mageep
10-04-2007, 04:31 PM
Long story ahead:
Third trip to Nats in 4 years. First time was in STS2 (got lumped in with CSP), second trip in C Stock, then this year in SM2. I missed last year, which meant this was my first trip to the Heartland Park Topeka venue.
Let me just say that I am a BIG FAN of HPT relative to Forbes Field. Sure, there are some down sides, but on balance I think it's a positive trade.
The course layouts seem about 10% shorter, but you can actually see both courses at the same time now, versus having to catch a shuttle from course to course! :D
Here's my favorite part: The surface is a bigger factor in your performance than it had been in years past. When Nats was on concrete, you only REALLY worried about rain or no rain. Otherwise, just plan for pretty high grip levels. This pavement is much more dynamic. You CAN run too much tire, and you CAN make too much HP. It is almost as if the pavement encourages moderation; a concept that seems healthy to re-introduce to autocross!
I was very fortunate to have also met Chris Swearingen from this forum face to face. It was a real pleasure! We had a lot of fun looking at how under-prepared we both were for the class -- I had more power than Chris, but he had the 275 tire! Neither of us had THE car...
Personally, my goal going in was to finish above the basement in SM2. I've said it a thousand times, but I really felt I was bringing a knife to a gun fight. I mean, forget the relatively-speaking little things like whether you had the perfect shocks, or whether you should have run a different compound of tires for a second. I was running in a class that ended up being 16 cars, where my 2265 pound / 225WHP car was probably in the bottm 3 or 4 power-to-weight ratios for the class, along with Chris. To my left was a C5 Corvette weighing in just a tick under 2950 pounds, with pretty much all panels other than door skins and roof made of composites, and putting out "around 725 HP", according to the owner. To my right (other than Chris Swearingen) were two RX7s, both within 150 pounds of my car's weight, one of which has a LeMans 3-rotor engine, the other of which was a 2-rotor making north of 20 pounds of boost when uncorked. Estimate between 450-550 hp for those two. Most cars were running 335mm wide rear tires. :shock: There was a pair of Porsches with dropped-in high displacement motors, a C6 Z06, and several RX7s and C5 Z06s. It looked like they were prepping to film 'Fast and the Furious 4: Topeka Nights' with all the carbon fiber and massive wings!
Thank god for rain and low ambient temps!
We were first run group, and in neither Tuesday or Wednesday when we ran did the ambient temp break 60 degrees. On the first day, about 90 minutes before they launched our class, the skies opened. At 6AM a guy from our club and I were two out of maybe 8 people out walking courses. In the dark. Through puddles. With lightning occasionally showing us the path.
As 8:00 (first car off) aproached it had stopped raining for about the last 45 minutes. The only question was how much water remained on the already-slippery surface. I was surrounded by people furiously changing tires. Some going from rains to DOTs, some switching BACK to rains. I decided to stick with my 710s. My only sure decision was that, as cold as it was, whatever decision I made I was going to stick with for better or worse, just so I could get SOME temp in a set of tires - ANY tires. I think Chris subscribed to the same theory.
Well, the course was MUCH greasier than I thought, but the advise from some of the locals we have that are trophy-winners was good. Just stay ON the cones. Shortest distance. Point and shoot. So that's what I did. It was verrrry exciting to be on the ice-skating rink on V710s. I don't think I ever broke 40mph.
Meanwhile, all around me all the other 2-driver teams kept changing their tires... DOTs.. No, rains... wait, back to DOTs.
But my theory of 'stick with your decision' worked. So after day 1, I was in a very precarious 4th place, with 5th being the last trophy.
Here comes the woulda-shoulda-coulda dance.
Wednesday morning was only slightly warmer, but dry at least. I assumed that all the big sticks would be out to show me what they could do now that conditions were a little more in their wheelhouse. So I put on my 'nothing to lose' face and just went out and banzai'd every run. The course was so quick, with my 54mph second gear, I was in third and back down to second twice during the second and third runs. Nobody else had to leave second gear.
I attacked a particular slalom (more like a 3-come slalom interrupted with a Chicago box) very aggressively, thinking it was one spot where having the narrow little car would be the biggest advantage. I had nothing to lose, right?
Wrong. My raw times were closer to the big-boys than I had originally anticipated. Still off by SECONDS, but more like 1-2 seconds versus 3 or 4! I didn't know that until it was too late. I ended up smacking cones ALL THREE RUNS on Wednesday. Not the desired outcome.
At first I was pretty flippant about it, thinking 'Oh well, they had me hammered anyway. What's another 2 seconds?'.
Until the audit cart came by.
Initial reaction was 'Cool, I'm happy with 10th out of 16'. I had met my goal. Then I paused, walked back to the audited results and checked to see where I would have finished had I not coned. After all, I had only juuust hit the cone on the last 2 of the three runs -- my fastest runs. As I deducted the 2 seconds, I saw that it would have put me in 6th place. Just one out of the trophies... Even worse, I was only .15 out of that last trophy spot. I start analyzing One of the guys from our local group had the cure for my troubled mind. It came in the form of a clear corn-based liquid smelling of 110 Octane, and was served from a one-pint Mason jar. I could almost hear the banjoes in the background. Three ounces later and I was sure all I needed to do was finally get that taller rear diff ratio installed, and otherwise just come back next year. That's all.
Oh, and I need a giant fucking rear wing. :ack2:
The rest of the week (Thursday and Friday) was even more fun. We had localpeople in every one of the five heats, so I literally never left the grid area all day those two days. And as you alll know by now, our Thursday / Friday people got the job done! It was a real pleasure to be able to be there and be a small part of it.
As many of you know, the racing is only a very small fraction of the reason you go!
Enjoy some of the below pics:
Some pics of the SM2 competition:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1198/1477985193_f56fe0ae65_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1037/1477985071_a0f6cf93f6_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1218/1478843348_99884599fc_o.jpg
Third trip to Nats in 4 years. First time was in STS2 (got lumped in with CSP), second trip in C Stock, then this year in SM2. I missed last year, which meant this was my first trip to the Heartland Park Topeka venue.
Let me just say that I am a BIG FAN of HPT relative to Forbes Field. Sure, there are some down sides, but on balance I think it's a positive trade.
The course layouts seem about 10% shorter, but you can actually see both courses at the same time now, versus having to catch a shuttle from course to course! :D
Here's my favorite part: The surface is a bigger factor in your performance than it had been in years past. When Nats was on concrete, you only REALLY worried about rain or no rain. Otherwise, just plan for pretty high grip levels. This pavement is much more dynamic. You CAN run too much tire, and you CAN make too much HP. It is almost as if the pavement encourages moderation; a concept that seems healthy to re-introduce to autocross!
I was very fortunate to have also met Chris Swearingen from this forum face to face. It was a real pleasure! We had a lot of fun looking at how under-prepared we both were for the class -- I had more power than Chris, but he had the 275 tire! Neither of us had THE car...
Personally, my goal going in was to finish above the basement in SM2. I've said it a thousand times, but I really felt I was bringing a knife to a gun fight. I mean, forget the relatively-speaking little things like whether you had the perfect shocks, or whether you should have run a different compound of tires for a second. I was running in a class that ended up being 16 cars, where my 2265 pound / 225WHP car was probably in the bottm 3 or 4 power-to-weight ratios for the class, along with Chris. To my left was a C5 Corvette weighing in just a tick under 2950 pounds, with pretty much all panels other than door skins and roof made of composites, and putting out "around 725 HP", according to the owner. To my right (other than Chris Swearingen) were two RX7s, both within 150 pounds of my car's weight, one of which has a LeMans 3-rotor engine, the other of which was a 2-rotor making north of 20 pounds of boost when uncorked. Estimate between 450-550 hp for those two. Most cars were running 335mm wide rear tires. :shock: There was a pair of Porsches with dropped-in high displacement motors, a C6 Z06, and several RX7s and C5 Z06s. It looked like they were prepping to film 'Fast and the Furious 4: Topeka Nights' with all the carbon fiber and massive wings!
Thank god for rain and low ambient temps!
We were first run group, and in neither Tuesday or Wednesday when we ran did the ambient temp break 60 degrees. On the first day, about 90 minutes before they launched our class, the skies opened. At 6AM a guy from our club and I were two out of maybe 8 people out walking courses. In the dark. Through puddles. With lightning occasionally showing us the path.
As 8:00 (first car off) aproached it had stopped raining for about the last 45 minutes. The only question was how much water remained on the already-slippery surface. I was surrounded by people furiously changing tires. Some going from rains to DOTs, some switching BACK to rains. I decided to stick with my 710s. My only sure decision was that, as cold as it was, whatever decision I made I was going to stick with for better or worse, just so I could get SOME temp in a set of tires - ANY tires. I think Chris subscribed to the same theory.
Well, the course was MUCH greasier than I thought, but the advise from some of the locals we have that are trophy-winners was good. Just stay ON the cones. Shortest distance. Point and shoot. So that's what I did. It was verrrry exciting to be on the ice-skating rink on V710s. I don't think I ever broke 40mph.
Meanwhile, all around me all the other 2-driver teams kept changing their tires... DOTs.. No, rains... wait, back to DOTs.
But my theory of 'stick with your decision' worked. So after day 1, I was in a very precarious 4th place, with 5th being the last trophy.
Here comes the woulda-shoulda-coulda dance.
Wednesday morning was only slightly warmer, but dry at least. I assumed that all the big sticks would be out to show me what they could do now that conditions were a little more in their wheelhouse. So I put on my 'nothing to lose' face and just went out and banzai'd every run. The course was so quick, with my 54mph second gear, I was in third and back down to second twice during the second and third runs. Nobody else had to leave second gear.
I attacked a particular slalom (more like a 3-come slalom interrupted with a Chicago box) very aggressively, thinking it was one spot where having the narrow little car would be the biggest advantage. I had nothing to lose, right?
Wrong. My raw times were closer to the big-boys than I had originally anticipated. Still off by SECONDS, but more like 1-2 seconds versus 3 or 4! I didn't know that until it was too late. I ended up smacking cones ALL THREE RUNS on Wednesday. Not the desired outcome.
At first I was pretty flippant about it, thinking 'Oh well, they had me hammered anyway. What's another 2 seconds?'.
Until the audit cart came by.
Initial reaction was 'Cool, I'm happy with 10th out of 16'. I had met my goal. Then I paused, walked back to the audited results and checked to see where I would have finished had I not coned. After all, I had only juuust hit the cone on the last 2 of the three runs -- my fastest runs. As I deducted the 2 seconds, I saw that it would have put me in 6th place. Just one out of the trophies... Even worse, I was only .15 out of that last trophy spot. I start analyzing One of the guys from our local group had the cure for my troubled mind. It came in the form of a clear corn-based liquid smelling of 110 Octane, and was served from a one-pint Mason jar. I could almost hear the banjoes in the background. Three ounces later and I was sure all I needed to do was finally get that taller rear diff ratio installed, and otherwise just come back next year. That's all.
Oh, and I need a giant fucking rear wing. :ack2:
The rest of the week (Thursday and Friday) was even more fun. We had localpeople in every one of the five heats, so I literally never left the grid area all day those two days. And as you alll know by now, our Thursday / Friday people got the job done! It was a real pleasure to be able to be there and be a small part of it.
As many of you know, the racing is only a very small fraction of the reason you go!
Enjoy some of the below pics:
Some pics of the SM2 competition:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1198/1477985193_f56fe0ae65_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1037/1477985071_a0f6cf93f6_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1218/1478843348_99884599fc_o.jpg