Pre National Tour preparation in San Diego

It was a beautiful day in San Diego today. 60's, sunny with a breeze. The clock going forwards was a small annoyance.

Jason and I had decided to run out of group as we were not running for points in San Diego and this way, I didn't have to get up and leave home at 4:30 in the morning, which would have been the equivalent of 3:30 am with the time change.

The drive down was very very nice. Almost serene with little traffic, good tunes and a comfy ride. I made it down in around 2.5 hours.

We settled in to registration and getting the car ready. The car is tech'd and we are off to watch the others in ST race while we relax. I haven't walked the course and have no idea what to expect. Qualcomm is a location that tends to have lots of off camber turns in general. The racing is pretty interesting with Leslie Cohen leading ST with a 66.1 and commenting that with the Bridgestone RE-11's, how precise your car placement has to be. The times don't change much. Leslie is first, Nicole is second and most everybody else is in the mid-66's. Jeff and Sebastian both run into sound problems and Jon has a funny sounding car - turns out something is wrong with the header.

Lunch comes and goes. We get to walk the course twice and it is as expected, lots of off camber turns and some elements that are tighter than what I usually see out here on the left coast. With the walk over, Jason and I head out to work on course before we run. It's a long work group with the go karts and lot's of cars. Then we go finish getting the car ready. That's when the fun starts. We realize that I have forgotten to bring gas and have to run out and buy gas in order to run. I come back in time to see Jason take off on his first run and come back afterwards to get gas. Now it's my turn to go and I take a deep breath and settle in to have some fun. Jason talks me through his run and most of it is as we had anticipated.

I'm off and the off camber turns are catching me off guard. The tighter elements are also catching me and I'm late, then the tail starts wagging and I miss a gate in the slalom. The rest of the course is pretty good and in the last slalom coming into the finish, I enter on the right as planned and end up exiting the slalom so fast that I miss my braking point and almost don't make the left hand turn after the slalom. Smoking time though - 65.8 (DNF). OK. Time for a breather and to regroup.

After reviewing the run with Jason, I decide to try entering on the left side of the slalom instead. However, I'm not going fast enough, so I end up coming back to the right side to enter the slalom in to the finish. Staying on time with lots of off camber turns is challenging. I end up with a 65.4 clean. Jason continues to work on getting faster.

The tires are working incredibly well, not too hot, plenty of grip and tons of fun. I make run 3 and this time I'm carrying enough speed to enter on the left side, finishing with a 65.1 +1. Somewhere along the way, I picked up a cone. I still have one more attempt at it. I decide to try the same side and go into the last slalom on the left side again. I finish with a 65.2 clean. I'm happy with the result. The car is working incredibly well.



I'm not sure why everybody else wasn't right up there with me, but ... I had a great time. The car is ready and so are we. Next stop, SD National Tour.

Sorry there are no photos. I brought the camera, but forgot to bring the memory card.

Jason, you have outdone yourself. The car is amazing! Thank you!