Well, here's the wrap on today's season finale autocross (for most of us):
The site: Ripken Stadium, Aberdeen MD (Philly SCCA) Nice, medium-sized lot with good surface. The 2nd biggest every-weekend autocross venue in the VA/MD/PA coastal region (behind FedEx Field/Redskins stadium)
The weather: Expected to be cloudy, windy, and rainy - but never materialized. Was about 60, cloudy, and just one little sprinkle. Becaues of the expected afternoon rain forecast, about 140 of the 200+ cars signed up switched up to other classes to run in the morning group. We arrived at 10am, ready for the usual afternoon session start around 1230, but it didn't start until about 2:30!
The course: A nice layout, it was fast and open - probably in expectation of rain, so not too tight. One 5-cone slalom and one 4-cone optional slalom, plus a fairly tight sidebox. The finish gate was tricky, a hard right-left-right-left combo that left several cars coming through the finish timer sideways. I pushed through it like a mofo!
The players:
SOONERFAN (02 max) - Jason drove like he was on a country drive - quiet, no tire screeching (on my old Hankook RS2's), and with his girlfriend. Surprisingly, his times were pretty decent, with a FTD somewhere around 53 seconds, good for second in DSP class behind a BMW 325. We would have like to see him get a bit more aggressive as it looked like he wasn't really pushing it, but he says I looked like that too, so who knows.
GBAUER (02 max) - george, on his new 18's with Hankook HR2s put up an entertaining show in DSP running directly behind the quiet Jason. George was just the opposite, burning rubber, kicking ABS in, gunning it, brakking hard, and boucing the front of the car all over the place with poorly-adjusted front coilovers
I think some course workers were scared for their lives, and I know for sure George's all-season street tires were scared to death...George ended up with a 53-something, a bit behind Jason.
95MAXRIDER (95 I30 with true EP mods)- Nick finally made it to an event with nothing breaking! After a late arrival and having to yank a NOS bottle out of the trunk for inspection, and being called out next to the driver's meeting for trying to go through tech without a number or class on the car....Nick (2nd time ever autocrossing) started rough with an OC when he couldn't find an instructor to ride, but rebounded and pulled times in the 54-56 range.
IRISH44J (me in my 00) - Had a pretty clean day with no major mistakes. Since last time I re-added a stage2 LTB (replacing stage 1) and the z32 brakes. LTB was great, but when i bled the brakes last week I left some air in the system and had some mushy pedal for the 2nd half of most of my runs where I needed brakes. Probably cost me about 1/2 second in being a bit careful. I liked the course alot except the finish gate and had 4 clean runs, only nudging one cone all day, though had a couple small oops's. My FTD was 50.1 seconds and was quite dismayed not to break into the 49's, the imaginary line of fast vs. slow, haha. Good for 2nd in EP. The EP season leader was a no-show, else I would have been 3rd for sure.
GDMAXSE (93 max) - Gabe for the past 2 seasons has regularly finished about 1/2 a second behind me at most events. Well....now he's on 710 R-comps. Long story short: He stomped me into the ground, and put up times with some very fast company today, taking the EP class win (and he would have trounced teh Scirocco that leads the EP season standings, no doubt). Aside from some cones on his last run, he ran clean and wicked fast, and I think I need some r-comps now. His WORST time was 47.xxx and his best time was 45.xxx. How's that? R-comps were good for about 5 seconds on me!! I drove a good day and wasn't even within striking distance.
The rest:
DJMONEY - felt bad for him - came to his first autocross. When he got there late, we noticed he was missing a lug nut on each right wheel. Ok, George had a whole box of extras so that's not a problem. Bigger problem: front right not only missing nut, but also missing LUG! Crap, that won't pass tech. By stroke of complete luck I had a bag of 10 lugs in my trunk that just came in from DAVEB for me. As it turns out we had to use 3 of them on his front left thanks to stripped-to-hell lugs. Then he had about 2 years worth of "stuff" in his car (what was up with the Women's hair sheen and the "Nine West" shoe box?) which we had to empty out.
The worst part was that since teh morning heat lasted so long, DJ had to get a refund and couldn't run, since he had to be at work by 4pm and hour from the venue. NEXT YEAR!
CUTLER and Clayton: With Jason's Miata undergoing engine swap surgery, he brought his wheels/tires and slapped them on our buddy Clayton's (also Red) Miata and the both drove that car. I didn't see their runs since I was in grid, but they took 1st and 2nd in D-prepared with times in the mid-51s (yeah, the Miata lost to 2 maximas!)
At the end of the day, it was a nice way to finish up the season. We had teh traditional post-Ripken Autocross dinner at the Maryland House Rest Stop Sbarro. Nothing like greasy pizza when you're tired and dehydrated and have a 100-mile drive home!
Since I left my camera memory card at home, others had to take pics, so I'll let them post them up and add to the commentary. Great turnout of 5 Maximas, an I30, and the two Miata guys - too bad John Whelan couldn't make it a baker's half-dozen
Thanks to Ashley for taking pics. I want to see them now!!!
