NERDS RACING - North East Recreational Driving Schedule

I was awakened by the vibration of my new cell phone since the snooze seemed to be controlled by alien forces who are hell-bent against me getting to an autocross early... I beat them - thank you cell phone! After I was coherent enough, I realized that Alan was already up and in the shower. "Cool", I thought. I grabbed some clothes, got the cooler ready with water, and time flew by as I remembered my helmet and magnetic numbers on the way out the door... the checklist is embedded in my head now. It was still dark when opened the back door and was surprised to hear a steady rain. Back inside to grab the rain-gear. From the Hammonton Wawa (coffee!), we took 651 to 73N to Jackson Rd.

Alan and I arrived at 1000 Jackson Rd. around 7:15 am. I assisted Andre (pictured left) in setting up the course and left the race tires, jack, tools, chairs, in the CRX, dry, safe and warm, unlike me. The Atco parking lot looked like a river of cones as the course was being set up, with little streams flowing in and out of the course's developing driving line. By the time the course was set, the rain started to subside, and my feet were soaking wet.

Off to help John (pictured right) with registration. The computer was plugged back into the printer to spit out the permanent number list, then set back to the registration table where registration information was entered directly into the timing system. Upon registration, Patrick's favorite number, double zero, confused the system and locked up. Teasingly I told him he was "trouble", and we settled on giving him the number 200... sorry dude. I also noticed when entering in new drivers that car make, model and year dialog boxes were open for info. So all of the new people had this information attached to their names. Good stuff Steve! After a short while, Brian Heun took over with registration duties which allowed me to prepare the CRX.

The night before, with the rain forecast in my mind, I was unsure whether or not to bring the race tires. Alan talked me into it, and I'm glad since the rest of the day turned out to be dry. First heat competitors drove on a wet course, but by the last runs, the driving line was mostly dry. With only 35 entrants, the timing personnel was cut in half. No announcer and no person counting cones. The person usually writing down times was moved into the truck so folks politely walked a few more paces and viewed their stats. through the driver's side window to see their times. Slightly inconvenient, but Grace (pictured left) who was writing the times, lived up to her name by multitasking about 3 different jobs. She confirmed the number of the car staging, confirmed cones/off course and wrote times... I was stressed for her. The timing system information has been increased, so number of runs, placement in class, and best time all can be seen as the action is happening. If an announcer was needed, I may have been able to do it, since I had "announcer voice" telling Grace the times. 8)

During the second heat, the drag racing started up, making it a bit difficult to think, but once on course, everything disappears, all senses are focused on cones, gas, brake and steering. My first attack resulted in a 180 degree spin entering into the the double cheek sucker sweeper, having enough momentum to actually be traveling backwards after performing the 180. I was slow on the clutch, so the car stalled and since the gas tank had about an 1/8th tank, the car was hard to start. The second and third runs were without spins, but tentative, and the last run was off course since I spun yet again, but this time just before the sweeper. I had a student in the car, and was trying to demonstrate, giving it up for the first part of first slalom to gain more speed on exit for the sweeper. I over exaggerated and started spinning. In an attempt to save it, the car's direction started towards the cluster-trucks. I gave it up and remembered "both feet in, in a spin" (brake and clutch). Later I talked to Martha Stevens who said it put a little concern in her mind.

I was frustrated while working the third heat, with unmuffled V8, constant incoming/outgoing traffic, and quite a few different bits of information being thrown around in the truck. I think I'm retiring from anything having to do with timing until next year. At the moment there are too many inconsistencies with how things happen and since I'm a bit of a control freak, having things happen out of my control is frustrating. The timing system is much better now, it's easier to use, but I'm just not the guy for the job. More power to Grace and Keith for taking on this task.

The fourth heat was my savior, I added myself to Steve Ashcraft's students, and this made all the difference. I also realized that helping set up the course is not the same as walking it... I only walked once. Anyway, Steve (pictured right) rode with me, and I learned that I should stay on the gas longer through the sweeper and try to make the end straight for braking. After Steve drove my car, the idea was driven home. I'm also used to driving on the Azenis, so not used to the higher corner speeds, but I digress. The second and third runs were faster getting into the 39s, but I coned on each of those runs. I also lost count of the number of runs I had. I approached Rich in the timing truck to see how I did. "Oh shit!", I said. "I have one more run?!" I hustled my tubby little self back to the car, wrestled with the 5 point harness, helmet and glasses. By then it was time to leave for the final run. This run was my fastest including the two dirty runs I had previously, and with that I robbed Matt Jr. of second place in C Street Prepared. Matt and I say things like, "You Bastard", "...Jerk", and "I hate you" to each other. We use these terms of endearment like school-yard boys who play-fight with each other. We probably have one of the closest matches in SJR at the moment... it's nice to have competition.

After the event Joe, Alan, Grace and I went to Victory Lane on Rte. 73 for a beer and some appetizers. We talked about the failure of capitalism, the accident of birth, intrinsic reward, and beer distribution. True Nerd subject matter.

Results: Magnetic trophies were awarded, as well as Subaru Challenge top 5 PAX monies. Arren Asuncion got 5th, Alan Pozner, 4th, Steve Ashcraft, 3rd (FTD), Andre Downey, 2nd, and Jeff Jacobs, 1st.

Some minor corrections: There was a mistake in HS, Joe Austin actually won the class and Jim Cardenas's time of 41.139 is bogus, since this time does not actually appear in one of the eight runs taken. His best time was actually 42.769.

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Arren's Notes for the SJR 10/13/03 Course Designed by Andre Downey

From: arren00
Date: Tue Oct 14, 2003 12:40 pm
Subject: AutoX on Oct 12th

Yep. The course on Sunday was extremely fun! I was surprised that a 40 second course could fit in that little lot. That was the first event where I ran on a wet course for my first heat and a dry course on my second. That's incredible that on a dry course, I dropped my time by 2 seconds. I've been reading all your messages. Yes, IMO, the walk-through is one of the most important things to put on your to-do list. I was playing Sega-GT on my Xbox (Time Attack Mode), and noticed that after running 8 laps, my time significantly improved.. The more I ran around the lap, the better I drove. So.. I applied that to autox. I get to the events very early so I can set up my car and then start walking the course until I can't walk anymore.

The first two times around is just for scouting it out to see where I'm going. Then the next time I start breaking the course into sections. The next time I see where my turning points are and where I need to downshift and upshift. The next time I combine everything and see where I should brake and where I should start giving gas. Then I keep walking over and over, going through the steps I would do while driving.

The first time I did this, I was amazed that my first run was one of my fastest runs!

Now for this Sunday's course. I had to be very patient during the first section. (section1) The slalom felt EXTREMELY slow and tight to me, but I got on the gas immediately after I turned to take the sharp left into the sweeper.

(section 2) Part way into the sweeper, I finally shifted into 2nd gear. Half way through the sweeper, I was letting off the gas and turning in to take the right turn.

(section 3) (It was so awesome that day. I was driving at the limit and as I let off the gas, I could feel the back and gently rotate around to point me in the right direction.) I floored it into second gear and let off the gas as I prepared to slow down and downshift into 1st gear for the slow right turn.

(section 6) I tried taking the left side of the slalom and the right side, but it didn't make a difference in my times. I preferred the right side because as I came out of the turn, I can put the power down through the whole slalom and wiggle my way through as I shifted into 2nd gear.

(section 7) The sweeper wasn't bad the second time around. I just had to remember to slow down for the first left turn in section 9 then nail the gas all the way to the finish.

After getting the course down in my head, I remember there were a few places where I could get on the gas sooner. I worked on those sections and my time went down.

I got beat by 4 really good drivers. They were running r-compound tires, while I had to run street tires (Azenis). So I think I did pretty good on street tires. I wish I could run the Victoracers in STX, then maybe I wouldn't have to try as hard (ha ha). I wonder how well I can do on these Azenis? I'm ran practically the same time as Alan Pozner in the stock ITR (he had R-compounds on).

Arren '00 FBP ITR #135 STX 101

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