the quick run down of 2009:
-SCCA San Diego National Tour-
Head down to the San Diego nation tour taking a gamble and trying out the new 13 inch Hoosier tires against the 15s everyone else (including Tom and I) have been running. To prepare for the season we roll the dice and throw the 13″ tires on at an event we know everyone will bring the “A” game, the San Diego Nation Tour.
The first day we realize the smaller diameter tires don’t have the cornering grip of the big 275/35/15s. The event is almost a waste but gives us what we want, a true result.
I finish 3rd in CSP with a time of 107.050. (the winner had a 105.956)
I still paxed in 5th place out of 272 drivers
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-SCCA El Toro Pro Solo-
Since this event is also located in Southern California the car was left with the complete small tire setup. Pro Solo we figured the smaller, lighter weight tires would really shine. This actually was an advantage.
I won CSP with a time of 81.168 with a gap to second place of 1.007
paxed 7th for the event
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-SCCA Wendover, UT. Pro Solo-
Wendover is located in high elevation which kills all of power we do have. Since a Pro Solo is shorter course and acceleration is more important we decided to leave the 13s on the car (they still had a god amount of rubber left). The trip quickly took a turn for the worse. A few of our competitors couldn’t make the trip and we got moved to bump class 2. At this point we knew the first couple spots were gone, we were running against Tom Berry and Marshall Grice in the BSP evo.
Everything was against us:
Elevation-they have a turbo
pro-they have all wheel drive
It was entering a race just hoping for third. That didn’t happen Lorin Mueller in his FSP Focus took third. I finished 4th 1.2 seconds back.
paxed 28th for the event.
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-SCCA Packwood, WA National Tour-
Back on the 15s! The big tires, car setup and all the grip was back. The event went very well. Tom and I ended up 1,2 .
I paxed 2nd. only .002 away from top PAX Jerry Jenkins in his ES miata
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-SCCA Packwood, WA Pro Solo-
Again Tom and I 1,2 in CSP.
I paxed 2nd again just this time to Marshall Grice in the BSP Evo by .248
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These were the last two big events before nationals. We end up doing one last dyno tune just to change a few settings for some different fuel. At the dyno we find we are down on power. It could be one of two things either for some strange reason the dyno is reading different because the car has felt pretty close to the same all season or the engine has just been getting weak.
Its way too late to worry about it, so the car gets loaded and we pack everything up for Lincoln, NE.
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-SCCA Pro Finale Lincoln, NE-
My first morning run second gear comes apart. I run all my morning runs shifting from 1st to 3rd gear, amazingly enough not in last place. After morning runs we scramble to find Keith and Kristi Brown and borrow their Trailer (with a lift). Tom carries spare everything in the truck, so we have all the parts and tools ready to go. With the help of a group of friends (Curtis and Jenifer Lee, Tom and Matt Ellam, Keith Brown, and I know I’m missing couple people, Tom and I) we change the transmission before afternoon runs for the ladies. I have heard people say it took us between 45-90 mins. Whatever it was we didn’t miss anything and it worked out in the end, we got all of our runs.
Following our afternoon runs I got a disturbing question. Hey Scott, why does it look like you aren’t going all out in the back straight. Your competitor is running away like you aren’t floored. You might want to check the throttle cable. Right then it hit, they dyno was right, we really are way down on power.
I end up pulling it together and winning the CSP Pro Finale
paxed 2nd .872 behind Jeff Kiesel in his EM Sprite
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-SCCA National Championship Lincoln, NE.
We know we are down on power compared to most of the competitors but thats what we have. The first day I cone away my fastest time that would have given me the day 1 lead, instead I was in second. The second day was a horsepower course and we didn’t have it. I slipped back into 3rd place. I was still happy. At the start of the season I told myself if I could duplicate the results from the season before I would be happy and I did just that.
paxed 33
(sorry for the short descriptions trying to catch up to 2010)