Gloffer

After volunteering out at the SCCA National Tour Auto-Cross at Firebird today, I decided to compete in it tomorrow and Sunday. So I won't be making the drive tomorrow.

There are about 10-15 S2000's entered. The 01-03's are running B stock and the 04's run in A stock. The AS cars are the first heat and will be running starting at 9:00 AM sharp. BS is fourth and should be starting between 11:00 AM and 12:00.

If you're interested in coming out, Firebird is at Maricopa road and I-10. Be careful there's a lot of construction around there. In fact instead of exiting at Maricopa Road, the SCCA is recommending to go down to Queen Creek and make your way back up to Firebird. The gate for the auto-cross is gate 3. There's no charge for spectating, you'll just have to sign a waiver form and get a wrist band.

I'll be out there from 7:00 AM to about 2:00 PM. If you're not going on the drive, then, come on out for a few hours to see some of the best auto-cross drivers in the US (NOT me), and some really cool cars. I saw an old Triumph Spitfire with an S2000 drive train show up today.

c/ya,
Mike

Gloffer

Well here's a few highlights of my first try at an SCCA National Tour Solo II Event. There were 6 cars (5 S2000's and 1 350Z) with a total of 10 drivers in class B Stock (BS). 4 of the S2000's were from out of state and then there was me. All of the out-of-staters were running stiffer sway bars and had either Hoosier or Kumho auto-cross tires. Needless to say I was over-matched, both in car setup and driver skill. I ended up last in class with my stock set-up. Not that it would have made any difference , but to remain legal in class, I even took the time to take off my X-brace and STB.

It was really wet early in the morning on both days, but by the time our group ran it had dried out pretty good. If it had stayed wet, I might have had a better chance against the specialized tires. Turns out that at least 3 of the drivers are pretty well known on the SCCA national scene. So it wasn't a total loss as I tried to get as much info out of the more experienced drivers as I could.

I had a lot of fun driving at, and beyond the limit, in the wet, at a national event. It was also a lot of fun watching over 230 other cars try their hand in the wet conditions. Given the wet it was suprising how few cones ended up geting flipped. I even drove over to Firebird on the freeway in downpours on both mornings with my Toyo RA-1 track tires with no problems.

Here's a link to the pictures I took. Thanks Doc.
http://www.s2000arizona.com/gallery/autocross

payneinthe

Nice pictures, Mike. Good to meet you!

To be honest, Joe was at a pretty big disadvantage in my car. He probably could have done almost as well in your car. When you've got 15 years experience, you tend to drive the wheels off anything.

Don't be discouraged. You did very well under pretty sub-optimal conditions. How often do you get to run in damp conditions? Most of the out-of-staters were from the Northwest. And us Socal folks just had a rain event last month.

Gloffer

Tony, it was nice meeting you and the other drivers that showed up from out-of-state. It's disappointing that the event wasn't held at AMP. The courses would have been longer and I'm sure more technical. Of course that would have put me at an even bigger disadvantage, and you could have saved a few bucks on a motel room.

I'm not really discouraged, it was a great experience. I am a little disappointed that I performed so poorly on the first day. I was 4 seconds behind the leaders. I'm encouraged that I was less than 2 seconds behind the leaders on the last day, with my basically stock setup.

Here's a link to some more info on the event from pedalfaster: http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=178307