WCMA Regional June 19, 2010
#1
06-21-2010, 10:56 PM
WCMA Regional June 19, 2010
On the Tuesday before this event I hit a curb and put an 8 inch crack in the driver’s side wheel and cut the tyre. The week consisted of working and lining up an emergency alignment plus sourcing a +45 et wheel (why do a +55 stock offset Honda?) and getting them mounted. I could have ended up on my OEM 14” wheels. It all came together with the alignment getting done Friday afternoon after a long week. Thanks to TireBob and his staff at Urban Expressions for staying late Thursday to mount my tyres, and to Country Hills Toyota for squeezing me in for an alignment on short notice.
I was up until 10pm Friday night cleaning car, packing, making meals, and loading the Fit. Housemate’s were actually pretty reasonable (or I was already tired) and I didn’t get woken up when they got home from the bars. Alarm goes off at 4:15am, shower, shave, burn the oatmeal (sigh), put everything in the cooler, and throw in any last minute items I think I might use/need. On the highway by 5:20am sun is coming up – really red this morning in the haze. No shudder’s or vibrations at excessive test freeway speed when no one’s around – good. Very few bugs on the windshield – surprising.
By 8am, I’m into Edmonton City limits and stop to add 5 litres of premium and adjust tyre air pressures down to 37psi front and 39 back. I'm going to try a little less to make the car a little less neutral given Tuesday, so I'll stay aggressive. By 9am, I’ve gotten into a line of two cars and a SUV + trailer winding through CFB Namao north of Edmonton. After flashing ID and signing in we’re through the gates and down one of the runways to the pit area. There are about 50-60 cars there as registration started at 8:30am. Most are still unpacking cars, adjusting suspension settings, or putting on r-comps, so I get registered before a long line up forms.
This place is huge compared to what I’m used to. The pit area runway of which we’re only allowed to use half is about 75-100m wide. The course is O-shaped using a taxiway and a runway before looping back towards the start/finish, grids and pit area. It is pretty windy, but the temperature promises to be hot if the wind dies down. Back to the Fit, unpack everything, and get everything ready to go. Windex the bugs off the windshield. Visit briefly with some of the others from Calgary (there’s 13 of us up here). Slather on some sunscreen. Re-check the wheel lug torques.
Grab some paper and a book since registration couldn’t find the course maps. There’s a hard left out of the start box and then a series of two cone slaloms, 22 paces, 31 paces, 33 paces, 37 paces, and then about 75m to the next element. So you want to late apex that first tight turn (patience) and then get on the throttle but not too much or the car pushes away from the cones. That next element group is a series of three -two walls of cones angled towards each other in a V-shape. The first has the inside cones lined up, and the last two overlap the inside cones (tighter). It drove like a syncopated slalom, but was really hard for someone newer to this sport like myself because of all the open space before the V providing choice in lines. Much like a decreasing radius you got pulled in too tight I think and didn’t get wide enough.
Then next was a tight gate after the last V-shape that was hard to stay inside of when you were hitting the V-shapes correctly, and 100m of straight to the corner. This corner was delicate. You’re carrying all this speed and have to get really wide and late apex to line up for the next cone. There were no cones before the corner, so lots of choice in lines again. Essentially this corner was a sideways gate perpendicular to your original direction of travel about 15m wide that was double coned (stiffer penalty if you hit cones). Then if you set up the corner right you were rewarded by immediately going into a six cone slalom at 26, 26, 27, 26, 24, and ending with 24 paces to a cone wall at 60 degrees to the slalom.
You were pushing way out close to the wall, but it was OK since the next element was a cone at 90 degrees to the wall and you needed to be wide to line up for the gates afterward. Lot’s of room to pick up speed and then some real man’s corners that were taken really fast by the hot shoes. A really shallow V with a cone for the inside corner in the crotch. Lined up you were right to the grass beside the runway; the hot shoes took it tighter and slithered (or slid sometimes).
Then back to the other side with two cones allowing you to round the curve (carry speed and stay tight). This was followed by another wall at about 60 degrees that pushed you back to the first side. Next a three cone staircase evenly spaced with a wall perpendicular to the runway at the same spacing off the end pushing you back to the first side. You couldn’t be too greedy in the staircase where you only had to wiggle. Another real man’s corner with a shallow V with the last leg twice as long and then 100m to an optional 4 cone slalom at 45 degrees to the runway starting on that second side. The outside set you up better for the finish, so it was harder for you to get around that first cone and hit the back because you didn’t have as much room to line it up. After ignoring the last cone in the slalom, there was a 50m drag race to the timing.
Everything was so much more spaced out than I was used to. You had to look way off in the distance to the answer the question next. Lots of line options which really benefited the experienced autocrossers. With the higher sustained speeds the car pushed or got loose much quicker than I was used to. It sounded like I was up around 5500/6000 rpm in 2nd , never got into 3rd. In similar lower horsepower cars, Neon, ’91 Civic SI they were maxing out at 77km/h and averaging 60+ running through the data logs afterward in the pub. Also interesting to see the smooth curves for lateral g’s allowing much higher g’s. I know mine were likely dipping with push, then rising with me correcting.
Course looked a little like this from the driver’s seat with cones way off in the distance keeping in mind this car makes the cones seem a little closer together LOL. Jeff Kiesel at Wendover Pro Solo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyemPbdVDPc
Had half my lunch at 10:30, watched some of the first run group and then got into grid. I was a little bit nervous. In one of my course walks with more experienced driver’s they were expecting to get into 3rd. The beta was that the course drove a little slower than it walked and given my experience level I probably wouldn’t need to shift. I wanted a smooth clean run to start, but was way too tentative. There was a timing error on my second run which felt faster, but I didn’t take advantage of the re-run I think.
Finished a little frustrated with myself and rushed over to marshal since with the re-runs the two of us that got another look were behind everyone else. There were three runs groups and we ran continuously. The breaks between run groups were significant though and at least 30 seconds elapsed between cars. I ended up alone by myself with only my thoughts for company and without a radio on the back stretch by the staircase. This was at the approximate half point and hence perhaps a little more grudgingly manned?
For marshalling anything past the midpoint of the runways, you drove a car so the event could stay on schedule. Asphalt was older and pretty granular with sealed cracks (nature’s construction joints) every 75m or so. The course missed where painted lines had been ground out of the asphalt at the runway ends. OK surface- about the same as Westerner or Deerfoot Mall will be. Not as much grip as Grey Eagle. Glancing at the time sheets afterward I was gratified to see myself higher in the standings than I thought I would be after the morning.
Afternoon was warmer and it was the first time I’ve seen people (those co-driving) spraying their tires to cool them down. My RE-11’s were getting pretty hot to touch. It was different though in that for roll-over I needed to run 34 front and 37 back. It’s about 3 psi less than what I’ve been doing in some of the test and tunes. Perhaps I was driving too smooth and not aggressively enough. I didn’t hit one cone the entire weekend.
Third official run felt better and I was pleased to get under 80 seconds. The last I screwed up the first V, sharp right into the slalom, coming out of the slalom because I was late, and the perpendicular wall (not planning ahead enough/too greedy). I also pushed a little getting to the backside of the first cone in the optional slalom.
The winners had raw times just under 10 seconds faster due to my slow driving. Overall I didn’t nail the front V’s , and my balls dropped enough to eke out a 2 second improvement in the afternoon runs (2+2). A rough calculation implies the course was about 1.4km long.
45 of 69 overall raw,
34 of 69 in overall pax,
10th of 14 in street touring classes.
I was exhausted and yawning by 7pm at the pub.
Photos by Reijo http://june192010asawcmaregional.shutterfly.com/ (Thanks)
Video of Honda CRX on course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REx0zuhXUig
I was up until 10pm Friday night cleaning car, packing, making meals, and loading the Fit. Housemate’s were actually pretty reasonable (or I was already tired) and I didn’t get woken up when they got home from the bars. Alarm goes off at 4:15am, shower, shave, burn the oatmeal (sigh), put everything in the cooler, and throw in any last minute items I think I might use/need. On the highway by 5:20am sun is coming up – really red this morning in the haze. No shudder’s or vibrations at excessive test freeway speed when no one’s around – good. Very few bugs on the windshield – surprising.
By 8am, I’m into Edmonton City limits and stop to add 5 litres of premium and adjust tyre air pressures down to 37psi front and 39 back. I'm going to try a little less to make the car a little less neutral given Tuesday, so I'll stay aggressive. By 9am, I’ve gotten into a line of two cars and a SUV + trailer winding through CFB Namao north of Edmonton. After flashing ID and signing in we’re through the gates and down one of the runways to the pit area. There are about 50-60 cars there as registration started at 8:30am. Most are still unpacking cars, adjusting suspension settings, or putting on r-comps, so I get registered before a long line up forms.
This place is huge compared to what I’m used to. The pit area runway of which we’re only allowed to use half is about 75-100m wide. The course is O-shaped using a taxiway and a runway before looping back towards the start/finish, grids and pit area. It is pretty windy, but the temperature promises to be hot if the wind dies down. Back to the Fit, unpack everything, and get everything ready to go. Windex the bugs off the windshield. Visit briefly with some of the others from Calgary (there’s 13 of us up here). Slather on some sunscreen. Re-check the wheel lug torques.
Grab some paper and a book since registration couldn’t find the course maps. There’s a hard left out of the start box and then a series of two cone slaloms, 22 paces, 31 paces, 33 paces, 37 paces, and then about 75m to the next element. So you want to late apex that first tight turn (patience) and then get on the throttle but not too much or the car pushes away from the cones. That next element group is a series of three -two walls of cones angled towards each other in a V-shape. The first has the inside cones lined up, and the last two overlap the inside cones (tighter). It drove like a syncopated slalom, but was really hard for someone newer to this sport like myself because of all the open space before the V providing choice in lines. Much like a decreasing radius you got pulled in too tight I think and didn’t get wide enough.
Then next was a tight gate after the last V-shape that was hard to stay inside of when you were hitting the V-shapes correctly, and 100m of straight to the corner. This corner was delicate. You’re carrying all this speed and have to get really wide and late apex to line up for the next cone. There were no cones before the corner, so lots of choice in lines again. Essentially this corner was a sideways gate perpendicular to your original direction of travel about 15m wide that was double coned (stiffer penalty if you hit cones). Then if you set up the corner right you were rewarded by immediately going into a six cone slalom at 26, 26, 27, 26, 24, and ending with 24 paces to a cone wall at 60 degrees to the slalom.
You were pushing way out close to the wall, but it was OK since the next element was a cone at 90 degrees to the wall and you needed to be wide to line up for the gates afterward. Lot’s of room to pick up speed and then some real man’s corners that were taken really fast by the hot shoes. A really shallow V with a cone for the inside corner in the crotch. Lined up you were right to the grass beside the runway; the hot shoes took it tighter and slithered (or slid sometimes).
Then back to the other side with two cones allowing you to round the curve (carry speed and stay tight). This was followed by another wall at about 60 degrees that pushed you back to the first side. Next a three cone staircase evenly spaced with a wall perpendicular to the runway at the same spacing off the end pushing you back to the first side. You couldn’t be too greedy in the staircase where you only had to wiggle. Another real man’s corner with a shallow V with the last leg twice as long and then 100m to an optional 4 cone slalom at 45 degrees to the runway starting on that second side. The outside set you up better for the finish, so it was harder for you to get around that first cone and hit the back because you didn’t have as much room to line it up. After ignoring the last cone in the slalom, there was a 50m drag race to the timing.
Everything was so much more spaced out than I was used to. You had to look way off in the distance to the answer the question next. Lots of line options which really benefited the experienced autocrossers. With the higher sustained speeds the car pushed or got loose much quicker than I was used to. It sounded like I was up around 5500/6000 rpm in 2nd , never got into 3rd. In similar lower horsepower cars, Neon, ’91 Civic SI they were maxing out at 77km/h and averaging 60+ running through the data logs afterward in the pub. Also interesting to see the smooth curves for lateral g’s allowing much higher g’s. I know mine were likely dipping with push, then rising with me correcting.
Course looked a little like this from the driver’s seat with cones way off in the distance keeping in mind this car makes the cones seem a little closer together LOL. Jeff Kiesel at Wendover Pro Solo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyemPbdVDPc
Had half my lunch at 10:30, watched some of the first run group and then got into grid. I was a little bit nervous. In one of my course walks with more experienced driver’s they were expecting to get into 3rd. The beta was that the course drove a little slower than it walked and given my experience level I probably wouldn’t need to shift. I wanted a smooth clean run to start, but was way too tentative. There was a timing error on my second run which felt faster, but I didn’t take advantage of the re-run I think.
Finished a little frustrated with myself and rushed over to marshal since with the re-runs the two of us that got another look were behind everyone else. There were three runs groups and we ran continuously. The breaks between run groups were significant though and at least 30 seconds elapsed between cars. I ended up alone by myself with only my thoughts for company and without a radio on the back stretch by the staircase. This was at the approximate half point and hence perhaps a little more grudgingly manned?
For marshalling anything past the midpoint of the runways, you drove a car so the event could stay on schedule. Asphalt was older and pretty granular with sealed cracks (nature’s construction joints) every 75m or so. The course missed where painted lines had been ground out of the asphalt at the runway ends. OK surface- about the same as Westerner or Deerfoot Mall will be. Not as much grip as Grey Eagle. Glancing at the time sheets afterward I was gratified to see myself higher in the standings than I thought I would be after the morning.
Afternoon was warmer and it was the first time I’ve seen people (those co-driving) spraying their tires to cool them down. My RE-11’s were getting pretty hot to touch. It was different though in that for roll-over I needed to run 34 front and 37 back. It’s about 3 psi less than what I’ve been doing in some of the test and tunes. Perhaps I was driving too smooth and not aggressively enough. I didn’t hit one cone the entire weekend.
Third official run felt better and I was pleased to get under 80 seconds. The last I screwed up the first V, sharp right into the slalom, coming out of the slalom because I was late, and the perpendicular wall (not planning ahead enough/too greedy). I also pushed a little getting to the backside of the first cone in the optional slalom.
The winners had raw times just under 10 seconds faster due to my slow driving. Overall I didn’t nail the front V’s , and my balls dropped enough to eke out a 2 second improvement in the afternoon runs (2+2). A rough calculation implies the course was about 1.4km long.
45 of 69 overall raw,
34 of 69 in overall pax,
10th of 14 in street touring classes.
I was exhausted and yawning by 7pm at the pub.
Photos by Reijo http://june192010asawcmaregional.shutterfly.com/ (Thanks)
Video of Honda CRX on course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REx0zuhXUig
Last edited by CPat; 11-12-2010 at 11:50 PM. Reason: photos and whitespace
#2
06-22-2010, 12:13 AM
Nice report man!
Youtube video is crazy!!!!!
Youtube video is crazy!!!!!
Last edited by Sugarphreak; 06-22-2010 at 12:17 AM.
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