Had an interesting event this past weekend at Griffis Tech. Park (nee AFB) in central NY. Many of you probably recognize that I don't frequent national events, remaining strictly regional. This event was put on by Finger Lakes Region, my home base, so I decided to run on concrete for the first time. Alan Schoonmaker, the local C4 'Vette hotshoe, was the course designer, and put a very fast (at least for me) course together. He admitted later that he hadn't planned on the first half being so fast (not sure but ~7-8K RPM in 3rd - I was watching the gates go by so quickly).

Several NER folks joined in (practice for Nationals?) including Mike Solomon (AS S2K), Pat Salerno (AS Boxster) and Mark Daddio (DSP Neon). The latter had major clutch problems and had to abort more runs to try to make it home (took 1st in class with his 1st run). However, I was concentrating on my competition and they were busy sending me back to grade school for remedial driving. I've been able to beat Alan on asphalt but I wasn't even close this time. I now have appreciation for the tales of oversteer - they were controllable at lower speeds on asphalt but I spent half the day sideways (never spun but I had at least 2 off-courses (I think I had 3 but one wasn't recorded) just trying to keep the pointy end pointed to the front. The two "good" runs were tremendously slow due to me backing out early and too hard just trying to make a clean run. I ended up 2.6 seconds behind Pat and 2.5 behind Mike (who says standard Boxsters need to go to BS?).

Great seeing some real drivers go at it even if I ended up 4th out of 5. A front bar is a must (my car is stock with only .5 degree extra camber all the way 'round and Kumhos) but some driving technique would have helped a little bit, too...

 

Amen to the asswhuppin