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End of Autocross Season, 2009
The autocross season drew to a close on October 24th with the final event for the NCC at Baysox stadium. I had one chance to win my class for the season: I had to beat my closest rival in the championship by two places. It was close, but in the end, the weather voted against me. The other two ran in the dry and my heat ran in a monsoon.
In the end the GeorgeCo BMW powered by Beano finished the season in a solid second place in the Modified 3 class. Here’s a little life lesson: Be sure to read the class rules carefully. You had to run 6 of 8 events to compete for a class win for the season, best 7 of 8 events counted for points. The previous year it had been best 6 of 8. GeorgeCo only ran 6 of 8 events in a best of 7 series, we lost on total points despite 4 class wins; 1 second place; and 1 third — the most wins in the class. We could have showed up for the event 7, came in last, and walked away with the title. D’oh!
Time to start planning for next season. Next year this will be the only series we’ll run so we won’t come up short on total points again. The car needs a few repairs: new clutch slave cylinder and a new final drive. It’s also time to start working on more power with new injectors, a header, free flow exhaust and a custom ECU tune. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. It’s also time to bite the bullet and buy some Hoosier A6 tires.
NCC BMW CCA Fall HPDE, 2009
The GeorgeCo BMW powered by Beano put in a strong performance among higher horsepower cars this past weekend at Summit Point. The three-day school on the Jefferson Circuit was the last track weekend of the year for the National Capital Chapter.
We’re finally figuring out the skidpad and sustained oversteer. The key is to stay in second gear, dial in some mild understeer, as the front hooks up, wait, then blip the throttle. As the rear comes around, countersteer and hold the throttle steady.
Temperatures on the car were good all weekend. Tirewear has been fairly even. We’re getting some rubbing in the front on the new swaybar but that may be only an issue at full lock on the skidpad.
The biggest issue of the weekend is the ugly song the differential began singing on Saturday. We checked the fluid level and color and both were good. Temp was fine. It may just be in the last throws of death. Time to start checking craigslist.
Final Session, Part 1.
Final Session, Part 2.
Things to remember about this car on the Jeff counter-clockwise:
- Turn 1: max entry speed; stay on the crown; trailbrake; put in lots of steering input; carry speed up the hill; don’t worry so much about track position for turn 2, just be back on-line for turn 3.
- Turn 4: brake mid track; wait for the front to hook up; long apex; unwind the wheel on exit
- Turn 5: stay mid track to avoid dip on entry; trailbrake slightly; head for accessroad; lots of steering input at the apex; avoid the patch; full gas well before apex
- Turn 7: double apex. Brake late to carry speed up the hill, but don’t go deep; trailbrake; get on the throttle early; late second apex
Chapterfest and SCCA Event 6, 2009
Chapterfest marked the end of the Summer for the GeorgeCo BMW Powered by Beano. The annual event sponsored by the National Capital Chapter of the BMW Car Club of America brings together the diverse sub-groups of 6,000+ member chapter into one event. It features a swapmeet, shine & show, good food, and of course autocross.
There were some beautiful old cars in the show as well as quite a bit of questionable carbon fiber bits on newer cars. And this:
Not exactly my thing, but to each his own I suppose. I think that audio system costs more than my car. And it probably has more power too… There were some interesting non-BMWs too. I always like to find dubious aero bits:
No video from the autocross. Another autocross season down, another dead video camera I’m afraid. I’m going to have to invest in a solid-state recorder of some sort. The course was more challenging than it appeared during the course walk. The course designers decided to use the lower lot at Baysox Stadium this time. To get there and back, the course has to pass through a couple of islands in the parking lot. That risk means designing very slow sections before the entry to the pass through. This caught out a lot of people, but since going fast by going slow is what the GeorgeCo BMW Powered by Beano does best, it was no problem for us. Rain spoiled the times for the fourth heat runners, but running in the second heat, we managed to take first in class, solidifying our position going into the season finale next month.
Sunday brought the sixth championship event for the Washington DC Region of the SCCA at FEDEX Field. In this series, we’re running the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI in the Street Mod class.
The only car on street tires as well as the only true daily-driver in the mod-till-you-drop Street Mod Class, the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI has a significant disadvantage to the stripped-out, higher horse power cars in the class running on competition tires. That is, until it rains. We almost achieved greatness yesterday. Almost. It rained heavily during the fifth heat. At the start of the sixth and final heat, the course was very damp and slick. At the start of the second of four runs, the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI was in the lead. Unfortunately, the sun was still shining and the course was drying and we saw our advantage slip away. Nonetheless, the car ran well and the course was challenging. Perhaps just as interesting were some of the other cars that were at the event.
Colonial Challenge Cup, Summit Point, 9.9.09
9/9/09 was a lucky day. I got to take the day off of work and spend it as an instructor at the Colonial Challenge Cup (CCC). The CCC is an annual charity event at Summit Point that benefits the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Boys & Girls Clubs. It includes track lapping, driver education, go-carting and charity rides. It’s a very low-key event with lots of track time if you want it. Instructors had two sessions to ourselves and could go out in any student session we wanted as well. I managed to instruct 5 sessions in an E36 M3 and run 5 sessions myself.
This wasn’t your usual BMW club HPDE. From the organizational structure (not) to the rules on the track (lax) to the overall schedule (relaxed), it was a good chance to get back to the main circuit and test out the changes to the car. There were some very good drivers in some very expensive cars and some rather scary drivers in some scary fast cars. Click here for some laps of the main circuit.
It was a good exercise in space management and situational awareness. That came in the form of both a Daytona Coupe spinning in front of me in Turn 1, as well as a Ford GT passing me on the front straight at 140+ MPH after the checkered flag. It’s not every event where I get to park near an Aston Martin Vantage.
The GeorgeCo BMW, powered by Beano, is really handling well. On Tuesday I added thicker front swaybar. The bar is only 10% thicker than the stock bar, but that difference virtually eliminated body-roll and still maintained neutral handling.
The non-adjustable bar from IE meets Spec E30 requirements, and included new reinforced mounting brackets and adjustable end links.
CDC Autocross at Harry Grove Stadium, 9.5.09
It was a great day for the GeorgeCo BMW powered by Beano. The weather was perfect and the course challenging and fast. The CDC runs an index system based on weight, horsepower, and tire. We’re running a street tire to try to be competitive on index time. We’ll see if it works. The car is really running well and all traces of the drive-line shutter are gone.
