Points # 9, Myrtle Beach, 5th Dec

[///Mcompact]

Myrtle Beach Freestyle Music Park (the old Hard Rock Park).
5th Dec (Saturday)

Last AX of the season. It's supposed to be a good turn out (probably 175-200 cars) w/ guys from N.C. coming down. Should also be a good sized course.

http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/event/event.advert/uidEvent/B5D7B322-E067-D354-2AF58A55E8C2700E

[clubracergt1]

Thank you for posting this up, Kiley. I have been pretty lax, lately, with this stuff.

[///Mcompact]

I've been pumped for this one since September. There are a couple of Evos in Street-Mod that I have a rivalry with up there.

I beat their best guy by whopping .002 at the last MB event (Jan) and he was a little sore over it. Now the Mega Rice has to go back and use the pimp hand this time around..just to clear any doubt.

[Harry]

NO, Say it ain't so. Not an import doing AX. :joke: Hope your Taurus whips there asses!!!! :poke:

[///Mcompact]

That's why I am bringing the Taurus this time around. It's my "pimp hand"...it demands RESPECT or will TAKE IT!

[L.C.]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... .................................................. .........................

would LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE to go to this one.........


hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm......................................... ..............

[///Mcompact]

Hope that package comes in the mail tomorrow or you ain't doin nuthin!! Need the tranny fluid or no?

[L.C.]

I wish you would put yourself in a better place and get text/picture messaging. It's here!!!!!!!!!

[hjcarnell]

Who wants to put money on how long LC's clutch lasts? I'm thinking at MAX it will last until DEC 2010! or he will blow the diff! LOL

[L.C.]

I'll put money on it! What's your wager?

[hjcarnell]

Hmmmmm a dollar? LOL

[///Mcompact]

Just like Man-made Global Warming, I don't believe in Texting or paying for new phones. My 1997 Nokia phone works just fine, you dickweed!

I give the clutch about 2..maybe 3 years. Hopefully it works out right because that will be the clutch I will be swapping this Exedy out for. I fuggin hate this clutch.

[hjcarnell]

Yeah that clutch might last that long with you driving Kiley but will LC behind the wheel I am a little skeptical.

[///Mcompact]

True...he seems to be in competition mode 24/7. I will still bet that it last 2 years, though.

You at work, Harry?

[Harry]

Was. Not now.

[Bradleyrj]

Cost anything to get in and watch? I might head up there and watch. I gots nothing to race.

[///Mcompact]

Nah, man...totally free.

[cobraetti]

Its raining...........................here @ MB

[clubracergt1]

Well, guys, how'd it go?

[///Mcompact]

Here is my long, long, long race report. A couple of paragraphs are use to set the tone, so if you want a summary that will wrap it all up in one word:

SLICK!

I've done a few Rain events, so I went into this expecting to kill the clock, but it turned out that it wasn't just rain we had to battle with..which I will get to in a second.

It was cold,windy and still raining in the morning (~40's) and there were about 100 cars that showed (a good number didn't show). The course was pretty damn big...not quite Michelin big...but bigger than any other course (about 75% of Michelin's). The tarmac was not only wet (duh) but there was some spots that had some decent standing water (40 degree weather and standing water is a no-go for R-comps...which is why I am glad that I switched to street tires).

Well...I ran in the 2nd run group so I had to work first...which is how I like it since it allows me to watch for the problem areas/fast spots on the course. For some reason, all of the cars looked slow...super slow..especially cars I've run against who are usually blistering fast. I remember saying to Matt Rentz (who was working on the course w/me) "Man..these guys are driving like a bunch of pussies! Why isn't that dude on the gas?"

Before I ran, I looked around at my competition. There was Chris Barker in his Civic. He took my place leading Street-Mod while I was deployed.. He's a real smooth driver, but he's definitely handi-capped a little bit on power and braking to my car in the DRY (3-0 against him since being back)....but he had the advantage this wet day. Really nice guy, though. I don't think his wife likes me, though (she races too).

Next up..I was looking for the 2 evo guys from MB that I had run-ins with at the last event. Turns out...they didn't show. Maybe because of rain..maybe because they were scared...they say it was because of rain, though. Whatever. There were 3 other Evos that showed up and ran SM, though, so this was not a guaranteed win by any means (90% of the time, I can beat every evo owner, but there's always a chance that a national level driver could pop-up as an unkown and clean my clock....but it hasn't happened in SM since I've started).

Chad mathews in the mini was there. Another great dude who owns the BMW/Mini service shop on Cross country. We constantly talk shit to each other just for fun. Anybody who listens to us would swear that we hate each other but just like to bust each other's ballz..trying to shake each other up before the event!

So the class is set. Get my car to grid and do some final tweeks to how I "want" my car to handle for rain (note: "want"). For run, I let it rip out of the gate with a fairly nasty launch...then I hit a brick wall at the first set of cones and come to realize why everyone was so slow. MUD!! I guess with it being at MB, the constant wind deposits a lot of sand/silt, because when mixed with water it basically turned into brown ice. You couldn't see it, but it was everywhere.

Getting back to my first run: So my back end started to come out with a quickness at the first little turn....then upon braking for the 2nd..my front end started to plow. Great.. So each run, I had to drop the rear tire pressures and rear dampening. Finally I settle for 35/30 psi F/R and dampening at about 7 clicks less in the rear. On dry surface..I would have been understeering more than I like, but it was what this car called for in the mud. I also set the center-diff to the "snow" setting, which holds the diff open a little bit on corner exit so as to not cause too much oversteer.

So..I was beating the Evo guys, but Chris Barker was 1.5 seconds ahead (FWD and n/a power was at home in this environment). Believe it or not...AWD is not the king in crappy weather in an AX. It goes FWD>Mid-engined>AWD>RWD. FWD and mid engine do well because they have the weight on top of the engine. AWD is still okay being that it is 50% FWD, but it still has the bad habits of RWD in the wet. RWD guys were seriously disadvantaged on this course.

Anyways..to wrap it up..I stayed behind Chris Barker's time until our last runs. I ran after him...and new that I had to make up another 3-4 tenths over my previous run to beat him. I ended up running like a 36.8 on my last run. Chris ran a 36.9

So, I finished 1st. In my SCR 4 events I've ran since I've been back, I've gotten 1st in all of them.

Other notables are Greg Hunt in his Orange GTO. He took 1st in F-stock. He ran a 37.x...which is very impressive considering he is RWD. That's not easy to do.

Also, Carson Furr (blue 370Z) ran a 37.x and got 3rd in the street tire class that had 2 course killing cars ahead of him. One of them being my buddy Matt Rentz in his well set-up STi. The subarus were killing it on this course. This was a course that really shined for them and showcased how differently they handle than Evos. If I was up north..I would own an STi no doubt.


Okay...so I will end it here.

It was a fun course and a pretty fun day if you exclude having wet socks all day!

[cobraetti]

I can't beleive I finished dead last, am I really that bad of a driver?

anyways had new tires put on today @ Jones could have used them on saturday.

track would have been great if dry.........

[///Mcompact]

That's only last in your class...you still beat a few cars overall.

It's not easy to make a fast time there with a torquey RWD car. You also ran in the first run group, if I'm not mistaking, so you had the worst condition to run considering the mud was not washed out a little bit yet.

Did you at least have fun?

[cobraetti]

I loved every minute........

[StocknSlow]

I was looking for the 2 evo guys from MB that I had run-ins with at the last event. Turns out...they didn't show. Maybe because of rain..maybe because they were scared...they say it was because of rain, though. Whatever. There were 3 other Evos that showed up and ran SM, though, so this was not a guaranteed win by any means (90% of the time, I can beat every evo owner, but there's always a chance that a national level driver could pop-up as an unkown and clean my clock....but it hasn't happened in SM since I've started).
The stock-body GG Evo actually lives in Raleigh, and yeah, he said he didn't want to come down because of the rain (I wouldn't have driven 3+ hours in the cold/rain at 5 in the morning either, lol), and the other Evo probably didn't come out because he didn't want his $30k+ worth of carbon fiber to get dirty, lol.

So did you have the silver wingless VIII? If so, I had you convince my friend with the white IX to take off the wing, lol. I don't think I really saw your runs, but looks like you were pretty quick...

It was the guy with the GG IX's first time auto-Xing, and the guy with the WW IX hasn't done it probably a year, but they both got down to about a min flat during the official runs.

Funny story: During the fun runs both the Evos were dropping into the 58-59 sec range, then the WW driver got in the GG car, and ran a 56.5... ouch. lol

[///Mcompact]

I guess I'm just crazy then, because I will drive anywhere within 300 miles to autox...rain, snow, shine, aids, swine flu..whateves! Especially if it rains because I don't have to bring/swap out R-comps.

Yeah..I remember someone asked me to convince his friend to go wingless.

I didn't get to see any of you guys run except the Silver Evo from N.C. (lined up in front of me) He was launching it pretty good.

I was not having any of those fun runs after the event! Even though it stopped raining and it looked like the course was drying up for some fast runs...my feet were too numb from 6 hours of wet, cold socks.

[zowwiewowwie]

The event was great, but you mentioned carson furr taking the tire class, he is in the black B-stock 370. The blue one is a guy named Rich who is a charleston local and he is in BSP.

I did well this year, but don't think I will trophy b/c I only ran 4 events in the FS class. Oh well. Thanks to everyone who came out to race and support. Hopefully I can make a few SCR events next year while I am in VA