Northwest Autocross 2011 thread
 

I figured I would start a thread for the 2011 Autox season here in the Northwest. I will post upcoming events, results, and pictures/videos if I get any.



I'm still trying to decide whether to run the LC2 or the Beta LC. LC2 would be in FSP, or locally Prepared C. Beta LC would be in Street Mod, or locally Open Street. I think I'm going to prep the LC2, I will be totally outclassed in the Beta LC, although I think my times overall would be a bit quicker.



I still have to install the Ksport coilovers. I am hoping to get it done this weekend. The first race is next Sunday the 27th and I'm hoping to not try to set everything up the night before.



Next event info here.

First event of the season was yesterday. WWSCC UWFSAE Dawg Sled 2011. I ended up running the red LC2 in Prepared C. It is called the slush series for a reason...there was an inch or so of slush on the course when we started running. It was raining heavily though, so that helped melt the slush, unfortunately I was in the first run group so there was slush for all my runs making it hard to compare times with anyone running later.



The coilovers were great, the handling is on a whole different level to say the least. I'm hoping for even better results once I actually get an alignment done. I finished installing them at 4am, then slept an hour and a half and drove to the track.



I got first place in my class, pretty easy to do if you are the only one in your class though.



My times (cones,gates):

117.509 (0,0) 100.759 (0,0) 96.671 (1,0) 89.194 (0,0)



Overall I was 37th out of 51 entrants. Only the first half of the morning session had slush to deal with though, so really staying out of the bottom 25% seems pretty good. I can't wait to try again in the dry, or even in the wet.



The large decreases were based a lot more on the slush melting than anything else. That should give you an idea how big of a factor the slush was. I couldn't get traction at all. It doesn't help that my tires are completely bald on the inside half. I'm going to need new ones soon.



Slush!!!

https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...0110227_01.jpg



I can haz low

https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...0110227_02.jpg



And last but not least, a video of my last run (skip ahead to about 20 seconds):

Sunday was the second Slush series event. I had a great time. The suspension is great, I can carry so much more speed that it's not even funny. I don't know my results vs. everyone else yet so I will have to update with that. In my class I was running against one other person, wilburisthecoolest from a few years back on HP if anyone remembers, and pretty much got my ass handed to me. Wilbur is running a MK I Golf with a fair amount of power which is also fully stripped and weighs around 1600lbs. He generally gets a better time than me, but occasionally I get him. In my video when I'm coming back into grid you can see his Golf, it's the first car in the line, the one in primer lol. Shraye also came out with his GK Tib for his first event. He is already planning on coming out again this Sunday for the finale of the Slush series.



My first run I missed a gate and hit a cone. Mostly because it had been a couple of hours since I had done my course walk because I was working the course while the first half of the afternoon session was running, and there were no course maps for this event. I hate it when there are no course maps. They help me memorize the course a lot better.



My second run I missed 3 gates. 30 seconds of penalties on a course where the fastest times were in the 44 second range. I did get my fastest scratch time though, 54.XXX seconds.



My third run I got my fastest clean time. 55.2XX seconds. I had set a goal of doing better than 56 seconds so I was pleased with this result. I also had Shraye as a co-driver tell me where to go in the areas giving me trouble which helped.



My fourth run was going pretty well until I got loose coming out of the Chicago box and lost my rear end in the slalom doing a 180 and killing the engine. I included it in my video for the lulz.



My Azenis RT-615 tires are totally bald now. That didn't help me much. I also haven't gotten an alignment yet, which should help a lot. I think with fresh tires and a proper alignment I could have shaved off a couple of seconds probably. I had a great time, and I'm happy to see that the car is greatly improved compared to before.



My bald tires

https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/IMAG0582.jpg



Shraye's Tib

https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/IMAG0584.jpg



https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/IMAG0585.jpg



The video of my fastest run, plus my spin

FTOD: 44.501 2003 S2000 running in B Stock. :unsure:



My times: R1: 60.362 (2,0) R2: 84.561 (0,3) R3: 55.263 (0,0) R4: 65.862 (0,0)<--spin

83rd of 92. :BangHead:



My best time with a FSP PAX index applied: 46.144

42nd of 92



Not satisfied with my placement, but hopefully by the real season I'll have tires and an alignment. I've also realized thanks to the GoPro that I'm turning way too late and that's eating a bunch of my time. I've got to work on that.

Well, it's been a long time since I updated, last Saturday I ran the 6th event in our 8 event regular series. Things have come a long way since I last posted. I have already won the series in Prepared C, nobody else can come close in series points and I've completed enough events that I don't have to even show up on the last two to qualify. Shraye has come out to almost all the events also.



This last event was called the Enduro. It is not like a normal autocross event. Here you get a warm up LAP then 3 timed LAPS. That's right, it's a mini circuit. It was a blast. I feel I did well. I couldn't get a clean run though so my best time was 62.525 +1 cone (which I barely clipped), for a scored time of 64.525. Top time of the morning session was 56.198 clean, in a heavily modified Miata. So I was a bout 6-1/2 seconds away from top time during the morning session if I had gotten a clean run. Overall I was 43rd out of 55, if I had been clean I would have been 32nd. That's not too bad for running on street tires.



Enough of that though, here's the video. The first lap is a practice lap. I wanted to go slow and see where everything was. GoPro is mounted on my driver's side headlight.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hYTu_bZVyw

The 7th event was last Sunday. I got first place in my class, easy when you're the only one in your class though. Overall I was 90th out of 109 entrants. My tires are pretty much toast after the lapping day. The tires I'm running in the front are the ones that were on the rear for the lapping day, I burned the inside half of the tread off on the road course. Even the tires that look good must have been overheated though, grip was way off of what it should have been. The rear was worse, I was very tail happy despite monitoring tire temps and fine tuning the pressures I just wasn't really getting anywhere with it.



It did make for a good video though at one point. I only had one run without a passenger. I was pushing the car and on pace to shave a fair bit of time off of my previous runs but I got a bit greedy and went into a section way too fast. Watch the video to see the world's ugliest drifting lol.



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X12Z49qAkxs[/media]



I really need a faster steering ratio. It shows in the video. No matter how hard I try I can't keep the tires pointed in the correct direction to correct for the skid. On a plus note I didn't miss any gates or hit any cones lol.

looking good man! its nice to see your time picking up. considering it will be winter soon, maybe you could run stock wheels and winter tyres for the slush/wet events? it'd give you a class advantage and a grip advantage over what are essentially fat slicks.



i wish there was autocross in australia :(

Since the slush series isn't for anything except for fun, I'm not too concerned. For wet events I will be running a street tire, whatever I replace my Azenis RT-615's with. I haven't decided what I'm going to run next though.