North Texas Autocross Thread

[14stu]

I had some recording issues with my camera and my phone is currently fubared, so I only got full videos of my first 2 sessions with Apex on the 3.1 at MSR-C. I don't have times for my other 4 sessions (we had 6, 30min sessions).

Here is my fastest recorded lap (2:33.8), and if you watch til the end you can see my off track excursion. I'm pretty sure I got faster in the later sessions, especially since this my first time on the 3.1.

[14stu]

Shneegle edged me out at the ER Mirror Cross today (If you compared our raw times, I beat him by 0.002s but that's not how it works). I red lit my two fastest raw times and David didn't. I had a ton of fun anyway and don't mind losing (too much) when it's that close.

Second to last run is my spin, and last run is my fastest right side.

[Shneegle]

As 14stu mentioned I got the win this past weekend. I feel that given a few more runs on each side I could take time off my runs. I didn't get a chance to walk either course before and that would have helped.

[14stu]

Vengence was mine, I beat out Powers (Shneegle) for 3rd place but Slatertots (bslate3) usurped my 2nd place by 0.033s (David edged out Miles for 4th place by 0.030s).

2nd through 5th were separated by less than 3 tenths, and the top 5 were separated by just 6 tenths of a second.

After 7 events, the TX SCCA season long points race is:

Slatertots 48
Powers 41
Brad Maxcy 41
Me 38
Miles 32

Both Brad and Miles missed an event, so they will be gaining points next event. The rest of us have to improve on our finishes to gain points at the last two events (final points are best out of 7, so the two lowest events are dropped).

After the next event: Brad is jumping into 2nd, Powers will be 3rd, and I'll hold 4th with a slim margin.

My prediction for the final order is:
Brandon Slatertots
Brad Maxcy
David Powers
Sam Graff (me)
Miles Furlong

Miles is going to have a hard time getting past me, but I've got about the same slog to get past David. Powers isn't completely out of the running for the top spot and Brad could edge out Slater for a victory (I'm mathematically eliminated from 1st thanks to tie-breakers). Next event should decide the top 2, but the final order will come down to the bitter end.

Either Brad or David would have to win out to take first from Slatertots. David would have to place 1st and 2nd at the last two events and Brad cannot win again if David wants 2nd.

Looks like Slatertots can do no worse than 3rd, Brad can only drop to 4th, but Powers and I could still end up as low as 5th.

[bslate3]

This Sunday is the Equipe Rapide Mirrorcross event at Mineral Wells airport.

It's 2 separate autocross courses mirrored next to each other with a Christmas Tree drag start. These events are a ton of fun. Come out and grudge race against us!

[Shneegle]

So we had a autox this past weekend. The official/unofficial results put Bradon(blaste3) in 1st, Sam(14stu) in 3rd and myself in 4th for STX. Brian(LetzROQ) took first in Novice. However we had so many timing issues that I have no confidence in the results. The course was challenging and it was seat time, so I guess those are pluses.

Im sure Sam will agree with me on this. But the event 2 weeks ago ran much better with the mirrorcross format. We also had no issues with times.

I think that Equipe Rapide is seriously rethinking the new timing equipment and software. IMO its all a software issue. After the guy "fixed" the software we had more issues.

This event doesn't help with the points any for ER. Brandon is almost guaranteed to take 1st for the year and 2nd is up to Sam or I depending on the next few events.

[LetzROQ]

Agreed - big issues with timings, but still fun! In fact I'm 99.9% positive my 53.345 time on the left course is invalid - I had a fast/clean run, but not 3.5 seconds faster than my other runs. The twins actually had top 2 positions in Novice with Eric (86'er from New Jersey running NSTX) taking 2nd, edging out Larry in his Camaro 1LE who normally battles with me for 1st/2nd in Novice. Lots of seat time with 12 runs, and love the drag race start in the MirrorCross events.

[14stu]

Originally Posted by Shneegle

So we had a autox this past weekend. The official/unofficial results put Bradon(blaste3) in 1st, Sam(14stu) in 3rd and myself in 4th for STX. Brian(LetzROQ) took first in Novice. However we had so many timing issues that I have no confidence in the results. The course was challenging and it was seat time, so I guess those are pluses.

Im sure Sam will agree with me on this. But the event 2 weeks ago ran much better with the mirrorcross format. We also had no issues with times.

I think that Equipe Rapide is seriously rethinking the new timing equipment and software. IMO its all a software issue. After the guy "fixed" the software we had more issues.

This event doesn't help with the points any for ER. Brandon is almost guaranteed to take 1st for the year and 2nd is up to Sam or I depending on the next few events.

The messed up times sucked, after watching my videos I realized that my fastest right side run went uncounted (I coned the rerun). I compared the run to my fastest raw time run and the timing error run was a couple of tenths faster, which would have dropped about 2s off my overall time.

I'm also pretty sure that Brandon's fastest right side run was a timing error run, he would have taken first without it but he definitely wouldn't have finished 2nd in pax overall.

I accidentally missed one of my reruns, I lost count or had one more than I expected. It was for the left side though, and I was having trouble with the right side.

I hate not having confidence in the results, sucks to not know for sure where we all ended up.

If Brandon shows up to the last two events, he'll take first. Looks like you (shneegle) will need to finish first in at least one of the last two events and no worse than second in the other to beat me.

[Shneegle]

Originally Posted by 14stu

The messed up times sucked, after watching my videos I realized that my fastest right side run went uncounted (I coned the rerun). I compared the run to my fastest raw time run and the timing error run was a couple of tenths faster, which would have dropped about 2s off my overall time.

I'm also pretty sure that Brandon's fastest right side run was a timing error run, he would have taken first without it but he definitely wouldn't have finished 2nd in pax overall.

I accidentally missed one of my reruns, I lost count or had one more than I expected. It was for the left side though, and I was having trouble with the right side.

I hate not having confidence in the results, sucks to not know for sure where we all ended up.

If Brandon shows up to the last two events, he'll take first. Looks like you (shneegle) will need to finish first in at least one of the last two events and no worse than second in the other to beat me.

All the videos that I have seen time us at around 53-54 for the left and 55-56 for the right. NOT anywhere close to the 51-52's that we all had.

[bslate3]

I agree with y'all. After watching my videos that 51.5 right side run was totally bogus. I don't even think my 52.7 right side run is correct either. I told them that 51.5 was wrong but they didn't delete it. I guess all the times were such a mess that it wasn't worth messing with?

I wish the times were accurate, the courses were a lot of fun!

[14stu]

The BMW event today ran smoothly, aside from the surprise construction that cut a trench through the back quarter of the site.

We had a great Twins turnout, I managed to edge out Shneegle for the fastest twin. We were both faster than every BMW other than Ken O, so domination achieved.

Here are my runs, my first run was my fastest raw time and my second run was my fastest overall time (I'm pretty sure that my 8th run was faster but that was the only run with a timing error).

[14stu]

As usual, the road course was a blast. Brandon (bslate3) managed to edge me out for first. He didn't know it though because when he left for his last run the cone I hit on my 4th and fastest raw time run had yet to be added, which would have given me the win by about a quarter second.

As it ended up though, Brandon beat me by 0.015s, sucks to lose but any trophy spot in our STX class is a victory with all the super fast drivers.

David (shneegle) is still figuring out his new coilovers, so he came in 5th (STX twins were 9th, 10th, and 19th out of 142 which is nothing to sneeze at).

Points Update

Brandon 54
Brad 46
David 43
Me 41
Miles 38

Brandon has locked down 1st, Brad is not completely safe in 2nd (both David and I could knock him down), both David and I could end anywhere from 2nd to 5th (today's cone could really come back to bite me, I really could have used another 1st), and Miles might not even make the last event but if he does he could move as high as 2nd (he can knock me down to 5th with a first or second place finish if I don't finish better than 5th).

If either David or I finish 5th or worse next event, we are in danger of dropping a spot. Here is what we need to do: I take first next event, David takes second and either Brandon or Miles gets third. Brad would drop to 4th place and we'd have an all twin podium finish (this would have been much easier if I had managed a first today). This is the only way to knock out Brad and in this scenario we'd finish: Brandon, David, me, Brad, and Miles.

I'm calling for a bit of collusion on this, but I don't think we could pull it off unless Brad ran all his runs early and they sucked.

[bslate3]

Great driving today Sam! You definitely out drove me today. I guess I just had a tiny bit more luck, all .015 of it! Lol

Here's my best lap. I had a bit of a moment heading into the offsets after the left hand sweeper, just a slight butt pucker lol.

[LetzROQ]

David rode with me on my 3rd run (52.808). With his impeccable coaching skills and feedback, I shaved 0.8 on my 4th run (52.035) and another 0.4 on my final run (51.633) to take 2nd in D Street, against 3 Mini's, a co-driver WRX, and an Audi TT. Very fast and fun course, and definitely helped having some track experience before this event.