Texas Region SCCA #6 - Pennington Field, 8/15/04

[Ataim]

I'll sunday also, looks like a nice day to race.

Paul

[altiain]

Can't wait for Sunday!

Just got back from getting an alignment. Feels like a totally different car. Previous alignment was as follows:

Camber: FL: -1.8 FR: -1.8 RL: -2.4 RR: -3.1
Caster: FL: +4.2 FR: +4.8
Toe: F: .28 degrees in R: .49 degrees out

No wonder the car handled the way that it did.

New settings:

Camber: F: -1.4 R: -1.9
Caster: L: +5 R: +4.9
Toe: F: .2 degrees out R: .02 degrees out

Just got back from a "quick" test drive, and it feels amazinig!

Rick's on Irving Blvd. got it done in less than 45 minutes for $80, and they are actually familiar with aligning the Miata.

Brock, why'd you give up the camber? I fought like mad to get -1.5F & -2.0R on my C Stock setup, and really miss the -2.2F & -2.7R I had in CSP (although it ate tires like mad as a dialy driver, combined iwth pretty radical toe settings). It looks like you had plenty of caster, so I'm wondering why you gave the camber up.

[brock]

I'm playing around right now. I've got smart camber on the way, and I'll dial more in, I just want to get an idea of the difference. Right now the car holds the road much better than before.

[POS Racing]

We had a big Miata turnout yesterday! yesterday!


Sadly these were the only two pictures my camera wanted to share with us…..

[brock]

Lesson learned! Don't let brock take pictures.

Congrats to all that trophied, it appeared that about half of the people that trophied didn't stick around. In all there were I believe 5, maybe 6, names called for trophies from the Miata group. The ones that I can remember are Kestrel, Mark52, the guy with the really old camera, brock, my competition's daughter, and one or two that I am forgetting. Sorry, next time I'll bring a pen and paper to write everything down so I do not get it messed up, and I'll eventually learn everyone's forum name, I hate using someone's real name on a forum unless they use it first. I must say that the SCCA trophies have been much improved over the ones from the past two years.

I think that one of the cameras that I was operating was older than god's mother, although it was still a VERY high quality and high end. I just hope that I did better with it than with POS's camera.

The final heat was fast and furious. All 4 runs, well I had 5 due to a course worker running through the lights, were completed in 41 minutes. While this was fun, it did not allow for any adjustments to the car or reflect on what had just happened out on course. I think that I was able to take some pressure out of the front tires after one run, and make a shock adjustment after another. This was according to the time stamps on the video I took of my runs.

Sorry TC I didn't get any spins this time, maybe here in a couple of weeks.

Lastly I would like to say thanks to the person that tried paying me a complement on my driving after the event. I wasn't trying to be rude or anything , I just didn't know what to say, I was totally shocked, since it was the first time anyone had done so. Thanks a lot, the compliment is much appreciated.

[altiain]

So who won what? POS, how did you do with the wheezy hamster?

I think C Stock finished up his way: General Default, yours truly, Kestrel, leadfootjon, John Baker, Mike Watson, and our two newcomers in the other 10AE. I left before ES and CSP ran, and I didn't hear how Tire class and STS2 finished up.

I thought it was a fun course, and I appreciated being able to leave before 2pm even after having a lazy lunch at Mickey D's. What time did the event finish up yesterday?

[brock]

So who won what? POS, how did you do with the wheezy hamster?

I think C Stock finished up his way: General Default, yours truly, Kestrel, leadfootjon, John Baker, Mike Watson, and our two newcomers in the other 10AE. I left before ES and CSP ran, and I didn't hear how Tire class and STS2 finished up.

I thought it was a fun course, and I appreciated being able to leave before 2pm even after having a lazy lunch at Mickey D's. What time did the event finish up yesterday?

You are correct about CS. Old Bull barely edged out POS for second, with Lucas taking first. TC took 3rd in tire class. I took 1st in STS2. My competition's daughter took 1st in STS2L. Mega camera guy trophied in Novice.

[Kestrel]

At one point I counted Miatas and added a few for cars that I know were co-driven. I probably missed a couple, but I counted 21 Miata Pilots for the event. I don't know how many total entrants they had, but if it was 180 (which seems about right), then Miata's represented about 1 in 9 vehicles there.

altiain had the scoop in CS. It was a close battle, but I lost to alt by a much wider margin than in the past... .020 seconds. :) lugnut john and John B were very close behind. On the other hand, General Default smashed us all on his last run. He didn't need to take that run, as he had already locked up 1st place (over altiain) by a couple of thousandths of a second, but then he turned around and beat us all by 4/10ths of a second on his last run.

So I ended up in 3rd place. Considering the competition, I'm pretty happy with that. But I didn't know whether trophies would go down to 3rd place in CS, so I decided to bail on the "presentation". Besides, my 2004 SCCA plaque is very bare... that one lonely 3rd place chit would probably look worse than if I just leave it blank.

It was a pretty good event for an SCCA one. The weather was very cooperative -- considering it is mid August -- and the entry list was not as high as it has been. Unfortunately, we had numerous problems with timing and scoring, including long delay when an out-of-control driver slide over the cable to one of the timing lights. That frayed the cable, and caused a 15 minute delay while everything was fixed.

[general default]

Pictures of the event. Several Miata pictures.

Equipe Rapide last event pictures. Think there are even more Miata pictures there. Better pictures and an over head view of the course.

I did not take these pictures. See the credits on the website.

[altiain]

Results are posted.

BTW, we had three Miatas in the top 15 PAX spots... out of 155 drivers!