Had a great time today at my 2nd official AutoX! I steadily improved over the 4 runs and won my class(AS). The competition was a late 90's BMW M3, a Mitsu 3000GT VR4 and another Silver 2000 (same guy I ran against last week) My times were:

44.952
44.391
42.974
42.620

The fella in the M3 ran a mid 43. I was about a second off the pace of several prepared cars. FTD was a Prepared 911 that ran a high 39. Pro classes were running 40's.

I'm thinking about driving over to Nashville in two weeks to see what the competition is like there. Can't wait to get my Kumhos mounted so I can pick up that extra little bit of advantage!

Thanks!

 

Way to go, Mack! Nice job!!!

 

Thanks Greg!

Looks like you had a great racing weekend to!

We're looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks although I'm not sure we'll recognize Scarlet with all her new "enhancements".

 

So you finally laid the smack down on a M3. BTW, how did the other silver S2K do?

 

nvmys2k-

I think I caught him a little off guard. He made several comments throughout the day about my "Honda". Said it was less Miata like than he thought it would be etc. I really enjoyed showing him how much more car it really was!

I can't remember exactly where the Silver S finished. I believe he was in the 44 sec. range. He had several dirty runs. Never seemed to be able to tame that "snap oversteer".He asked me at one point about tire pressure but I'm not sure he adjusted. I think he was just driving it a bit to hard and since I beat him last week he had a little more to prove!

One thing that helped my times out was the fact that I had two re-runs on my first two runs due to a timing light malfunction. It was pretty funny, I came through the finish on my second run and looked up to see a 37.5 on the timer. I just about flipped. The FTD as I said earlier was a 39. Safe to say that was the result of a major malfunction, but hey it was fun thinking I was "an autotX god" or should I say Jason S......... for just a moment!

 

Nice job Mack! You and Jason continue to prove Yellow is the fastest color!

 

Nice, Mack... looks like you are definitely a natural. Show those M3 boys who's boss. Keep at it! We'll see you soon for Asheville! The Mistress misses Ole Yeller - It's time to reunite the team cars.

 

Thanks again for all the support!

Here's a link to the offical results from the Sunday Event.

http://www.etrscca.org/soloii/results/orm04012001.html

Looks like I was:

#1 in AS (although there were only 4 in my class
#22 when ranked by time out of 69 entered
#16 when ranked by PAX out of 69 entered

All but 2-3 of the cars had faster times than I and were on race tires. Can't wait to get mine mounted although I'm a little concerned about the learning curve once I go from street to race tires. I feel pretty comfortable on he streets at this point.

Any pointers on street vs race the first time out?

Also 5 of the top ranked drivers are running PRO and using RTP index. Can someone explain the difference between PAX and RTP.

Thank for enduring all my self agrandizement(sp?) I'm just having too much damn fun!!!!



[Edited by Mack on 04-03-2001 at 01:50 PM]

 

RTP is an alternative to PAX created by one of our local racers, Rick Ruth... It takes some different things than PAX into account. For a description of RTP, click here: http://www.scca-chicago.com/solo/indexes/rtp01.html where there are also archives of RTP and PAX over the last few years.

 

As far as adjusting from race to street tires, I discovered the difference almost immediately at the event on Sunday. For those of you that have been a passenger in a car during an autox, I'm pretty sure that it felt a heck of a lot faster than when you drove the same course in the same car. Well, that same difference is what you feel when you swap from street to race tires. After my first run, I had a HUGE grin on my face and a "duhh-duhh-duhh" on my lips. It is so much more FUN! As a corollary to that, everything comes up much faster. You have to turn more, and react quicker, due to the increased speed that the car is traveling at. I think that was my problem on Sunday, as I got okay times, but they were all pretty dirty. Still, I had more fun on those runs than any runs I did last year, including the school. I'm still watching Brad, Jason, and Juliann closely to see what I can learn from them, as they all have more experience than me, and I hope I can improve myself this year.