Not "in your opinion"... in your experience.

But yes, congrats to Jason on another stellar performance at the big show. We've had some good battles this year, and this was the worst beating I've had from him in a while. There was no touching the top few RX-8s on the West course this year. The ES MR2s also didn't like that course, and SM2 was much the same as well. I'd claim course design tomfoolery but I can't even put my finger on why this was. I left about 3 tenths out there on the West, and one tenth on the East, so even with a perfect run on each side I wouldn't have gotten it done. So I'm happy. The car performed well and so did I, I think. The MR2T was very entertaining to drive on those courses anyway.

Funny how the two events vs. Jason this year that my camber didn't slip are the two events where I placed lowest. Hm, maybe next year I'll run with no camber up front!

 

Oh, no, my intense level of stupid and suckitude kept me back. I'm just making an observation from talking to people there - talking to Hoosier people there, they were like "surface feels great!". Talking to Kumho people, with the exception of, you know, you, they all thought it was much worse grip than normal surfaces.

 

I was riding on Kumhos and grip wasn't the biggest issue.

The West course was fine, mind a few places where I could've carried more speed. The car did not feel right for a course like the East side, and I just couldn't keep it together through the long slalom.

 

It was nice to see everyone again at my first Nationals! Sooooo many 8's, I missed racing mine but she is no where near the level of your cars... So the FMod was the only way for me compete this yr and it worked!

See you all next yr =)

 

You don't have to give me the time, per my original comment "... someone with the skill ..." and that ain't me

I think your win is pretty spectacular for 245 Kumhos because IMO the Hoosier A6 is a better tire for the HPT surface.

BTW, the Thompsons and I were the only cars on the 295 A6s. While that size has yet to prove itself out, nobody can say that the fat, tall tire sucks well except maybe for rolling over cone bases

 

Ditto! I still find it hard to understand that I got slower on each east course run.

Sorry to see your results were not what you might have been able to pull off, but, you are in great company! It was pretty amazing to me when, on the east course, most of the first drivers in the first runs were coming in with, "41.xxx +1", "+2", etc. The first clean run must've been around the 15th or 20th driver in. The announcer for the run group was amazing too, for being able to keep up with all of those cone calls.

Congrats to Jason, and all of the BS drivers!

 

Had a good time meeting you all. And congrats to Jason, Gretchen, and everyone who competed!

After reading all Jason's smack talk throughout the year, I wish I could have pulled up to the starting line for a run "in anger" just once. Nobody to blame but myself for that, though. Absolutely can't complain of the outcome at all. Just being able to recover from two bad runs seems to be a tough thing for me this year, and it really means something to compete against a solid field of drivers like this. That's what drew me away from the non-Stock classes, after all.

Want to send out a huge public thanks from Katie and I to our "year long double date" with Ivan and Gretchen. We had a BLAST.

Neal
The sole remaining legit member of Team One Out

 

BTW, the Thompsons and I were the only cars on the 295 A6s. While that size has yet to prove itself out, nobody can say that the fat, tall tire sucks well except maybe for rolling over cone bases


Congrats on the trophy, Mark and good to see you even though I didn't run the 8 this year. But the SM2 RX-7 was awesome to drive-power is very addictive!

After talking to the Hoosier people, the 295 is actually taller and has a narrower tread section than the 285 because of the way they manufacture the tire within the wide tolerance allowances. Why did you choose the 295 over the 285?

 

Thanks.

No doubt H has had the upper hand in recent years at HPT, K only won one open class in 2007. But the other K drivers are starting to figure out the setup for HPT. K picked up a good variety of open classes this year, SS, BS, ES (first time winner with 2007 Champ on H in 2nd), ASP, DSP (first time winner - was 5th in BS 2007).

I know for a fact that had I been on fat tires I would not have had three clean runs on the east course. I was told I wiggled a number of cones on my 2nd run, fat boys would have taken them down, so I was happy to be on the 245 K. I also think a skinny tire changes direction quicker, an advantage on the east course.
The west course big sweeper is the only place I felt I was potentially giving anything up with the Ks. Knowing that I would not have the same speed in that turn I adjusted my line to make the turn as short as possible.

 

Hmmmm-wish I had thought of that.

I'm not good enough to really tell the difference. I switched from 245 A6s to 245 V710s right before the event, and I thought the K's were better, but I'm still slow

 

Congrats to ULOOSE for the 4-in-a-row. I guess the question is, what now? You're not scared of some miaters are you? STX? It would be a good write-up for Sports Car hehehe

Congrats to baghead, 295 Hosers? wow... I can't even imagine how different that must have been compared to the 225s we ran at the El Toro Pro!

Congrats to Team Banana Boat, I guess Jeremy figured out how to turn off the ESC and not leave the e-brake on, unlike some other idiot co-driver last year, huh Jon?

Congrats to the Thompsons, you guys looked great at the Finale!

James Yom

 

West course run #2, my quickest clean run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kIq62gMN5M

 

Congrats to the Thompsons, you guys looked great at the Finale!

James Yom

Thanks James.....talk about good fortune, thanks to Hollis's engine builder, Carter moved up to 2nd place in both the Finale Challenge and the Yearend Challenge standings which doubled his cash winnings plus a bunch of Hoosiers.Almost made up for his final run cone on the East course.....almost.

 

Nice run Jason. So was I the only B-Stocker to not brake going into the big sweeper on the West course? Should have brought my video camera. I didn't want the distraction and the extra 10lbs though.

 

I never even considered braking, just partial-lifted between the first (RH) and second (LH) sweeper cones which was very dicey/slippery due to the speed and that section of the turn being off camber, lost the rear end 90 deg and all my momentum at that spot on my 3rd run

once I was past the 2nd cone it was WOT to the finish, it was a real blast

 

somehow I don't think so, but I was wondering about the Finale situation, kudos to Team Vettesport!!!

 

My car was being incredibly crazy loose around that finishing sweeper. I was playing please-god-keep-the-pointy-end-forward the whole way around it. I wasn't on full throttle until I was through the gate most of my runs.

 

So how did Carter get his Re-Run on the West Course ? He ran right after me...

http://www.printroom.com/popupImage....145&effectRGB=

I got all of my cones out of the way on the first run...

Chris H
Driftstar

 

Another stroke of luck....reruns at Natls are like gold.Thanks Chris

 

The only real heavy braking zone for me was at the end of the big straight. But I did briefly hit about 60% near the first outside cone in the sweeper, which was one of the next largest braking spikes on the course. In addition, I dragged it between 15-30% through a large portion of the whole turn.

It might not have been really necessary to brake that much, I suppose. But that's where I spun big-time on my 2nd run, and I was just trying to get a clean run in at that point! Never got to see anyone else run, but several people pointed out that I was on a line similar to Jason's, so perhaps that's just part of what was necessary to execute the tighter line?

Neal

 

Yep.. Like I said, I knew I was going to have to make that sweeper as short as I could to keep up. We did not have data in the car, so we can't see if that was a better line or not. Guess we will just have to look at the times.

How did Carter take it?

 

The times only indicate the overall, not any one particular element

 

I barely braked on my 2nd run, slid the car a bit much for comfort but caught it and finished with a mediocre run. My 3rd run was awesome, carried more speed into the sweeper and decided to be brave which ended up in the car swapping ends. I guess I didn't learn my lesson but I don't think a RX-8 could make it through that sweeper with 0 braking with decent entry speed just IMO.

My video for almost botched run 2 on the West

http://www.vimeo.com/1763174

 

East course run 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaGDv7A2weU

Can't post up my quick runs, don't want to give away all my tricks.

Thanks to Mike for the video.

 

Oh lol.

So what's next for you Jason? I know you previously talked about finding a co-drive in a Super Stock 997 Porsche C4S. That is the multi-time national champ class...