Texas Region SCCA #2 - Pennington Field, 4/18

[rx7gslse]

top up? When did they start doing that?

My friend and I ran an event with them a couple years ago and they let him run top down in a C5?

Hmm... I guess it will probably just depend on if I know others going to the SCCA event. If I'm gonna be out there all day, I might as well enjoy some socialization, eh?

Decisions decisions...

[altiain]

My only defense is that I don't have a choice. You hosers that are playing at PCA and having all the fun are going to get "Toilet paper dispenser" as your work assignment next time you show up at SCCA... That's if altiain lets your car through tech...

I think tailchaser summed it up quite nicely...

Seriously, as one of John Garcia's assigned "tech bitches" this year, I'm at all of the SCCA events, whether I want to be there or not. WHich is a shame, as I enjoy the PCA events, the bus lot, and am a Maverick Region member. That said, you're still likely to find more of us at the SCCA event.

The top up thing with the PCA is an official policy from the head office as of late last year - all convertibles have to run top up if they do not have a roll bar that meets their Club Racing guidelines or factory active rollover protection - even Boxsters/S2000s/TTs/etc. with their factory roll hoops have to run top up. The local region also had a WRX roll during one of their time trials last year, so they aren't going to cut any slack on safety issues. Doesn't bother me personally, since my roll bar meets their specs and I can run top down, but it seems to be an issue for the lederhosen crowd around here.

[POS Racing]

I wish I could go to either but I'll be doing a water pump fix it on my VW.... you lucky bastards!

The v-dub can wait Treibeenyadayadablahblahski. You have another car to drive. Get your arse out there!

Yea what is ya scared Mr. Treibeenyadayadablahblahski?

[Flyin96M]

Well if I can finish my intercooler upgrade I will be the PCA event. This is a practice for their upcoming parade and I was told they were going to let you run as much as possible so they can get practice. Plus I am a member and DO have a rollbar.

So cheesecake you can run at the SCCA top down for all of 1.5 minutes and I will have a farmer tan from my many runs at the PCA AX Stop dragging your feet and just get a roll bar! I was like you, but now I love the thing, plus I can run race harnesses and I can strap my nephew there when he gets on my nerves.

[onething]

Well if I can finish my intercooler upgrade I will be the PCA event.

I think I detect a trend here. If I show up for a PCA, F****96M stays home. If I go play Safety Demigod, then F****96M decides he might grace PCA!!!

I think he's scared of the normally aspirated old fart :P Where were you last Saturday F****96M ???

[Kestrel]

So cheesecake you can run at the SCCA top down for all of 1.5 minutes...

You talkin ta me? I resemble that remark.

Rollbar... hummmmmmmm

[altiain]

Well, I've decided I'm going to play hooky from the SCCA event and run with the PCA this weekend after all.

Might as well - they've confirmed that they'll let me run my V710s, so I might as well get a few more runs on them before I send them back to Kumho...

Someone tell John Garcia I'm sick, will ya?

Oh, and Kestrel - before you get your hopes up for a good finish in C Stock, I should warn you I stopped by Jon W.'s place earlier this week and saw his new race tires... or should I say his new A3S04s...

[sammm]

Mickey D's at 7am'ish for breakfast? Anyone?

[POS Racing]

Mickey D's at 7am'ish for breakfast? Anyone?

I'll defiantly try and make an appearance!

Mick "not a morning person"

[rx7gslse]

7? ugh.. that's fuggin early... I'll meet you guys at the field.


At least this wekeend I won't have to mess with changing tires for once!

So how good/bad are T1-Ss on an autoX?

[tailchaser]

I need to be at Pennington by 7... I also need a volunteer to assist with worker check-in and 30 minutes or so of sign-up so I can walk the course (that will be your work assignment for the day).

[POS Racing]

I need to be at Pennington by 7... I also need a volunteer to assist with worker check-in and 30 minutes or so of sign-up so I can walk the course (that will be your work assignment for the day).

I would be interest in that possition! Sir!

Do I get on the job training??

[Treibenschnell]

Nope, I'm definetly sitting this one out...

My VW mechanic can't do it any later than noon (seeing as how its a five to six hour gig) and it's the only day he's available.

[rx7gslse]

alright, so what was the verdict?

Was anyone else there running on Street tires?

how'd ya do?

The MSM did well 38.1 on street tires. Definately more pwer than the 1st gen Rx7, but there really were only a couple spots that I was able to make use of that fully...

Plenty of go.. Need more stick!

[Kestrel]

This also from rx7gslse in another thread:

I did alright... The course wasn't really big enough to realize the power gain over a standard miata.. Especially not one on R-compound tires.

My best got down to a 38.1.. Faster than most all of the other street tire miata (I think?) but still a couple seconds behind Atalain's 35xxx on hoosiers.

That blue 10AE Miata on Hoosier's was actually Jon W.*, and he got something very close to a 34 (I think his best time was a 35.07blah blah or something).

We had a TON of Miatas out there yesterday, but we were scattered all over the classes -- CS, CSP, ES, Novice, Tire Class, DSP, STS2 -- and I think we won 4 of those. I can't wait until the official results are posted so I can get a final count of Miatas in attendance.

Except for a few [more] growing pains (problems timing and scoring), some problems with the wind (blew the timing lights out of alignment) and some wild driving and car problems (one car taking out the finishing timing lights, a couple of cars loosing things off their cars like mufflers and coolant), it was a pretty good event. Not quite the "beating" I've come to know from and SCCA event. Even though I worked the first heat and ran in the 5th heat (meaning I got to sit around for three heats), I really like the new format. At least I know I'm going to be sitting around. There is time to go off and get something to eat, go see a movie, go write the great American novel... whatever. But at least you know.

The course layout was very simple, but it flowed very well. Anyone who has run Pennington Field has seen this course before (like General Default says, there's only so many ways you can set up Pennington), but it was still a fun course. This is not to say I ever drove it particularly well, but I did enjoy it.

There was one "near-incident" worth mentioning... Mark52 had the opportunity to test his "looking ahead" technique, and I'll tell you he passed the test (lucky for him). A car in front of him had been red flagged by corner 5 after a spin or a mechanical failure (I don't remember which). Anyway, as the car sat motionless on course, the corner 5 workers were happily standing around chatting... and all the while, Mark52 is on course, pushing to the limit to get a great time. Corner 5 never saw Mark52 coming as they were too busy swapping gossip , and he was only just able to get on the binders in time to avoid an accident! I've been... distracted... on course before too, but it's time for the SCCA to start sending messages to people that we take safety seriously! I'd strongly suggest that the Worker Chief and the "Head of Safety" consider DNFing all runs for those corner workers for the event, and post something on the home page of the website saying this is not a game -- corner working is serious business. If it had been a Novice out there instead of a seasoned driver like Mark52, the "near-incident" might not have turned out quite so well...

****************************

* By the way, for those of you who are new on this board, my convention is to put MME member's screen names in bold (i.e. Kestrel) and non-member names (all other people) in italics, without their last name (i.e. Mike W.). My guess is folks would prefer not to have their full names listed on any board -- at least without their knowledge and "permission". YMMV

[rx7gslse]

that's quite colorful

I dunno why I want thinking that was Atalain.. His car is green :) Eitherway, he'd probably have beaten me too!

Other than the few mishaps with cars & scoring etc, the events all went well.. There were a couple of hiccups with the online registration.. (like mine.. which never actually made it into the computer until I pointed out that I wans't on the list anywhere.. We'll see if I show up on the results correctly) and onc again I seemed to have gotten screwed by the heat order.. Ran in heat 5 which was about 30 minutes long, and worked heat 4which was about an hour+... Got to see plenty of corner worker mishaps for that part too...

I agree, there needs to be a bit more emphasis placed on corner working. Maybe a bit more dilligence in assigning at least one person who really knows what to do on each corner. I knwo a couple corners had a bunch of mostly new people in my heat (esp corner 4 and their red flagging ability at the finish)

Anyway... Yeah, I like this car... It certainly has more power than what I'm used to, now I just have to figure out how to use it. As of now I have a lot more go than stick, so I wans't really able to turn any faster times that most standrad miatas, despite the extra power. I suspect a larger course would show a greater disparity there, but again, that's TBD.

I also re-learned how much I despise running on street tires. I know what I want the car to do, but it just doesn't want to do it *that* quickly... Although, sliding is quite fun :)

off to tirerack to see what I can find taht I like... Think I can smush a 235 on there? :)

Eric

[sammm]

alright, so what was the verdict?
Was anyone else there running on Street tires?
how'd ya do?

I agree with Kestrel that yesterdays event went much better (faster) than the first one! We all got our 4 runs too, which is always a good thing! We did have a bunch of Miatae in attendance with at least 2-3 newcomers that none of us knew. I talked to one of them and introduced our group, and I think POS introduced us to another.

I ran street tire class and my best was a 38.8. I placed 4th.

PS
That Mazdaspeed sure is pretty!

[altiain]

So how many people did y'all have yesterday? And what time did you finish up?

[POS Racing]

So how many people did y'all have yesterday? And what time did you finish up?

There were a ton of Miati at Pennington yesterday but my brain is windburn so I don't recall the official count!

I was the picture of constancy yesterday !

The POS got a 37.0, 37.0, 37.0, & 37.1, which was cool but still not enough to move me in front of the dreaded MR2 of Ol' Bull & his sidekick Full-o-Bull!

Our very own Sammmmmmmm came home with a trophy and was the fastest Miata in Tire Class!

Jon was flyin yesterday, good thing you stayed away he might of hurt your feelers!

[altiain]

Jon was flyin yesterday, good thing you stayed away he might of hurt your feelers!

Since he turned 30 on Friday, I figured I'd let him have one for his birthday.

All things considered, I'm glad I went to the PCA event, although I was starting to regret my decision when it was past one o'clock before I got my first runs in! However, they managed to work out all the bugs and got the 2nd half of the "morning" runs and the afternoon runs done with typical PCA precision.

One other thing that suprised me at the PCA event was how many mechanical failures we had. There was a blue C4 Corvette that never actually made it on course, after dumping oil or coolant (I wasn't close enough to see which) in the starting line while waiting to take his first run. There was a 914 that took one run, fogged the course with oil smoke, and then retired for the day, and there was a brand new Evo VIII that couldn't make it into 2nd gear without blowing the gasket off the intake side of his intercooler.