Back from the SCCA National Tour in Ft. Meyers

So I'm back from the SCCA National Tour in Ft. Myers and it was great. This was my first National Tour event. I was driving a WRX STI in STU. It was a beautiful weekend in the low 80s with a blue ski and no clouds.

There were some amazing cars and drivers out there and I think I learned a lot just from watching everybody.

I ended up in 6th place out of 12 drivers in STU. Time to fire up the excuse generator, so here I go:
- The car was underprepared for STU
- stock springs and shocks
- no camber plates
- heavier wheels than stock
- Kumho MXs while everyone else was on RT615s
- stock down pipe
- only mods were a muffler and sway bars
- First time driving a STI or even a AWD car

The car was very impressive for a stock car. You can throw it into anything, as hard as you want and the AWD will sort things out. I really enjoyed driving the car.

Both courses were very fun with a long slaloms (7-8 cones) and a lot of high speed transitions (3rd gear in the STI). I wish there were more course like these out here, we've got the room for it. The surface at Ft. Myers is concrete so the cars stuck like glue. Tons of fun!

I felt pretty good about my driving for the weekend. Except for the first run on Sat. all my cone penalties were done by the back wheels, so I was getting close to making clean runs. My fastest raw times would have put me in 2nd place, but I guess my inexperience with the car showed through.

Here are the results for the weekend: http://www.scca.com/_FileLibrary/Fil...s-Saturday.pdf

BTW, the Fuji-racing.com CSP Miata was an absolute rocket. There has been a lot arguing about exhaust sizing and IRTBs on the pointy board lately, but Jimmy's (4-throttle-tuning on miata.net) tuning has spoken for itself. The was impressive to watch, especially with Bob Palmblad (former owner of the white SM2 Kenne Belle Miata) behind the wheel.

Sorry, I didn't take my cameras with me or I would have some pics to post. ::Flag::

Glad you had fun!

I heard elsewhere that all of the results from Sunday - in every class - are being protested on the basis course speeds being too fast (rulebook states mid 60's for typical Stock and SP cars, with average speeds in turns no more than 45mph). What's your take on that?

Like I said, I was in 3rd gear through most of those transitions and slaloms on Sunday, so I was definitely over 60 MPH. It was very fast and by the course making guidelines I think the protest has some merit.

However, I wouldn't like to see a precedent made with this protest. The course was well thought out and flowed beautifully, it was just fast. I thought it was extremely safe and there were very few spins. Just my 2 cents.

Congrats Thomas! You picked a great weekend to get out of town.

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Originally Posted by sammm

Congrats Thomas! You picked a great weekend to get out of town.

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No doubt... my wife was originally going to come with me but backed out. She was cursing me every time I talked to her on the phone this weekend. ::Curls::

Good stuff 'moto. Yep, you picked a great weekend to be anywhere but here.

Holy crap - the protest has been upheld by the event protest committee. As of right now all of Sunday's runs have been thrown out.

The protest ruling is being appealed. I'd really hate to see this protest upheld. I understand the rationale behind it, but slow courses suck. No two ways about it.

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Originally Posted by altiain

Holy crap - the protest has been upheld by the event protest committee. As of right now all of Sunday's runs have been thrown out.

The protest ruling is being appealed. I'd really hate to see this protest upheld. I understand the rationale behind it, but slow courses suck. No two ways about it.

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You've got to be kidding me!

That will probably knock me down a place or two. That sucks!

Where's my Great Carsoni hat when I need it...

/me opens the envelope...

"I see a giant split about to happen in SCCA Solo II"

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Originally Posted by tailchaser

Where's my Great Carsoni hat when I need it...

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http://saccomedyspot.com/v-web/b2/images/carnac.jpg
Carnac the Magnificent

My first National Tour and this is the crap I have to deal with! :confused:

So here is a video of Sunday's course (the one being protested) from a VW R32 with coilovers and V710s. Wish I would have taken my camera with me.

http://media.putfile.com/SCCA-Nat-Tour-Ft-Myers

Wow that does look like it was a fast course! I need to figure out a good way to make a camera mount since my camera doesn't have a hole for a tripod(Sony DSC-T1) :(

We actually have faster courses out here in TX, but we have less slaloms and transitions. It's these fast slaloms and transitions that made the course so much fun.

I hope we get some more technical courses this year (of course, I'm referring to courses run out at Mineral Wells, not Pennington).

Unless I am wrong, I only see going to 3rd once. Im not a VW guru but I dont think for that 1 second of third that above mid 60's can be reached. I know the arguement is that above 45 in "corners" but he appears to be upper to mid 2nd for most of the course which I can only assume would be in the proper range. :confused:

I can hear A J Foyt screaming in the back of my skull... "I say fuck the nitshit rules... Let them drive as fast as they want. Just take the wings off and then let them figure out how to get through the corners."

A small chunk of video is probably not enough to pass judgment, but that looks to be a fantastic, safe course. The rules as stated are "recommendations" and *may* be basis for a safety committee to require course modifications (but let's hope not), but it's absolutely absurd to have results thrown out because a course was "too fast."

That looked like a damn fine course to me.

On an unrelated note, does anyone else have a newfound appreciation for the R32 (and that sweet exhaust note) after watching the video? :mrgreen:

Looked fun to me. I wonder why someone would protest the course speed. I would think most drivers would like a quicker course.

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Originally Posted by blackzx3_13

Looked fun to me. I wonder why someone would protest the course speed. I would think most drivers would like a quicker course.

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Apparently Mini drivers are a buncha skirt-wearin' ::Daisy:: .

There's a lot going on with the protest. I think there is around 18 pages worth on sccaforums.com. It's not a cut and dry case of somebody wimping out about the course.

BTW, it's a Celica driver that filed the protest, not a mini driver.

Altiain, R32s sound sweet. It must be the narrow angle V6. Check out the regular VR6 on the magnaflow website. They all sound good.

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Originally Posted by altiain

Apparently Mini drivers are a buncha skirt-wearin' ::Daisy:: .

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Mabye even sore losers? :rolleyes:

Depends what Mini drivers you're refering to ;-) (I've been known to drive them from time to time).

Ft. Myers has always been fast and appagently the guy who hosts the events there can be hard to work with.

Last time I was there (|-|<-----this close to winning lol), I co-drove an HS Mini with my buddy Karter Bollmann. We were in 3rd gear 3-4 times on both days. The opening slalom I was going at least 68-70 before i hit the brakes to go to rev limiter in 2nd then back to 3rd. This is in a 2003 mini with the longer 2nd gear as well.....

Now the fast cars....well they were damn fast needless to say......

I had fun, but it was much faster than it needed to be. Not really a lot of challenging elements.

David

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Originally Posted by Miatamoto

There's a lot going on with the protest. I think there is around 18 pages worth on sccaforums.com. It's not a cut and dry case of somebody wimping out about the course.

BTW, it's a Celica driver that filed the protest, not a mini driver.

Altiain, R32s sound sweet. It must be the narrow angle V6. Check out the regular VR6 on the magnaflow website. They all sound good.

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Sorry, I should have added a wink smiley to let you know I was trying to make a joke with my last comment in this thread.

Here's how I see it:

• The only documented speed reports I've seen are from Disimo's Miata (63mph) and a BSP STi (65mph), both using a GPS-based DL1 datalogger.
• The rulebook specifies "mid 60s" for straight speeds and "45mph" for turn speeds.
• The only "turn" I see on that course is the mid-point turnaround. I personally wouldn't define a slalom or offset gate as a "turn".
• Based on the above two observations, I don't see the problem with the course in question. It sounds like the only verified, datalogged speeds on course were within the rulebook specifications.
• Regardless of whether the course was within rulebook specifications or not (and I for one think it was), throwing out an entire day's worth of results is absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with both Dave and Iain. The course was fast and fun, but not the most challenging, maybe that's because it seemed to flow so well. I wouldn't consider the slaloms or even the transitions as really a turn.

Ok I am ticked off now ::Blowup::

They posted a video of Sundays course in a ES Miata on street tires.
There was NOTHING wrong with that course.

Thank you for listening. Please drive through.

http://video.google.com.....

It looks even better from that car. Any news on the protest?

The protest was upheld and is now under appeal. Not sure when it will be resolved. It'll be awful if they actually strike Sunday's runs from the record.