Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Autocross and Open Track June 3-4 National ProSolo, Peru, IN - Report

****Warning long post****
As some people know I am a little autocross crazy. Since starting autocrossing a little less than 2 years ago I have been to close to 100 autocross events including nationals in topeka, KS. Last year I placed second in the Sliderule cup a competition based on how you place and the number of different clubs you run with.

This year I decided to make it to some of the closer national events to see how I could do at them in the STS2 miata. Instead of hitting quanity I decided to try for quality this year.

I wanted to try out ProSolo (mix of a drag race and a solo course) before the event in D.C. in a few weeks so I decided to make the 11 hour drive to Peru, IN to have a little autocrossing fun.

Thursday night - Rain, Rain, Rain. Left work a little after 5 with the top down and ready to go. Get to the metro station to pick up Katie and I see the dark clouds overhead and I hurry to put the top back up so I don't get wet. Driving about 5.5 hours thru rain into the night is not fun but I push on for a while so I have less to drive on friday. Driving 40 MPH thru Cumberland, MD with nobody passing me felt weird. Stopped in Cambridge, OH for the night.

Friday - more driving in the rain. It starts off raining and wet and continues to rain until we make it to IN. Pull into the Grissom Aeroplex (location of event) at about 2:00 and see many local drivers. Find a spot to empty out the car and sign up for the rookie quickstart program.

Quickstart - The quickstart program is run by Andy Hollis and a few other national champions and is designed to get people who are not familiar with the launch tree in ProSolo up to speed on how it works and the difference between regular Solo and ProSolo like the other person racing you from the start and running a mirror image course on the other side as well as the running 4 back back to back alternating sides. I did my quickstarts and got decent times (.650 RT with perfect being a .500) most prosolo regulars are well within the .500 range when they need be so I am giving up a little time to them each run but not bad for first time.

Saturday - Get there early to walk the courses again and see what I might have missed the night before. Work course and get ready for my 4 morning runs. All my RT's are in the mid 600's still so I need to work on that but I do decent on my runs and finish the morning in 3rd place out of 8 just about 4 10ths out of 2nd.
Saturday afternoon - After working the course I sit and wait, and wait, and wait for my turn because they are having problems with the timing equipment again. The course has a lot more rubber down and RT's are improving I manage to get 2 out of my 4 afternoon runs with an RT of .55x so I am feeling a lot better about my chances. I moved into second place with just 3 10ths holding me over the 3rd place finisher for the day. I am still 1.3 seconds behind Andy Hollis in his very well prepped miata who is currently leading the class.
Saturday Results

Sunday - Again get there early to walk the same courses again to see what I think of them now and if I might have any better ideas on attacking the course today. No real changes of plans just get out there and drive my best and see what I can do I know I need to get a better right side since it was still much slower than my left side run. While watching other morning runs I see a lot of red lights on the tree so I start to get nervous about them. It is time for my runs and I am still worried about red lights so I am not as quick off the line as saturday and most of my RT's are in the 7xx range. Since I was second place saturday I am running directly again the class leader Andy Hollis today so I am sure that did not help me. My times improved a bit just like everybody else did. Ended up in the same place as I finished saturday in second place but only 1.2 seconds behind Andy Hollis for the event.
Sunday Results

The drive home - Once I got out of impound after my runs we packed up and hit the road hitting rain again once I got into OH. Drove in and out of rain for a lot of the 11 hour drive home and got home and crashed at about 12:30 am monday morning.

Went to work on monday but was not mentally there at all. Got word from a friend that stuck around for awards that I got the ProSolo Rookie award for the Peru ProSolo.

Current car stats.

1990 Mazda Miata - $2,000(used)
Koni shocks - $500(new)
Ebay coilover sleeves $50 (new)
15" Falken wheels and 205/50/15 RT-215 tires - $500(used) (also daily drive these)
Racing beat hollow front bar - $170(new)
Corbeau Forza Racing seats with sliders - $180 (used)
CG Lock - $20(used)
Racing beat intake - $80(used)

Total $3,500

The car is nowhere near fully setup and has a lot of work that still needs to be done but I am pretty happy with the current status of the car based on what I have put into it. I still need to install some motor mounts and rear shock mounts that I have been sitting on for a few months now and that should give me a bit nicer setup. Also want to do bushings and header/exhaust when I have time and money as well as getting better/revalved/shortened shocks so I can up my spring rates.

I'll be making a 9 hour drive this weekend to attend the Solo National tour in Devens, MA and hope to do well there.

Awesome! I wanted to do the DC Pro this year, but things got in the way. Congrats on doing so well - 1.x behind Andy ain't bad at all. STS2 keeps looking like a really good place to build a car for.

I think you're doing great especially considering the small amount of work you've done to your car. Maybe we'll see your name in SportsCar magazine in the future.

scca.com has an article on the main page about the event:
...
"Andy Hollis, of Austin, Texas, made it five top-two finishes in five events this year. Getting his third Street Touring�® Sport 2 win of the year, Hollis, in his Soulspeed/ART/GRM 1992 Mazda Miata, was dominatingly impressive, beating out the Shawn Roberts-driven 1990 Mazda Miata by 1.195 seconds. Roberts, of Falls Church, Va., finished 0.252-sec. ahead of Phil Osborne, of Haslet, Texas, in his 1990 Honda Civic Si."
...

a) did you hit The Hugger?
b) Jim Feinberg is going to own STS2 at Topeka.

Is Jim Feinberg still in a CRX? I know he'll have another year of development, but I think the Miata is the car to have. Although, if Jim beats Andy firmly I'll have to say that will temper things somewhat. I keep thinking a big-bucks MR2 with a bunch of custom stuff could be a course-dependant winner, but the aftermarket for the Miata is pulling me in.

a) I don't know what the Hugger is. If it was one of those clubs then no.
b) I disagree. He will have a few well prepped miatas and a few other lesser prepped miatas to beat to get there and I don't think he will do it. We will get a chance to see him run against Hollis in STS2 during the prosolo in DC and will see what kind of chances he has after that.


Yes he is still running the CRX last I saw. I don't know much about the MR2s but I am not sure of the early ones that are eligable for STS2 can do it. The 91-95 would have a better chance but are excluded from the class.

The struts and weight are a real issue with the Mister Two. But, with a FULL prep to mitigate those, it's got the mid-engined advantage. It'll never be an every-course winner, but even a Miata can't keep up with the MR2 in transitions.

Or maybe I'm just a sucker for MR layout cars. It doesn't seem right that a FF Civic should be faster!

Nothing changed on my car between Peru, Devens and now.

My tires were worn out enough that I was not able to get a good run on saturday with all the rain but I did decent on sunday since it was dry.

What is stopping you from going out in STS2?

This year at local events I have been a little inconsistent landing anywhere from 1.8 seconds back in PAX to about 3 seconds back in PAX when the car has been running decent (keep in mind we have some top national competitors at our events) See http://solo.wdcr-scca.org/ and look at results. Looking at last year VS this year my best PAX results have been real close (30ish out of 250+ drivers) but I was more consistent last year. I don't know if that is because I was doing so many more events last year or what. I need to get new tires and see how I can do soon. 12,000+ street miles, 200+ autocross runs (that includes 2 local level 3 schools, 1 Evo school, 2 Pro Solo's, 1 national tour, and nationals last year) I think the tires have seen way better days but I am still trying to decide between the 225/45/15 hankook and the 20/50/15 RT-215. I also should have my 15x7.5 slipstreams by about this time next month.

Anything interesting popping into people's heads that this thread on a Contour board has three Miata dudes posting in it?

Nothing interesting. Just a simple fact becoming more apparent.

My svt, as it's setup (and I'm not spending money/time changing everything), wasn't any good for autox. Unfortunately this probably means I'll probably not being autoxing for a long time (after this month). I need to save some money anyways.

Oh I know there is a lot left in my driving that could get my times down in it, but I don't like the feel and it's not close to competive. Unlike my escort, which nationals have been won in once or twice. The main thing is, it just wasn't fun like my escort.

I love it on twisty roads though, so I'm not just dumping it. Just keeping it to what's fun for me. Maybe one day I'll get it out to a road course.

Nope no 14" hankook Z212's

good luck getting used konis I tried looking for some and ended up getting new ones. If you happen to luck into 2 sets cheap let me know because I could use a second set.

The contour is a lot more fun on wide open courses than a tight course. I ran it with the local mazda club at my first ever event and felt like I was always understeering. But running it on a more wide open course like the DC SCCA or Cumberland Airport was a lot more fun.

107.5" is a LONG wheelbase for super-tight corners. I get real sick of tight courses around here, but at Seneca it's nice. I'm looking forward to the Glen.

Yeah I ran it a couple weekends ago on a very very tight course and it all it did was understeer. I'm running it again at the end of the month and a faster, more open course, so hopefully I'll have a little more fun.

Happy dance! I'm leaning towards 'Kooks, partly because of the price - do you have any data on them in the rain?

If you search c-c, there's a thread that lists one man's opinion on them and the rest of the contenders in a heavier STS car. Kooks were on the bottom of the list. Also, check out the street tire shootout in GRM.

That doesn't tell me anything about wet. Plus my choices are pretty much Kook/615/T1R/ES100 and some cheap tires in 14".

GRM didn't have the water turned on? I must have remembered wrong. If you're not shaving, it should be about a wash. Standing water sucks for any tire, a thin water layer seems to prefer the new Azenis. The most important thing that I read about the Falkens is to put two to three heat cycles into them before an autocross, for some reason it takes longer for them to come in. Unlike crack, err I mean the V710.

RE: ZE-512s. I will slap you right in the mouth if you buy these pieces of apcray. I want them to go away so fast from my sedan, and they're shedding wear like it is going out of style. I've *never* had a tire wear that fast, especially one with a what, 280 tread rating? And they sing on the interstate too. I want them to go to hell and die.

I like them. For $43 a tire they grip really well, although they're mushy. I have them on the 190E and they are dissapearing fast, but that's largely my fault. Still, $/mile ain't bad with them!