Packwood Tour/Pro
 

Only two weeks to the Tour...10 signed up so far for BS and I know there's at least two more, if not four. Looks like it could be the biggest class at the Tour, but entries are still coming in...thanks to Joe Goeke, I'm in...

Pro the following weekend, less than 100 signed up so far...but, BS already has a class, with 7 entries...thanks to whatbadgerseat/Brian, I'm in that event, too...I think...Brian, does your car now have a transmission?:uhh:

Is everyone ready to go? We taking bets on who does it? I'm betting whatbadgerseat and Coding Paradox are going to surprise...there's also Glenn in his 350Z, who did really well last year...and this year, he has a good tire warmer.

It should be fun :)

Coding Paradox is certainly much faster this year - he and I were within a few tenths at the last Packwood event, once I convinced him he was overdriving the car for his first four runs.:lol:

If Glenn has a good day he certainly is a threat. To be correct, Glenn did great at the pro last year, but not so hot at the tour (exact opposite of my '07 Packwood performance). Hid well at nats, however.

I'm running on the same tires I ran at last year's tour, so probably no trophy for me this year. And I know I still can't catch Joe, even when we are in the same car.

So, my money is on Joe.

Joe would be the odds on bet...but, don't you think he'll be polite and let his visiting co-driver win? :lol:

If Bryan shows up in the MR2T, that would make things more interesting...

Of course, Joe doesn't let anybody win. But if you can beat him, even in his own car, he would be gracious about it and would be happy for you. At least, that's the impression I had when codriving with him last year at nats.

The MR2T would be interesting. It would be nice to have a bit more variety in the class.

I should say that Coding Paradox still has some tweaking to do to his car, so as you say, he could surprise.

I take dibs on last, but if I'm second to last I'll be stoked!!! But this car has surprised me, but I have never really ran against anyother 8's this year to jugde. This will be my first time at packwood for me, so from my friends I have heard ya no prob, and I'll be overwelmed, so wish me luck.

I may attend the Pro if I can get some problems fixed and repair work completed in time. I definitely won't be able to make the Tour weekend.

I wonder if I can rent a sleeping cot in the Chalet Woodmobile :rofl:

Unfortunately, I will not have Casa Winnebago at the Pro...too bad, it is much nicer than the local hotels!:eyetwitch

Actually, my wife will be with me that weekend...I've tried to be as honest as possible in describing Packwood, I don't want a ULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOSE moment..."Where's the town?"...."uhhh, this is the town"..."Well, where are the amenities?"...."uhhh, they've got a mini mart, is that what you had in mind? Hey, look, there's a moose"...:lol:

Don't forget the cowboy karaoke on Saturday nights!

I understand why some people don't like Packwood, but it's charm has grown on me. I walk into the Blue Spruce and I hear, before I even sit down - "Black Butte Porter?" That's a premium Oregon microbrew, for those that don't know.

Hell, I don't get that kind of service in the bars around my house. But of course, the food takes 45 minutes unless you are among the first few to show up, but at least they are smart enough to call in extra help when the 45 autocrossers show up on Saturday evening and mob the place.

I may kid around, but I love little mountain towns like Packwood...Packwood is in a beautiful location and the locals are very nice...I've been camping, fly fishing, riding bicycles and motorcycles etc. out in the Sierras since I was born...I'm more comfortable in the mountains or at the beach than I am in any city. Fortunately, my wife is cool with the whole "outdoors" thing, too...our 17 year old daughter, on the other hand...:lol:

Up to 14 for the tour...:)

Make that 15. :) Couldn't resist such a deep class, even though I wanted to try my ES car on the new Hoosiers with Jerry Jenkins as a benchmark.

Now I just have to put the BS car back together! And find a hotel. Might end up in Morton again this year, as procrastination gets the better of me every time.

Hah, I thought those numbers might convince you! Should be fun.

I wonder if it will be enough to get ULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOSE over his dislike of Packwood?

C'mon, Jason, you know you wanna do it :)

Move the event to Bremerton, and I will pack my bags.

Have fun guys. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2347/...cd3b98.jpg?v=0

Personally, I have no desire to see it go back to Bremerton. I'd much rather race on the Packwood lot, and for me, that's why I drive up 5 or 6 times a year.:dunno:

I will be attending the NT for the first time, but I will be driving a CS Miata that I have only drove once before. I expect to have my ass kicked pretty bad.

Piece of advice - don't lift, keep your foot in it! ;)

Whassamatter, Jason...have a traumatic experience that included banjo music? :eek:

:lol:

You know you want to come run with the biggest BS class outside of Topeka...just admit it.:squint:

Yes, it was watching you square dance at the 2006 event.

Just spent $550 on fuel for Wendover, $1000 for Backwood does not sound like fun.

Me square dancing...yeah, that is a pretty scary word picture...
:lol2:

I hear ya, gas costs are outrageous. I've cut down on my RV use this summer, just because it pisses me off so much to spend $200 on fill ups. Thank goodness, with the Mustang, I can use my tire trailer again.

Eesh, up to 15 now? Man, this should be fun. =)

Just got the new tires mounted up. Steve and I will be scrubbing them in this weekend at an event, and then we're ready to go for the NT/Pro. Did some setup tuning this past weekend. Car's feeling good. ;-)

New tires, huh? Now you've got no excuse not to smoke me. Make sense?:lol:

Now we just hope it doesn't rain. :|

Well, I know Joe has a set of Hoosier wets...not that that helps anyone besides Joe and me...JK, I also am hoping for a dry weekend, it just makes it more fun when everyone has, basically, the same course conditions. :)

A damp track devoid of puddles would be great, I think. ;)

Right now, the weather is looking ok.
BUT! This is the NW you know. A little bit unpredictable.
FM

haha, I will try! The miata is sounderpowered compared to the 8 and requires a different driving style...

please don't rain... we don't have hoosiers wet and I haven't driven the car in the wet either...

Mid 80's, sunny...bring your sunblock and tire sprayer :)

Those cars are so light and can be set-up to rotate easily, that corners that need a lift in an RX-8 will not require one with a miata.

Most 'fun' I've ever had autocrossing was in a miata. Just ask my co-driver about the time I co-drove his STS2 car!!! :lol:

Tire sprayer, I don't need no sprayer, i have bgf's. I have found they warm up about 4th run!! Plus I don't have a co-driver so I can use all the heat I can get!:FIREdevil:

At this rate I'll have to switch to FP at the last minute. I've got half of the interior strewn around the garage floor rather than inside the car where it belongs.

Stereo installs gone wrong! :banghead:

And have to run against the pesky focus, im sorry:icon_no2:

Looks like we topped out at 15. Biggest class at the tour!

Just checked the weather:

Sat, 97 degrees, 30% chance of rain, t-storms.
Sun, 85, 20% chance of rain.

Could be interesting.

Great. Who needs rains anyway? Damn the thunderstorms, ramming speed...

Weather.com has it at a 10% chance of precip...oh well, we'll just see how it turns out. If they are calling for 97 degrees (!!) and chance of t-storms, I'd think the bigger chance of rain would be later in the afternoon...and we're RG2. Anyhow, the way I see it, a 30% chance of rain means a 70% chance it won't! ;)

On the other hand, that scenario does sound (except the heat) quite a bit like last year, when it was dry on Saturday and then wet into Sunday morning...anyone remember who was leading after day one, only to blow it in the drying conditions on Sunday? (Well, truthfully, none of us was going to run with Joe, who was the only guy on the right tires and is fast to begin with)...but, I certainly hope it isn't deja vu, all over again!

The Pro is another matter...weather.com has a 60% chance of rain on Saturday, but that's a b.a.g. at this point, as far as I'm concerned...:lol:

Man I hope it cools off a little it was frickin hot today, practice wasn't even fun, but you lost about 10 pounds of water weight by time you got done working. Heres to tomarrow, oh ya we're up to 16 bs.

Well, I don't know how much it cooled off today...still hotter than heck...I'm sitting in the A/C hotel room, just trying to get my core temp back to normal...

First day was still fun. The course had some higher speed sweepers and an interesting slalom section that started super fast and then kind of funneled down to a very slow "wallom" section at the end...pretty interesting. B Stock is the biggest class and we have a bunch of good guys to run with, for sure.

Zach (spike siegel) is on top, pulling off a very fast run on his 3rd. He's followed by Coding Paradox (David) by about 3 tenths, then Steve Hui, then me (I ended up standing on my first run, taken on brand, brand new Kumhos...that pretty much sums up how well I drove), then GeorgeH. We're all covered by a little more than half a second. BryanH missed the set up on his car, going too soft on the front bar and (very un-Bryan like) coned all three runs today. His scratch, even with the bar setting, still was right there (no surprise!), but the cones hosed him...after thrashing to get the car together and making the long haul up here :mad:

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Thanks for the update Mike. Out of curiosity, was rain a factor for any run groups? How dirty was the course for the Heat 1 drivers?

Day 1 results are up: Packwood Saturday results

No rain. The course just got faster and faster...you could see the rubber start to really get put down in RG2 and it just got better from there...RG1 was street sweeper and Dietz was hung over:lol:

By far best conditions for RG4, but by then you really didn't want a co-driver, as managing tire temps became a problem.

good luck today, given my results at Wendover and problems with the car I'm going to cancel from the Pro event, my season is pretty much over with as far as the points Series goes so a rush 24hr round trip for a car that won't be sorted prior isn't making much sense

Thanks Mike. I see some results are up for Sunday. Looks like Zach (spike.spiegel) took the win, with you in 2nd!

http://www.scca.com/documents/result...%20Sunday2.pdf

From a quick glance, it appears Bryan H. took the top time of the day, but it wasn't enough to recover from his coned runs on Saturday.

Yep, Zach followed through beautifully today, backing up his effort from day one. All of us SFR folks were really glad to see him win:)

Bryan's second run was the quickest on the day by .256 (you knew I wasn't going to say "3/10ths", didn't you, Bryan?...you had to have been there...) Watching him fly through the very long slalom going out definitely was a highlight. But, spotting everybody a couple of seconds on day one was too tough to overcome.

The weather really was perfect today, as the clouds moved in and the temps dropped about 20 degrees...definitely made it easier on us old guys. I got my head most of the way out of my axx by my third run after realizing on my first run today that I wasn't driving the RX8 like a RX8, but was trying to throttle steer it (maybe because I've been driving the Mustang lately). I probably should have taken a couple of test and tune laps on Friday as a refresher course in RX8 101.

Regardless, it was a fun weekend and B Stock was well represented. I also had the chance to meet Mike (Bakerboy), which was cool. After watching the Koni equipped '8s slalom, he is now on the lookout for some yellows:lol:

Ya I must say I did have a blast, great to meet all of you! And thanks to my co-driver I didn't get DFL!! But I do still hold the award for biggest guy in a 8!!! Can't wait till next year, or if I can make it up to the next event there in october. Thanks again for all the help that you guys gave, I'll get this rwd r-compound thing down!

Zach and Mike, any chance you could post walkthroughs of how you approached each course? I don't think I made any obvious mistakes on either day, but I was still a second back in each direction, so evidently I'm missing something.

Bryan, I'd love to hear how you approached the courses too, but I suspect it was somewhat different due to your different ride. :)

Great driving by all of you this weekend!

Walkthrough? Steve, at my age I'm lucky if I can remember what I had for breakfast...maybe Zach can fill in the blanks...:lol:

Seriously, after totalling f-ing up day one, it was just a matter of not overdriving the front grip of the RX8 (which was (I think) my problem on Saturday) and looking well ahead in order to carry the shortest, fastest arc possible through the big sweeper sections. Two places I know I made time on my last run Sunday were the left hander following the giant right hand sweeper (right after the short, downhill chute?), which was way faster than I think many imagined, and the left hander leading in to the finish, which required turning in early and letting the car push and bounce out to driver's right, down the hill. Oh, and right off the start, I noticed a lot of BS guys were waiting to brake until in to that first little offset deal (right after you went through the start lights), which caused them to delay getting on the gas...which then resulted in wanting to carry the throttle too far into the first left hand sweeper/turn around...which then got them wide and in the marbles.

Brake in the first offset?!? Wimps! :)

Anyone have MaxQGPS data that they're willing to share, perchance? I didn't notice any GPS antennae stuck to anyone else's cars, but I wasn't looking that hard.

Well...my point was the you weren't going to take that offset flat, so the choice was brake right before, get across and put your foot to the floor or wait to brake, then wait to get on the gas...guess which one I think worked better? ;)

The other place a lot of people lost time was the right hander, double (actually, triple, in a way...) apex turn before the "wallom" and slalom...lots gave it up entirely, to stay tight, which wasn't too swift, but a bunch of others came in to hot and there were marbles, rubber and other crxp just off line...they really paid a penalty. I finally figured out to drive it in pretty deep, turn once and carry the arc to a fairly early apex on the last cone of the element...since I was going to have to brake hard after the first part of the "wallom", I didn't need to worry about getting on the back of that last cone of the element preceeding...

I believe you guys and Steve C. might be the only ones with data...well, except Glenn, but I'm not sure how much you'd learn from the 350Z's numbers.

It was great meeting all the Northwest folks and hanging out with the familiar SFR B-Stockers. It was really a fun group to run with, and a great site and course.

To be honest, I was just trying to make it through the course clean on both days; I was just extremely lucky that Mike hasn't driven an 8 in years and that Bryan was experimenting with his setup in preparation for Nats.

The only run that felt fast was my first run on Saturday, which had a cone. I was pretty much all over the place on my other runs, and probably a few feet off all the slalom cones in my last four runs, due to extreme paranoia after coning my first two runs :(

Here are some of my thoughts about the courses:

Disclaimer: I'm definitely nowhere near the level of Bryan or Mike, and I didn't drive particularly well this weekend. I'm pretty sure the Hoosiers just worked better on this course. Don't read any of the following, or you will go slower.

Day 1:

On the first turn around, I added distance and missed the apex cone by a lot in order to get on the backside of the exit. The fast lefthander after the offsets was really scary due to the transistion. I had some major driftage there on my second run. I also added distance on the next right turnaround, and missed the apex cone by a lot.

Through the big left hand sweeper, I just tried to get on the gas as early as possible and didn't worry about line. I was past the shift beep, but not on the limiter entering the slalom. The slalom and wallom was just slow--I just tried to miss cones. For the double apex after the wallom, I tried to shoot out wide, just missing the last cone in the outside wall. Then I braked and stayed pretty tight to the inside cones on the next two gates. Again, just trying to get on the gas as early as possible. I took the last turnaround very wide, way off the apex cone, in order to get on the backside of the exit, and to get on the gas early.

Day 2:

Just lifted for the first offset. Don't think I braked going into the turn around, but braked in the middle to get on the gas early. I thought making a long arc might add too much distance so I kind of segmented it, I think. For the double apex right hander, I was nowhere near the first apex cone. I added tons of distance to carry good speed through the second part of the turn. Really tried hard to get ahead on the wallom/slalom to maximize exit speed, but never really did it. Didn't really pay attention to the line through the big sweeper, just went as fast as I could to get to the outside by the end, where it tightened. I was braking pretty hard while turning, and almost hit the outside cone a couple of times.

Like Mike said, you could carry tons of speed into the left hand turnaround. I stayed pretty tight on the exit, though I probably should have drifted out over the outside chalk instead. For the last right-hand turnaround, I also ignored the apex cone to get on the backside of the exit. I never figured out the slalom and last left-hander.

Zach, you're way too modest...it wasn't the Hoosiers, or my lack of current seat time, or the others driving poorly (well, except Bryan's coneitis..lol), etc. that allowed you to win, you earned it by putting down fast times when you needed....look at your overall pax, if you need proof :)

Your working on your driving has paid off, that's the whole story. btw, I have that Borla single exit, whenever you want to grab it.