competing against are former national champ Keith Scala, Mike Montalbano (2nd last year to Keith by .017seconds in this event), and a co driven RX8 (one of the drivers place 17th at nationals last year). I'll have work cut out for me.The final preps are today with getting my tires mounted and car loaded up. I'll be leaving early tomorrow morning (5am) to get up there with time to set up camp and get over to the site to walk it and get registered. Then its time to wash the car and get all stickered up. The one thing I almost forgot about was class stickers. I usually use tape, but for a national event I thought magnet stickers would be better. I ordered them through http://www.rallydecals.com on Tuesday. Last night the owner called saying I might not get them in time for the tour. So what he was going to do is give them to one of his local customers who will be going up to personally hand them to me. I thought that was pretty sweet. If you guys need numbers or letters for your car, I highly recommend Keith Casey at Rally Decals. Real nice guy and very much into our sport.If I have a lap top up there I'll try to keep you guys posted as to whats going on (kind of like a blog). Lets see if a Z can finally beat the RX8.

[evildky]

good luck, put the wood to those rotards

[rmezz13]

so do we have the results yet? Big Fat WIN is what i expect, or something close...

[ldstang50]

Well unfortunately I couldn't hold it down for the z's this weekend. I was the ONLY 350z running this weekend. My class was all RX8's besides me.I laid down a good run first thing Saturday 59.2, which had me in 2nd just .1 out of the lead. My second run I smoked the course but hit two cones, 58.5+2. I knew there was more time, but my tires washed out from being too hot. Meanwhile Keith Scala moved into 2nd just ahead of me. At the end of day one, Shawn Roberts 1st 59.1, Keith second 59.1, me third, 59.2, Chike 4th 59.4, Mike 5th 59.6. Obviously a very close pack. Had I not coned away that run I'd be sitting in first with a comfortable lead.Sunday..... I won't get involved as to what transpired. I really like Keith and he's helped me out a lot this year. He did nothing wrong, but the organizers screwed up giving him a rerun. He used it to his advantage and laid down a time on warm tires no one could beat. He took the class win, I finished 2nd, Chike 3rd. I didn't get 3rd until my last run. I could have gone faster but, at that point I was 4th in class and needed a fast time to move up but I needed to make it clean, so I drove at 90-95% to ensure no cones. But had I not coned away Saturday, Keith's rerun wouldn't have mattered.As it was, being my first SCCA National Tour Event ever, I think I did pretty good. Have DC Pro this this weekend after a track day on Thursday.

[rmezz13]

very good tho. 3rd is great man. You'll get em next time.

You think of someplace that sells tires and brakes as a sponsor over a tire company or brake company? Thats what you need the most right?

[ldstang50]

you short changing me ryan? I finished 2nd. Still first loser though.I buy used race tires at about 20% of the new cost. My tires have about 70 runs on them. All the other guys were on MUCH newer tires, about 5-10 runs.I'm using the same tires this weekend for the DC Pro.New motto for me, drive hard or go home.

[rmezz13]

you short changing me ryan? I finished 2nd.

LOL don't come in my checkout isle...

[ldstang50]

now you can say that.went to DC pro this weekend and did horrible. weather played a factor, but regardless, i finished dead last. coned all my sunny dry runs, was only clean on my wet runs which obvioulsy weren't any help

[rmezz13]

meh, everyone does bad once in awhile. Keep your head up.