Thus endeth today’s sermonette.

First off, BIG thanks to Team Neon driver Mike O and ex-codriver Chris Franson for walking the Left course with me the night before we ran. I think I had the course fairly well figured out before this, but they gave me invaluable information about the surface conditions – where there was grip and where it was slippery. They had run on the course on Thurday and so their insights were invaluable. Without their advice, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to hammer the car through certain sections on my first run.

Friday morning, I realized that I had forgotten to put the Terrible Towel in the car the day before. I corrected this problem, and was that much more confident that I would do well.

Looking at the standings from Thursday, I was pretty close to the trophies, but I also had a log jam of folks right behind, so it wasn’t going to be easy to move up. On the other hand, I felt the course favored the Miata over the MR2, so there was reason to be somewhat optimistic.

I decided to skip the morning coursewalk, which I almost never do, in favor of a little more sleep, and a decent breakfast. I felt I knew the course fairly well, and all I really wanted to see was where the edge of the sand was, which I could do on the walk between heats 2 and 3.

Although the weather report called for temperatures in the mid-70’s, it never really seemed to warm up, until the sun came out after we ran. I think it was in the mid-60’s during heat 4 – I ran in a sweatshirt until my 3rd run.

First run, I pushed the car right away much harder than I had on the other course. David’s car is much more stable than my car, and it seems to like a little rougher treatment, plus the grip seemed quite good despite the low temperatures. I got through the first set of offsets pretty well (in fact, better than I would all day), then came the big decreasing radius sweeper in the middle of the course. I was too conservative here, and didn’t carry very good exit speed into the 4 cones slalom. I was surprised at how much grip there was in the braking zone for the following 180, but despite slowing down too much, I got behind the exit cone as planned and into the throttle early for the high speed offsets. Rode the limiter for a second or so into the brake zone before the slalom in at the bottom of the course. Overbraked for this corner, and lost some time, as the grip was very good. I managed to get the car slowed down for the tight turn at the end of the short slalom, but ran right over the apex cone when I turned into the big offset slalom. This sections was fun and fast, although it required some throttle modulation as the cones were offset and unevenly spaced. Since I had killed a cone already, I decided to try the tight part of the slalom with just a lift rather than hitting the brakes, and much to my surprise, it worked. I got back on the gas way too slowly in the left to the finish.

I thought the run was ok, with some clear areas for improvement. The car seemed to be sticking great, so I was confident I could drop some time. Because of the new grid arrangement, you can’t really hear the other times in class while you are between runs, unless you turn on the radio. I generally don’t worry about that while I am running, so it didn’t bother me much.

Second run, I overdid it in the first offset section and almost missed the entrance to the big sweeper. Got into the sand and had to brake about 50 feet earlier than I wanted to – this killed quite a bit of momentum although consequently I had a better line and exit speed heading for the first slalom. I did the rest of the course fairly well and was pleasantly surprised with the time improvement. I felt I lost at least a second with the mistake I made in the early part of the course. I hadn’t heard anyone break into the 52’s yet, but I felt they were in reach.

Last run, I managed to get through the early offsets ok – not great, but not as bad as the second run. Did the sweeper better and the sections following. Coming down the big offset section, I was on the limiter quite a bit more than in previous runs, so things were looking good. Got my visual lock on the slalom cone, hit the brakes, and turned into the corner. Everything seemed great for a split second, the car rotated, was pointing the right way and I started feeding throttle in. Suddenly, the car starter to slide wide, and I got a very sick feeling in my stomach as I slid past the target cone. I was several car widths on the right side of the slalom cone, rather than tucked in on the left where the line was. I had run a little deep and gotten into the sand – at this point I probably would have just punted the run but this is Nationals, so I stayed in the gas and tried to get the car back on line. Somehow, the car found enough grip to clear the first cone (although at an angle I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy). I managed to flat foot the slalom despite the bad entry and did the tight turn into the long offset better than I had all day. In the offsets, I just threw caution to the wind and ran as tight to the cones as I could, and stayed in the gas. I also macho-manned the last corner before the finish, and was pleasantly surprised with a two tenths improvement over run 2. (This turned out to be critical, as Jerry Jenkins was on course just behind me and would have caught me for 10th place if I had stood on run 2.)

I wasn’t sure where I finished until I saw the final results.  I was actually quite surprised that no one managed to break into the 52s, as I really thought there probably another second in my car if I had cleaned up my mistakes.  In impound I compared times with the other Miata guys and I was quite happy to learn I was the fastest Miata.

I ended up in 10th, with the final trophy.  I know the car was capable of winning, so I’m not thrilled with the result at all, but considering the first day stupidity, Friday was a victory of sorts.  Surprisingly, the two day result left me closer to the front than I ever managed in the CS at Nationals.

This was a weird one. My first one was bog ass slow, as I drove the Kumhos like they were Hoosiers, and just didn’t push them hard enough until the last 1/3 of the course. My second run was actually pretty decent except for one costly mistake. I got into the final slalom, and the back of the car walked on me about 3 cones in. I caught it, but found myself pointed right at the next slalom cone about 30′ in front of the car. I had no choice
but to hit the brakes hard – I made it, but lost a ton of momentum. I think it cost me at least a 1/2 second.

The last run seemed good, and I managed to get through the slalom without incident, so when I crossed the line, I thought I would pick up significant time, maybe a high 51. I was really surprised to see that it was actuallly 1/10th slower than my second run.

The car was really very good, and I think easily could have run with Brian Johns, the fastest Miata guy, if I had only removed my head from my ass. Some more seat time might have helped, but the time was definitely there. Nationals is fun, but it is hard too.

Tomorrow’s course is way Miata friendly, so I think I’ll be able to pick up some spots on some of the MR2s in front of me, and maybe steal a trophy. There are a bunch of people close behind me, so I’ll need to be on my game.

Franson, my roommate, is in 12th place in DSP, so we are making a note not to stay in the same room next year.

Jenna from the the VIP thinks that I will do better tomorrow, and gave me some encouragement.

Justin was dog slow on his first run, spun on the second run and then recovered nicely to snatch the final trophy spot. Even though I’m sure he was a little disappointed, I was proud of him for managing to get himself together for the that last run.

Karen drove the car pretty well, but it really wasn’t a good course for someone with so little seat time this year. I think she was pleased as punch to trophy with so little preparation.

Evil Randy showed up today. I’ll say this for him, he hit cones I never thought would move all week. It looked to me like he was overdriving the car, and this was definitely not the right place to do that. I only caught Eric’s last run, and I think he did very well, considering he had no seat time in the car prior to yesterday. He really seemed like he enjoyed himself all week, which is the point, after all.

Mike O arrived this afternoon, and tomorrow he, I and Nick J will get into action. I’m really looking forward to it.

Sam Strano was awesome, and came out of day one with a small lead.  In BSP, the Tak/Lieber car looked unstoppable – just amazingly quick compared to everything in the class.  Our local Driver of the Year, Justin Rothermel, was off the pace in 10th place.

The surface was really dusty in the first heat, and while a line developed, the times really never came down all that much as the day went on.  The Left course is very hard to see from the spectator area, so I didn’t really get to see any of the action over there, which meant I missed Eric and Randy completely.  I watched most of the heats on the Right course.

The condition of the surface is really having an impact on the results. It appears to be especially bad for any cars on slicks, and to favor AWD cars.  This is changing the balance of power within several classes, and is making the PAX results very strange.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few years.

By the afternoon I had recovered somewhat from my debauchery and vowed to tone it down a little the next few days.  I did pop over to Baby Dolls for a little bit in the evening, but I only had one beer and then headed for home at midnight.  I met my co-driver Sam – seems like a nice guy with a rather twisted sense of humor, so we got along great.

There seems to be a lot of interest in the FPL class this year.

Tonight, I’m being good and staying in, so that I’ll have a chance to be ready to go tomorrow.

Monday, I spent the afternoon walking the course.  I always walk the course I will run second until I get a good handle on it, and then switch to my day one course for the rest of the week.  I’m running the left course first (the East course, but no one can keep that straight, so we are trying to get everyone to use left and right).  I couldn’t be happier – the course looks like an excellent Miata course, and has several features that will be bad for the MR2s.  The Right course is more balanced, so the goal over there is going to be to stay close to the front.

Monday night I finally found the BlenderBlaster crew and enjoyed several cool beverages there.  At about 9 o’clock I made the critical mistake of tagging along with the Washington State gang to Club Orleans.  Everyone is very surprised at how FastMike and I get along in person, after all the sniping we do at each other on the Internet.  Mike wore pajama bottoms to the bar, which you have to expect.  I explained to the West Coast Solstice guys that they were running the wrong tire – they think I’m crazy, but I guess we will find out tomorrow.

The bad part of the trip to Club Orleans was that a certain dummy had a bit too much to drink, and came home too late, and hence was a complete wreck on Tuesday morning.

I have to say that overall, the event has run reasonably well for a new site. The paddock isn’t as good as Forbes, obviously, but the helf grass thing is working ok. I’ve heard some complaints but the natives haven’t picked up the pitchforks and torches yet. If we get rain during the week, it might start to get ugly. So far, so good. There is less walking than at Forbes as everything is a little more compact.

The pad is a disappoint though. In addition to the grip issues (see my post about the warmup), the surface just isn’t that big. It is probably about 20% bigger in both directions than the old south course, probably about 800×1000. With the buffer zone between the two courses, each side is like a 3:2 rectangle. I think there is no way the courses will be able to be as fast and open as a typical Nationals course. which is going to disappoint a lot of people. That being said, the courses look good on paper – I’m particularly thrilled that there is a lot of transitional stuff, which should give me a good chance against the MR2s.

(Side bitch about the warmup course. I can’t believe they laid out a warmup without a single slalom. There were two 3 cone slalom but they were really more like offsets.)

One former National Champion who ran the ProSolo described the site as a place you would “make a note not to come back to.” I’m keeping an open mind, but I do stare wistfully at the Forbes Field gate every time I drive by.

Team Neon had a fraught day. They had a seized wheel lug and some other minor car problems that added up to a “day from hell” in Mike’s words. Jeff Hurst was so depressed I decided not to pick on him, for at least a day or two. Mike flew out last night and will be back on Wednesday.

I went to dinner with the Rothermels, Eric Coffman, Nick and Anna and Rocking Randy Pearson. When I got back to the room, I was pretty wiped out. Two straight days of 4 hours sleep caught up with me. Franson got back to the room and we just say around BSing for an hour or two and then I passed out. Unfortunately, I missed the CS driver’s meeting at Baby Dolls, so my perfect record of non-attendance is preserved. I’ll have to catch up the action today and see what embarrassing moments I missed.

I ran the warmup event yesterday.  It’s always an slightly scary experience jumping into a new car – you don’t want to embarrass yourself yet you want to push the car hard enough to find out what it does at the limit.

Overall I was reasonably happy with how it turned out.  David’s car doesn’t do anything weird and I was able to push it harder and harder each run.  Brian John’s car broke a hub on course right in front of me on the first run, so I ended up getting 4 runs of course.  My final time was 8 tenths behind Rob Carpenter in the old Cashmore MR2.  Not that great, but I badly mangled up the final 3rd of the course on all my runs, which was probably worth about 1/2 second right there.  That puts me in the ballpark, and that’s all I really hoped for.  David was great, hanging around the grid and helping with the car.  We added a little more toe in the front and also dropped the pressure a bit during the session and the car was pretty damned good on the last run.  I think it’s definitely capable of a top 5 finish if I don’t blow it.

The surface is really a disappointment.  There is fine grit covering everything, and the driving line is about 1 car wide and very close to the cones even in spots where you might want to take a wider line.  Get a wheel off the clean line and there is no grip whatsoever.  (This is similar to Beaverun on a poor day, but more severe.)  The grip on the clean line is ok, but nothing special, even for asphalt.  The surface is sufficently different from Forbes that I think that many classes will see the balance of power change – witness Jonathon Roberts ass-whupping of AS in the “uncompetitive” STi.

The less said about my performance, the better.  I just never got going, and spent the entire tournament hanging on by my fingernails.  My luck finally ran out after about 2 hours, and I finished around 23rd.  So much for my plans for financing the trip.  I hung around for a while after I was knocked out, but left when there were still about 15 players in.  Eric Peterson ended up taking home the big bucks.

I got the call from Mike O at about 8:30 that the Dream Machine had arrived.  Jeff and Mike were heading to Hooters to watch some Ultimate Fighting Pay per View event, so I decided I’d better tag along to keep them out of trouble.