| April 9, 2000 April’s autocross was another
large course made possible by our location out on the main runway at Barbers Point.
Although the course was long, it was mostly a first gear track for the S2000. Even
Franceen’s GS-R ran mostly in first! Several slaloms and a couple of tight
switchbacks emphasized smoothness and rewarded the driver who wasn’t fooled by the
numerous "decreasing radius" turns. In these types of turns, the racing line
"tightens" as you progress through the turn. If you try to carry the same amount
of speed in the second half of the turn and the first half, you’ll run out of room.
This also means that you need to manage your speed as you exit the turn, too much throttle
too early and a rear wheel drive car like the S2000 can get a bit loose!
For my first run, I managed to keep
the car mostly on course, but experienced a lot of slipping and sliding, and took out a
cone just before the timing light! I mean right before the light! One cone before the
light! Argh! This resulted in a 65.496 including the 2 second penalty for the cone I hit.
The other cars in my class included a Porsche 911, a 968 and a BMW Z3. The first run for
the other cars in class were all over 70 seconds so I was feeling pretty good despite the
cone. On my second run I managed to avoid hitting any cones, and improved on my first run
with a 63.169. The other cars also improved with the 911 getting down to a 65.852. Things
were getting closer and I was feeling the pressure to improve my times to keep my
advantage.
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These pictures are from
the May Autocross, this is the right way to go through this corner! |
This pressure would cause me to push
too hard and miss a gate in my third run. DNF! The 911 used his 3rd run to post
a good time of 64.573, only 1.5 seconds back. For my fourth run, I had a good time going,
I felt I was running the front half of the course better than before, when I rounded a
medium speed turn in the last 3/4ths of the course and felt the rear step out.
I decided to stay on the throttle and try to steer my way out of trouble like I’ve
been able to do so many times with this car. Unfortunately, the tires just went up in
smoke as the car snapped into a lazy spin. My first in the S2000. In hindsight I should
have feathered the throttle, but when you’re out there on the track, the things you
do are often more "instinct" than "choice." Thus my fourth run was
another DNF. The 911 trimmed another .5 second off his times to end up almost exactly one
second behind my best time from my second run.
| Setting up for the
Hairpin after this short straight. |
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So I ended finishing first in A
Stock and 16 out of 71 cars overall. This would be my last race on the original
Bridgestone S-02 tires. Next month I will have a less expensive tire probably a Kumho 712
street tire or the Bridgestone RE-730. This will probably hurt my times, but they are half
the cost of the S-02s that only lasted 9000 miles!
May 21, 2000
For May, I had the S2000 shod with
four new tires, mounted only three days before the event! The Kumhos were out of stock in
my size, so I opted for the Bridgestone RE-730s. I have moved up a bit on tire width, with
a 225 front and a 245 rear, replacing the stock 205 and 225 respectively. My hope was that
the wider tires would offset the loss of grip from the "cheaper" tread compound.
May featured the Corvette club as the car club of the month and we had several
‘Vettes in attendance with a number of novice drivers.
The track layout was large (as
usual) but the twists and turns were very tight. As I was walking the course, I commented
to Fran how ironic it was that we’d invite the Corvette Association to our event, and
then create a course so small and tight, that they would never be able to hustle their
cars around the track. The course had several sharp 180 degree turns, and almost every
other turn except the 2 slaloms seemed to be at least 90 degrees.
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These are two pictures
in sequence, note the direction of the wheels in the first picture, then notice the dust
cloud after the spin in the second picture! |
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A Stock was filled with 8 cars, the
most I’ve ever seen in my class. As usual my toughest competition would be the
Porsche 911, though the Porsche 968 is getting closer as the driver gets used to the tight
nature of Autocross. There was a BMW M3, a Ferrari 328 spider, a 944 Turbo and finally a
Corvette driven by two different drivers.
My first run around the track netted
a 77.696. I was shocked to see the 911 a whole 2 seconds faster, but pleased to see that
after the first round, I was second quickest. On my first run, I was getting the tail out
with alarming frequency, especially during my 1-2 shift in the middle of the three-cone
slalom and under braking for a sharp 90 degree turn. My second run was just as bad, the
car had no grip and was slipping and sliding all over the place. Finally coming out of a
90 degree, I got on the gas too hard and too early, and the back started to come around. I
fed in some opposite lock, caught the spin, but didn’t unwind the steering wheel fast
enough and the car snapped the other way. Let’s call it a 270 degree spin that killed
the engine! So there I was, sitting in a cloud of my own tire smoke, dust, and chalk (I
had spun over the chalked line marking the course) and I’m hitting the start button
and the car won’t fire! I kept pushing the button but the engine just wouldn’t
catch. I could hear the PA system and the announcer was wondering if I needed a push, when
suddenly the car started. I finished the run, and although I hadn’t hit a cone, I had
a 91.690.
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Franceen is getting the
inside rear wheel off the ground in the first shot, and almost off the ground in the
second. |
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Between runs I bled out 3-4 pounds
of air from both front and rear tires and now had less hot pressure than I used to run
with the old S-02s. This came as a big surprise since I figured I’d need more air
pressure to keep the tires from rolling over onto the sidewalls. This was not the case and
the reduction in tire pressure improved the cars overall grip and allowed me to get a 2
second improvement on my third run to net a 75.837. The 911 hit a cone and recorded a
78.574. We were now on our last runs, I got a good start, but overshot a corner by just a
bit and it cost me BIG time! My time was 75.953, and if I hadn’t made the error, I
might have been in the 74s. The 911 ran a quick run and ended the day with a 74.809
beating my best time of 75.837 recorded in my third attempt.
There was very close competition
today with a record 92 cars in attendance! I finished second in A Stock to the Porsche
911, and 21st overall out of 92 cars. Not a bad day, but there is always room
for improvement. |
  
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