Stl Solo Event 8 was on Saturday, but unfortunately didn’t get to record ANY videos, as I left my camera at home. This is triple-y disappointing, as I ran in both the Mini and the Evo, as well as having a codriver for the evo – more on that later.

Despite trying to get into Heat 2, I was stuck into Heat 1 due to worker logistics. Normally, I don’t care too much about this sort of thing – except for the fact that we were racing on Family Arena’s brand, brand new asphalt that was laid down a couple of weeks ago. It was odd how quiet the lack of grip was – there was no juddering, screeching of the tires, just a quiet slide if I pushed the car too hard. I believe I managed a 52.774. I did a 52.481 on my final run, but I lazily turned the wheel too early on the final slalom, killing a cone in the process. That run would have bumped me up a few spots, but oh well. I ended the event 17th, but my points differential from 1st place was one of the best this season.

Running the evo in 3rd heat in FUN class was a completely different experience. I stayed on the 3 yr old RS3V1s, thinking they would take the heat of dual driving better than the equally old Z1*. Not sure if that was true or not, but on the cold tires – very first run, very first corner (which was a slalom cone), I went WOT… all the way around to a full 180 spin. I have a Cusco 1.5way Type RS rear differential, which aided in much of that. I was also testing out a new ACD tune, which was set up to make the car looser or tighter based on what setting it was in. I eventually settled in Gravel, as Tarmac was so loose I was in “tank slapper” mode through the first slalom, and had to back into Gravel for the rest of the runs. Overall satisfied with the ACD tune. I believe my fastest clean was a 51.25 in the Evo, only about 1.5s faster than the Mini. I do need to put fresh tires on the car though, I think it’s costing me at least a full second in lack of mechanical grip. The car felt great in general, though driving the evo after the mini resulted in too late braking – was a big adjustment to say the least.

Special thanks to SPS, who did a great job of corner balancing and aligning the car! Very pleased with the overall result, I think the car looks great!

Things to work on:

• Smoother inputs
• Tighter lines and closer to the cones
• Better braking

Run count: 180 (6 in Mini, 6 in Evo)

Notes:

• Mini was put in the first heat on fresh, never driven asphalt on a cold day. Nough said.