Dragway 42 Autocross 5/2/21

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Basement Paul
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Dragway 42 Autocross 5/2/21

Post by Basement Paul »

This Sunday I'm signed up for the autocross at Dragway 42 with the Firebird. After some FB messaging with the Akron Sports Car Club rep, I've come to the harsh realization that the Firebird, because the interior is gone, is basically stuck racing against actual race cars with V8's, slicks, etc. So I'm more just going to run through the course and try to have fun, but this is part of my frustration with SCCA rules. The SOLO rulebook is 400 pages long... To be competitive there, you have to really build a car for a specific class from the beginning. Oh well.
The class is C Prepared. Google some of the cars in this class and you'll see why it's ridiculous.

Anyway, the weather is supposed to be nice, and I haven't really driven the Firebird this year at all. I still haven't really driven the S10 either. Waiting for a little rain to wash the salt off the roads.

-BP
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MostMint
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Re: Dragway 42 Autocross 5/2/21

Post by MostMint »

Sad but true. Probably kept me out of road racing for years before ChampCar Endurance Series arrived.

What about the guys that ran at Pitt Race?
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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Basement Paul
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Re: Dragway 42 Autocross 5/2/21

Post by Basement Paul »

The Pitt Race thing we went to was just a test session and not a competition. The Lowkey Autocross they called it. Pretty fun. Maybe take the S10 to that one sometime.

-BP
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Basement Paul
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Re: Dragway 42 Autocross 5/2/21

Post by Basement Paul »

I spent the day at 42 and it was a pretty nice weather day. About 80 degrees, mostly sunny, and quite breezy. From what I could tell there were about 145 cars that actually ran in four groups. I was somewhere around 120 out of that group when the dust settled. Based on the class you're in, there's a "PAX" time that is supposed to level the playing field. As discussed previously, to truly be competitive here, you're going to need to build something to a class from scratch, and also buy the absolute best tires possible.
My best run of the six I got was 78.8 seconds. The cars I considered fast were all in the mid-upper 60sec range. My 300 treadwear tires might as well have been snow tires in this group. I did off course in the second set of slaloms which is a higher speed section and I drifted sideways through the dirt, but never spun around. Also, my 3.90 gearing is too steep. I think I'd like to go back to 3.73 or even 3.55 gears to make this a 2nd gear only affair. This would also help me at Nelson where I'm really redlining on the back straight. All in due time.

-BP
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