Scott McIntyre
DSM Wiseman
- 309
- 44
- Mar 15, 2002
-
Halifax,
NS, Canada
Another event, another lackluster result. I’ll blame it on the weather again. 
It was a wet drizzly day at Greenfield. There was much talk in the paddock about whether to run street tires or race tires. It seemed like most people that had race tires were putting them on, so I followed suit. The track was wet, but there didn’t seem to be much standing water.
The competitors were split up into two run groups, and I was in the first. That’s usually a disadvantage as by the time the second group gets to run, the course has been swept of debris and (when dry) some rubber has been laid down. However in changing weather conditions, it’s a tossup as to which group is better to be in. In my case, there was a consistent drizzle from run one to four, so at least I didn’t have to deal with changing conditions.
Run #1: Took a conservative run, getting a feel for how much grip the big slicks would provide. It wasn’t too bad, but the tires would chatter when they started to slip. This reminded me that I needed to soften my shocks for the next run. Also, whenever the car hit full boost, the rear tires would break loose and the car would get quite squirrely. This meant that I had to back off on the throttle slightly whenever I felt the boost building. Came in with a clean 1:48 time.
Run #2: Between runs I adjusted my shocks to full soft and lowered my tire pressures in an effort to gain more grip on the wet course. Went out and picked up the pace everywhere. Came in with a clean 1:41, which was significantly quicker, but still a good 5 second off FTD.
Run #3: This time I tried to carry more speed through the transitions and it bit me hard. I plowed through a wall of cones and got 3 penalties. However my raw time was a 1:38.
Run #4: I knew I had a sub-1:40 time in the car, so I went out to try to duplicate my previous run but without hitting any cones. And it was a success! I finished the run with a clean low 1:39. But again it was still 5 seconds off FTD.
Overall I placed 6th, which is lower than I’d like. It seemed the fastest guys were running threaded race tires (like Toyo RA1s) or high performance street tires. Some competitors even switched from race tires to street tires between runs in an effort to find grip.
Despite it all, it was a fun event. The course was excellent, very fun & fast. I hit over 100 kph in one section, which is quite quick for an autoslalom.
It was a wet drizzly day at Greenfield. There was much talk in the paddock about whether to run street tires or race tires. It seemed like most people that had race tires were putting them on, so I followed suit. The track was wet, but there didn’t seem to be much standing water.
The competitors were split up into two run groups, and I was in the first. That’s usually a disadvantage as by the time the second group gets to run, the course has been swept of debris and (when dry) some rubber has been laid down. However in changing weather conditions, it’s a tossup as to which group is better to be in. In my case, there was a consistent drizzle from run one to four, so at least I didn’t have to deal with changing conditions.
Run #1: Took a conservative run, getting a feel for how much grip the big slicks would provide. It wasn’t too bad, but the tires would chatter when they started to slip. This reminded me that I needed to soften my shocks for the next run. Also, whenever the car hit full boost, the rear tires would break loose and the car would get quite squirrely. This meant that I had to back off on the throttle slightly whenever I felt the boost building. Came in with a clean 1:48 time.
Run #2: Between runs I adjusted my shocks to full soft and lowered my tire pressures in an effort to gain more grip on the wet course. Went out and picked up the pace everywhere. Came in with a clean 1:41, which was significantly quicker, but still a good 5 second off FTD.
Run #3: This time I tried to carry more speed through the transitions and it bit me hard. I plowed through a wall of cones and got 3 penalties. However my raw time was a 1:38.
Run #4: I knew I had a sub-1:40 time in the car, so I went out to try to duplicate my previous run but without hitting any cones. And it was a success! I finished the run with a clean low 1:39. But again it was still 5 seconds off FTD.
Overall I placed 6th, which is lower than I’d like. It seemed the fastest guys were running threaded race tires (like Toyo RA1s) or high performance street tires. Some competitors even switched from race tires to street tires between runs in an effort to find grip.
Despite it all, it was a fun event. The course was excellent, very fun & fast. I hit over 100 kph in one section, which is quite quick for an autoslalom.
