2016 SCCA Pro Finale/Nats

[SteveW]

Steve, your car looked great out there on course. When I get done working this parade, I've got some photos from the Day 1 West Course of Board driving and I think you too. I'll have to look to see if any of them turned out! ;)

Thanks for the complement! Looking forward to seeing what you got of us.

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[kz]

Holy cow the thunderstorms right as we were poised to start our runs!

Whelp, I didn't have as good a tire for the rain as Chris did so I got spanked today. It is cool as he'll to get a trophy though, especially in a Mustang. And to fight and dig and persevere through the horrible weather to do it feels really really good.

What's the rain tire of choice for these conditions ?

I was watching sololive, ustream and the entire heat 5 ESP aftermath.... Wow !

 

[Whiskey11]

What's the rain tire of choice for these conditions ?

I was watching sololive, ustream and the entire heat 5 ESP aftermath.... Wow !

Hoosier Wets? Nah, I think most people like the Conti-DW or Michelin PSS for standing water... otherwise for wet but not much standing water the RE71R is actually faster than either of those.

Steve:

 

[SteveW]

Neat shots Whiskey11! (Those are of Dennis' west course runs)

For rain the tire choice is definitely not worn down to 3/32nds, used the whole season Bridgestone RE71s, lol. The winning car switched to full tread stones.

The Conti or Michelin PSS might have been an even better choice although, as the course drained the gap between Chris and I got 'better' if you call 2 secs better from 7 secs when the course was a big lake.

Next year I am going to have to have a rain setup worked out.

 

[Whiskey11]

Neat shots Whiskey11! (Those are of Dennis' west course runs)

For rain the tire choice is definitely not worn down to 3/32nds, used the whole season Bridgestone RE71s, lol. The winning car switched to full tread stones.

The Conti or Michelin PSS might have been an even better choice although, as the course drained the gap between Chris and I got 'better' if you call 2 secs better from 7 secs when the course was a big lake.

Next year I am going to have to have a rain setup worked out.

Yeah, unfortunately I didn't get any of you... I was busy BSing with my co-driver while waiting for the course to open up. Then when you were running I was BSing with Board so... yeah =| I thought I got some but apparently not. At least it is of the car!

 

[SteveW]

Yeah, unfortunately I didn't get any of you... I was busy BSing with my co-driver while waiting for the course to open up. Then when you were running I was BSing with Board so... yeah =| I thought I got some but apparently not. At least it is of the car!

No problem and thanks for getting what you got. Btw, I caught the aftermath of your spin. I was working east station 2 when I heard all this racket coming from the west side. Oh crap an outta control Mustang, hide the children

 

[Whiskey11]

No problem and thanks for getting what you got. Btw, I caught the aftermath of your spin. I was working east station 2 when I heard all this racket coming from the west side. Oh crap an outta control Mustang, hide the children

Yeaaah.... the spin sucked because it was completely unexpected...

Interestingly enough, this showed up Friday:

They were supposed to arrive at the beginning of September, but didn't. Changed from 4TEHWIN to LVCRWDS... you know, because obvious reasons!

 

[Brent Dalton]

I didn't make it up as planned unfortunately. I had a motocross wreck and broke and dislocated my right wrist and cracked a couple of my left ribs just to balance it out last weekend. Seems like everyone had fun! I know some friends got wrapped up in some interesting SCCA decisions. Hopefully no one here was affected.

 

[SteveW]

They were supposed to arrive at the beginning of September, but didn't. Changed from 4TEHWIN to LVCRWDS... you know, because obvious reasons!

Oh geez, having seen you post about your job I'd like to see that on your work ride, hehe.

 

[SteveW]

I didn't make it up as planned unfortunately. I had a motocross wreck and broke and dislocated my right wrist and cracked a couple of my left ribs just to balance it out last weekend. Seems like everyone had fun! I know some friends got wrapped up in some interesting SCCA decisions. Hopefully no one here was affected.

Dang, rough weekend. Heal up quick!

I'm not happy about the decision to start 5th heat with that thunderstorm bearing down on us. I think they should have at least waited until it hit (or not) to see if it was just rain or what. As it turned out (like every weather app on anyone's phone indicated it was) it was a lightning storm and people had to run for cover. In the meantime half the heat had gotten a run in and the decisions made on what to do with those runs has created a whole other slew of drama to deal with.

 

[Whiskey11]

Oh geez, having seen you post about your job I'd like to see that on your work ride, hehe.

Ohh my poor cruiser fairs better than that! Sadly, if I did attach it to the cruiser, too many people with no sense of humor would be offended by it and report it to the Chief because they are too dense to understand humor! That's all assuming there is anything left on the cruiser to attach said license plate to and that it would even stay attached to begin with! :lol:

 

[OppositeLock]

Yeaaah.... the spin sucked because it was completely unexpected...

Interestingly enough, this showed up Friday:

They were supposed to arrive at the beginning of September, but didn't. Changed from 4TEHWIN to LVCRWDS... you know, because obvious reasons!

lol. awesome.

 

[SteveW]

I have another thought on my runs in the wet. I ran the west course in the dry Thursday then east after heavy rains. After looking at my tires at home I can see this sheen on the tread that must be from that tar seam sealer that gets smeared around on the line from thousands of runs over the concrete from hot tires.

I can't imagine using tires that have this substance embedded in the surface of the tire are going to grip well on a wet surface.

 

[Simmons-Racing]

Well that was good and bad in Lincoln......

I drove straight throw on the way out, getting there Thursday night at 11. I met up with Dennis Friday to check out the car. He said that his rear shocks were bottoming out.....I knew my JRZ had plenty of travel, so we swapped them out. Sure enough I was right.

Here is a pic showing the difference.



He went to the practice course and took some runs on the BFG's, said the car was way better then it was.

Then we swapped on the Hoosier's and I took 3 runs. The car was decent, but not as planted as mine was. He ran the Pro Finale in CAM, and I ran in ESP.

I was able to put down some decent runs Saturday morning that gave me over a second lead. I was cutting some low 500 lights and getting 1.9 60ft. Saturday afternoon, my 1st run I red lit a 399 but was able to attack the course better. I pulled around for my right side run, and the skies opened up dumping a ton of rain. So we Only got 1 dry run. Sunday morning, I couldn't keep the back end under me plus I got another red light.

I got lucky and Won the event And the Championship

In the challenge, I was paired up with Paul Russel in KM. I wasn't expecting much, because I know he is fast and used to winning the over all challenge. I ended up running faster then him, but coned it away.

Now comes Nationals.....on Thursday a couple hours before we are supposed to run, Dennis calls me and said the engine blew up on the way to the site WTF!! 2 cars blew up the same way within 2 months.

So I scrambled around looking for something to drive, I ended up renting a Z06 and some Hoosiers to run in SSR.

The problem was, I walked the West course a bunch and had it figured out but SSR ran on the East course day 1. So I was Only able to walk the course 1 time. I finished 13th in SSR.

I feel we had a really good chance of Winning ESP for Nationals.

Simmons

 

[SteveW]

Earning a trophy at Nats on a lake

[ame]

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