Scott McIntyre
DSM Wiseman
- 309
- 44
- Mar 15, 2002
-
Halifax,
NS, Canada
First autoslalom event of the season… Woo hoo! You’d think that after 10 years of this, it’d become mundane. But I just as excited as my first event back in 1999.
Alarm went off at 5:30am, met the convoy at 6:30am, and drove the 2 hours to Digby Municipal Airport. The weather was pretty good for this time of year... Sunny with temps of 22ºC. Bonus!
The turnout for this event was kind of disappointing, but most of the fast guys were in attendance so there was still some good competition. Well competition for FTD. I was alone in ESP.
I had made some changes to the car since last year, so I was unsure how the car would behave. The new 900 lbs front springs and SPC adjustable control arms could have a big impact on the balance of the car at this type of event. Plus going from a T25 to Big28 is a sizable change in HP. How would it all turn out?
I lucked out in the run order. The field was broken into 3 run groups, and I was put in the final group running last. All four runs were to be completed within each run group, so that meant the course would be well rubbered-in and sweep clean by the preceding competitors before it was my turn. Advantage me!
Run 1: By this point, the local hotshoe had already completed his four runs and set a dominate FTD time of 1:41.984. The second quickest at this stage was a good 6 seconds back. Huge gap.
I used my first run as a reconnaissance lap, getting a feel for the balance of the car and the level of grip available to my 3-year old V710s. I came in with a 1:47.519.
Run 2: The car felt pretty good on the first run. No excessive understeer or oversteer. And the tires were not breaking loose under power like they were at the HPDS a couple weeks back. So I turned up the wick a little and came in with a 1:46.037. Not quite the drop I was hoping for, but quicker just the same.
Run 3: After the first two runs, I felt that I wasn’t carrying enough speed through several high speed sections of the course. So this run I focused on that. Unfortunately, I went a little overboard and spun 180º , taking out a bunch of cones. My time was a 1:57.001 plus 8 seconds worth of penalties.
!
Run 4: Last chance to get a respectable time. Stutterbox launch, shift to 2nd gear, then 3rd, tap the brakes before a long sweeper, back on the gas and through a couple offset gates, brake & downshift to 2nd for tight transition, back up to 3rd for a high speed slalom… thump! D’oh! A cone penalty. It was one of the worst kind too… an avoidable one. I was simply cutting it too close to the cones, not because I was sliding or had lost control.
I finished this run with a 1:44.272 raw time, or 1:46.272 with the penalty, meaning my second run of 1:46.037 was my best time of the day. This placed me in 3rd overall with nearly a 2 second margin over 4th. The bummer is that if you discount the cone penalty on my fourth run, I would have been 2nd overall.
In the end, I'm pretty content with the results. Of course I would have liked to have been closer to FTD, but 3rd overall is still pretty good. Looking back at my on-board videos, I can see where I could have made up some time, so the potential is certainly there... I just have to extract it.
See the following link for my videos and data logs of the event: http://www.maxqdata.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.ScottMcIntyre
Next event is this coming Sunday at Moncton, NB. It’ll be the first regional event of this season. Looking forward to it!
Alarm went off at 5:30am, met the convoy at 6:30am, and drove the 2 hours to Digby Municipal Airport. The weather was pretty good for this time of year... Sunny with temps of 22ºC. Bonus!
The turnout for this event was kind of disappointing, but most of the fast guys were in attendance so there was still some good competition. Well competition for FTD. I was alone in ESP.
I had made some changes to the car since last year, so I was unsure how the car would behave. The new 900 lbs front springs and SPC adjustable control arms could have a big impact on the balance of the car at this type of event. Plus going from a T25 to Big28 is a sizable change in HP. How would it all turn out?
I lucked out in the run order. The field was broken into 3 run groups, and I was put in the final group running last. All four runs were to be completed within each run group, so that meant the course would be well rubbered-in and sweep clean by the preceding competitors before it was my turn. Advantage me!
Run 1: By this point, the local hotshoe had already completed his four runs and set a dominate FTD time of 1:41.984. The second quickest at this stage was a good 6 seconds back. Huge gap.
I used my first run as a reconnaissance lap, getting a feel for the balance of the car and the level of grip available to my 3-year old V710s. I came in with a 1:47.519.
Run 2: The car felt pretty good on the first run. No excessive understeer or oversteer. And the tires were not breaking loose under power like they were at the HPDS a couple weeks back. So I turned up the wick a little and came in with a 1:46.037. Not quite the drop I was hoping for, but quicker just the same.
Run 3: After the first two runs, I felt that I wasn’t carrying enough speed through several high speed sections of the course. So this run I focused on that. Unfortunately, I went a little overboard and spun 180º , taking out a bunch of cones. My time was a 1:57.001 plus 8 seconds worth of penalties.
!Run 4: Last chance to get a respectable time. Stutterbox launch, shift to 2nd gear, then 3rd, tap the brakes before a long sweeper, back on the gas and through a couple offset gates, brake & downshift to 2nd for tight transition, back up to 3rd for a high speed slalom… thump! D’oh! A cone penalty. It was one of the worst kind too… an avoidable one. I was simply cutting it too close to the cones, not because I was sliding or had lost control.
I finished this run with a 1:44.272 raw time, or 1:46.272 with the penalty, meaning my second run of 1:46.037 was my best time of the day. This placed me in 3rd overall with nearly a 2 second margin over 4th. The bummer is that if you discount the cone penalty on my fourth run, I would have been 2nd overall.
In the end, I'm pretty content with the results. Of course I would have liked to have been closer to FTD, but 3rd overall is still pretty good. Looking back at my on-board videos, I can see where I could have made up some time, so the potential is certainly there... I just have to extract it.
See the following link for my videos and data logs of the event: http://www.maxqdata.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.ScottMcIntyre
Next event is this coming Sunday at Moncton, NB. It’ll be the first regional event of this season. Looking forward to it!
