:. Racing .:. 2004/09/13 - Solo2 2004 Nationals
Results: Here
Writeup/Notes:
Saturday
So, after an entire season of racing, Solo2 nationals is what the season comes down to for a lot of folks that do this sport. For me, with this as my first nationals, I was merely going to have the experience of just what Solo2 nationals is all about.
Up until the previous event, Mike and I were going with the express purpose of not finishing last. However, given the car's awesome behavior with the new setup and tires, all of a sudden, we dared to believe that maybe it, and us, would be good enough for one of us to grab a trophy. As it happens we were *so* close!
Mike, Doug Young, and I caravanned to Topeka on the Saturday preceeding the event. We arrived and checked in to our Candlewood Suites room, which did *not* have broadband access as advertised. It also had the world's most pathetic shower, which when there were three of us (and later, four with Aaron Miller), was just awful.
We got out to the site before it closed, and dropped off the Corvette, and Doug his BMW. Since I had volunteered to do the radio chief job with a few other RMSolo folks, we had a primo front-row spot next to the BimmerHaus trailer. Allll Riiiight. We left the 'vette and the BMW, and left in Mike's Jeep, and headed to Walmart for some supplies.
Sunday
Sunday we got up at Dark Thirty and headed out to the site as it opened. We finished getting the Corvette ready, and went up to the North course so we could walk it a bit. We found ourselves to be just about the first people there, and walking the course each of the 3 mornings we competed.
As nationals warmup, it is tradition to run the previous year's North Course as a warmup before nationals starts. This is done while the 'pros' are doing the ProSolo finale for the year in the South course area. Mike and I walked the course, decided (as we always do) that it looked like a lot of fun, and waited for our turn to run. I spent a lot of time seeking out BMod drivers and asking them about their cars and the class. Nice bunch of folks.
Our heat came quickly, so a bit before noon, we gridded up, and prepared to take our runs. To save money and tires, we'd only registered as one driver, so we were going to split our runs.
Mike took his first run, with me riding, and drove like a madman, sliding everywhere and hammering the brakes at the last second everywhere - but the car stuck! The start was highly polished and offered no grip, so we spun the tires for a good hundred feet off of the gates. Mike came in with a time good enough to be first among the folks running SM2 that day, so already we were feeling good.
I swapped in, and took my run, and was *astonished*. The level of grip available on the Topeka concrete was absolutely unbelieveably tremendous. The car braked, turned, put down power - everything! - incredibly well. I knocked another 0.5 off of Michael's time, driving a pretty uneventful, but smooth run. A mistake in the final slalom cost me a bit, as did not going WOT on the last sweeper - not believing how much grip I'd have.
Since we had a third run, we rock-scissor-papered for it. I won, but since I'd beaten Mike's time, I thought I'd give him a chance to beat mine. He did, with a great run, which included one awesome slide to the left coming out of a left-hander, which he then used the correction to simply 'swing' into the next right-hand curve, which felt absolutely great from the passenger seat. Very cool. He was quicker than my run by 0.7 seconds (if I recall correctly), and even with a cone, still was quicker than the rest of SM2 (I too had coned my run) with me behind.
So, in summary, we finished the day feeling very good about our (seeming odd?) chances of one of us 'bringing home some hardware' as the phraseology goes.
Monday
Monday is a pretty weird day at Nationals. 1200+ people get on their walking shoes and go meandering around two courses to try and cement them in their minds as much as possible. Mike and I were up early to walk some before it got hot, but then spent a lot of the day walking around looking at cars (that is, checking out the competition in SM2), and stickering up the car. Doug showed up later and talked with David Fauth, since he was tire-warming for Mr. Pants' DSP BMW.
Tuesday
Tuesday finally came - the first day of our big show! The weather was beatiful as we started to the north course - just a hint of a breeze, and plenty of sunshine. No troubles with tire temps today.
...(never got to this....) Suffice to say, the runs went "OK". Mike was a bit faster than me, although I coned away what would ahve been a SMOKIN run on my last try.
We finished the day in 9th and 12th, I believe. Mike in the trophies, and me only a few tenths out. Definitely within site of trophies if we had a good Wednesday on the south course.
Tuesday
We got rained on all day...what could we do without rain tires? This tells the whole story. So, we just had what fun we could in our disappointment. We dropped to the mid-teens in the results, shrugged, and called it a nationals.
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