The first event for 2001 was the
NASA Virginia chapter
Saturday event on January 13th. As usual, things went horribly wrong that
morning, making what should have been an easy day more difficult than necessary.
Pat and I had gone down to Richmond the night before, and since Cobetto
and his wife were out of town, we had the house to ourselves.... except
the housewatcher had left his Cadillac in the driveway. "No problem," we
thought, "he'll have moved it by the morning." Nothing doing. Saturday morning,
trying to find the keys or anything to move the Caddy proved impossible.
We jacked up the front tires and moved it enough before engaging the emergency
brake (which won't disengage unless it's out of park, which needs the key)
that we could barely squeeze Laura's CR-V out. So, the cone hauler was a
bit smaller than usual... anyway, we arrive, me in my now-normal foul mood,
and find that Sam Strano, the course designer, had already brought about
90 cones with him, on loan from Autocrosser's Inc. Cool.
Sam set up a relatively quick course, but I was
in no mood for driving. Honestly. For the first time since I don't know when,
I just had absolutely no desire to go out and toss a car around. It was like
something inside of me broke when I came out of the house to see Pat trying
desperately to get the Cadillac moved. Yet again, I had somehow been
screwed over in this "job" as autocross director, and I just wanted no part
of the event, or of the club for that matter. Second heat started, and I
still wasn't in the mood to drive, my car or anyone else's. My number came
up, and I wasn't at the line. I wasn't panicking at all, just strangely peaceful
about the whole thing.
I did finally drive, though only at Richard West's
urging. He had done some work to the suspension on his car, evidently after
my saying that Eric Kriemelmeyer's car wasn't as loose, and wanted a second
opinion. I drove well, surprisingly well, and finished only a tick off of
Richard's times. I won STS for the event (Richard was running the ProKhana),
but I felt no satisfaction in the win. Alan Stratton all but forced me into
his Eclipse (on street tires) for fun runs, to try to cheer me up, but it
was just something to do. It was the only fun run I took.
We went to Legends' microbrewery that evening
for the autocross awards banquet, which just turned out to be about 20 people
hanging out and talking. Niagara Sports Awards didn't come through for me,
and the trophies weren't delivered in time. I wasn't in the mood to celebrate
autocross for a club that was giving me pretty much no support in what I
was doing. I was doing everything, mainly because I can't trust anyone else
to do things in a timely enough fashion. So, when I told the waitress that
I would pay for the alcohol and appetizers for the whole group, and the bill
was $300, I didn't even bat an eyelash. It wasn't my money, after all.
Super Bowl weekend was the annual
Mid-Atlantic F-Body
Beginning of the Year Bash (MAFB BOYB), and instead of a rally this time
around, we went for an indoor go-kart "grand prix" at the local
Allsports GP
. I was practically the most sought-after driver in the group, as I'd had
previous experience with our local league in the winter. I decided to be
the fourth member of Powerpuff Racing, with Rebecca, MeLinda and Kathryn,
and show the guys we weren't to be trifled with! :) Qualifying didn't go
so well for us, though, as we'd banked on a full 32 laps for qualifying,
and one group decided they would have only one of their drivers qualify.
As a result, no one else got the full 32 laps, and I didn't get any practice
in. :( Well, we didn't do so bad in qualifying, being 6th of 9, and only
Rebecca having any driving experience of the other three. With that in mind,
our strategy was to start Rebecca, then switch to MeLinda, who had done very
well in qualifying for never having done this or any racing before, then
Kathryn and finally me. We didn't do too badly, with none of us getting black-flagged
(every other group had at least one), and running as high as 2nd at one point.
When I jumped in, we were down to 7th, but with the second-fastest lap, and
the fastest average, of the entire MAFB group, we managed to finish 4th overall.
:) Way to go Powerpuff!
The whole crew went to Malibu Steakhouse afterwards,
where we managed, as a group, to rack up a bill of $1100!! And I thought
the $300 bill two weeks earlier had been bad! We finished the weekend at
Ken's house in Reston, both Saturday night and Sunday for the SuperBowl.
Saturday night, we watched video of the karting, plus a "highlights" tape
David Tittermary had put together. One of the funniest things we watched
was a tape David had made of his "130mph" commute to work....
The latest autocross was February 10 and 11,
where NASA-Va
hosted an Evolution Perfomance
autocross school on Saturday and then had our largest autocross turnout
ever on Sunday. Strano was back, again (doesn't he have anything better
to do than to drive eight hours for a "local" event?), this time with Pat
Salerno. Also instructing were GH and Falkner. The school went extremely
smoothly, mostly because for the first time since I started as autocross
director, things went right! The cones were accessible, the truck started
with no problems, and the gates were open on time! We got there at 7:35,
and dropped off the cones, and we didn't have to worry about anything from
that point. I periodically checked around to make sure everything was going
okay, and it was. Wow. What a turnaround from the previous month!
And the weather was beautiful! No one
could believe the temperature was so mild -- mid 60s! -- in February. It
got a little cooler and breezier on Sunday, but still! Wow.
Sunday, Heyward Wagner and
Team Underdog
set up the course, a quick, but deceivingly technical construction. I
took the Camaro out, for the first time since last November, and promptly
coned 3 of my 4 runs. I had a best of a 50.4, but since I coned it, I had
to rest on my worst raw time, a 51.6, which was horrible and left
me in 4th place in FS, behind Salerno (1st), Matt Carson and Dan Ecclestone.
Ick. It didn't help that there was a bit of cord showing from Pat's Evolution
pounding of the car, and he had it even worse the next heat in the ProKhana.
At least he had a clean 50 second run, but Brian Burdette -- who was also
running the ProKhana -- beat him for the first time ever. Poor Brian Tiffany,
who made the trek out for my birthday, was running on really crappy tires,
and was the only person I beat in FS. :(
But the day went from bad to pretty good during
the fun runs. Yeah, 98 competitors, a noon start, and we still had time
for fun runs! :) Jon Johle asked me to take his car and Mark Widrick's car
out and show him where to go faster, and that was pretty fun -- he just
bought a 2001 Mazda Miata, and all he really needs now is a good set of
race rubber. Then, after I'd been badgering him since the start of the fun
runs, Jim Howard relented and let me take the Z06 out!! He took me around
in it first as a passenger, and then the last run of the day was me....
and boy did I make a show of it! That car is unbelievable, especially on
tires that are small (he had the rims from his '99 C5 on it) and crusty.
I spun it twice. :)
Currently, the car is in Ft. Myers, for the
ProSolo
there. I am at home. :( I could not take off work so that I could drive
there, and I could not afford a plane ticket, so I am moping here in Maryland,
while every single one of my friends is in Florida. :( I bought a sixpack
of Mike's Hard Lemonade and a sixpack of Cider Jack Raspberry Hard Cider
for the occasion. :( I haven't heard from Pat yet on how he is doing; he
is letting Mike "Junior" Johnson co-drive and Mike is "paying" for the ride
by letting Pat use a set of Hoosiers.
Well, I've heard from the codrivers, compliments
of EricK's cell phone, and the word is that Pat finished 5th, a tenth or
two? behind Chris Lindberg, who was driving a "promo" version of Ford's new
Bullitt Mustang. Mike finished 6th. Not so good. Even worse is that Chris
broke the promo car's tranny and so needs to get it fixed before Meridian.
I think Pat said Alex moved from 4th to 2nd, and Dean won. I think.
And I just learned that Dale Earnhardt was killed
in the last lap of the Daytona 500. I am not a NASCAR fan, and so I wasn't
watching the race (I was doing other things around the house), but he was
a good driver -- you could tell, because he did well at Watkins Glen and
Sears Point in addition to the superspeedways, ovals and short tracks. It
didn't look like that bad of a crash -- not like Greg Moore's -- but I guess
it was his time to go. Goodbye, Dale, you will be missed.
This weekend, February 23-25, is another "off"
weekend for me. I guess I should spend it catching up on the backlog of
grading I have. Anyway, the codriver, Pat, is on his way to Meridian, Mississippi,
for the National Tour event there. He is going to try to take on Steve Hoelscher's
DSP Fiat X1/9 with his very own Sentra SE-R. If it rains, like the Weather
Channel is saying it will, he may even stand a chance. ;)
I guess if you want a "story" on the Camaro for
this weekend, it actually happened yesterday. Now, I will be the first to
admit that the Camaro is not a good snow-driving car. An amusing
one, yes, but not a good one. So, when the forecasters were actually
correct about yesterday's snow storm, I was kinda caught off guard.
We got out of work early (yah!), and I was strongly encouraged by the rest
of the department to head out before school actually let out at 11:40; I have
6th period off, and that was the last period of the day. Well, I left around
11:15, and headed down Apple Ridge Road for the nearest gas station, since
I needed the weight in the rear of the car, and I was down to maybe a gallon
anyway. Apple Ridge is where I met the first dumbass in an SUV (is that an
oxymoron?). The mofo was all over my bumper, and I was going 25mph -- actually
the speed limit on Apple Ridge -- so I kept tapping my brakes with my left
foot. The car was all kinds of squirrelly because of the lack of rear weight,
and kept trying to go sideways too, but did that stop Dumbass in the SUV
(DASUV) from passing me anyway? Of course not.
I got gas in the car and made it out to I270
with no other real incidents. 270 was moving, and a little more crowded
than I anticipated; I guess a lot of people were fleeing work early because
of the weather. Well, I hadn't gone more than a couple of miles when the
creeping began. The first incident was someone in a V6 Mustang who had hit
the right side wall. We sped up a little bit, to exit 18, then more creeping
all the way to Frederick, due to various abandoned cars and wrecks. The
only car I saw abandoned that was probably a legitimate "I can't go anywhere
in this car" was a Mustang LX 5.0 notchback -- those things are lighter
in the rear than my car. Everything else was more of a "I'm too scared to
drive in this weather" FWD car. Eh, I guess it was for the best that those
people weren't on the road, even if the presence of their cars slowed everyone
else down. I just wish more of the Idiots, especially the DASUVs, had joined
them.
Everything was fine, taking it easy in the Camaro,
until about a half-mile before the MD67 exit off of US340. That's when the
serious backup from hell occurred. I still don't know what had happened
up ahead, but I do know that I was stopped -- no movement whatsoever --
for over 30 minutes, and then it took another 20 minutes to get to the Appalachian
Trail viaduct. That's when Dumbass in the F350 (DAF350) decided to pull
in front of me, stopping my forward momentum on the slick-as-hell bridge.
I had left a space in front of me so that I could get across the bridge in
one feld swoop, but no.... I tried to move and only got sideways, blocking
both lanes of the bridge. With some creative steering input and careful application
of the throttle (in 3rd gear!), I managed to get across the bridge, but
I was now in the left lane, at a point where there was no traction (due
to no travel). I was stuck up against the curb, with the exit directly to
my right. I put on the parking brake and hazard lights and steamed for a
good 20 minutes. Then, looking behind me, I waited until I saw a great enough
distance between myself and the left lane cars trying to merge to the right.
I let off the brake and didn't drift, so I put the car in reverse and eased
backwards far enough to get into the slushy stuff. Then, to my utmost amazement,
someone in the right lane waited and blocked traffic so that
I could slowly move over to the exit ramp!! I gave him a big thumbs up and
I proceeded to the next stage in this real-life video game.
Three miles. That's all I needed at this point.
The last big hill awaited me, and I tried to get a run on it as I came off
the ramp. I got about half way before the rear tires said, "No more." I
backed down on the shoulder, and tried again. No going -- a little further,
but still nowhere close. I tried for 30 minutes to get up that hill. I had
now been in the car for four hours, and I finally just parked on the shoulder
and started walking. I figured I'd go home, get the chains and come back.
Well, I hadn't gone more than 50 yards when someone in a little 4WD pickup
pulled over and asked if I needed a ride. I declined, saying it wasn't that
far. He asked if the Camaro was mine, and I said yes. So, he offered to pull
the car up the hill at the least. I thought about it, and said, sure, why
not. So, he hooked a rope up to the front control arm, and I got back in
the car and put it in second. With the help of the little truck, I made it
up the hill! It turned out that the guy was actually a neighbor of mine too,
which was nice. I made it to the house without incident, and needed only
a little more help to get the car in the driveway (I probably could have
done it with the snow shovel, but it was easier to get a pull up the incline
and then back the car into the driveway). Wow.
Two things I learned from this little story :
1) Kumho Ecsta 712s are great in the dry and in the wet, but absolutely
suck ass in the snow. 2) There really are good people out there that
will help you just because they can.
Man, I need to scan in some new pictures. Anyway,
March 11 was the first autocross of the year for the
Blue Ridge Region SCCA
, and despite getting home at 2:30AM from a party at vonSchimdt's, we got
up early to make the three hour trek to Lynchburg. I don't really know the
guy who designed the course, but when even Miatas are having problems running
cleanly, there's something wrong with the width of the gates. My morning
runs were dirty, as were both of Pat's and one of Matt Carson's. Matt was
leading by virtue of a clean run. I don't know how Roger got the C5 through
so cleanly; he had FTD after the first two runs, and Courtney was leading
on index. For the afternoon, I just basically parked the car in each of the
tight-ass turns, and finally got a clean run. It was about 0.8 off
of Matt's clean run, but because Pat's third was dirty, it launched me into
second place. The last run, Pat managed to be clean, but it was a tad slower
than my third run, so I was assured of at least second place. I was the last
competition run for the day, and I managed to take it clean and about 0.2
faster. It was merely good enough for sixth on index and 11th fastest overall.
Something like 7 of the top 10 on index were CS cars though, most of which
were Miatas. Says something of the narrowness of the course. If I hadn't
driven three hours, if it had been more like two hours or less, I might have
just gone home after walking it. :( Oh well.
Next weekend is the first NASA-Virginia event
of the 2001 season. EricC and EricK are supposed to do the honors for course
design. I have the final say though... I guess being autocross director
occassionaly (very) has its perks. ;)