<VV> KS autocross report

[AeroNed@aol.com]

All,

We had our second autocross event of the season. It was held in a parking lot 
at Raytheon (formally Beechcraft). The name Beech was very appropriate as the 
lot has plenty of sand. We spend a couple of hours after setting up the cone 
sweep and shoveling sand. Needless to say it was a very slippery. I set up the 
rear suspension with lots of negative camber, about half available. The car 
was already loose and with the conditions of the lot, it's a good thing I put 
that camber in. I ran second to last in the first heat. I was somewhat 
apprehensive on my first run since just about everyone running before me was spinning 
all over the place. I was totally surprised how well the rear end was staying 
under the car. I continued to push this "new" car in the next runs. I hit my 
first cone ever on the second run, then just to make sure it was dead, I hit 
the same cone on the third run. I pushed too far on the fourth run and spun the 
car taking out two innocent cones in the process. I was under pressure on my 
fifth and final run to get a good, clean, fast run. I was somewhat conservative 
in the areas where I spun and hit cones on the previous runs. I had the good 
clean run.

The car was much more fun to drive, not being as loose as it was at the last 
event. There were a few 'high speed' turns where the car was actually pushing. 
The engineer in me wants to somehow track my progress by a measurable 
quantity. So, I'm calculating my times as a percentage of the FTD. My best time from 
the first event was 130% of FTD and yesterday's time was 117%. I also noticed 
that there are more cars behind me on the overall time sheet. 

It will be almost 2 months before my schedule will let me run again. I'm 
going to get some Falken tires and wheels before the next event. I'm sure having a 
ball!

Ned