CCSCC 09262015 (Evo)

Headed up to Champaign this past weekend for the CCSCC event! After getting no clean runs in the Evo from the last St. Louis event, decided it was a good chance to get more Evo runs under the belt. Also wanted to test a new action camera I bought from Amazon, called “GeekPro 2.0.” Tim also helped me pick up a set of wheels I bought from the Chicago area and brought them down for me. The last time he was in Champaign, he worked heat 1, rested heat 2, and it rained so heavily during heat 3 that they called off the event after that – he was refunded, but when he returned on Sunday they went one step further and let him race for free! Props to CCSCC for always taking care of their drivers.

I decided after the last event to adjust the shock settings a bit softer, and I think it was the right call given the surface conditions I’m normally racing on – which is very bumpy. Went from 15 all around at the last event to 19 all around. Usually raced in the Street setting for ACD, but kicked it to Track for the last two and it helped marginally with rotation. Car was ran with a quarter tank of gas, and handled most of the elements fine. It still needs new tires – judging from the chirping on launch, both longitudinal and lateral grip is lacking. Despite the tires, I did pretty well in the car – landing 19th in index (best legit finish for the Evo) running in STU, and felt okay about my driving. I definitely feel more on the limit of the car in the Mini, but I’m getting there with the Evo. Dan, my Mini instructor from last year, has been hopping into a local ’04 STi also in STU, rode along with me for my last two runs, and despite not being my fastest heaped a lot of praise on my driving improvements from days past. Also managed to get him by 0.048s, with a fast time of 47.486. I was asked 5 times from different people to ride along in the car, and had to turn them down so I could get a good clean run in. Sadly, after my 4th run, the 5th and 6th felt really great until there was a downed cone on both runs in the middle of them. I did get reruns, but weren’t as good. Notably, the car got too hot for the AC at one point, and suddenly it sprayed out of itself (presumably at the spot I tightened in, perhaps not tightly enough) so I will need to retighten and get the system recharged soon.

Course was good, both challenging and fun and I think one of the better courses we’ve had at this site running in the normal configuration. The beginning was great for the Evo – pretty much a straight that I could fully launch and get to the top of 2nd (~65mph) with, before clamping down for the series of U’s upcoming. I thought this section would be a little too pinch-y for the Evo, but it handled it just fine as long as I slowed down enough and was patient on the throttle. The rest of the middle was technical before opening up to the big, fast sweeper on the back side, leading into a 3 cone slalom, offsets, and finally down and out of a Chicago box through the finish. Great course, and I would have loved trying it in the Mini.

I also decided to try a cheap action camera instead of using my point and shoot for better sound quality and less risk from using a real camera. GoPro is overpriced and not worth the money for me, so I decided to try a “GeekPro.” Function-wise, the camera was fine, taking video, etc. without skipping a beat. However, Once I actually looked at the video on my computer, I found the video quality to be absolutely terrible – I could hardly believe it was 1080p, and the orange hue was really offputting. Also, it was barely any better with regard to wind noise! Later, I found this was perhaps a knock off of a knock off, so I will be trying out something else next! Videos and results below.

Friend’s GTI: