:. Racing .:. 2004/03/07 - Autocrossing
Results: Here
Writeup/Notes:
Wow.
That's about all I can say to describe the amount I learned, saw, and experienced during the 3 days of being in San Diego for the tour.
The trip took about 16 hours, with the M3 trailered there with the help of my parents' 3/4 ton truck. We arrived Thursday night, drove around a bit to get used to the car at lower altitude (wow), and cashed in.
Friday at National Tour events is a practice day, and they set up a small ~30 second course apart from the course we'd be running the next day. Mike and I did 3 runs apeice for the sake of conserving tires. We were pretty consistently slower than the other SM cars, so we knew we had our work cut out for us on Saturday and Sunday. The highlight, for me, anyway, of Friday was hitching a ride with Bob Tunnell in his white M3. It was amazing what the combination of car control and a well set up car allowed him to do. The amount of speed he carried through everything was absolutely aweseome. Having felt what it's like to truly master your car, now I have a 'feeling' to shoot for, and I know what it should feel like.
Saturday we got up early to walk the course, and settled down to watch a bunch of cars run. When it came time for our heat, I ran first, so as to act as the tire warmer for Mike. I had a decent first run, a horrible second run, and a very conservative 3rd run to make sure that I had a reasonable score for the day - not wanting to cone my way into last place.
Sunday, we ran nearly the same course, just backwards. It was very fast uphill, and lots of momentum could be kept that, unfortuantely, I did not, for the most part. Mike and I both finished the day in the same spots we started - 15th and 18th.
As another highlight, I got to sit and talk to Gary Thomason, an ASP national champ, for a while, and learn a bit about C5 setup. It is interesting to see the difference between his times and his codriver (over 7 seconds), to see just how big a difference a great driver can make.
The whole event was incredibly educational on a lot of fronts. First, seeing just how prepared the national level cars are. Second, how very good the national level drivers are. They all know their cars extremely well - probably just like Bob. That point particularly really hit home - if I hope to get fast, I need to get good with my car, and really learn it, and that will help me improve as a driver, by having some consistency in the car.
OK...I'm sure that's enough of my yammering. Enjoy the video below.
NEW MODS:
- Drove the M3 this time ;-)
Media:
Video:
Pictures and directory index can be viewed Here:
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