Ft. Myers Tour Results

[nxracer]

Congratulations to Mr. Cone and Ms. Frank on your wins
1 Cone
2 Carpenter
3 Sharp
4 Tovsen

[ConeKiller]

1.4 Seconds certainly has been my 'best' win yet...

FYI, If my Mom had not coned on her last run in the wet on Saturday she would have been on top too... And my last minute co-driver has just one out of the trophies...

It's been a long time since I've run an entire course in 3rd gear (excluding the start and the turnaround) Brakes, you did not need them much if at all...

Sunday's course I broke once in 45 seconds.

Rick

[NoCones]

Scott and I got pretty well hosed in the rain Saturday morning. We should have just gone with street tires, but instead we tried Hoosiers (some folks in the prior heat had had success with them in the rain)...didn't get the streets back on until it was too late. Basically, in our heat, if you didn't nail a nice first run (and didn't drive a WRX!), you were screwed. GS ran late and got a relatively dry track.

Sunday's course was a blast...first time on Hoosiers and the grip was fantastic...more of a learning curve than we expected. Scott and I were doing one 2-3 shift, then pretty quickly back down to 2nd. The majority of the course seemed to be about 61 mph...we were on the limiter a lot.

The bad thing about Sunday was that I coned away the run that would have given me the last trophy spot. The good thing is that my raw time was very nearly the fastest time in DS for Sunday (.05 off a well-driven Type R on Hoosiers).

Also learned a lesson about protests...you gotta start the process BEFORE the last run of the last car in your class...don't wait until impound. The WRX in 2nd was on illegal rear shocks, but my protest was not allowed.

Absolutley great driving, Rick...I look forward to having the chance to have my butt kicked in GS @ the Petersburg Pro! And thanks a lot for lending a hand when we finally decided to go with streets on Saturday...much appreciated. Also, congrats to "driver"...nice GSL win!

link to results:
http://www.scca.org/amateur/solo2/nat_tour/2002/ftmyers/results.html

[ConeKiller]

If nothing else hopefully the driver in the Subaru now is on notice about his shocks, and won't show up again...

Rick

Ohh and GS was faster then DS, in the dry!

[NoCones]

more woulda, shoulda, coulda:

I'm pretty pleased that my Sunday raw time was in the neighborhood of Carpenter and Sharp...assuming my GT will be as fast as the GT-S (which I think is safe to assume), maybe I can get in the trophy mix later this year.

Bryan

[Al2ktoy]

Originally posted by ConeKiller
1.4 Seconds certainly has been my 'best' win yet...

FYI, If my Mom had not coned on her last run in the wet on Saturday she would have been on top too... And my last minute co-driver has just one out of the trophies...

It's been a long time since I've run an entire course in 3rd gear (excluding the start and the turnaround) Brakes, you did not need them much if at all...

Sunday's course I broke once in 45 seconds.

Rick

Congrats! That's two in a row off the blue Honda!

3rd gear courses. Something to expect more in the future?

Oh, good note on the protest guys, something to look out for!

-Alan

[autxr]

A quick post before I get to work!

First off, a big thumbs up to Rick and Donna for their wins!

Bryan summed it up pretty well. On Saturday we had a knife during a gun fight. Make the first run stick or forget it. I spun (and hit cones).

On the second run, I went out in the hurricane and found out how good Hoosiers are in standing water. It was an interesting sensation. I didn't spin, but collected cones, the time was still my best, with 2 cones added in.

The second run was wild, the car just hydroplaned, I couldn't steer. It just went straight, it would "bump" through the turns alternating between slip and grip.

I made an executive decision that we needed to put the street tires on before Bryan's second run. We got the front changes, and it was ugly (special thanks to Rick Cone for coming over and helping out!). He went out and instead of having the front hydroplane through every turn it bit, and bit hard. He spun like a top.

We finished the tire change and I went out on my last run needing something clean and fast. I hustled through most of the course at a nice clip (probably a 60 second run or so), and I got greedy, pushing it at the finish. I got behind in the last slalom and with 2 cones to go I spun. Hitting one cone and needing a big U-turn to not DNF.

Bryan ran a decent 3rd run, but was still a second off his first.

On Sunday it was dry and warm. We went out on the Hoosiers and were immediately 4-5 seconds behind the leaders (ouch) 48 seconds for me 49.5 for Bryan. I spoke to the Type R folks (also on Hoosiers) looking for advice. Well, we discussed pressures and looked at tire wear and they made a simple suggestion.

Drive faster.

I went out for run 2 and pushed it harder. I saw a lot more rev limiter in 2nd, and the car just kept gripping.

47.5 seconds, a 0.5 second improvement.

I told Bryan to push it MUCH harder, and he did. Driving a 47.5 second run as well, shaving 1.5 seconds off his first run.

We both agreed there was a lot more out there and we were going to push it even harder.

I went out, and while not as good as Rick (I used the brakes 2 times, rather than just one), I drove a clean and fast run, knocking 1.5 seconds off my 2nd run, finishing with a 46.1, the 5th fastest run (raw time, 2 of those top 5 were one driver) in the class for the day.

Bryan went out and was going to really push it (nothing to lose but a trophy), he managed to blow the 1-2 shift, staying in neutral for too long, but 2/3 of the way in he encountered a downed cone and stopped, getting him a re-run.

His Re-run was fast, just plain fast! Unfortunately he took too tight a line and nipped a cone, costing him the 4th place trophy. The irony is, had he not stopped for that cone on the previous run (assuming he wasn't assessed the penalty for it) he probably would have had that last trophy in spite of the bad shift.

In all it was a fun weekend, one heck of a learning experience (my first tour event). I'll have to try again sometime!

Scott

[pitcrew]

My wife (Driver aka Donna)drove more like a veteran rather than just her third national tour event to take her second tour win. Sun was the very first time she ever drove on Hoosiers in any car, and said she left a lot out on the course, expecting grip like her more familiar Kumhos.
I too was on Hoosiers for the first time on Sat, getting one fastest dry run that I coned away, Spun on my second in a light drizzle, and finally got a slower clean run on my third and last attempt as the rain returned.
Sun I jumped in GH Sharp's car to evaluate his setup and wider tires than we were running and to see what warm Hoosiers were like. They stuck so well that I could have run MUCH faster than I did. He had his steering wheel lower than ours and I hit my hand against my knee on a turn around an offset that caused me to just knick the base of the cone that then rocked several times before falling over. That run would have moved me up another place.
The co-driving worked out well enough that GH and I will be co-driving our car or his at national events the rest of the season.

[B1mmer]

Of course most didn't have it as bad as I did. Saturday, I DNF'd due to a spin on my first run, and then had to deal with hydroplaning the Spyder on the final two runs. The puddles were pretty deep, and street tires should have been put on.

Sunday was dry and sunny, and started out ok. My first run was slow, but clean, and my second run was about 2.5 sec off the leader, although it was wrongly called in as a DNF, not that it mattered. I truly thought I drove better than the time showed, and I was probably right: When Eric went to start the car for his second run, the engine imploded. We think it threw a rod. My day was done, and Eric is getting another warranty engine. Although it wasn't optimal, I still had fun during the weekend.

[CamaroFS34]

Aw, man, Aaron, I am really sorry to hear about that. :( He only had that car back for, what? A month, month and a half? :(

Are you going to drive your Celica in the meantime?

Karen