Hyper-X

It was a very nice day outside and a bit windy at times out at HRP for this past event. There were quite a bit more new faces or people that haven't shown up for a while.

The track was layed out in a clockwise pattern where the start point is where the staging area is for the drag portion of the track and finished on the back straight before the hairpin. The course was rather fast in many areas to include TWO triangles and a few tight cones near the last slalom. We experienced equipment failure during Heat #3 (man that was a long friggin heat) but Curtis and the crew were able to pull it off.

Joey Riveira and I met for the first time and he did a great job on his well-prepped car. BTW, JR ripped an awesome 56.156 best time with no cones. Great driving JR! I have no doubt that he's going to do great on this upcoming track day on the 12th (if you cannot or not planning to drive, come out and support the others!)

Since JR ran a heat before mine, I took into account how he drove during the heat and decided to take a similar route. To me, JR appeared to experiment with driving in 1st gear for the dominant part of the course then with the latter runs, I noticed he changed his entry/exit points for some of the slaloms and seemed to engage 2nd more often than he did at first. Whatever he did, it must've been good because I couldn't figure out how to shave off much more time without killing somebody on the track.

My experience was a little different from last month. I recalled the problems I had during June, which was basically the reverse direction as this month's course but I had a simple strategy and I was going to stick to it. I walked the course and marked the sections in my head to take the easiest route possible.

I decided to stay with driving in 1st for the majority of the runs except for 2 sections where I "ran out of gear" and dribbled the limiter. The thing I kept reminding myself was slow in fast out. This was easy to do as long as I braked enough before the entry points and powered out WOT at the first chance I got. My butt started to slide out here and there, especially in the off-camber section but instead of letting off the throttle, I stayed on it & feathered it between 95% and WOT and controlled the wagging with mere steering. This proved to be very effective as the car snapped to attention going though the gates. The best time for me was a 58.707 with no cones, no where near JR's times but I felt it was fair considering running almost completely stock (on OEM tires) minus the Spoon duct and JR filter.

I hope to see more S2000's out during next month's event, especially Stephen and perhaps the veteran himself. I can't make it to the track day on the 12th because Uncle Sam needs me elsewhere plus I don't feel confident with my current setup for driving the long course.

Hope to see more of you guys soon!

darth_2k

Nice post!

I have known Joey for quite some time now and I must say there is no one else I know who is more dedicated about racing than he is! I have seen him first hand racing mountain bikes, and heard stories about his motor cross days. He does all that he can to get himself ready and to make sure that he has the best equiptment for getting him there.

Kudos to you Joey!

smccurry

Thanks for the update! I'll definitely be out for the next event, now that my gears are fully broken in. Now I just have to shop for my helmet

Hyper-X

That's great to hear Stephen, if everything goes right... there should be 1 S2000 running B-stock, and 2 running ASP class at the least.

The guy who's running with me in my class (BS) has been running times better than the same car in the modded classes and I'm getting a bit suspicious of his car's setup. I've talked to the other M3 drivers and they silently said the same thing. I'm wondering if he's using some adjustable gas shocks combined with the stock springs to minimize the roll? That would be hard to see during inspection but who knows. I know the guy has a lot of experience but the times do seem suspicious as claimed by some of the other drivers.

I'm going to be packing some new equipment on the edge of my class limitations soon enough so I hope to close in on the times a bit better. I'm slowly starting to understand how the car works in a fast course layout but I haven't driven in a more technical setup so it'll be interesting to see what they have in store for us.

Glad to hear you got them gears broken in... we'll soon see how much of a difference they make.

For the rest of you, come out and drive... it's fun.

davidmcd

Practice helps a lot. In looking at the M3's times (http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/~panos/07-06-03.pdf) compared to some of the constant performers (Curtis Lee, etc.) he might be able to make the times he is getting (assuming he is on r compound tires). After practice, tires are the next best improvement. A better front sway bar is supposed to do a lot of good (especially with r compound tires). The Saner bar seems to be a good value for this...

A list of mods that are allowed in the stock class can be found at http://www.moutons.org/sccasolo/

Good luck!

David

Hyper-X

Thanks for the info.

Should we have some time left for fun runs, I was planning on asking Curtis or Joey if I can run shotgun to compare driving techniques.

Hopefully they are able to resolve the timing issues with the equipment soon.

Colin

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Hyper-X
[B] The guy who's running with me in my class (BS) has been running times better than the same car in the modded classes and I'm getting a bit suspicious of his car's setup.

Hyper-X

The guy is Jayson Guzman, I think you know him well.

The reason for the suspicion was brought up by a few select drivers that mentioned how their modified SM-class and SP class M3's were not running quite as well as one running in B stock.

Unless the recent track layouts have been fast versus a technical one (which I haven't seen him drive yet), that may be the reason behind his sick times. The sheer torque and fast pickup speed through the sections has been very advantageous to his style of driving.

Colin, perhaps you could take a look at his driving since you and your wife know his history behind the wheel.

The guy is fast in that big black ugly thing (sorry, but I think the M3 has a dated appearance).

Colin

Ooops, sorry I thought you were talking about another S2000 running "illegally" I'm reluctant to discuss this in a public forum, but I will say that Jason has improved greatly over the years.