,
We charged out of the gate pretty hard, eager to make up some time on our co-driver. He’s our bud, but that’s irrelevant when the stopwatch is running. The first slalom came up a bit quicker than we expected and we got behind as we approached the second offset in the line of cones. That resulting lift off the throttle and a slight drag on the brakes cost us about three tenths relative to Chris.
Our last run was pretty strong in the faster sections, where we got the correct cadence through the offsets. Approaching the following corner, we may have been a little chastened by our mid-slalom bobble, as we dropped a bit too much speed for the next tight left. We lost another .3 there as we slowed down too much. We powered through the final high-speed offsets of the course. We made up a touch of time here, but then lost another .2 in the final grinding turn through the finish lights.
The bottom section of this Race Technology data acquisition screen grab shows the delta time trace—that is, where during the run that Per went slower than Chris. There were some distinct bobbles that made the difference. Chris had the class covered, so his final run was a victory lap. He found another .2 to leave us a total of .8 seconds behind for the day. The MX-5 isn’t thought of as the top car for the class, which is typically considered to be the FRS/BRZ or 370Z, but he’s clearly built a winner out of the inexpensive roadster.
The third run for Chris was a bit of a victory lap, as he knew had the class covered before the starter waved the green flag. The final run wasn’t as fast as we hoped as we struggled to put everything we learned together into one, clean run. That said, we got a lot out of the co-drive. Our base of autocross experience is pretty strong, but learning a car in a matter of seconds takes a fairly stout leap of faith that it will stick to the corners when push comes to shove.
So the next time you are offered a co-drive and share a car with a friend, take it! It can help your driving as you jump beyond your normal comfort levels and try something new. Invariably, you’ll take the knowledge gained back to your own car and you will be faster at the next event.
For up to the minute reports of hardcore Sports Car Club of America autocross action, check out SCCA’s SoloMatters.com, where you’ll find the latest National results and schedules for the various top-level events.
You can see videos of our final runs here:
Per:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
Chris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
Sources
