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2006 SCCA Solo2 Nationals report...

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MrAWD

20+ Year Contributor
66
2
Dec 4, 2002
Well, after all this mess here is the overview of what happened at the 2006 SCCA Solo2 Nationals for the Smokey Team!! Charles and I left for Kansas around 7 pm on Friday in order to get there before they would close the gate at the HPT site and ready for the Test & Tune on Sunday morning as well. 25 hours later (well 24 hours and 50 minutes to be exact) we arrived in there and parked the trailer inside the park. Since the last time I was there were 4 years ago I was quite overwhelmed with the whole place again!! It was sooooo good to be there again!!!

After a needed rest we got back in the morning around 7 am just to find that we are running T&T in the firs heat which starts at 8 am!! So, unloaded the car, changed the tires, tech the car and got to the grid with cars already running! The great thing was that the whole thing was organized in the way to allow us competitors to avoid getting frustrated so the rest went smoothly!

Well, except the grip level of the site!! We got the run right side of the ProSolo course and with the temps in low 50s grip was at premium. Without walking the course (I actually got to run (literarily) through it once) and without us really being there faced with the low grip problem I had pretty tough time keeping the car on the course. We did soften the LSC a bit but I couldn’t feel any difference due to the frustration of things not going the way we expected it! So we finished running with some low 34 sec runs which felt horrible. The strange thing was that one of the fast guys (Mark Madarash) who run the course during the Pro run only tenth or two faster then we did, so there was some hope left! Another great thing was that we got a taste of the low grip of the course on the unimportant event, so we where much more ready for the Tuesday!!

Next day Charles made me to paint more of his car to the red color after buying some spray paint and sand paper. Car now has RED rear spoiler and I was told that hood has to be painted ASAP along with the mirrors. I guess, he finally realized that RED is so much faster then the BLACK and he wanted the have a fast car! Who could blame him!!!

Tuesday morning we got there on time brought everything and walked the course one more time! Compression stayed the same we left it at the T&T, but we also took out four clicks of rebound all around to help car to bit more and heat up the tires a bit faster! Charles go out and comes back with good time for the cold tires (52.2) and he is clean. Sammy gets 51.2 and 51.7 for me, which puts as all pretty close. I am dirty but time is good and car feels great!

On the second runs times dropped quite a lot and Charles is with 51.2, Sammy at 50.4 and 50.2 for me. But I am dirty again!! There was still time left on the course so I am not overly concerned but a bit worried due to all dirty runs.

On the last run, Charles is first and comes back with 50.5, Sammy goes a bit faster and drops to 50.1 and I get back with 50.3 but clean this time!! So, we are all in the game and pretty close with 2 and 4 tents off the Sammy’s time and knowing that we could have gone even faster!! Sammy knows that and we know that he knows it!! :)

Wednesday morning comes and as soon as we brought the car to the grid exhaust smoke was way more blue that either one of us would like it. Charles goes out and comes back with 54.4 being a bit more careful due to the cold tires. Sammy pulls pretty fast 51.2 to my 52.1. I was a bit overcautious and didn’t push as hard as I could at the beginning, plus overcooked one of the biggest sweepers for a moment, so I felt good about the times. But, smoke from the exhaust was getting obnoxious and we had to turn off the engine in the grid since there was not a single mosquito in a few miles radius. Charles goes for the second time and the half way there, car makes a big puff and he slowly crawls back to the finish with 55.0. Turbo blow a seal and at that point wasn’t even spinning any more. Feelings? As Charles was saying – gutted!!

We both got a ride in the Mustangs but I wasn’t really feeling like running any more. Still went for my runs and I got 55.0 on my third run which was same time Charles pulled in his Mustang! Our first runs left us at third spot for me and 12th spot for Charles which didn’t help anything. I ended up with the trophy but it had a very bitter taste!! We where so close to a great finish at the Nationals and we could have come back with first and second or third, but instead things where much worse.

Surprisingly, Sammy already started talking about moving us out of ESP since we are too fast!! I guess there will be more talk on this and we will all knew pretty soon what will be decided. At least for another year we are in the ESP, but things could change for 2008 if Sam succeeds in this.

So, we had back with long faces and second day of driving our tow truck decided that it shouldn’t be the only broken car and its water pump start dripping coolant an hour before the Buffalo, NY! Seven hours later, we are back on the road and finally made it home after 33 hours on the road!!

I would like to thank Charles for letting me to abuse his not so black car any more and hopefully we gona have better luck next time. One thing is for sure though and that is the fact that DSMs are not underdogs any more in ESP and they finally have a great chance of winning the ESP National Championship!!


Fedja
 
The grip at HPT was pretty awful - how much was due to the surface (which received complaints since it opened up) and how much was due to running at 8:00am and 45*, I don't know.

Never mind the comparison with Forbes concrete, to give an idea of just how slippery it was, we were at almost full wet settings - we left the rear bar connected, maybe a click or 2 more rebound, that's it.

The car slithered around unbelievably.

Charles
 
Charles & Fedja -

If you get an early heat (as it were) next time, would you consider running 245s to get more heat into the tires quicker?

- Jtoby

ps. if you asked, I'm sure that a bunch of us would help stock you up on t25s
 
Well, if we just knew after the day one that turbo was gone we would probably steal one from Sam's car (DS only DSM), but we didn't. The very first sign of the trouble was up in the grid half an hour or so before the start when it was already too late.

As of the 245s vs. 285s I strongly believe that even with the conditions we had 285s would be quicker assuming two drivers of course. Even on my first run I already had some heat in the tires and car was nice to drive. Second and third heat where just blast!!


Fedja
 
I never understood why it always seems to be the imports and newer cars that constantly get shoved around to different classes. I know the Evo's and STI's got bumped last year, now possibly dsm's from ESP. I mean DSM's have been there how many years and you guys have a good run so they decide to move you so all the older slower cars can win more, sounds like the typical SCCA approach to me. I've heard rumors of EVO's and STI's getting bumped again next year.

Good to see you guys out there at nationals though, my car's just not ready for the national level SM scene yet. I also talked to our regional director who runs his STI in STU and he was complaining about lack of grip as well.
 
Given how things ended up, I don't think that Sam (or anyone else) will succeed in getting DSMs and plain WRXs moved out of ESP any time soon.

Now, if the car had stayed together and either Fedja or Charles beat Sam, that would be a different story. But because we have no hard data (just a form of "what if" logic that borders on bench-racing), my guess is that any proposal to move DSMs and WRXs for 2008 will fail.

The only thing that I can see changing this would be a proposal that gets tabled until after Nationals in 2007. If an AWD turbo owns ESP and the proposal is pending, then it just could happen, but that's a lot of ifs and still not until 2008.

- Jtoby
 
Well, what he is afraid of is our ability to use 1G engine in that car and gain 50 HP on the top of what is there right now. There would be a loss of the bottom end compared to the T25, but probably not as much to hugely upset the National type courses. Then, the next thing is the fact that we are still using out stock seats (plus other small things) so we could shave off another 100 lb of the car. The fact that with all of those mods Charles’s car would be very close to a 100% of what can be done to that car in ESP, which would still be compared with the other cars that are not even close to that level of preparation.

I know for the fact that I was (Charles too) able to drive that car faster then Sammy on the first day. Probably not by much but enough for the books! On the second day we just didn’t have a solid run to compare anything so everything would be just a keyboard racing at that point!

The fact is that in slippery conditions V8s have little chance to run with an AWD DSM. That includes the rain or very cold weather. We had something in between a good and bad grip (for asphalt of course) for this Nationals so it is reasonable to expect that when ESP runs in later heats earlier in September, things are going to be a bit better for the big guys. I still believe that we can beat them all, but that is just my gut thingy…

Fedja
 
Even if we had finished where we should have, I can't imagine this Nats event counting as anything for reclassing any cars, not even the BMWs :) The reality was the event was 2 weeks later than normal, in much colder weather than normal, on a much more slippery surface than normal. The only way the 2006 Nats could figure into reclassing discussions is if the Nats are the _only_ source of reclassing data.

Just like when it rains, econobox AWD strentgths outweigh their weaknesses - as soon as it warms up and dries out everything returns to normal. Low grip shows up the Pony cars' weaknesses compared to any AWD - but high-grip favours them significantly over econobox AWD.

If the Nats surface is fixed - road course tarmac instead of parking lot - and in fact even if it isn't, the surface will have much more grip next year, and if we move back to the "normal" schedule it will be much warmer too.

The rest of the year 95% of national-level events run on grippy concrete, those are the events that generate the largest body of data - you'd have to be a Winchell-type statistician to skew the data that far off base.

Sammy stated repeatedly that DSMs and WRXs should be in ESP during the STEvo reclassing discussions, as far as the cars are concerned nothing's changed since then, nothing at all...The only thing that's changed is that one event - the Nats - has moved from high-grip to low-grip - I don't think anybody would buy that as justification for a reclassing. Unless as I mentioned, the Nats are considered the only important source of reclassing data.


Charles


jtmcinder said:
Given how things ended up, I don't think that Sam (or anyone else) will succeed in getting DSMs and plain WRXs moved out of ESP any time soon.

Now, if the car had stayed together and either Fedja or Charles beat Sam, that would be a different story. But because we have no hard data (just a form of "what if" logic that borders on bench-racing), my guess is that any proposal to move DSMs and WRXs for 2008 will fail.

The only thing that I can see changing this would be a proposal that gets tabled until after Nationals in 2007. If an AWD turbo owns ESP and the proposal is pending, then it just could happen, but that's a lot of ifs and still not until 2008.

- Jtoby
 
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