Matthew didn't break anything, look at the sticky in the issues forum, bad synchros are all over.

I am very disappointed in the courses the last two weekends...stop and go, pin turns, just horrible...

 

Kind of like last year... That site it to small for a real Prosolo. Please SCCA stop going for the cheap site and move the Tour back to Bremerton next year.

 

Word from the Pro:
Matthew over Glenn by .08x.
Joe 3rd
Mid-Pack Mike 4th.

The top three guys also had dirty runs that would have given any of them the win.

I hear some people were downshifting to 1st twice on this course.

 

Matthew first is correct.

Joe coned last turn last run which took away the win.

Glen drove well and tookadvantage of that 350Z torque...

I coned my last right side, which was my only decent non RL run and dropped to fifth and out of the challenge...really dumb...

Local David D. drove great today and picked up fourth..big congrats!

Matthew had a .497 RL run that would have given about a .5 improvement.

I don't think we would have downshifted twice, even if we could have... maybe once, but not with the second gear synchro...but, the course basically sucked for the 8.

 

I have to hang my head in shame... last place. I just drove terribly, or at least only average, which in this crowd doesn't leave much hope. Over-drove old tires on Saturday and under-drove new tires on Sunday. Oh well, one race at a time, I suppose.

 

What GeorgeH doesn't mention that (1) first through last was covered by 1.8 seconds (total), and (2) the challenge took the top 4(!) drivers from B Stock.

George actually drove quite well, and would have been second in pretty much any other class.

 

I agree -- both weekends' courses had primarily low speed turns which overemphasized torque over handling: 350Z vs RX-8, Corvette / Solstice GXP vs. Boxster, Corvette vs. Elise, etc. I'm not a proponent for all-handling Miata courses either; there should be a balance, but the Packwood courses didn't have it.

I hope the Nationals courses won't look like this, or I'll be left for dead in A Stock, and Lee will win B Stock in his 350Z.

 

Well, I'll agree that the courses could have had more variation, but I didn't do well at the Pro by utilizing the torque of the Z -- I attempted to do my best by maximizing my cornering speeds in the two slowest corners on each side (one decreasing radius, one increasing radius).

The NT was not my favorite course -- pinch cones on virtually every corner exit made it difficult to do anything but to virtually drive cone-to-cone on exits with no ability to truly accelerate off of the corners. There was one line, and if you could drive that line, you did (very) well.

 

What?

 

Pulling the shocks tonight and sending them off tomorrow. I'm pretty sure we blew one of more slamming down in the dips at Packwood. The handling went to total shizit there. The car just won't turn ...

Debating whether or not to run B Stock at Nationals now.

 

The TRX8 car did look like it had no compliance or dampening...it was getting unsettled with consistency, over the slightest of input.

I guess it was Glen's speed advantage mid turn that allowed the visible difference in terminal speed on the chutes between the pin turns...I just figured it was having significantly greater torque much lower in the power band that was contributing to obviously greater acceleration. Regardless, Glen, you drove smooth and fast and it would have been great fun to have seen you pull off the win!

 

on a more positive note, I was beating the STi that won STU down to 200 ft on the Friday practice starts where I had been previously been getting beaten by 4 tenths before ...

power without handling is a moot point though I had the worst wheel hop launching on Sunday than I've ever experienced on any car, I'm pretty sure the rear shocks are completely hosed at a minimum ...

 

I fixed that for you.

 

Jason, you would have loved how I tried to line up for Sunday morning's grid....

All in good fun though.
BS has a pretty good group of guys to party with!

FM(still bummed about the last side of my first superchallenge)

 

should mention that Glen also RL a 4 tenths improvement Sunday AM in the Z

 

Red lights and cones abounded in the pro, it was nuts. I think I was the only one in class that didn't red light improving runs (I'm a wuss on the lights, only RL once and was doing low .6xx all weekend...) It was a crazy class, though. 0.5 separating 1st through 4th!? Glenn almost taking the class?! What is BS coming to? I'm just happy as hell to have made it into my first super challenge, and to have finished 0.3 behind Joe is better than I was ever hoping for.

Also, yeah, I somewhere between disliked and hated both (all 3, technically?) of the courses. On friday before they opened up practice runs, I took a drive up St. Helens on my 190-run V710s, which was the best course of the week. ;-)

 

I saw the redlight and just decided to "see how much I could avoid the brakes."

 

Dave, did you take in-car video? If so, you should post it so we can see where you were making time in the RX-8 over Glenn in the 350Z, and vice versa.

 

No, my cheap digicam that I've been taking video with has been on the fritz so I didn't bother trying to set it up for the two events. =/

 

Interesting data:
Fastest BS time paxed 43 at the Pro...not even in the top 25%.

Any comments?

 

PAX sucks? (ducking)

(Seriously, I wanted to know them, but I'm sick that way.)

 

pulled the shocks and there's no obvious signs that there's anything wrong with them

:scratcheshead:

 

Well, PAX assumes a generic average course, which this/these was/were not. It was super tight with lots of low speed corners that needed powering out of. Not exactly the RX-8's strengths. GS was within half a second of us, CS beat us, etc.

 

^that's one rationale...I was attributing it more to hack drivers in class

 

I'll buy that explanation!

(well, at least for me...)