Holley Ford Fest - Day 1
As mentioned I competed in the Grand Champion competition, which is autocross, drag racing, and 3S competition (start/steer/stop). Day 1 has a morning and afternoon autocross session. Then at night there will be drag racing, where we will get 3 runs. Autocross is my strong category, so I wanted to go out and get in a good position. I also wanted to see how the car and myself stacked up against other drivers, some of which are national champions.
The venue is small with the course being tight in some areas and wide open in others. I was still able to almost touch rev limiter at the top of 2nd gear. After the morning session I was sitting 4th in class! Wait... what?!? Yea I was surrounded by cars with way more horsepower, bigger tires, and better suspension than my car does. I've often stated HP isn't needed for autocross and in some cases can hurt you. This (along with all the Miata's at every event) really shows that grip and driver can overcome higher HP cars.
Going into the afternoon session I was hoping to break the 39s barrier, which would get me closer to the top guys. Although I don't think there was any way I could compete with Sam Strano in the RX8 running in the 37s. I was able to get close with a 39.0 but dirty. However, going into the braking zone of the hairpin I heard a pop and the car did not want to turn. Not again, circle tracks are not friendly to me. I limp the car off track. It's not pulling like it did when the suspension tube broke, but it didn't brake very well.
Looking the car over the lower suspension tube is intact, but it's clear looking at the passenger front tire that the top was further out than it was. I then found that the upper control arm bracket welds failed towards the rear and started peeling away. With this I knew I was done, but the car was at least able to be limped back to my trailer and could drive into the trailer, which is a win in itself at times.
Overall, I am super stoked with how the car did. I did drop in position from lunch time, but not much. At the end of the day I was 6th in class and 7th overall. Only 0.3s behind Mike's Carbon Widebody Fox?!?! And all the other cars above us and some below have power adders.
Talking to one of my friends who was there drifting his 302W swapped BMW, he asked around and found someone with a welder. Maybe I can get the car fixed and continue on with the competition?