Congratulations to Marc for the win and Berry for his first trophy!

 

I'm very proud of Berry. Good dude!

 

I agree. Berry came out of nowhere with the blazing fastness, the last set of runs i was sure he probably overtook me but thankfully he didnt. And Marc...nice work dude.

Course was frustrating, nowhere to put down power and lots of super sharp tight turns. So nowhere to gain time on stc/sts/stx/etc. Marc dominated it though. I beat him on the right by a few tenths with my 3 29.7's in a row but the left was my nemesis, i was quite a bit off over there.

Awesome exciting competition despite the not so fun course. We'll see if i get in the challenge and have to run marc's insane scratch times minus the cones (thanks a lot... )

 

Marc is a beast, it seems when he can stay out of the cones hes stupid fast. I love running against him locally. Good job at second place Jon. To bad I didn't make the trip and get to meet you. I heard about the course.

 

Nice to meet some of you guys out there today. Beautiful weather!

 

Aaaand I'm in the super challenge. How am i gonna run 29.4's on both sides?

 

Thanks guys! Great driving Jon, sorry about the dial in, we needed every last tenth for those tight turns. I will post up soon about the event when I get home from work!

-Marc

 

First of all, congrats to Jon, Andy, Berry and my co-driver on their performances. The course was rough for the bigger cars on street tires. Here was my hardware as of this event...

-'08 S2000 CR
-Ohlins TTX Shocks
-700/500 Springs
-Gendron 1.25" Hollow Front Sway Bar/BB Mounts (set 6/6, 3/6, then 2/6)
-Gendron 1" x 0.125" Hollow Rear Sway Bar/BB Mounts (set full soft)
-Working Tune ... Thanks!
-New/Full tread Dunlop Direzzas/TR Wheels (Tires at 34/33 psi f/r)
-Alignment ... -3/-2.5 Camber F/R, 0 Toe Front, 1/4" Toe-In Rear, 6.5' Caster Front
-Ride height 12.75" front, 12" Rear (Center hub to fender)

I just had my car aligned after installing new studs (for spacers/brake kit...) and changed my alignment preference after some experimentation in Blytheville (yikes!). I uploaded a working tune and have the CEL fixed (new sensors) but haven't been to the dyno to tweak it. I also went with the Gendron 1.25" Hollow bar after going softer on the 1.375" bar. To start, our front bar was set on full stiff with the assumption that this would equal the big bar on 2/6.

We arrive Thursday, rain storm hits as we unload the car, we are kicked off the site shortly after. Friday we get to register and walk the course shortly before our runs. There was a threat of rain for the whole afternoon, but fortunately all runs were over before it started. The course was really busy, lots of cones, difficult visuals, and really tight/low speeds ... not your typical Pro. Some liked it, most didn't. Overall, STR was off pace from the rest of the classes compared to other events. R-compounds and power really helped in the tight sections and the small cars were able to sweep much better.

The 1st session was interesting for Mark and I as there was a tremendous amount of push from the car. The slalom going out was ok, but the car wouldn't pivot in the tight sections or hook up in the sweeper. I added 4 clicks of bump in the rear for my co-driver which changed it from just understeer to the same amount of understeer ... then oversteer. For the 2nd session, I set the front bar to 3/6, took out bump front and rear, and took out rebound from the rear. This helped the car with turn-in and gave the car the ability to turn in the tight sections, but still push under throttle. For the last session, I set the bar at 2/6. This was our favorite setting. We had slightly more turn-in, but now had some rotation with the throttle. This would probably be loose on the normal courses, but suitable for this event. For Mark's last runs, I added back some rear rebound and he said it was perfect.

The weather turned out great the Direzzas seemed to never overheat despite the higher temps (though Dave and Mark complained their RS3s did). I enjoyed talking with the STR crowd along with some new faces to the class. I feel there was a low 29 second lap on both sides if the car was driven perfect, but the tight sections were not consistent on both sides and very hard to predict. I didn't get to watch many of the other drivers run as we were dealing with making changes to the car.

Looking forward to Peru next weekend!

-Marc

 

Thanks for shareing setup notes Marc. Were you able to take some tire temps in regards to camber? Also did you notice if you were getting into the bumpstops at that ride height?

 

No tire temps, my guage is broken. The rear shocks have tons of room at that height. The rears were redesigned by PSi to allow for room at that height. I plan to put a zip tie on it at Peru for measuring.

-Marc