The bad: not 1st PAX. The video description includes the biggest mistakes:
* bogged the launch ("f*") 0:04 - VMSC always puts the timing lights RIGHT after the start so this actually hurts
* didn't brake enough after the 3 cone slalom 0:30
* got on the gas a little too much and pushed too far entering the left 0:36
Also
* lol how did I miss that cone 0:49
It was a nice reset, but I still have work to do on the consistency front. I think I am at least getting better at seeing the mistakes on video and turning it into a plan, when I do take the time. One struggle I have locally sometimes is being social; sometimes someone wants to talk to you even when there is not a lot of time in between runs, and it just means the video doesn't get looked at (in favor of stuff like watering tires). A small karmic sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.
This was my first DC region event since March 2023. And DC is my home region. It’s something where I consistently have some scheduling conflict - vacation, oncall at work being the two biggest ones. Waldorf is the local lot for most events and it’s not a bad Evo lot but there are definitely only so many layouts that the lot can support.
STU ran first, with SS and a few other classes. It took me four runs to start playing with the setup. Because the course was so tight, there was really no downside to making the car a lot more loose than normal; there were no elements on course that would punish a car for being too loose (and this car even “loose” isn’t like S2000 loose).
I ended up dropping almost a second on my last run, after adding a bunch of rear shock. I didn’t have an air compressor easily accessible and that is something I need to keep in mind for future events. At the end of heat 1 I had FTD/FTP but ended up getting passed by a few folks in heat 2 (Marcus P in STR, Cody H in STX) to finish 5th out of 135 in PAX. (3rd raw behind Marcus and an Exocet)
At KOTM, I mentioned to Josh that I really needed to get down to zMax someday after hearing about what a good site it was. Josh mentioned that there was a year end event there around November and that he’d be happy to codrive. I have not actually had a codriver at an event since 2013. The primary reason is that my schedule has been volatile and I don’t want to strand anyone without a drive if I have to cancel last minute.
So I had totally forgotten how to codrive with someone. It is a different game in a lot of respects, some good, some bad.
Good: someone to look at video with, give you feedback on driving, feedback on setup, general camaraderie type stuff.
Bad: a lot less time between runs, easier to make the tires too hot, occasionally you drive really dumb and feel slightly bad
This was a two day event with combined times, with money going towards Racing for Heroes ( https://racingforheroes.org/ ). I ran pro w/ Josh expecting to not do that great. I signed up for the event pretty early, but then I had to go to Europe for work:
... which meant driving from DC to NC, flying from NC to DUB, and then flying back to NC Friday night before the event. One cool feature of the event - they had two Mustangs on street tires for folks to pay $ to take charity runs in, with a standalone shootout for just the Mustangs based on how fast people were. You pay for your runs, they feed you into the queue and you go out and hoon.
Day 1 was a mess. Josh took to the car pretty quickly and he also started the event with two reruns (downed cones) so he had lots of opportunities to get acquainted with the car. But there were some sections where we were riding the rev limiter for a second or two and the car did NOT like it. I had this experience before, but it was really bad at this event. You get on the rev limiter for a second or two, because shifting to third would not be worth it, then you brake and get back on the gas for the next element, but the car stumbles really badly and makes you feel for a second like the engine is gone before it comes back.
Quote: yes, fouled plugs. I figured out that the boost control strategy I was using was causing boost to go up on the rev limiter (like up to 28psi instead of the normal 14psi on stock turbo) and get into spots on the fuel map that were not tuned well and dumping lots of fuel.
This issue is something that’s at the top of my prep list for 2025. The original CBRD tunes dealt with this situation gracefully but the current tune is not. It’s not something I specifically mentioned to CBRD, or to the current tuner, but they must just have different defaults I guess (also CBRD had a lot of autocrossers going there). Riding the rev limiter in 2nd is not a common thing tuners have to deal with, so it’s in no way a knock on the current tune which is totally fine in every other scenario.
This was really debilitating; it was happening more than once per run sometimes. You can kind of drive around it by feathering the gas once you get to the top of the rev range but that is A Thing You Have To Think About which takes away bandwidth for things like looking ahead and braking correctly. One possible thing we could have done was bump the limiter - I’m at 7800 currently so only a mild bump from stock. But for a local event that was just supposed to be one fun event to finish out the year I didn’t want to do that.
Since it was a local we did ridealongs the first couple of runs. Since Josh had run first, I had already seen him drive once (maybe twice, with the rerun, I forget) and so I went out on run 1 mega poorly calibrated, basically asking the car to do things that were not physically possible, crazy overdriving. It’s one of those things, I don’t think this would happen at a normal event where I was solo driving, but sitting in the passenger seat I think can mess up your idea of what normal is (everything seems to feel faster in the passenger seat). Josh was like “dude, what are you doing” (from a place of love). I was definitely on the struggle bus. The car felt fine balance wise - it was a transition heavy course, very runway style. We could have loosened it up a little bit but figured that the gains in the lower speed stuff might get canceled out by having the car want to kill us in the higher speed stuff.
On top of the stumble issue we hit a CEL at some point after Josh’s 3rd run. I googled it - P0500 - it didn’t seem like something that was indicative of something critical to the engine, tune, etc.
So I cleared it with my trusty code reader and we kept going (#yolo). But there was a 5 minute period there where we were talking about possibly borrowing a trailer and towing the car back to VA with Josh’s Jeep.
I’m glad we didn’t, but it gives you a sense of my mindset. I was driving badly, the car was misbehaving in multiple mechanical ways that I couldn’t address and I wasn’t learning anything either because it was really hard to just focus on driving. And all of this, after working around the logistics of going to Ireland in the same week. I was pretty mentally defeated.
This was my first cone-out in a while, I think. Woo.
Josh’s runs:
* Rerun
* Rerun
* 58.463+2
* 58.308
* 72.8+2 (I forget what happened, spin maybe, or maybe a rerun that we didn’t take)
* 57.235
This was a really good sign! Josh was first in Pro at the end of Saturday and 3rd or 4th on PAX - despite all the issues and him not having driven the car in 10+ years. This was a real mood boost, yes I had driven badly but I was within the same second in raw pace and that’s with us both driving around the rev limiter issue.
So after two runs I was very much in the ballpark in terms of raw pace, but couldn’t get it together on runs 3 or 4. A little disappointing. That said, in pro, Sunday only, I was 4th out of 26 (I’m calculating this after the fact but pretty sure this is right) and Josh was 2nd out of 26. Josh had enough of a lead from day 1 that he won the Pro class and ended up 4th in PAX.
My fast runs
Day 1 - 58.098 +1 -> 60.098
Day 2 - 59.2 clean
Total time with cones = 119.308 * PAX of .833 - 99.383 ; 13th in Pro out of 26 ; 24th out of 112 folks who drove both days (there were more total folks at the event, but not everyone did both days)
If that my best day 1 run had been clean - 117.308 -> PAX of .833 -> 97.718 ; woulda been 5th in Pro out of 26 ; woulda been 10th in PAX out of 112.
If my best day 2 run was also clean - 97.389, still would have been 5th in Pro, 9th in PAX out of 112
* Sun was in my eyes
* Shoelaces were untied
* 7 weeks between events
* Misfire/stumble issues
* CEL mid event
* Actual jet lag
* The pressure of trying not to suck when codriving with someone that has a jacket
Day two I at least was able to look at data and do some limited analysis. I couldn’t get a clean/good run in after my dirty 58.8. My driving didn't totally suck but I just did not feel at any point like "wow I nailed that".
I forgot to do the solostorm thing and I'm too lazy to do it at this point
Was really cool seeing Tim White's car in action. As a Subaru fanboi part of me still would love to build a GC/GM or a bugeye with a high revving 2.0 or 2.2 and a bunch of power and some fancy diffs and some aero. But I do not have the requisite engineering skills to keep up with SM/XA.
* Figure out Vitours vs A052s. I'm going to be single driving most events so probably A052s but TBD.
* Fix the tune. Figure out how to bang off the rev limiter all day with no consequences.
* Install the 2 piece rear rotors. I found a set of Girodisc rears cheap and just need to buy a grinder to make them fit with normal brake pads.
* Better mount for the undertray. I have an aftermarket metal one now because the plastic one has been torn to bits, but the attachment is a little flimsy.
Goals for the year:
* Do at least one rallycross in my Focus RS. It's a good car for Stock All Wheel Drive. I just need to get a skidplate and all that jazz so that the car leaves with all its parts attached.
* Go to Nationals
* Tow the car to nationals - to include doing at least a couple of tows that aren't necessary just to get some practice towing in before September. Anything 2 hours or less I'm going to drive.
* Go to at least one Tour before nationals. Bristol maybe, Chicago maybe
I screwed up and forgot to register for KOTM even though I was eligible. I might go anyway just to hang out. I was going to sign up but reg is closed. It would have been hard to do both that and nats though.
I knew I recognized this area! Pretty sweet you were at zMax (this is my local track.) Haven't seen any Evos there so far this year, bummed I missed this past year end event.
I knew I recognized this area! Pretty sweet you were at zMax (this is my local track.) Haven't seen any Evos there so far this year, bummed I missed this past year end event.
Really great thread enjoyed reading through it!
Hey! Good meeting you last weekend. I'm finally catching up on the thread now after 6+ months of neglect
* Figure out Vitours vs A052s. I'm going to be single driving most events so probably A052s but TBD.
* Fix the tune. Figure out how to bang off the rev limiter all day with no consequences.
* Install the 2 piece rear rotors. I found a set of Girodisc rears cheap and just need to buy a grinder to make them fit with normal brake pads.
* Better mount for the undertray. I have an aftermarket metal one now because the plastic one has been torn to bits, but the attachment is a little flimsy.
This is all done. The car was at Bespoke for this and some other stuff:
* Tune: they found out that the old tune was maxing out the OEM injectors so they dialed it back a bit above 5200 RPM. This did lose me some power / torque in the mid - high range but the low end was unaffected. Critically, they tested the car banging off the rev limiter on the dyno so that they could prove it was fixed, and it has held up great so far this year, with a decent amount of rev limiter at both events I've done so far. (They also did a compression test, boost leak test, checked plugs, flow checked injectors etc)
* Rear 2 piece rotors are installed
* Undertray is more securely mounted
* Misc stuff: oil pan had a small leak. Got a tow hook installed Just In Case
Due to various scheduling reasons, I couldn't get to my first event until July.. more later
Quote:
Originally Posted by Butt Dyno
Goals for the year:
* Do at least one rallycross in my Focus RS. It's a good car for Stock All Wheel Drive. I just need to get a skidplate and all that jazz so that the car leaves with all its parts attached.
* Go to Nationals
* Tow the car to nationals - to include doing at least a couple of tows that aren't necessary just to get some practice towing in before September. Anything 2 hours or less I'm going to drive.
* Go to at least one Tour before nationals. Bristol maybe, Chicago maybe
I screwed up and forgot to register for KOTM even though I was eligible. I might go anyway just to hang out. I was going to sign up but reg is closed. It would have been hard to do both that and nats though.
I'm in good shape on the goals. I did run the RS at a rallycross, and did have a blast, but the skidplate moved quite a bit so I couldn't finish all my runs. The full writeup is on focusrs.org
My #1 goal this year is to get to Nationals. I don’t even care (much) if I get pwned. I need to rip off the bandaid. The last time I was there was 2012, which was year 2 of me owning this car. It was also before kids Now that our kids are older, it’s less of a big deal (but still a big deal obviously) to check out for 6 days to dodge cones. Primarily I just want to get to the point where I can treat Nationals like less of a big scary event and have it be more normal and I can focus on driving. For that, I needed to do at least one Tour this year.
Due to travel, occasional work on-call shifts, and vacation, my first event was slated to be 6-28 at Ripken. Some autox friends decided to go to the F1 movie that day though, so I ended up doing that instead. So… socializing with humans instead of being in kill mode at competitive events. There is value in that, I spose. The theater did this neat thing I’d never seen before where they projected stuff on the side walls of the theater, only in the racing scenes, kind of like a triple monitor sim rig. The movie was.. fine.
I was signed up for the Cleveland National Tour because the Bristol National Tour had a massive waitlist. I couldn’t do Finger Lakes or Charlotte due to vacation conflicts (I’m not willing to compromise on going to the beach with the family). Originally Cleveland was going to be my 2nd event, after Ripken. Then they canceled Cleveland due to lack of signups. ****. I got on the waitlist for Bristol. I was 29th on the waitlist and.. Somehow got in? Woohoo!
I hadn’t changed anything on the car performance wise (other than the aforementioned “make the tune safer”) so I was hoping it would just fire up and be good. The car had been good at zMax in November, with Josh driving at least. I hadn’t bought new A052s yet (edit: I have now) so I was on last year’s set which started Bristol with 64 runs on them.
I figured I could get there on Friday and do the test and tune to warm up. Except.. It was a Pro+Tour weekend so the test and tune was Wednesday, and there was no way to be there for that. So my first run on Saturday was going to be my first run in 2025. Not ideal..
I got in on Friday and was reminded by my knees how much driving this car for 6 hours isn’t fun. The drive to Bristol is pretty brain dead though, 66 W, 81 S, you’re there. After taking way too many course walks (to make up for my poor looking ahead) I packed it in for Saturday.
I legit could not remember my last tire pressures for the Yokos. I think I was running something like 29/28 or 28/28 but I don’t actually keep notes outside this thread (I should probably start). I started with my normal 2/3 F 3/4 R shock settings and went from there.
Run 1 was surprisingly fine. I ran a clean 56.530. Myke D ran a 56.101 and was 4 tenths up. As I got more comfortable I found more raw pace on run 2, 55.714 +1, and ran a similar run 3, 55.862 +1. Myke ended up sitting on his 56.1. So this was a reasonably good sign, sort of; I had the two fastest raw times in class, and despite coning runs 2 + 3, I was only four tenths out and not totally hosed for day 2, pretty reasonable damage control.
All that said, even my fastest raw time of 55.7 was still more than a second off Will T in AST who ran a 54.694. So I have a lot of work to do, for sure. AST is a slightly faster class on PAX but only slightly.
After another evening/morning of way too many coursewalks I felt good about the plan. There were a few key corners I wanted to make sure I was extra tidy through to make sure I could take advantage of the acceleration zones afterwards. I was a little timid on the first run, 51.005, but clean. Myke ran a 51.4 so at this point I had a tiny lead - less than a tenth.
Run 2 - not terribly different. 50.997. Still clean. Myke coned a 50.9 that would have put him into the lead. You can see him in the background of this video as me and trunkmonkey buzz through the foreground.
Run 3, I was not thinking safety, I knew Myke had the raw times to win unless I dropped a significant amount of time. It wasn’t a perfect run, but it was a really good run - 50.108, nine tenths improvement. Myke ran a 51.1 +1, leaving me first by .941. Great feeling - really psyched about this run at the time.
All that said, again, AST was again a second faster on Sunday - 49.044 vs my 50.108. Watching the video I can see some really clear mistakes.
0:10 I didn't get as far right as I wanted (to set up the left). But I'm not sure how much it matters since there was plenty of room to still enter the slalom 0:15 Entered the slalom a little hot, a little far off the first cone. I tried to bend the car around an imaginary slalom cone before the entry and was late. 0:25 On the gas a little early, pushed myself out of position and made the entry to the mini-offset harder than it needed to be. Was still pretty much full power though so probably not a big deal 0:36 tried to carry some speed through here, almost pushed it too far 0:42 didn't get as far left as I wanted, so I couldn't carry as much speed through the right hander into the big fast stuff 0:53 I didn't backside this as much as I could have. The goal was to barely miss everything and try to stay on the gas but I may have lost some time by not setting up.
One big positive, I feel like I can look at my video and spot the mistakes faster than I have in previous years. (I would love feedback here to see what folks think!)
Near as I can tell, this is my first Tour win. I won a Pro in STX back in 2009 (DC), and I’ve been second a bunch of times at national events (Dover tour 2013, DC pro 2013, DC pro 2014, Toledo pro 2014, Chicago 2024) so this was a nice milestone. Also, the tune seems fixed. I was able to hit the rev limiter quite a bit on run 3 with no ill effects.
