:. Racing .:. 2004/05/08 - ProSolo
Results: Here
Writeup/Notes:
Wow!
National events are always a blast, and this one was no exception. This was the first ProSolo for Lefthand Racing, aka Mike and I, this time. We drove the vette the 500 miles to Farmington, and the weather was absolutely perfec the entire weekend - 70's with just a hint of a breeze.
We definitely noticed the effect of worn-out Hoosiers here. Whoever went second was always significantly faster than the guy that had to do the warming - around a second or so quicker. The course(s) were divided up into three main parts: first was a fast uphill section with a couple of turns, that let into a tight sweeper that pinched off somewhat at the end. That led into a small straight that angled downhill, which led into a slalom, which finished the course. As always, the courses were a bit different. For most folks, the RHS course was a bit quicker.
Going up the hill was great fun - it was a real balance of throttle and lateral grip, and a lot of "hang on!" to decide how quick you could try and do it. Naturally, we both got a lot faster here as we learned to trust the car more and more. This was the first event with the Hotchkis bars, and with the less-grippy asphalt surface, rubbing was not in evidence on the fenders. (Unfortuantely, that was temporary - sigh).
Mike did great in a car he's hardly driven before, although he did have a few instances of failing to keep the front of the car as fast as the rear of the car - heh ;). While I was quicker as the second driver in the morning, he leapfrogged me in the afternoon, and we finished Saturday with Mike ahead by 0.2 seconds in 4th place, me in 5th, out of 7 drivers. Mike had had two very low 30.x times on both side, and I'd had a very good LHS run, and only decent RHS runs. Thomason was dirty on his Saturday runs, so we knew this wouldn't last...
Causing some high-pressure moments was the discovery after removing the stickies for returning to the hotel, that the front right had corded fairly badly on the inside. A quick survey of the group revealed that nobody can get the stupid 285/30-18 size, so we hightailed it to a local tire shop that had just closed, and bribed a guy $25 to flip the tire for us, so everything would be OK for Sunday.
Saturday evening we gathered at a local Mexican place and ate with the RMSolo crew - Kathy-Bob, David Fauth and his wife, along with Jeff Lundgren, Bob Klinger, Dan Heydlauff, and a few other folks.
As always, Sunday came bright and early. Fortunately for me (!), since Mike had edged me the day before, that meant he got to act as Stone Cold Tire Warmer. Having watched the video, he was working on keeping his hands further apart, which you can see on Sunday. The camera never lies! With the benefit of sticky, warm tires, I was able to crack off a good right-side run to complement my good left-side run from Saturday morning to barely edge Mike for the weekend. Bad co-driver, bad! ;)
As far as car notes...WOW - the car felt awesome, until my last 2 runs on Sunday, which was just because the tires were *gone* at that point. (too bad the battery died for the spin - wowsers). The car was neutral to slightly loose, which made for easy rotation in the fast parts, and in the tight spots, it turned very well - we both had a blast with the car's handling. I ran my typical 3/2C, -3/-4R settings, and they worked very well with the new Hotchkis swaybars.
NEW MODS:
- Hotchkis swaybars & endlinks
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