Well, I wasn’t 100% sold on going to this event until a day or two beforehand, but given that it was more or less on the way to Joliet for chisolo #3, decided to give it a shot. As is typical of the RCC Scholarship AXs, there were very few drivers, 10 runs on a very short course, and a stop box. A stop box is basically a box encased with cones extending 30-35ft out from the finish lights. The trick is to brake as deep as possible after tripping the lights (usually start braking beforehand) without crossing the box. Not a very common (nor popular) element, but it’s an interesting feature you don’t get every day. It’s almost the opposite of a prosolo drag start. You want to break as late as possible so you can trip the lights faster, but still not cross the box – can be tricky.

The course itself was very short and tight, very favorable for MINIs. It was the first time I was able to beat a certain nationals level driver, but I’m not reading anything into it, as he was in a daily driver while prepping his real car, and even then I was less than a tenth ahead of him. I was also 7th in PAX overall, but again nothing to read into – there were a total of 30 drivers. Not particularly proud of my runs, a lot of scrubbing understeer through the figure 8, and I was very far from the cones – lost a lot of time through that section. Car could definitely have done better with a better driver. I do think I’m improving though, it’s just taking time. In general not much to read into from this event. The course was definitely much more car dependent that most courses. Regardless, glad I hit this event before going to Joliet.

CCSCC RCC PAX: 7th (record!), 0.490s behind

Pax results here.
Final results here.

Things to work on:

• Slither through slaloms, set up early and get the rhythm going to backside cones
• Squeeze the brakes, squeeze the throttle
• Continue getting closer to key cones, looking ahead and setting up the proper line to carry more speed

Run count: 121