Had a nice little 2 week break from autox after I had been stressing out over it after the last event. I had hoped taking some time off from it would help clear my mind some, and get back into it with a little more motivation and driving wisdom possibly. While I don’t think it really hurt and the break was nice, I think the answer is just to continue at the grind. That said, I’ve got another two week break after this due to real life.

RIP to my Z2’s, which lasted 158 runs, 3k miles or so, and heat cycled out. I purchased some used Kumho’s from a friend, and threw those on flipped. They are worlds grippier than the Z2s, to the point that I think I’ll need to make an adjustment setup wise, and they require and take a lot of heat to stick.

CCSCC 7/19/2014

Interesting course today, and was Event 4 of the team autocross league we’ve been running. Ran reverse of the direction we normally do, and was very fast and sweep-y, with a lot of “STLSolo” elements to it. Here’s where I think my break potentially took it’s toll. 5 cracks at the course today, plus ride alongs with my very fast codriver – and I didn’t get a single clean run. I struggled with some sections in general, going too fast in some and too slow in others, and just plain old coned on every run. Disappointing result, but it was a good experience – I’ve never coned every run before. Disappointing return from my break, though. And my fast run that I did cone I just coned at the end from lazily tracking out too wide at the final corner. With that run clean, I would have been 19th in PAX, about where I have been. Codriver finished 7th, with some very impressive runs on this fast course. I had a chance to get a clean run with a re-run at the end, but unfortunately the Corvette running before me pissed himself and I decided to call it off to give the workers a break.

CCSCC PAX: 37th, no clean runs.

Pax results here.
Class results here.

STLSolo 7/20/2014

Event 6 at St Louis region, and the second event at our other site, Family Arena. An interesting course today with a lot of pointer cones, basically transitioning from side to side. In other words, Mini country. Unfortunately, I struggled to convert. I must have been spoiled by the flour lines we had on course, because I DNF’ed 3 times in a row. To be fair, one time was because I lost control and the rear end came out on my during the fast transition at the finish. The 4th run I coned twice from losing control-ish. So, with the risk of having dirty runs for the ENTIRE weekend from CCSCC and at home, I went out on my 5th run and did my best to get a clean run, and managed to get one in, as well as sneak into 19th in PAX. I struggled to keep the Kumhos hot enough in the rear through the event, which was a first for me. Still overall much grippier than the worn Z2’s.

It was also the first time one of my buddies autoxed, and he had a blast as well.

Stl Solo PAX: 19th, 2.199s behind

Pax results here.
Class results here.
Class Championship here.
Index Championship here.

Things to work on:

• Still need to get closer to the cones
• Take wider approaches to tight corners
• Unwind sooner/more progressively and get on the gas earlier
• Reemphasize early turn in – get closer to the cones (mentioned it twice because it’s that important)

Run count: 140