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I hate that name, btw, but everyone seems to be calling my car that now...
With the DS-->ESP transformation coming along well, my WRX made its ProSolo debut as an ESP car this past weekend at the DC ProSolo. With only three events of testing behind it, and slightly different suspension setups each time, I wasn't amused to be starting as the very first car off Saturday morning, twenty minutes after the rain had started. Oh, and my Hoosier radial rains were sitting in the garage, thirty minutes north of the event site. Oops.
The latest suspension change was disconnecting the front swaybar, which I should have done from the start, as the spring rates I'd chosen to mate to the AST 5200s were selected with no front bar in mind. In the wet, it was just a handful to keep the car under control, but the 295/30ZR18 Hoosier A6s weren't nearly as slippery as I'd anticipated. I finished the morning session in 2nd in L2, with respectable enough times compared to the open class in their drier conditions.
I wouldn't run again for almost seven hours. Lightning delays followed by timing delays caused by someone running over the right side finish trips would make this Saturday the longest day ever.
The "afternoon" (really, close to early evening) runs felt incredible. The car is really working well, and it's definitely looking as if the lack of diffs will be hurting the car in the long run, even with the 295s. I climbed into the top spot in L2, 1.9 ahead of Denise Kugler's GP-classed CRX.
Sunday morning, the clouds formed overhead as we prepared for our last set of runs. I started off with a modest 0.1 improvement on the left, and staged too deep on the right, notching a 0.464 redlight on a blistering 29.9s run that would have been about a second improvement. As I saw the time, I'm thinking, "I can match that, no problem." Then it started raining again. It seems the difference between dry and wet conditions for me was about three seconds.
While Denise made up some of the time, she remained in second, and was far enough back that when all was said and done, I was the top qualifier for the Ladies Challenge. Since the redlight run didn't factor into my dial-in, I knew I had a good amount of unintentional sand, and it came into play in the very first pairing, against the ST Civic of Meredith Najewicz. I managed to clip a cone coming through the very fast crossover on the right side course (I was near the top of second at this point, over 60mph), and even with the cone, managed to take the win with a solid left side run.
Next up was another ST Civic, this one driven by fellow Blue Ridge Region member Tara Knoll. I again started on the right, and this time was a hair more careful coming back through the crossover (even though it wasn't until I watched the video of the runs later that I realized how close I was to the cone in question every run). I came with about the same advantage (just over three seconds, but the right side course was a known 1.8-2.2 seconds faster than the left), but without the cone, so I was pretty sure I had the round in hand. I ran solid on the left again to take another win, but broke out by .010.
The last round pitted me against L1 winner Carrie Snyder, driving an ES MR2. We'd last battled at the ProSolo Finale in the same cars, but I'd lost that particular round before it even started by breaking out in the first round. This time, she had a legitimate head start on my ESP car, but I had caught up to her by the end of the opening straight. The car was working near perfectly except for the inability to consistently put the power down coming out of the some of the turns, but I just peddled it like an FS Camaro. When I heard I had a 3.8s advantage, I was floored. The icing was then hearing she had a cone on top of that.
Turned out that she'd nearly lost it on the left side crossover, tagged a cone and actually missed the next gate. Only a cone had been called in, however, and that's all I had to work from. She knew, and she felt she should "making timing's job easier," and so when we lined up again for the final match, she took herself out with a 0.2 redlight.
My first challenge win since the 2007 Doublecross ProSolo in Atlanta!
The car is feeling great so far. The suspension setup seems to be pretty close to done, though I'm still torn on the rear sway bar setting.
Final Results
Ladies Challenge Bracket
With the DS-->ESP transformation coming along well, my WRX made its ProSolo debut as an ESP car this past weekend at the DC ProSolo. With only three events of testing behind it, and slightly different suspension setups each time, I wasn't amused to be starting as the very first car off Saturday morning, twenty minutes after the rain had started. Oh, and my Hoosier radial rains were sitting in the garage, thirty minutes north of the event site. Oops.
The latest suspension change was disconnecting the front swaybar, which I should have done from the start, as the spring rates I'd chosen to mate to the AST 5200s were selected with no front bar in mind. In the wet, it was just a handful to keep the car under control, but the 295/30ZR18 Hoosier A6s weren't nearly as slippery as I'd anticipated. I finished the morning session in 2nd in L2, with respectable enough times compared to the open class in their drier conditions.
I wouldn't run again for almost seven hours. Lightning delays followed by timing delays caused by someone running over the right side finish trips would make this Saturday the longest day ever.
The "afternoon" (really, close to early evening) runs felt incredible. The car is really working well, and it's definitely looking as if the lack of diffs will be hurting the car in the long run, even with the 295s. I climbed into the top spot in L2, 1.9 ahead of Denise Kugler's GP-classed CRX.
Sunday morning, the clouds formed overhead as we prepared for our last set of runs. I started off with a modest 0.1 improvement on the left, and staged too deep on the right, notching a 0.464 redlight on a blistering 29.9s run that would have been about a second improvement. As I saw the time, I'm thinking, "I can match that, no problem." Then it started raining again. It seems the difference between dry and wet conditions for me was about three seconds.
While Denise made up some of the time, she remained in second, and was far enough back that when all was said and done, I was the top qualifier for the Ladies Challenge. Since the redlight run didn't factor into my dial-in, I knew I had a good amount of unintentional sand, and it came into play in the very first pairing, against the ST Civic of Meredith Najewicz. I managed to clip a cone coming through the very fast crossover on the right side course (I was near the top of second at this point, over 60mph), and even with the cone, managed to take the win with a solid left side run.
Next up was another ST Civic, this one driven by fellow Blue Ridge Region member Tara Knoll. I again started on the right, and this time was a hair more careful coming back through the crossover (even though it wasn't until I watched the video of the runs later that I realized how close I was to the cone in question every run). I came with about the same advantage (just over three seconds, but the right side course was a known 1.8-2.2 seconds faster than the left), but without the cone, so I was pretty sure I had the round in hand. I ran solid on the left again to take another win, but broke out by .010.
The last round pitted me against L1 winner Carrie Snyder, driving an ES MR2. We'd last battled at the ProSolo Finale in the same cars, but I'd lost that particular round before it even started by breaking out in the first round. This time, she had a legitimate head start on my ESP car, but I had caught up to her by the end of the opening straight. The car was working near perfectly except for the inability to consistently put the power down coming out of the some of the turns, but I just peddled it like an FS Camaro. When I heard I had a 3.8s advantage, I was floored. The icing was then hearing she had a cone on top of that.
Turned out that she'd nearly lost it on the left side crossover, tagged a cone and actually missed the next gate. Only a cone had been called in, however, and that's all I had to work from. She knew, and she felt she should "making timing's job easier," and so when we lined up again for the final match, she took herself out with a 0.2 redlight.
My first challenge win since the 2007 Doublecross ProSolo in Atlanta!
The car is feeling great so far. The suspension setup seems to be pretty close to done, though I'm still torn on the rear sway bar setting.
Final Results
Ladies Challenge Bracket
Please keep us in the loop in any other wins you have this season.
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