So, I'm not able to make it to any national SCCA events this year other than the Finale in Topeka, but luckily our region is having a Divisional for us to qualify without having to pay the extra fee at Nats. So far, all season I've run in X class against the top drivers instead of running in SM, because our SM class is pretty weak. It's mainly just a bunch of swapped or turbo upgraded cars (S/C Focus, Turbo 2.5 RS X 3, bigger turbo WRX, etc.). Only a few cars are actually setup well (S/C '96 BMW 328 w/315s, turbo Neon w/slicks, etc), but they aren't quite up to the my Evo's level yet. So, what's been happening is I've been finishing 6-12 in X, which is usually 6-12 overall, and then the BMW has been dominating SM in my absence. I am usually 2-3s faster, so it really wouldn't be fun in SM. However, for the Divisional, there are no special classes, which means I get to run in SM in hopes of actually getting a 1st place finish in a slightly more important event.

So, i was expecting to have the usual suspects with MAYBE an out-of-towner or tow, but since I am hoping to be at least top 10 competitive at Nats (one can only hope), I should be pretty dominant locally, right? Well, today I go look at the signup list, and what do I see?

Street Modified (SM)Drivers: 6
- 49 SM Mark Gronowski2000 VW Jetta (White), Hoosier TiresBoulder CO
- 50 SM Clayton Cobb2005 Mitsu Evo MR (Grey), V710 TiresColorado Springs CORevolutions Performance / Evo of Doom
- 68 SM Mark Foust1996 Honda Civic (Drk Green), Kumho TiresBailey COSponsor? Sponsor? I don't need no stinking sponsor!
- 75 SM Kelly McCormack93 Honda Civic (white), Kumho TiresBoulder COApex Racing Group
- 96 SM Bob Tunnell1995 BMW M3 (white), Hoosier TiresBroomfield COBimmerHaus/Hoosier/H&R
- 196 SM Patty Tunnell1995 BMW M3 (white), Hoosier TiresSuperior COBimmerHaus/Hoosier/H&R

I thought they sold the BMW, so I don't know if they'll be in that car or something else, but just seeing them signed up for this gave me a nervous chuckle.

 

In the words of Yoda, "There is no try, only do."
Never let intimidation get the better of you. If so, you're done.
Respect your competitors but remain confident that you have what it takes!

That is the mindset I have going into any form of competition.

 

Yeahhh.....what NJ Drive said.








Joo are gonna get smushed Clayton, joo are gonna get smushed.

 

Haha!

Yeah, I'm confident, but also realistic. My goal is only top 10 at Nats, not necessarily to win. I will be trying to win, but I'm not that naive. Hell, it may be naive to want top 10, but I think that's doable if I drive my best.

As far as going against Tunnell locally, it's a wonderful opportunity, because I have no other events all year where I get to measure myself against true SM competition. If I was out East going against Daddio, Lau, and Winchester all the time, then I would already know, but I'm not, so this will be a great benchmark...assuming he's in the big daddy BMW and not some random other unprepped car.

 

If he is in some random unprepped car, be a trooper and offer up your ride. Then you'll see where you really stand.

I would consider it a good day to be within a second of him.

Good luck and have fun.

See you in Topeka.

I'll be in #142 STU, Th/Fr.

 

That's how I see it, although to be clear, I'm referring to a second each day, not overall. If I'm within a second overall for the weekend, then I'll assume the car wasn't at full Nat-level prep.

 

I thought they had sold that mean beast after he won SM last year. Forget where I saw that now. Anyways...g/l and give him hell.

Dennis

 

Yah, same here. That's what I said in the first post, so I don't know what he'll actually be driving.

 

I don't think you need local SM competition to have a good yardstick. I don't have any nationally competitive SMers in my region, but I still feel I have a good sense of where I stand. I measure the gap between myself and other nationally competitive consistent drivers in other street car DOT tire classes in my region. For example, Mike "Jr." Johnson runs in our region in his ASP Z06, which won Nats last year with him behind the wheel. At the DC Pro, he was within a few tenths of Daddio for the event. When I spoke with Mark at the event, he thought that Johnson would be a good yardstick in our region. At the last local event here, I was over a second off Johnson's time -- work left to do! But I know that if I run competitively with him, I'll be competitive nationally in SM. Similarly, you can look at a slower class like FS. I noticed that you have Kevin Youngers in your region. In my region we have Sam Strano and Brad Burns (last year's FS champ). At the last event I beat Sam by about 1.3 seconds, which is was an ego boost, but then I realized I should have beat him by at least another second, given what he's driving.

So, just compare yourself to the local hotshoes in other classes, figure out what the gap should be, and you'll know where you stand when you face the real thing.

 

Yeah, Rich, I do a lot of number crunching trying to use other national champs in my region as yardsticks, but sometimes it's hard to tell because of the index. I use both last year's Finale and this year's individual Tour events to help try to estimate, but there's nothing better than going head-to-head with the actual National champ himself.

One example is Jesse Caudill, the top local STS driver who runs in X (same as I do). He just won the Peru Tour today and is now has won all 4 National events that he has attended in his car this year. He took 2nd in someone else's car at one other event. In terms of index, I finish really close to him in terms of index, so I think I'm doing well, but that doesn't help me much in comparing with Daddio. However, Hoops and Lieber (IX RS) won SM today at Peru, so that will be at least one semi-direct data point for me to use now...

Yeah, I use Kevin Youngers as a yardstick, too, because he's awesome. He just lost to Sam this weekend by a few tenths for 2nd place in FS. However, I don't look at raw times with Kevin, because FS is such a low index - I only look at the PAX times. I think I beat him by 3-4s at the last event, but it was a 60+ course, so he still beat me in PAX by a little.

 

the car is definately up for sale. don't know if it has sold or not


http://bimmerhaus.com/carlot/tunnell/sm1.html

 

Unsurprisingly, Bob and Patty are now listed in XP where they are co-driving an SM2 C5 that is built to the hilt. As I suspected, they just signed up with their normal profile, which has the BMW, but once they secured a car to drive, they switched to the proper class. The SM2 Vette is one bad machine, and the driver is also very good - he beats me in both raw and PAX usually...