Autocross season has started

I've been meaning to post earlier about this, but I haven't been inspired. Apparently, I've needed a "creative" outlet lately, and blogging's been it, as you can tell from the number of posts I've entered the last few days.

Anyway, autocross season started on April 6th. This year, we're driving a Miata in a class called STS2 instead of the STi (in A-Stock) or any other car for that matter. Steve and his buddy, Mike, put in a fair number of hours at the end of last season and during this past off season modifying the suspension, flushing the radiator, replacing the clutch, etc. Impressively, not one screw was leftover, either. ;-) Steve really seems to enjoy wrenching on the car, and that's neat to see him get into a new hobby.

The next update to the car will be to replace the top since it's currently being held together by clear packing tape (which really does keep the water out!) and zip ties. That won't happen until we host a Chesapeake Roadsters wrench day at our house in early June. Then we'll start talking about power modifications to the engine - a header, an intake, an exhaust, etc.

But first, we have to fix the nuts behind the wheel. And we'd like to know how much the nuts need help vs how much the car is actually holding us back. That means we need to have an autocross where it doesn't rain!!!

Our April 6th practice event was spitting almost the entire time we were there. The April 20th Championship #1 event included everything from no rain (but wet pavement) to rain accompanied by tornado winds (a tornado apparently touched down in our zip code). We need a couple of dry events to learn how to drive a rear wheel no power (as compared to the STi) car.

The April 6th event had its own issues, mostly timing related, but Workers had a ridiculous inbalance that although managable, it was painful. The rain scared off people, too, which also compounded the worker imbalance problem. But most of the equipment was relatively dry by the time we packed the bus, and everyone got all their runs in.

The April 20th event, on the other hand, was unlike any event in which I've participated. I've helped with a Subaru Challenge in a hurricane, but this event didn't even compare. In the morning, we had lightening delay the event an hour and the rain made the course slower so we didn't finish the morning heats until 1pm. The afternoon heats started at 2, and I wasn't staying for the afternoon.

I got ready to leave and just when I was driving off the lot, I see that the Gate workers were holding on to the tent with their lives. Of course my rain gear is 3/4s of the way back to Baltimore in the STi, so I get insta-soaked when I get out to help take the tent down. In the severe wind, the tent snapped a couple parts, and I'm sure all of the forms were soaked. Once Gate was brought under control, I left for home, soaked all the way through. I needed to turn on the A/C for 10 minutes before my windows defogged. Ew.

It turns out the tornado was touching down right then in the zip code, little did we know at the time. Other tents were getting caught in the winds, and we luckily didn't lose any electronic equipment. Timing couldn't keep up with the false starts and then, lightening flashed again. Bring in the workers. Wait another half hour. The Safety Steward saw another flash and that restarted the 30 minute clock. Our chairman got a call from someone who lives in the area to let us know that nastier storms were coming our way that included hail. As if the event weren't safe with the lightening already, now we have hail coming. Fabulous. The Committee decided to cancel the afternoon run groups.

Cancelling the runs for the afternoon run groups created a lot of hate and discontent but it was the right decision. So now we're dealing with a change to how we're calculating the Season Standings and issuing refunds which is an administrative nightmare, but the right thing to do.

We have another event this coming weekend - and of course the forecast is calling for rain again. I'll be keeping my rain gear in MY car this time...