AUTOCROSS - January 2006

Since I was feeling a LOT better this morning I decided to run in this month's autocross at the soon to be extinct - Hawaii Raceway Park. Since the "stock" class was scheduled for the first heat, that meant getting to the track by 8am or so.

Getting there early, for once, I got to walk the course twice, one time in the correct direction, and the second time in reverse. This really helped as there were about 3 sections which could have been taken on the right or left. (Fwiw, I took the left side on both sloloms and triangles.)

Run 1: Everything going great until the fast section just after the crossover then floorboard and...and...and...what the h#ll???....oh...ok, now the power comes on but softly....finish the run and I realize that in my efforts to make my car as light as possible, I've cut if much too close at a little under 1/8th of a tank of gas! Well, now I've got a WHOLE bunch of lemons...so lemonade anyone??? Btw, I don't get a time on this run due to a timing malfunction.

Run 2: DNF...well, I ain't makin lemonade yet!!! My mind is so messed up thingking about my fuel cutoff problem that I totally forget that there is a really slow section before the crossover and just after! As a result, I completely BOTCH this run up in both slow sections and decide just cruise by the course to conserve the 92.

Run 3: Ok, ok...think lemonade dam!t! Everything going ok just up to the crossover then over race radio..."white bmw wagon and red miata before get re-runs"...oh man 2 re-runs, any other day but today! I'm worried that I may need to push this thing to a gas station!

Run 4: 73.80 sec, Ok, we're sort of thinking lemonade now...seems the fuel starvation problem is most apparent on the fast uphill section after the crossover and after the chicane...

Run 5: 72.93 sec, Ok, now we're thinking lemonade for sure! I try to run the course after the crossover by taking whatever speed the engine will give, then backing off the gas sooner than usual (thinking this will help the fuel system catch up) and coasting into the turns with minimum braking .

Run 6: 72.29 sec, Ok, anyone for lemonade??? I'm pretty satisfied with my time considering...

Lessons learnt:

1) I shall never run my car with less than 1/8th tank.
2) Get there early to thouroughly walk the course - it helped.
3) No matter what, make lemonade!

For some pictures that I took during Heats 3 and 4 click here: Heat 3 and 4 Pics. Sorry no Heat 1 or 2 as I was running.

Also, today I finally got to meet two cool guys, Erik and Troy. Usually they have their video cameras out on the course and lukily for me, I usually end up in one of their videos! For Erik's website, click here: www.erik808.com and for Troy's site click here: www.kaimoku.com.

Results and "official story" of this month's race can be found at: www.sccahawaii.org.

ttyl...