Another fun Sunday!
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.
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...
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.
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....
SCR Autocross #8
