What I learned at autocross today: Regional #1

[AlienDNA]

1) God is mad at HADA.

2) Button fly jeans are a royal PITA when your fingers are frozen or gloved.

3) Audis are great cars – just not great autocross cars. Ford Festivas aren’t even good shopping carts.

4) Getting your first regional class win can make all the cold and rain worthwhile.

5) Marshalling is actually one of the best, social parts of autocross.

6) You can win your class and still not be happy with your performance.

7) Everyone loves Big League Chew.

8) American Falken Azenis are much stickier than Canadian Azenis.

9) I still suck in the rain, but sometimes one sorta-dry run is all you need.

10) There’s some pretty hot mature women shopping at the Todmorden Sobeys on Sunday evenings (Okay, so technically I didn’t learn this at autocross, but if it wasn’t for autocross I would've been shopping at Loblaws much earlier in the day.)

[Suzie]

Originally posted by AlienDNA
2) Button fly jeans are a royal PITA when your fingers are frozen or gloved.


Dude - try overalls and girly parts. I'm dehydrated now from avoiding fluids as much as possible earlier! It's a good thing my feet don't absorb water - my toes were so wet I would have had to become waaaayyyy too friendly with the porta-potties!

Suzie

[Marsh]

LOL... Funniest "what I learned" yet!

[soloZ]

Originally posted by AlienDNA
\
10) There’s some pretty hot mature women shopping at the Todmorden Sobeys on Sunday evenings (Okay, so technically I didn’t learn this at autocross, but if it wasn’t for autocross I would've been shopping at Loblaws much earlier in the day.)

The one on Broadview?

[Greg F]

11) There are some pretty, hot and wet women of all ages jogging along the waterfront at Ontario Place on a rainy Spring day.

[gatherer]

Originally posted by AlienDNA
1) God is mad at HADA.



We are still trying to figure out as to why...:p

[JoeT]

Originally posted by AlienDNA

8) American Falken Azenis are much stickier than Canadian Azenis.


Not!

American Azenis were beaten by Canadian Kumho MX and Canadian Azenis. :D

[AlienDNA]

Originally posted by soloZ
The one on Broadview?

Yeah. It looked like a Sheryl Crow concert there last night...
:cool:

[JoeT]

Originally posted by AlienDNA
Yeah. It looked like a Sheryl Crow concert there last night...
:cool:

Gives a whole new meaning to "Eating Crow", makes it pleasant, even. :p

[tony mcgrath]

Originally posted by JoeT
Not!

American Azenis were beaten by Canadian Kumho MX and Canadian Azenis. :D

Yeah , but didnt the Americans go home after 4 runs? I'm sure they would have been at, or very near, the front had they stayed for the 5th run...

Tony

Who else besides Don was running "Canadian" Azenis / Azenii ?

[miataboi]

Originally posted by JoeT
Not!

American Azenis were beaten by Canadian Kumho MX and Canadian Azenis. :D

dat dan dood does dumb stuff on dose street tires!
:eek:

[tony mcgrath]

Originally posted by AlienDNA
1) God is mad at HADA.


Tanney must have smoked His a$$ in the rain at some event in a previous life.

Now we all have to pay....unless,.... what about a sacrifice?

Who's up for a good old fashioned, disembowling type, sacrfice at the drivers meeting next event? :)

Sorry Wes, looks like its your time ...or....... maybe He'll just take the tires and call it even.

Thats it then..we slice up the Hankook's at the next drivers meeting and get great weather for the rest of the season.

All in favour???

;)

Tony

[Yvan]

12) Worn Victoracers and good snow tires perform equally well/poorly in rain.

13) Cars work even better with gas. (Thanks Ryan!)

14) Sometimes it's worth paying the $5.00 pre-registration penalty to not get wet.

[tanney]

Sorry Wes, looks like its your time ...or....... maybe He'll just take the tires and call it even.

I am DEFINIETLY in the market for a set of those Hankooks, they were AWESOME!

I think the Type R had a lot to do with it as well, those cars are even more awesome than the tires (thanks Brian!!!!!!!!). I just hope that Brian isn't to upset that I won the class in his car. He did come in second though....

[Suzie]

Originally posted by Yvan
12) Worn Victoracers and good snow tires perform equally well/poorly in rain.

13) Cars work even better with gas. (Thanks Ryan!)


I agree with #s 12 and 13 here - tho I prefered the snow tires to the Victoracers!

I would also add:

15) If you pack warm clothes, remember to actually bring them with you

16) The batteries of "support vehicles" work much better when you have a fully functioning alternator

17) Portapotties are not waterproof

18) On wet days, make sure you defog your SIDE windows as well as your windshield BEFORE you start a run or you'll have no friggin' idea where you're going during your run

19) Remember to take your magnetic numbers off the car before you see them fly off while merging onto the 427

Suzie

[JoeT]

Originally posted by tony mcgrath
Yeah , but didnt the Americans go home after 4 runs? I'm sure they would have been at, or very near, the front had they stayed for the 5th run...

Tony

Who else besides Don was running "Canadian" Azenis / Azenii ?

Daniel F: Kumho MX (WRX)
Luca P: Falken Azenis (2.5RS)

Muahahahah!!!

[JAYh]

20) Magnetic vinyl is the coolest thing ever (http://members.rogers.com/227spammus/stickerz.jpg)

I was also on Azenis... Good enough for 2nd place in FSS (behind Murray who was on snow tyres).

- J

[Doug Phillips]

Well I learned:

21) I am to old for this in wet weather! I could not move this morning.

22) Adult diapers do their job. No need to work the buttons or peel off the coverall. Great for marshalling also.

[Suzie]

Originally posted by Doug Phillips
22) Adult diapers do their job. No need to work the buttons or peel off the coverall. Great for marshalling also.

I think that qualifies as TMI :eek:

Suzie

[AlienDNA]

Originally posted by Doug Phillips
Well I learned:

22) Adult diapers do their job. No need to work the buttons or peel off the coverall. Great for marshalling also.

Helps warm you up periodically, too!

[max attack]

Ok so here's what I learned yesterday;

-stiff suspension,welded diff,5 year old bald tires and rwd are
REALLY hard to control on cold wet rough lots!:o
-doing ALL the steering with the rear wheels is a little erratic
-drifting on purpose isn't as easy as it looks(especially when doing it at corner entry)

Had a ball,lost my first event to my wife as well!!!thats ok as I couldn't have cared less about run times-more interested in stringing as many corners as possible together without looping it!

BTW all those guys trying to go fast were killing cones by the trunk load-I don't think I had one all day despite what must've looked like an intentional cone crushing attitude.

[max attack]

Oh and I forgot to mention that driving like this in a car with no heater/defroster using hands and feet frozen stiff from marshalling all day SUCKED!!.

[Marsh]

Originally posted by max attack
BTW all those guys trying to go fast were killing cones by the trunk load-I don't think I had one all day despite what must've looked like an intentional cone crushing attitude.

Well look at it this way. I may have been 6" offline, but at least I stayed on the correct side of all the cones, Mr. 3 consecutive off courses.

[soloZ]

Originally posted by AlienDNA
Yeah. It looked like a Sheryl Crow concert there last night...
:cool:


Gee thanks for calling me :P

[max attack]

Yeah but I still missed them all!!!.Feels different being last in class and about the 6th worst at the event.
I hope most people realized that I had no intention of being fast,no judges in site-too bad we had timers though.

[Yvan]

Oh, for the record, I had no intention of going fast either.



:p

[AlienDNA]

Originally posted by soloZ
Gee thanks for calling me :P

Sorry, man, had the wife with me - couldn't put out a cougar call. :D

[MastaDeeMon]

Dammit, I was trying to go fast, but I kept looking like I was competing for top drifter against TomS. I learned that running bald tires on the back on a very stiff CRX in the wet sucks ass. I also learned that not knowing regional classing can get you straight into C-mod:eek: I've also learned that although drifting looks fun, I prefer autoX and I NEED some new tires. These 5year old Hankooks, just don't cut it in the wet.
Good job by everybody yesterday, one event in the wet is bad, but 2 in a row, I too believe God is mad at HADA.

D.

[Chris P]

what i learned:

-Mustangs are fun
-Mustangs are even more fun in the wet
-Mustangs are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's
-Mustands are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's when i'm behind the wheel
-Mustands are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's when i'm behind the wheel however are also slow :cool:


PS, think i won the drift compitition


Krispy....who believes to win the drift compitition you must stay on course and not hit any cones plus remain slideways most of the time. Spins with complimentary donuts are bonus points :D

[miataboi]

watching the sideways 'stang... I learned that going sideways and hitting a puddle WILL knock off your magnets... and then again when the car snaps back the other way and hits yet another puddle!

Takes talent!
:D :p

[StewPiddass]

I learned not to listen to the guys who told me not to put on my new (but very used) RA1's... went much faster with them. I thought my 56.3 my have been a misprint but I guess I did get one second faster with every run.

I'm also kinda (but not really) regretting bumping myself to FSP even though my car is only technically a FSS car, at least I would have won FSS, not much chance of that this season with JoeT in FSP...

Great event (weather notwithstanding) great course, keep it up HADA.

[soloZ]

^^ I told you ^^ RA1's are awesome in the wet I wish I still had a set.

[gatherer]

I enjoyed running on the RA-1's I got off Rowan... they were still grippy. but rumour has it Wes was having a ball with the type-r with Hankooks something to look at based on his discription

[soloZ]

It deffinitly wasn't a rumor

[Greg F]

Were those Hankooks scrubbed in before the event?

[max attack]

Originally posted by Chris P
what i learned:

-Mustangs are fun
-Mustangs are even more fun in the wet
-Mustangs are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's
-Mustands are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's when i'm behind the wheel
-Mustands are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's when i'm behind the wheel however are also slow :cool:


PS, think i won the drift compitition


Krispy....who believes to win the drift compitition you must stay on course and not hit any cones plus remain slideways most of the time. Spins with complimentary donuts are bonus points :D

I don't about that krispy,I kept spinning in the same spot-you know the long sweeper with no room for error,not the far end where it was easy to spin and stay on course.I think I was the only one trying hard to drift the 2 corners leading to and including the sweeper.I was getting 0 rotation off the throttle(hell it wouldn't even turn unless slowed to a crawl!)so stabbing the gas prior to turn in was making control more than a little iffy:D
Right out of the start box untill the little strait chute was fun(but damn rough)didn't see anyone consistantly doing what I was there on every run.
Like I said-no judges to be seen!!.I did like your spins though;)

[Peter Lejbjuk]

I think Brian said he drove in on those Hankooks, and that was about it.

I tried my RA-1's for my 3rd run. As soon as I launched I knew they were slower (it takes some pretty crappy traction to get a WRX to spin the wheels all through 1st gear). That said, they were absolutely treadless, probably only have 2 or 3 more races left on them. For the record it was 'drier' when I switch them...

Great event though, loved the course. The bumps made it kinda tough to put down power, I can only imagine how you 2WD guys must have been fighting to get some exit speed.

-Pete

[soloZ]

I just noticed something there are a whole bunch of Ryan's and brian's in the regional series, I don't feel like the red head step child anymore hehe

[Daniel]

So, I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the lot, but that course layout was definitely a whole lot of fun - one of my top few favourites so far. Great job Dave!

As for the weather? I love driving in it, but there's no doubt that standing around in it sucks!!! Bring on the warm, dry weather!

Wes, you were untouchable on Sunday man. Awesome driving!!
Oh, and Brian, that was very nice of you to let him drive your car - just don't let it happen again!!! ;) :p

Huge thanks to Hada and the Solo Ontario Committee for running a top notch event. :cool:

[Dave]

Glad to hear you guys enjoyed the "sea of cones" course design :) Shane, Krispy and Godwin all helped fine-tune it (thanks guys!) while we were setting it up and I think once you're out on the course it was pretty simple to follow. I had an even faster and more flowing course planned for the dry, but Mother Nature refused to play along :mad:

Now if we can just get Ontario Place to repave that lot and we'll be all set!

[Nissan Racer]

Originally posted by Chris P
what i learned:

-Mustangs are fun
-Mustangs are even more fun in the wet
-Mustangs are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's
-Mustands are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's when i'm behind the wheel
-Mustands are even more fun in the wet with very bald kumho's when i'm behind the wheel however are also slow :cool:


PS, think i won the drift compitition


Krispy....who believes to win the drift compitition you must stay on course and not hit any cones plus remain slideways most of the time. Spins with complimentary donuts are bonus points :D
Maybe you should share Chris Atkins car this year in Solo I :D