So i met Matt, aka Tristar_Racing, and Eric, aka ezhangin yesterday at the event held in Merrillville, IN. Very cool guys.

This region is very small, they average 35 drivers and guess what? They had 35 drivers there yesterday. We got in 6 timed runs and 4 timed fun runs. Good stuff

How did I place? Well, technically 2nd in my class, which is HS. But the car who placed 1st was a Saturn with a cone filter intake..which means that it should be in STS according to the SCCA Rule Book. Yes, I got gipped but I didnt want to make such a big deal out of it. I still got a lil medal

Congrats to Matt who SHOULD'VE gotten 2nd in STS (jk ) and congrats to Eric for beating his actual runs by 3 seconds during the fun runs

All in all, it was a great time. Very nice and helpful people at this region and I felt like it was much more "personal" than other events becuase of the number of drivers there were at this one. 35 vs 150. You get the point

 

Yea, well actually I should have finished dead last in the entire event because my modified Lancer got be by Bobs stock Lancer......

Yea, I agree, all in all a fun time. Their inability to class cars correctly got me slightly perturbed, though. What really annoyed me (and any autocross veteran will understand here) was that the only cones they didnt do a chaulk outline on was the slalom cones. Now come on, those are the ones that always get hit. So basically about every 5 cars someone would clip a cone, and then it was the workers best guess on its placement; meaning the course kept changing throughout the day. Annoying....

Let me tell you though, Bob is a really good driver. First of all I was impressed because he man-handled that stock Lancer (Falken Tires though) to a time that embarrassed many people in every class. Hell he even showed me up by over 1/10 of a second. I think his ability to keep the car under control and his patience at attacking turns allowed him to not over-drive the corners on the very tight course. Good ole Bob even had some H stock guys saying they wanted to go out and buy Lancers......(I believe they should rethink that )

Once again my car was a mess. If the car could decide if its going to push or be loose, Id appreciate it, because going from over to understeer in the same corner bothers me greatly. I still think I did decent, but still not near what the car should be doing. I think I need some camber in the front tires, and some on track lessons. Oh well, cant complain too much, got my first medal!

 

thank you for your compliments you're a great driver yourself, i was watching you run and thinking "damn, he looks pretty fast out there..but my goal is to make him trade in that lancer for an evo. must beat him!!"

btw, who was saying they wanted a lancer? the protege guy or the saturn guy or..i forgot the last one.

 

I believe one of the Civic guys, the Saturn guy, and someone else. Im still pissed about getting crossed up on that third slalom on my last run, I lost at least half a second there....

Oh well, just chaulk it up to experience....

 

i cant belive i shaved off 3 seconds under my actual runs on those fun runs, haha

bob you really did kick *** man, wish I could drive like that. That evo of mine is too damn powerful, atleast for now it is. I think i need to take it slower on those turns, I kept sliding around, especially on that 360. Too much dust and little rocks in Merriville . Portage will be better, way better course conditions. That S2000 had a hell of a spin out in the last fun run, heh.

Tristar your lancer looks bad *** man

I'm gonna need quite a few more AutoX's before I can get a handle on my evo.

 

Sounds like a fun group. May be worth the extra drive.

IMO 170 entries is just too many. One thing goes wrong and you are there past 6:00pm while only driving 6 minutes. I understand completely clubs do not want to turn anyone away, but there has to be an answer to this issue.

Bill said the SF, CA region splits the classes into two days, that may work????? Of course I am totally new and it's not my club, so my word carries almost no weight. But thats never stopped me from speaking before.

And yes, I have also witnessed Bob's mad driving skills, it's humbling. Makes ya wanna trade your EVO for 3 regular used lancers (or 1.5 Scion tc's, those look nice) doesn't it.

 

The Scion's are sweet... where was the event.. i live like 10 min. from merrillville.. and didn't hear anything <sniff> ....

 

Bobaab, and everyone else! How do I find out about these events? I want to have a go at it. I have a completely stock 04 Lancer OZ and I want to see what we can do on the track. Also, cansomeone point me to the rules? I see by the pics that you have to wear a helmet, but are there any other safety requirements? Thanks!
L8R, Shado

 

There is a sticky at the top of this forum for many events. You can also find more on the main SCCA website. As for other clubs (non SCCA) I wouldn't know beyond the Madison club where to look. I am sure others will post here though with some good links.

As for safety stuff, most the websites for the clubs have good FAQ's sections dealing with most aspects of preparing for Solo2 events, safety and other logistics. The Madison club one is well writen IMO.

Hope to see you at event soon, don't be afraid to come up and introduce yourself, many/most the EVO drivers are here on EVOM.