You'd think it's hard work or something...
Jeez, with the frequency of my posting to my journal, you'd think it was hard labor. So easy to forget to do when no one is reminding you. So easy to tell yourself you'll do it tomorrow. Oh well, it's been over a month since my last post and since my wife and sister are able to remember to post every week, I thought I oughta write something.
8/3/08 was the Mowog-5 event at DCTC. It pretty much rocked the free world. John managed to win and I placed a very hard-fought 3rd. I was pumped. I'd beaten a number of drivers who'd always previously been just out of reach, and John proved that the car is capable of winning against better financed competitors. All in all a very positive and encouraging autocross. So much so that for most of August I'd changed my outlook from "I'm going to try my damndest to beat so-and-so" to "I can win this thing" I don't remember the last time my confidence was as high as it was the week following Mowog-5.
It was not to last.
8/23 & 8/24/08 was a two-race weekend. Mowog-6 in St. Paul on the Saturday and then COM/NCCC on Sunday. Saturday's course was a grueling 1st-gear affair designed by the club's only kart driver. It didn't help that the car was belching oil smoke all day either. So we've got a course that demands 1st gear at about 6500-7500 RPM and a car whose valve lifters are ticking madly and blowing oil smoke profusely. How much concentration do you really think I was able to dedicate to driving and chassis set-up? I finished a dismal 5th while John managed an heroic 3rd. That night we changed the oil to a much thicker and higher-quality option and replaced the car's PCV valve. Problem solved. Then we had a relatively relaxing dinner with my dad, sister, and bro-in-law, followed by watching some hillarious TV then crashing in my sister's guest-room.
Sunday started out very nice and rapidly turned very frustrating. I may have mentioned before my feelings towards COM events. Corvettes Of MN are very nice people and do their best to run nice events. Problem is, their timing equipmemnt is about 3 generations older than what we normally use and is quite prone to glitches. Glitches that cause many hold-ups and delays during an event. Also, being that autocross is NOT the sole purpose of their club, they have very few organizers capable of designing a course that is challenging/fun/smooth. Mostly they just end up with the "challenging" part. I never did quite figure out the fast way around the course and car set-up was a crap shoot at best for me. I finished the day in 4th while John managed to secure 2nd.
So at this point John and I occupy 3rd and 4th places in the Mowog Championship, and 2nd and 3rd in the Met-Council Championship. The next event on the calendar is a non-competitive "test-n-tune" day where John and I will get a chance to get huge amounts of seat-time in and plenty of time to make some calculated adjustments to the car. We also, if money permits, will be attending one-on-one intructional sessions with some of the club's in-house pros.
If I can remember to not get lazy and complcent about it, I'll try to post again soon. I like writing in here but it always seems so frivolous that I end up spending my free time doing other, slightly less frivolous activities.
BTW, my model building endeavors this summer have been extremely slow-going. I'm barely even a fourth of the way done with the Lotus 7 I started two months ago. Very depressing, but I find that if I force myself to work on a kit when I'm not really in the mood, it's not as fun. I just have to wait for a new wave of creativity and obsessiveness to hit me.
8/3/08 was the Mowog-5 event at DCTC. It pretty much rocked the free world. John managed to win and I placed a very hard-fought 3rd. I was pumped. I'd beaten a number of drivers who'd always previously been just out of reach, and John proved that the car is capable of winning against better financed competitors. All in all a very positive and encouraging autocross. So much so that for most of August I'd changed my outlook from "I'm going to try my damndest to beat so-and-so" to "I can win this thing" I don't remember the last time my confidence was as high as it was the week following Mowog-5.
It was not to last.
8/23 & 8/24/08 was a two-race weekend. Mowog-6 in St. Paul on the Saturday and then COM/NCCC on Sunday. Saturday's course was a grueling 1st-gear affair designed by the club's only kart driver. It didn't help that the car was belching oil smoke all day either. So we've got a course that demands 1st gear at about 6500-7500 RPM and a car whose valve lifters are ticking madly and blowing oil smoke profusely. How much concentration do you really think I was able to dedicate to driving and chassis set-up? I finished a dismal 5th while John managed an heroic 3rd. That night we changed the oil to a much thicker and higher-quality option and replaced the car's PCV valve. Problem solved. Then we had a relatively relaxing dinner with my dad, sister, and bro-in-law, followed by watching some hillarious TV then crashing in my sister's guest-room.
Sunday started out very nice and rapidly turned very frustrating. I may have mentioned before my feelings towards COM events. Corvettes Of MN are very nice people and do their best to run nice events. Problem is, their timing equipmemnt is about 3 generations older than what we normally use and is quite prone to glitches. Glitches that cause many hold-ups and delays during an event. Also, being that autocross is NOT the sole purpose of their club, they have very few organizers capable of designing a course that is challenging/fun/smooth. Mostly they just end up with the "challenging" part. I never did quite figure out the fast way around the course and car set-up was a crap shoot at best for me. I finished the day in 4th while John managed to secure 2nd.
So at this point John and I occupy 3rd and 4th places in the Mowog Championship, and 2nd and 3rd in the Met-Council Championship. The next event on the calendar is a non-competitive "test-n-tune" day where John and I will get a chance to get huge amounts of seat-time in and plenty of time to make some calculated adjustments to the car. We also, if money permits, will be attending one-on-one intructional sessions with some of the club's in-house pros.
If I can remember to not get lazy and complcent about it, I'll try to post again soon. I like writing in here but it always seems so frivolous that I end up spending my free time doing other, slightly less frivolous activities.
BTW, my model building endeavors this summer have been extremely slow-going. I'm barely even a fourth of the way done with the Lotus 7 I started two months ago. Very depressing, but I find that if I force myself to work on a kit when I'm not really in the mood, it's not as fun. I just have to wait for a new wave of creativity and obsessiveness to hit me.