pitcrew
04-08-2002, 12:14 PM
Weather, gravel, cones, and the ladies did serious damage at yesterday's AX: http://www.thscc.com/results/2002/040702class.html
A WRX and his wife did in Scott (Autxr)in DS.
A CRX and Subby bested me in GS.
Driver won GSL, but not in a definitive way.
We woke to predawn temps in the high 20's, definitely not seasonal for April here. The sun broke bright, but temps only reached 60's by very late afternoon. Since stock classes ran first, we had a very cold surface to make our first runs on. Although the course had been swept the day before (Thanks Aaron) the paddock and grid had not, so our Hoosiers looked like sugar coated donuts by the time we reached the start line, covered in 1/4" gravel that resisted our best efforts to brush off. So our first two runs were like running on marbles. Driver spun on each of her first two runs, and I took out 4 cones on my first run, my best raw time, including one before the start line (a rather funky start feature on an otherwise pretty fun and well laid out course). Pulling back drastically on my second run gave me my only clean run of the day, just good enough for the third.
The second time our group ran, in the early afternoon, Driver was working in the timing van. I semi spun on my third run, killing all momentum and a cone giving me my worse run of the day. I tried as hard as the tires would let me on my last run, and turned in a decent time, but received a late cone call to finish the day.
Driver ran with the last run group with the day's best course conditions, but clipped an offset slalom cone in the final feature. Even with the cone her time was much faster than the other GSL driver's runs for her win. Her final run was her fastest with a raw time that would have beaten me for third in open, but she received two ? cone penalties, neither of which fell over, and looked like the workers merely straightened each from my vantage point.
In hindsight, I wished we had brought our Kumhos rather than Hoosiers as they tend to shed gravel much better. I'm not sure I could have made up the two second difference to first, but may have been able to make the jump into second.
Aaron (B1mmer) also succumbed to the dying cones, while driving Eric's Spyder in pro.
A WRX and his wife did in Scott (Autxr)in DS.
A CRX and Subby bested me in GS.
Driver won GSL, but not in a definitive way.
We woke to predawn temps in the high 20's, definitely not seasonal for April here. The sun broke bright, but temps only reached 60's by very late afternoon. Since stock classes ran first, we had a very cold surface to make our first runs on. Although the course had been swept the day before (Thanks Aaron) the paddock and grid had not, so our Hoosiers looked like sugar coated donuts by the time we reached the start line, covered in 1/4" gravel that resisted our best efforts to brush off. So our first two runs were like running on marbles. Driver spun on each of her first two runs, and I took out 4 cones on my first run, my best raw time, including one before the start line (a rather funky start feature on an otherwise pretty fun and well laid out course). Pulling back drastically on my second run gave me my only clean run of the day, just good enough for the third.
The second time our group ran, in the early afternoon, Driver was working in the timing van. I semi spun on my third run, killing all momentum and a cone giving me my worse run of the day. I tried as hard as the tires would let me on my last run, and turned in a decent time, but received a late cone call to finish the day.
Driver ran with the last run group with the day's best course conditions, but clipped an offset slalom cone in the final feature. Even with the cone her time was much faster than the other GSL driver's runs for her win. Her final run was her fastest with a raw time that would have beaten me for third in open, but she received two ? cone penalties, neither of which fell over, and looked like the workers merely straightened each from my vantage point.
In hindsight, I wished we had brought our Kumhos rather than Hoosiers as they tend to shed gravel much better. I'm not sure I could have made up the two second difference to first, but may have been able to make the jump into second.
Aaron (B1mmer) also succumbed to the dying cones, while driving Eric's Spyder in pro.