First SCCA Race

My first SCCA race, all by myself, yeah! So, Jared and the car people I know over here, went yesterday to the test and tune so no one came today for the actual points race. Jared just dropped me off, helped me switch tires, and I was on my own.

Being pretty much the only girl, the only one in my class, in a very girly looking car(yes, it has coy fish on it), and without any one that I knew, it was quite awkward.

So the class I want to run my car in is C Stock Lady's. But, there aren't any "lady's" in C Stock, except me. SO, this makes it an easy win, but no competition. My thought was that there would be at least me one other girl and we could have like an arch nemesis thing going on. But, looks like, as of now, no one else is in my class. So, I'm wondering if I should stay in my class and just drive to represent the girls (for shits and giggles) and compare my times to the C Stock, or just run in C Stock?

I was the second group to run so I worked the course first. It was so cold and windy, my eyes were watering, nose running(having trouble catching it), and not able to feel my fingers.

I had walked and studied the course a couple times before the first group ran and had planned out in my head how I thought it was all going to go down. But, while working the course, I noticed very few people were doing what I had thought was the fasted way to go through the course. Once I actually drove it, I found out why. While walking a course I figured that I had plenty of time to maneuver the car. But, silly things like what I can only assume is physics, act on the car preventing this from happening. I also realized that I may plan out how to go through the course but while driving there is really no time to think and I am forced to act on my instincts and just see and react. Hopefully I will be able to get better at this.

Shifting, another very difficult thing to time. I am used to small courses that you just need to shift into 2nd and leave it there. But, these courses are so open and fast, I had to shift into 3rd. I of course didn't realize that I probably should shift until my car started to beep at me through the whole course. My car beeps when it hits the red line(9,000 rpm). But the problem is that this isn't the rev limiter and I still have power, so I am unaware of it until my car starts beeping. But, once I shifted into 3rd I knocked like 4 seconds off my time. Then I thought, should I downshift? I didn't have enough runs to determine if this is effective or not, but my thought is that the time it takes to downshift is not enough gained by downshifting?? We will see.

I don't know how my time compares to that of the C Stock but I'll post when I find out. I'll also try to post pics once I find my camera/computer connector thingy.

Test and Tune

Yesterday was the "Test and Tune" event of the season. This it an event to set up your car for the season, not for points. I would not really know what to do at these events so, Jared was to take my RX-8 to tune it for me while I raced it the following day :).

The deal we currently have, involving my car, is that he can use it for SCCA autoX if he pays for wheels and tires. I thought it was a good deal, right?
So far this has worked, he got some light weight wheels and hoosier tires. He also has gotten a new alignment with a little bit of camber and caster. All I have really done is put in a K&N air filter for it. I guess that is all we have really done thus far.

Yesterday was a terrible day to try to tune my car. Although I did not sign up for the event, I went and co-piloted to get an idea of what one does to tune a car. Well, it started off raining. No, SCCA doesn't cancel for anything. So, we could not put the slicks on and could not get a very good feel of how it was handling for the first 1/2. But then a miracle happened and it was dry for about 2 hours. We put on the slicks and knocked 2 seconds off the current time. I had no idea tires made that much of a difference. Silly me.

Other things I learned are that I need to remember are to keep the traction control off and keep checking tire pressure. The tires get really hot causing the pressure to increase and we really don't want to blow up any tires :). Speaking of tires, DO NOT drive slicks anywhere other than the track. Jared thought it was a good idea to drive them 5 min home on the highway 'cause it was raining and got a screw stuck in one......:) No worries though, it is patched now.

A Start....

Since this is my very first blog EVER, I think I might start out with a little bit of background and what you might be able to expect from me so you will know if you want to just turn around and run away. Or maybe just close the tab?
Anywho....

I have a wide variety of things that I do...or try to do. I am a nerdy biologist, I paint, attempt to sew, play the flute, have a cosmetology license, and oh yeah, enjoy cars :).

I'll try to keep my car history short mostly because I am sure I'll bring most of the stories up at some other point.

Growing up cars where nothing other than transportation. My father is a computer nerd and my brothers are musicians so I had no relatives that were into cars. And I, like many other clueless people, liked a car because it was a specific color. The only memory involving cars as a kid that I have involve what I might think is an old volvo, that had reverse back seats. My older brother and I would sit in them and when it would lightly snow at night it would look like we were going through space really fast. Yeah, we played Star Wars....

My first car was a Hachi Roku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_AE86) but automatic, American, and an SR-5. But I knew nothing of cars so of course I didn't care about it and it met it's timely end by running it ~40 miles without oil. I then went through many freebies including an oldsmobile cutlass supreme, geo prizm, and a geo metro which I first learned how to drive stick on. Based on these as well as a few severe car accidents, you can see why I might then buy an Avalon and not enjoy cars so much.

This was then my car during college. I did not really get into working on my car(s) until I found out about autocross. My boyfriend, Jared, got a free Integra from our landlord. Good deal right? Well, it only ran on 3 cylinders but somehow Jared managed to win his class in his first autocross at the college. He had at one point managed to convince me to "co-pilot" during a run and well...I was hooked at that point, I had to race!

So, I then was autocrossing random cars that Jared and my friends would have. this included CRX, MR2, RX7, Miata, Festiva and some others I have forgotten. Inevitably, cars break and need fixing. Jared's attitude toward that was if I was going to autocross it, I needed to fix it. So, I have learned how to fix the random things that have broken throughout the years.

I might want to mention my little nicknames for some cars in case I slip and use the names without clearification.

RX-8 = Prescription 8
RX-7 = 7
MR2 = Mr. 2
Miata = Miotter
3000gt = Boogie-a-T
corolla = Hachi Roku

There may be others but I cannot remember them at the moment.

So, the point of this blog is that I although I have autocrossed during college and at a couple of BMW meets(NOT driving a BMW)I have never competed in SCCA for several reasons a couple including that is it expensive and that I didn't have my own car to race. BUT, now I have a job, an RX-8, and motivation! The season starts this weekend so let the blogging begin!!