Weekend of racing, good results

[ldstang50]

Had what I like to call a double header race weekend. Saturday morning I was up at 430am for a 2hr driver up the Fort Devens in Mass. The SVT club was holding an auto-x at the airfield. I faired ok, still on street tires. But instead of being on the s***ty T1R's, I swapped back to the RE050. Tires were good enough to close the huge time gap I had to the 370z on the new RE11. Seeing how I'm on 3yr old worn tires and he's on brand new RE11's and I finished less than a half second behind on a 2min course, I was real happy with that. Temps on Sat. were 97degress. Tires were cooked halfway through a run, so the key was to go as hard as you can, saving your front tires for the first part of the course, then easing back a bit on the last half. Problem with the Z is she doesn't turn in unless you scrub speed. The Z is very front brake dependant, thus she doesn't trail brake. So in order for her to turn in, I have to tap the brakes with my left foot, turn in, once the car bites, get back on the gas to get the car to rotate more. Its taken me a while to figure this out because my Evo trailed braked something awesome. This was my 6th event already this season and every other event was on street tires.

Sunday I had another event, but this time only 45min away, so I was able to sleep in until 630. I carried two tires in the Z and a buddy carried my other tires. I swapped out to R comps when I was there. But not before I walked the course. There were NO transition elements, everything was steady state. Two skidpades and a third corner that was changing radius....tight, then opened up, then tightened back down. My car with the huge front bar, hates steady state. So to make up for that, I put my Hoosier A6s, 295/18 up front and put my Hoosier R6 275/18 in the rear and jacked up the pressures in the rear. If you don't autocross then these names won't mean anything to you, but in attendance were GJ Dixon in a C6 Vette (he placed 10th at Nationals last year in this car and is a National Champ from a previous year), Matt Murray (HS National Champ), Nelson Antunes (2nd or 3rd at Nationals), Ken Fry (previous National ES Champ), Keith Scala RX8 (previous National BS Champ and current NER BS champ) and local hot shoes Pat Huxley and the Barbatos Bros. Obviously Keith Scala is who I'm comparing myself too. But this area is not short on talent. Keith is running a nes RX8 this year on Motons and Hoosiers, so this day would be a true test to see how I'm stacking up early in the season. Both of us are on used tires.First run I'm a half second off, the tires are all chunked from previous use and have no grip. I go out after my car and find an abandoned parking lot and scrub the tires off, rubber flies off and hits me in the face.....lesson learned, close windows if scrubbing in tires. Go back and run a 43.5 to beat Keith's 44.1. Next run I pull off a 42.9 and Keith is stuck at 44.0. Had this been SCCA that would be it, but we have 3 more runs. I'm happy to be ahead of him after 3runs, but I know he's going to find time.His very next run, he pulls a 42.887, just .013 ahead of me. I line up 6 cars later and knowing I have to better my time run a 40.84x, just .04 ahead of him. Keith doesn't get faster on his next run but I do running a 42.6xx, but somehow cone it. Keith's last run he gets a 42.87x, just .03 behind me. I've won my class but somehow, some way, I'm in the PAX battle so I run again, but can't improve my time. If the 42.6 was clean I would have placed 2nd in PAX behind GJ, but as it was, those .2seconds bump me back to 4th in PAX.Yesterday's results proved a few things to me....1) I can drive rearwheel drive 2) All the previous events on street tires helped immensly 3) I'm not far behind the best autoxer's.The early season is off to a good start. Winning yesterday and picking up a win last week with CART, where I was actually bumped to A stock. This weekend is another CART event where I will probably be bumped to A stock again. Here are a few pics the the z in actionCorner inHigh Speed


Modified by ldstang50 at 7:04 AM 4/28/2009

[spitalul2bad]

congratulations. at least some people that track their cars have fun.still, auto-x is not really an F1 race course.

however, it is rather demanding and getting such times versus more powerful cars shows some nice (great) driving.

congrats again.

[ZedHead]

Thats pretty good being so close to the national champs, deffinately way to go. Thats exciting.

What have you done to your car?

[aris_unlimited]

Gratz on doing so well.

Pics no worky

[ldstang50]

Thats pretty good being so close to the national champs, deffinately way to go. Thats exciting.

What have you done to your car?

Car has mods for stock class, Stillen cat back (looking to replace it), K&N drop ins, Cobb adjustable front bar at full stiff. Stock shocks.Car is still in development, I've run her every event this season besides this event on street tires. Once race tires are on, I'll do more research and testing and trying to figure out if shocks are needed.

[matt_2036]

Man a 2min autox!?!?!?! That would be awsome. I wish they built it like that down here!!!