None of my "buddies" told me they were downshifting twice, till after I was done with all of my runs. I only downshifted for the finish. :rolleyes: Would have, could have, should have tried it after the first slalom as well, things might have turned out different if I had..... Oh wait, I won, guess it did not matter. :rollingla I saw Carter do it after the slalom on his last run and he was able to hold 1st much longer than I thought, that is why I did not downshift there, he got a good run out of that turn. Done right it could have been worth a tenth or two, done wrong and it could slow you down a ton. No matter how you did it only Carter figured out how to get around it fast and clean. :)

^See? I knew you were going to say you didn't downshift:lol2:

Anyhow, if you hadn't been gridded so far away, I'm sure Carter would have told you what he was doing. He, and his dad, have to be some of the nicest people I've met in autocross:)

I'm out of here...we're in Las Vegas and it's time to take Mrs. Woody out for a night of too much food, too much "entertainment" and, probably, too much Mr. Woody :rolleyes:

Too much information.

I had a great time once again. Nationals is truly a great car and people festival. I was glad to see old faces and dissapointed not to make it around and meet new people. B Stock is a fun group to run with and we sure had a talented field of drivers.

Congrats to Isley and all the other people who attended, it was a fun week.

If you think that, then my original intent wasn't clear...I just meant that, after a couple of days of driving many hours a day with me, my wife's patience might wear thin...but, I can see how you might have had a different interpretation...:yesnod:

I don't pick my class by who is or is not in it. We went with BS because I was tired of working on the Corvette and a baby seat fits in the back. It was that or a 330i for DS at the time, and DS is just to slow.

I want something with more power. However, if I can not find a 997 911S (with PCA pkg please) to co-drive, then I will stick with BS for 2008. :)

You mean you're going to stick around and give me one more shot at you? :bigok:

Seriously, you drove very well, and fast enough to get the win, but not so fast as to screw up our PAX -- too much, at least.

Yeah I will give you one more shot. Maybe this year I will check the alignment on the car and try a few new parts. I have not touched the car since Aug 05' so I am overdue to spend some money. :rolleyes:

Figures.... Get home early, take off all the stickers and clean up the car... Then find out someone wants it at an event with all the stickers on it. :banghead: Now I need to order a new set and put everything back on. :icon_no2:

That's the price of fame:)

Do you have to do the block type graphics over again, too? I thought those looked pretty cool, for sure.

I would just stick on the magnets I use at local events.... However, the car owner wants it to look the same as it did at natls.

Buy her another pair of $500 shoes, maybe then you can get away with the magnets... ;)

I never meant that you did. It's just that I had come chats with other RX-8 drivers who were wishing for more power as well. I know I've thought about selling both the '8 and the Miata and getting a Solstice GXP. Not that it would help with my driving...

She already plans to do that with her contingency money. :icon_no2:

OK... Its not that the RX-8 is not a fun car to drive, just after a while we all want to go faster. :dragster:

That was fun!!!
 

Well, that was fun! I miss everyone in the Solo community, and it was nice to get a chance to see people I hadn't seen in years. We've been so busy with road-racing that we haven't gotten to autocross but ONCE since the 2005 Nationals. (Well, Juliann got to run at the '06 Nats.) :)

The RX8 is fun, if not a bit different - a BIG thanks to Kenneth Baker for letting me run his car, that was very generous.

I don't even wanna talk about the East course, I was out to lunch there - I just kept overslowing or overcooking, just didn't have enough feel for the car or enough time to adjust. This autocross thing is a very unique challenge!

As for the East course, I'll add to the shifting conundrum: First run 48.5 all 2nd gear, second run 48.1 all 2nd gear, third run dirty 47.6 1st gear at finish only. I honestly think I made up time elsewhere on that last run, and that you could turn a good time with any shifting configuration.

Happen to be looking for a daily driver RX8 right now... we need a car that we can autocross locally on a whim when we get time, and we promise to do some practice before next year's Nationals. :) Provided there's not a World Challenge race the same week. :yesnod:

well that was pretty ugly for me, proved that a super stiff setup on street tires just won't work on this surface, my bad ... :banghead:

BTW, Carter has pretty much the same setup GH and I ran in 2005 + the 285 tire size increase

I worked STU on corner 4 both days. On the west course you looked pretty fast in our section [ through the tight kink and up the hill to the tight finish section ]. On the east side you looked a bit off pace coming out of the the slowest right offset section. The 4 wheel drive cars looked incredibly fast coming out of that slow section on the east course.

Oh, and I apologize to any workers I chased off while spinning on 1st runs on Thurs/Fri. It was a bit slicker than I imagined :)

John

Yup, at some point even I wish I had more power. I'm not sure what I'd do with it, but power is seductive.

wish I could have met some of the other drivers (not a real social person sometimes :banghead: ), but had lots of fun at nationals even though I have family and friends that think I am crazy to have driven over 1200 miles for 6 runs :lol2:

I had a great time again this year, even though I never got a decent run on the East course. Oh well, at least the car has trophied the last three years even if the owner sucked this year! :)

Jason,

Check out the classifieds section at DFWMiata.com. We've got a local trying to sell a low mileage '05 Winning Blue RX-8 at the moment. The car already has a set of Konis installed, although you'll have to swap the lowering springs he's got back to stock (included with the car).

We'd love to see you and Juliann at some local events. We've got a very healthy B Stock crowd locally, and the more the merrier!

Since you mentioned at the scca forum you would trade your car for the kozlaks car, why not consider a 993 c2? its faster, fits a baby seat, and kozlak won in the rain with it against s2ks, etc. is it that much of an underdog in AS now? too camber challenged? i also read that kozlak thought it wasn't competitive on asphalt, but why? wouldn't the car rotate better on asphalt?

i've been dreaming of getting the 993 c2s for years, esp since its possible to get them under 30k, unlike the 997s. i just need someone like you to win in it again to convince me. :)

That was a joke, no way I would spend that kind of money on an old air cooled car. Cost way to much $$$$ to keep that old car in top shape.

The only P car I want is a 997 911S, weather it can get it done in SS or not, that is what I would buy. :naughty:

Jason,

Congrats on yours and Jennifer's wins in BS and BSL. Hope you're in BS next year going for #4!

Nah, you need a nice SM car!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mjd2bUI71KU