We start out with practice on Saturday and it takes us all day to find speed on a tough but fun Tom Berry course. This course was one that favored a car with power. The cars that are usually within 1 or 2 seconds of us were running 3-5 seconds faster than us. These are the days it would be nice to have power.
We try a couple of different lines and agree on what we feel will be the 'best' line for this course. It's hard being consistent and staying on the 'right' line. Tom's courses really challenge you to stay on the right line at key places. It was a good mental exercise for both of us.
We had a slight mechanical hiccup. Jason noticed that one of the brake calipers was wet, so the wheel came off and the caliper was lifted to take a look at it. Jason cleaned it out and put everything back together again. We saw a little bit more moisture, but it didn't change or get worse. Braking was unaffected, so we continued.
The evening was spent analyzing the day and preparing for Sunday. It's all good. We are ready.
Come race day, we have a new competitor in our class in a familiar car. The Whitehead/Luther Civic is being campaigned by Sebastian Rios, a very fast WRX driver. This Civic is arguably the fastest and most power Civic in our group with lots of money spent on tuning the engine to get the most out of it. This should be fun.
Moe comes down in the morning to keep us company and to check out the brakes. Everything is in order. We are ready to go racing.
We start out with Jason going first and putting down a nice time. I go and make my first run which is a little faster than Jason and it's clean. There is more time there. The times were clean, so it's time to start challenging the course. Both of us go a little faster on the second run, but Jason is dirty. I don't hear any cones called on my second run. Steve and Sebastian both finish their third runs and it comes down to Jason and me for first place.
Bill Montgomery of Team Allstars shows up to enjoy the event and hangs out with us at the grid while we are running. It's fun. I think this is Bill's first autocross and he gets to see about half of the 170 competitors that showed up for the afternoon session and how close the competition can be.
Jason puts down his best time, which isn't fast enough to catch me, so my last run is a chance to let it all hang out. I end up going faster, but collecting three cones in the process. I'm a little annoyed when Jason tells me the final results - that I won based on my first run. I didn't know that my second run was dirty until final results - that could have affected strategy. Anyhow, it's over.
It's a big 1-2 for Team Allstars. It's a big day for Moe also. 3 Civics powered by Moe are racing today. 2 in at our event and 1 in San Diego. Both Civics in LA won their respective classes. Incredible power Moe!!
Sebastian was already showing some speed. It looks like STS is going to be a fun, interesting and challenging class this year. It started out the year looking like it would be just Steve, Jason and myself contesting for the win. Now with Sebastian aboard, it's going to be more interesting. Until the next race....
NOW onto the Videos that make "UGLY LOOK GOOD!!!"
Here is a Dual View that compares the .4 seconds between our 2 drivers amazing how 2 ft can make a huge difference in time
Dual View
Here is Stephens Fastest run and 1st place finish
Stephen Yeoh
Here is Jason's Fastest run and 2nd place finish\
Jason Flores
Stephens 3rd Run
Click to play
No comments:
Post a Comment