I know, that was a lame title, but it goes with the picture. Went Autoxing yesterday at the San Felipe Casino. When I arrived there were people maddly cleaning the course since it was completely covered with dried mud (I think it is also the pit for the dirt track guys). Everyone in a rear drive car is looking at the dirt (not to mention the hydraulic fluid in one of the faster turns) and thinking "well crap!"
Here is uncle Rob, kicking up the dust that was still on the track. This is after at least his second run, so appx 60 cars minimum have been over this already (30 cars x 2 runs).
I somehow ended up in the afternoon driving group (read: almost every other car was wearing racing shoes while I was on normal tires). The setup was for all cars to get 5 runs to be done in time, there were ~60 cars.
Run 1: No time-apparently the sensors were not ready, I didn't feel bad because I had overshot a corner anyway and had to back up. The drifting action was extreme, the front held suprisingly well, but between the dirt on the track and 350 ft-lbs of torque the rear tires decided enough was enough.
ReRun 1: I was thinking if I could post a 65 I would feel really good about it because the best a guy I met with a 03 Mustang GT got was 67.426 and I figured he might be about my skill level, plus he was also running street tires. Still with major drift action I managed a 65.931. Score!!!
Run 2: Much the same as RR1 Time:
64.694 whooo...improvement.
Run 3: Same drifting...I think I may just like drifting. 64.479
Run 4: I decided to see if my drifting was hurting my times, I ran it felt good...wheres my time?
ReRun4: Try same thing again, I wasn't as smooth as I was on the previous run, oh well...Wheres my time? Apparently the wind was blowing trash past the sensors and screwing things up.
ReRun4-2: Try the same thing again, the smoothness was pretty good this time :
64.066 Sweet...almost half a second.
Run 5: Decide to try smooth again, went pretty well, but the geo sized turn at the end of the track went badly for me (not cone wise, just big car-tight spot wise):
64.363, still better than the drift runs.
So yes, I got 8 runs for the price of five, it was pretty awesome. Just for reference of how fast the course could be done FTD was a Stalker V6 with a 53.063 and the average was 62.066. Another thing for me was I didn't realize all the novices were 1 class. This put me against some carrs that fit the track better size wise: miata, focus, civic, etc. If I hadn't been novice I would have won my class...being the only car in it :) There was another STUN car, it was an 05 Legacy, I believe he was running some sticky tires-best of 60.885, so he would have beaten me. Oh well.
This is what I referred to as the Geo sized corner, there were more cone casualties here than anywhere else on the track. Believe it or not there is actually a third cone on the inside of the corner, somehow my car never met any of the cones on the track.
I owe thanks to the guy who let me use his magnetic 16s and my friend in the GT for his blue tape. More of my pics at
http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s73/wolverine350r/
This weekend I finally got to do something fun with the car again. Its been a real drag not having any autocross events or anything to go to. I had to start by driving down to San Bernardino (120 mi) to meet with the rest of the group. When I got to the meeting place, I was only 10 minutes early and the parking lot was empty. I sat and watched as a bunch of older cars drove by (apparently part of the Route 66 Cruise) and waited. Right about 10 am the next car drove up, both of us were surprised that we were the only two there - and so we waited. About 10 minutes later about a dozen more came around the corner. We talked for a bit to wait for any stragglers and then took off for Big Bear Lake. 
This was the route we took as far as I remember. Starting at B and ending at C (~100 mi). The other part is rom my entire drive (~340 mi). We went to the lake and hung out there for quite a while, the lodge we were at was having a BBQ and one of the members owns a timeshare there so we were able to get tickets. Some of the group rented boats to go out on the lake and the rest of us chatted and played in the rec room.
When we were done at the lodge we went down to the Alpine Slide (http://www.alpineslidebigbear.com/). I have to say it looked like a lot of fun and I'll have to try it next time. I think the original plan was to go back out the way we came, but that changed and we ended up making the big loop instead. 
Here is a picture that was took as we were coming out of the mountains. I am hoping that some of the others got some good pictures, most of mine didn't come out very well. Next weekend is off to San Diego for the speed fest.
