mazdaspeedwest

April 6-7, 2002 Norton AFB Los Angeles (well actually Riverside, but you get the idea)

Sat.
RAIN!!! This was my clubs first event as the Host. We were nervous but well prepared and i think it all went really smoothly and everybody had a good time. The course was like ice in the rain, but the strange thing was, that the left side was MUCH more slippery than the right side....as soon as you came out of the slalom at the back crossover and into the turn to come back there was grip....so the first section was at a snails pace and you made it up on the second section back to the finish. Although it dried up by late afternoon and made for some fast runs. I turned a best of 61.1 in the wet and a 47.2 on dry. Not too bad.

Sun. RACE DAY
Nice and sunny all day...
As always, The BG chassis cars dominated STS, With Will Kalman (EGT) taking 1st and our own David Avard in a VERY close 2nd. I was holding the rear in 7th, out of i think about 25 drivers. Was a good day, i was very happy to make the top 10...and after my last run of 55.0xx i heard Craig announce i was in 4th place!!! holy cow your shitting me!? Didn't last long as the next car through the lights bumped me down, and so on...LOL No worries, i'm still stoked, had a blast and maybe now i can get some sleep....Oh and Jason (protejay) made it out to watch, missed our run group, but got to see some cool racing anyway....how about that late 60s caddy!!! what a hoot!

protejay

Yep, i had a GOOD time; got to meet some of the guys, took a look at their rides, and watched some fun-looking AutoXing....that caddy was great it leaned like CRAZY and everyone clapped each time he finished....i think his last run was 67.??? not too shabby.

Thanks to Darryl and Davard for 'bearing' with me and my questions

Maybe, once i get all my suspension redone, my car might see some 'orange' action.....

mazdaspeedwest

Thanks Jesse...i'll just take it one run at a time and see what happens...

mazdaspeedwest

No problem with the questions man... thats how we found things out too, along with tinkering with stuff...

cool , another Protege racer in training!!!

Davard

Will PAXed 3rd, I was 8th, and I think that Darryl was about 40th. Out of 235 drivers. And the difference between 5th and 7th was probably less than 0.5 sec. (We finished the results Monday night, but it will take a little longer to make it to the web site.) It should also be noted that STS ran first group on a surface that improves measurably throughout the day. All the STS drivers who took fun runs at the end of the day were 2 secs faster (at least 1.0-1.5 due to better conditions, the rest due to familiarity).

And it was a '62 Cadillac. At least it had radial tires. And it didn't hit any cones, on a course with effectively 4 slaloms, 3 of which were pretty tight.

mazdaspeedwest

cool, at least i still beat out 195 drivers

i think i was about the 8th car out and i overestimated grip in a few spots...had dropped 3 lbs out of the fronts by my third run....oh well, i learned. I found the course to be quite technical, but still had a nice smooth flow to it, lots of throttle time

mazdaspeedwest

hehehe, thanks Wil, but i'm not kicking too much *** yet, but i am getting better with seat time.....one run at a time. More car prep is just around the corner....

Also, in our region, STS is both a large AND competitive group of drivers. It's a push in the right direction when the group is so competitive, and who are also becoming good friends.

All the *** kicking goes to David and Will K. as usual...

Davard

For those interested, the results (in PDF form) are here, with the PAX results are here.

I was a little off, as Darryl was in 7th in class, 57th overall. Still, beat 2/3 of the cars in class and 3/4 of the cars overall.

Makaveli

Julie Jacobs 21st overall in a Protege? Is she on this board?