2013 San Diego National Tour

[xnamerxx]

So recap for the weekend. I HATE!!! the surface of San Diego, I've run there dozens of times and this weekend was no difference, except the course was a high grip course on a low grip surface.

Saturday: This was probably one of the worse courses I've ever had the joy of driving, there were portions where 1st gear would have been a good gear choice for me and some of the Miatas were downshifting there because they had too. I really should have driven this on the Dunlops as the Toyos were next to useless here, I chose to take a wide line and was punished quite badly in doing so, since I would pickup marbles and lose complete grip on that wheel, mix in a my awful driving and you have a recipe for a pretty unfun course. I was able to put down a pretty quick scratch time but those don't count so its just a what if that will haunt me I'm sure.

Sunday: The course on Sunday was a little better because it flowed quite a bit better than Saturday, but it was still a pretty terrible course, it was very tight and in sections demanded that you take the right line to be quick. Now if you can imagine it, my driving on Saturday was even worse than my driving on Sunday, but I decided to switch tires out for my last run as a JIC measure since I was soo upset with the performance of my Toyos. The Dunlops were at least functional out there where the Toyos were not but it doesn't get away from the fact that I quite frankly could not put it together and put down a fast run. I think this direction really demanded you have a car that could put down some power, because the Miatas that were killing on Saturday were back of the pack Sunday.

Now for a sumup of the cars that I got the please to compete against.

Red Mini Cooper. This guy puts down some pretty serious Hp but his torque numbers were a bit lackluster, the car itself looked alright out on course but he seemed to have some of the same problems I had with Toyos not working correctly, and his times seemed to reflect that.

Blue Honda Fit - This was a car I was really interested in seeing how it performed since I've pretty much never seen one setup for autox. While his HP and Tq numbers aren't stellar, he has the great gearing of the Mini and launch control. This car tookoff like a rocketship on Sunday and he put down some pretty spectacular times in doing so although I didn't really get to see much of it beyond that, he was suffering from ABS/brake issues all weekend along with the crap bald Toyo tires.

Seafoam Mini Cooper - This was a relatively unknown to me, he had been running in H stock for many years but this is his first year in STF. From conversations I was able to gather, he's got a fairly set suspension, adjustable lower control arms and such. Both people piloting this car were veteran national competitors and were amazing drivers. Talking to them it appeared this was the first event where there Hankook tires worked really well, I'm not sure if this car worked quite well because of the lower grip surface of what, but it was really hauling the mail.

The Mazda 3 - If it was fully developed I could see it winning easily since Steve is probably one of the best drivers I know, and a royal PITA to beat along with his Co driver they are usually a big force to be recon with.

From what I've gathered about this experience, I suck at using the brakes and I should have trusted my instincts to use Dunlop tires, but I saw $$$ from using the Toyos so I stuck with it and it cost me in the end, live and learn I guess.

My overall guess as to how STF will shape up, I have a feeling on and power courses, it'll be a tossup between the Fit or the 07-12 Mini Cooper or the Mazda 3 or Civic Si, if its a technical course I'm guessing it'll be a toss between the Mazda 2 or Yaris, but those are only guesses. The Mini Coopers don't seem to respond very well to modifications like some of the other cars so its really an unknown I guess.