BRR Salem Event Results

[gtfour77]

What a great weekend!!! Once again the SWVR members ventured to Blue Ridge Region's territory, this time Salem, Va for a "In Memory of VT Autocross". The WV crew consisted of Brad Spurlock, Miro Valent, Miro's friend Nicole, Naomi Settle and myself. We were a little late getting there (about 10 am) but still had enough time to register, tech and prep the cars. I was up in the first heat of the day in SM along side of EM and SM2. The celica posted a decent time of 70.998 with one cone penalty. Car felt good considering the amount of changes it underwent the last few days (speed density conversion, bigger injectors with bored fuel rail along a new AEM 3.5 bar map sensor and a quick two hour road-tuning session in the neighborhood) A few very tight sections of the course didn't favor the alltrac's untuned lower RPM rande torque but was still able to pull out an SM win on the third run and then improve it even further on the last run with a 69.821, extending the lead in the class by 1.308 seconds.

Next in line was Brad Spurlock in his silver corvette. The course was quite challenging to follow which caused Brad to go a bit slower on his first attempt with a 73.808 seconds. The second run was much faster-paced and with Brad's precise driving he was able to pull out a blistering 68.776 but a missed gate (going on the outside of it and thus extending the turn radius) caused an off course of course... What a bummer! Brad flirted with FTD most of his runs but off courses and cones cost him dearly. On his final run Brad ended us nipping two cones early on but still didn't give up. He ended up with a 68.877 and even with the two cone penalty won the ASP class by a little over 6 tenths of a second. Well done Brad!!!

Next in line was Miro hoping to capture an STS win. His main concern was a well known friend of ours Tara Knoll with her well prepped Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS. Both Miro and Tara hit some cones on their first runs trying to figure out the course. Their second runs were clean with Tara posting a 75.999 and Miro edging her with a clean run of 75.132 seconds...not bad at all! The third runs were a bit more interesting. Miro pushed a bit too hard and went off course trying to beat his last time... This course was very easy to overdrive with many sweepers and a few off-beat tight corners. That's what seemed to have happened to him on this run. Tara ended up pulling out a very fast 74.022 third run. It was Miro's last run and last chance to get back in the lead in STS. He ended up pulling out a very respectable 74.429 second run. I think with a little more patience in some corners an STS win was very possible for the blue celica. Tara's precise and well executed run was enough for her to capture the honors for the day. Great driving!!!
The trip was a blast! Thank you Naomi and Nicole for the support! Hope to see more SWVR members come along next time... Now it's time to prepare for our Parkersburg Airport event...hope to see everyone there!

[SeanB]

Congrats to all...

[gtfour77]

Sean, we missed you!!! You could have kicked some serious rear end in STS2 ;) Next time!

[crobin4]

Congrats to all...

+1. Sorry i couldn't make it.

[Nathan]

I really wish I would have made this one. Sounds like you guys had a blast. Way to go on 1st and 2nd place. Miro, I know you don't like your cars hp, so I did some figuring. The Subaru RS wieghs in at 2965lbs and has 165hp giving it a weight to hp ratio of 18:1. Your Celica weighs 2400lbs and has 110hp, giving it a ratio of 22:1. That gives the Impreza an almost 20% advantage in hp. Your run of 74.429 and Tara's run of 74.022 was only 0.407 apart. The Stock RS can handle a .82 g turn, and the stock Celica can handle a .87 g. The RS can go 61mph through the slalom and the Celica can go 66.7mph. I say you did pretty dang good. You've got a lot you can still do to that Celica and still be STS legal. I wish I could get some specs on how much tires improve "g" ratings. I would also add braking distance in there stock for stock, but I'm getting board of looking stuff up. Bottom line here, CELICAS RULE!!

[gtfour77]

I really wish I would have made this one. Sounds like you guys had a blast. Way to go on 1st and 2nd place. Miro, I know you don't like your cars hp, so I did some figuring. The Subaru RS wieghs in at 2965lbs and has 165hp giving it a weight to hp ratio of 18:1. Your Celica weighs 2400lbs and has 110hp, giving it a ratio of 22:1. That gives the Impreza an almost 20% advantage in hp. Your run of 74.429 and Tara's run of 74.022 was only 0.407 apart. The Stock RS can handle a .82 g turn, and the stock Celica can handle a .87 g. The RS can go 61mph through the slalom and the Celica can go 66.7mph. I say you did pretty dang good. You've got a lot you can still do to that Celica and still be STS legal. I wish I could get some specs on how much tires improve "g" ratings. I would also add braking distance in there stock for stock, but I'm getting board of looking stuff up. Bottom line here, CELICAS RULE!!


I agree Nathan! Considering Miro has stock shocks with some super cheap $80 springs from Ebay he did great. I am trying to get him to buy my koni yellows (so I can upgrade to the koni "race") and get some decent coilover springs....I think after that he could be very competitive even with the limited horsepower....

[SeanB]

Celicas rule only locally... ;)

Once you've been in the game for a while you will realize what cars can do it and what can't.

Back on topic... sorry for the off track excursion.

[gtfour77]

Edit: Nevermind....you said locally...

I don't think any of our "local" cars would be any good at nationals... We buy our own tires around here...:D

[SeanB]

I dunno... the Beaver Civics could do well nationally... actually Nick did fairly well for his first time out there. It'll be interesting to see how much faster Chris with the Civic is now that he finally has his car all rebuilt.

[gtfour77]

Oh yeah, those guys do well...no question! I just thought our SWVR region..;)

[SeanB]

I think the burger broiler Celica after some more tuning, a nice corner weigh and a small diet might be top 10 capable in SM at nationals. :)

[gtfour77]

Hmmm...I don't know Sean, maybe after some serious HP and torque upgrades and some more suspension tuning and weight loss I would not make a fool out of myself at nationals...heh

[Nathan]

I agree Nathan! Considering Miro has stock shocks with some super cheap $80 springs from Ebay he did great. I am trying to get him to buy my koni yellows (so I can upgrade to the koni "race") and get some decent coilover springs....I think after that he could be very competitive even with the limited horsepower....
lol, I have those same super cheap $80 springs from ebay. If Miro doesn't buy the koni's, I might. I have almost a half a liter, 30hp, and rear disk brakes on him, but he has more experiece on the pavement than I do. So I need every little advantage I can get over him.

[gtfour77]

Well Nathan, if he doesn't want them you can have then...;)

[johnnytavo]

how is h-stock in the brr region, i know i am on the lower end of driving skill, but do you remember the cars or anything

[Davis K Powers]

Well done guys.

See you guys soon at the May meeting.

[gtfour77]

how is h-stock in the brr region, i know i am on the lower end of driving skill, but do you remember the cars or anything

H Stock is not a big class at BRR and a red 05 Ford Focus was in 1st place. Good driver. He was over 2 seconds slower than Miro if that tells you anything... He ran nice low profile stickies....(he parked right next to me so I happened to remember...his name is Chad Henry and is a very nice guy) There, a little spy info from BRR...heh
Now whoever is in G-Stock would have plenty of competition....Ray Schumin with a very nice Mini Cooper and really, really impressive driving skills is the man there...he is one of those people every novice or even experienced driver should watch. (His license plate says "Slow In"...no need to say more, it's simply great car to watch run...

[Jason V]

Going to nationals or even running some national level events is not just about winning... its about the exposure to some truly great driving and great people!! Fact is (not to hurt anyones feelings) there are only a few drivers local to us... (Nick Flynn our of steel cities comes to mind) that have any sort of track record of doing well at the national level... all of my national level events have resulted in some truly poor finnishes.. but I had a blast and I am a better driver as a result of the efforts. As for cars, outside of Stock it is very hard to prep a street car within any sort of reasonable budget.. IMHO lower Stock classes HS,GS, and some mod classes C-Mod F-Mod and F125 are the only classes where one can have a vehicle capable of a nationals win for under 15k in total development cost and C mod might not make it... I know I know STS... well one may be able to buy a civic with good national results in the past.. a ground up civic build will cost ya!! lets just say that I see STS cost going up alot over the next few years...

I hope to be a nats this year driving anyting in any class... if I make it there I am sure I will have fun!!!

PS sorry I was not able to make it to Salem... I was recovering from my week in Chicago!!

[SeanB]

Jason put things into perspective rather well.

Some of you do not want to know what the end dollar value on the CRX build will be. The car will be built to the extent of the rules, but the driver has a LONG way to go.

Stay in stock, its cheaper... I am probably going to return to stock class in a few years.

[rschumin]

Marteen, Miro, Brad,

Thanks for coming out yesterday. Our events are always better when SWVR is in the house.

You'll find pictures from the event here


http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2093000206

[ShortysTRM]

Holy crap!! 429 pictures from one event?!?!? That's awesome!

[gtfour77]

Marteen, Miro, Brad,

Thanks for coming out yesterday. Our events are always better when SWVR is in the house.

You'll find pictures from the event here


http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2093000206

I had a chance to look at the photos earlier today...truly great pictures! We had a blast and hoping to make it to Danville in May. It will be the day after our big airport event so physical shape will be the determining factor... Thanks again for a great event!!