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Old 10-22-2018, 11:35 AM   #11
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,100
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I went and had a ton of fun despite getting my butt kicked big time by lots of little imports .

I arrived early around 7:15 am, checked in at the gate, got a wristband and confirmed my class as CAM-T (classic american muscle - traditional) and Novice for driver level. Unloaded my gear, and walked the course twice. It was a big course compared to the ones I had run before down at NJMP. Went to the 8am Novice drivers meeting and then we walked the course again. My work assignment was during heat 1 (which began at 10am), so I was stationed in the middle of the infield area to shag cones if they were struck for about 90 mins. then the second heat ran and this was my "break" or "off time" which I used to prep the car more, eat a lunch, and get into the staging grid area.

I ran in heat 3. we all got 6 runs each. The CAM-T class was only three cars total. one being an 88 firebird that has won various regional and national scca autoX championships, and the other being an 87 mustang (described above) drive by my friend Ryan and this thing is killller and built ONLy for tearing it up on the autoX courses (think $5,500 in shocks and struts alone). yea. So it goes without saying that I finished 3rd out of the 3 in my class.

As a novice car/drive we are also classed among eachother.. but some of these novice drivers have super high end modded cars. I was happy with how I stacked up against these super leihtweight cars, cars with 4 wheel ABS, race tires, solar powered tire warming devices that they put on between runs, big turbos, gutted interiors, traction control gadgets, all wheel drive setups, etc. I am never (and will never) want to turn my car into a gutted-out competition car, so that's that. it will always remain a street car at heart.

As a novice, I had to have an instructor with me during my first run. It was good, but I was a bit overwhelmed at first and locked up the brakes too much so I hit a cone and then got off course for one turn, so my run did not count. Run two was better but I was still learning the course. (There is no videos of run 1 or 2). Run 3 I was dong pretty good until about halfway when I missed a turn and therefore went off course and run did not count. Run 4 was clean but focused on not getting lost so a bit slower. Run 5 was my best with run 6 not far behind. Just when I go the hang of the course and brought my tire pressure wayyy down, the day was done. I finished with the 14th fastest time of the 22 novice drivers, but with some type of points/penalty/PAX index I ended up 17th out of 22 novice drivers. many of which had way way more well sorted cars for this type of racing.

I learned a LOT. I learned how heavy the damn car is to throw around on a big long autocross course. I learned that my 300 treadwear tires are really impeeding me in turns and braking. I learned that for sure I need an adjustable proportioning valve... as a few friends I made there helped me determine that my rear disc brakes are doing hardly any braking and the front ones are doing almost all the work, causing me to nose dive and throw balance off.
I also learned that this is fun as hell and for $85 plus fuel, food, and drinks it was a great day. I learned that 6 runs back to back (within 8 mins of eachother) is good for the tires, but made my power steering system relly unhappy. I never lost power steering but I could hear the pump whining during run 4,5, and 6. Had a few dozen drips of power steering fluid on the ground and splattered in the engine bay. After letting it cool down and then driving home, I had no issues and no more drips when back at my house. My rear diff held up. Did not get to use any nitrous because there were no straight-enough areas when the car was settled enough to hit it.



I didn't have too much time to do photography since when you are working the course you are not supposed to be using your phone, and when you are racing, you cant either. in the heat that I had "off" i was busy checking over the car, eating lunch, getting into grid, etc... so sorry, not too much media from this event....but here is a link to about 35 photos I took.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/123927...h/44757552674/


some photos

























links to a few videos:



I do plan on gong to the November 17 event.
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Last edited by IROCZman15; 10-22-2018 at 11:48 AM.
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