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SCR Autocross #8

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housegsx

20+ Year Contributor
2,455
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May 28, 2004
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Another fun Sunday! :rocks:

Event 8 in the Steel Cities Region was held at Consol Energy Park’s lot. Different from the usual Beaverun location, but closer and a much better drive. The only thing I’ve changed from the last event to this one is the addition of my new Hallman Pro RX boost controller and some tuning. So now I have a decent tune at 19lbs boost. Fun! I think I could benefit from an alignment but I will probably wait until the off-season for that.

I met a few of my friends up there driving an RSX and an Impreza RS and also one fellow DSMer. Quite a good turnout yesterday, 85 drivers.

The Course
It was laid out as a huge figure 8 with multiple tests thrown into the mix. Right out of staging went into a two cone slalom that needed to be exited just right to line up for a gate to make it through a 90 as straight as possible. If done right, it wasn’t a 90. After that turn was a straight away into the figure 8 crossover. The course didn’t use a lot of cones and at least on two of my runs I almost went on the wrong side of the line. I don’t know what I was thinking those two runs. Anyways, after the crossover through the straight it was a fairly tight left hander into a straight. This lead up to the only real sweeper on the course, a long steady left hand turn. It was quite bumpy through the turn and I made sure to get the exit set up just right to get myself ready for the sharp right then sharp left that followed. After that series of turns it was another straight into the crossover. Soon after was a hard right then a set of left-right-left transitions leading up to a small straight and a hard right hand 90 across the finish.

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My first time through was a 40.853. In the morning session I eventually progressed to a 38.229. I knew I was capable of getting in the 37’s and that was my goal for the afternoon. I’d have to wait for the other heats to run before I got my chance.

Working the course just sucked. A lot of entrants plus 85+ degree day with no chance of shade anywhere made it quite toasty. I was loaded up on sunblock and am still slightly burnt. I looked like this... :cool: but more red. I was the closest worker to the tight right hand finish and everyone was hitting that inside cone. I probably lost 10lbs from sweating and running after that one cone.

After finding some shade and eating some lunch my heat was back up. Goal… 37.xxx seconds. The first run was a mid 38. Next run out I focused on being smooth and getting good lines rather that being on the power. 37.993. Woohoo! That put me in 7th in the street tire shootout I believe. Final run, smooth again but trying to get on the power as early as possible. 37.971. Alright! Final run was the fastest of the day. Hey, I think that’s how it’s supposed to work.:D I was happy and I believe that put me in 6th in a large street tire class. I’m waiting for results to be posted to be sure and will post them when I get them.


Fun runs were after my break, but I had gotten enough sun for the day and was getting pretty hungry again so I decided to call it a day. The ride home wasn’t as fun as racing. I had to pass a couple trucks doing 40 in the passing lane and blew off an intercooler pipe. Ugh. It happened twice. Oh well. I think it’s because I am running out of threads on my T bolt clamp. I either need a thicker silicone hose or I need to stack a few washers behind the bolt on the clamp. Whatever works, just so I can get it on there tighter.


More pics and results to come....
 

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Nice job Erik. Yeah, all you can hope to do is improve your times every run through out the day which it seems you did. How long is this season of AutoX for you? Good Job :thumb:
 
Very nice improvement over the course of the day! I only dropped 1.6 seconds overall at my event on Saturday, from 35.8 to 34.2, placing me 3.5 seconds behind raw leader. I was on a 1st gear course though, and all the corners were offset, so the turning never stopped.

My arms are so sore from fighting the power steering cutoff, plus the usual tendencies to plow. I need to remove the cutoff valve and get stickier tires.
 
Thanks Eddie!

The Steel Cities region has two more autocross events this season. One is next Sunday and the other is the 1st or 2nd week of October. SCR usually has 10 per year.
There are a few more at the local North Hills club and back at Consol Park where I was at this week. I believe there is also an MS charity autoX that has a good turnout that may be coming up shortly. I'm not sure which ones I'll be going to.
 
My arms are so sore from fighting the power steering cutoff, plus the usual tendencies to plow. I need to remove the cutoff valve and get stickier tires.

CM, thanks man! It was a blast and it was nice to see the times fall throughout the day.

As for the PS cutoff, I've never experienced it. And I hear you on stickier tires. If I had the funds I'd pick up another set of wheels with some R comps. At least our region has a street tire class though.
 
Nice pullin out 4th in raw.. There are some seasoned drivers in that group that's for sure.

Dave, what's up? And thanks! I had no idea there were that many entrants in the street tire shootout until I saw the results. It was basically our entire heat. Whoever was doing the commentating on your car was funny. He seemed to like the 2nd gear smoke shows. :thumb:


Nice job! I wish we had street tire class where we are.

Thanks. Yeah, the street tire class is nice to have I suppose although there is such a huge mix of cars that can be in the class. It's a ton of fun, but I wish I had the money for an extra set of wheels and some real rubber.

Tomorrow is the next autoX back at Beaverun. I should be there, but that reminds me, I better get to the garage and fix that pipe that was blowing off.
 
Dave, what's up? And thanks! I had no idea there were that many entrants in the street tire shootout until I saw the results. It was basically our entire heat. Whoever was doing the commentating on your car was funny. He seemed to like the 2nd gear smoke shows. :thumb:

I guess I shouldn't launch like I was at the drag strip. :)
You goin to the autoX for a cure up there this fall?
Here is our little club video I made from that day.. The clips are a bit long but I made it real quick.
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I guess I shouldn't launch like I was at the drag strip. :)
You goin to the autoX for a cure up there this fall?

Ha, well it was fun to watch from my car. When is the autoX for a cure? It's at CEP, correct? I just got back from an autoX at Beaverun about 20 minutes ago and I'm beat and burnt. Tons of fun though, it was great course. Next and last Steel Cities autoX isn't until Oct. 12th I believe.

Nice video by the way.
 
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