Autocross #9 November 9, 2005
My power came back Thursday night, which was great because I couldn’t find any hotel rooms under $125/night within 30 miles of the IRCC site and there was no way in heck that I was going to autocross without being able to take a hot shower before and after.
The Central Florida Region puts on two-day events. Saturdays are for practice, Sundays are for points. Except this weekend there were no points or trophies for either day. I skipped Saturday and went Sunday on my own. As usual, when I go by myself I regret it pretty quick. First I was late — got stuck behind a mini-convoy of State Troopers going +7MPH (the magic number where the fines start in Florida) on a stretch of the Turnpike where the next exit wasn’t for 18 miles.
Then I forgot to put my hat on while I was prepping the car. Monday morning I was wondering why the heck the top of my head was hurting, a look in the bathroom mirror confirmed that it only takes 60-90 minutes of exposure to the Florida sun to fry my cranium.
And doing all the prep work by myself always leaves me sore and out-of-breath. Being an over-weight smoker just does not go well with physical activities that involve crouching.
I did, however, have lots of fun. Riding on two brand new Kumho MXs in the rear made things… interesting. The MXs are great all-around “ultra-high-performance” tires but they have one glaring flaw: they aren’t very grippy until you’ve worn a few 1/32nds off the treads. If I’d been thinking I’d have ordered them shaved. I drove them back from IRCC and will drive them to-and-from the next couple of events to get them broken in.
My times were mediocre. Off-throttle and snap oversteer were hurting me. There wasn’t much motivation to do my best — no points / trophies, D-Stock was once again just me, E-Stock had no Miatas or MR2s, and the only Subaru was an ‘06 STi in Street Modified (I think an atmospheric BOV was his only mod). I did manage to hold off the STi until his final lap but I got no satisfaction from that — he was such an unskilled driver, it was pure luck that he pulled a fast-and-clean run at the end.
Got nothing coming up this weekend. The weekend after I’ve decided to do the Gold Coast PCA event — I’d like to “finish” modifying my car before I invest in the Evolution School. Plus, I really hate driving up to IRCC.
I’ve got one little nugget of good news for video fans: my camcorder just got a fresh battery. The old one (circa 1999) was barely lasting long enough to film my runs, with me turning it off and on between each run. The new one seems to have enough juice to last all day. So, at the next event with more than two run groups I should be able to spend some time filming other cars. If not with PCA, certainly with ER.
- Posted in : Uncategorized
- Author :tby
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