Hello fellow racers and friends. Really quick. Thank you. Thank you for coming out when it’s hot and racing and thank you for everyone who helped make the tough decision. Thank you for speaking up when you knew things were too hot and weren’t getting cooler. For everyone who said something there were 5 who didn’t. I feel we made the right call.
On a cooler note, results are live on our results tab and here.
Little Longer, oh my goodness it was hot. Me, being me I wore my normal autox outfit which apparently was too much clothing. Although I’ve had worse.
I did not drink enough water or put on enough sunscreen to be comfortable, then again, I’m not sure it would’ve mattered. I saw some reports of a 113 degree heat index. Track temps were north of 100 for sure. With that kind of heat I made the not awesome but I think smart decision to stop competition runs after 3 runs for everyone. This way no-one felt obligated or required to stay longer than they needed to just for some extra autox points.
Ok, back to the action.
Setup and course design was fun, we took the opportunity to start on the left side of the course today and decided to do a forward launch and a straightish finish. Which brought us to a fun layout with a 90 degree right hander at the top of the course to a spicy little slalom and a MASSIVE right hand sweeper. Did the sweeper give you too much free reign? Did you get the right line through it on at least 1 of your runs? After the sweeper we had a few little offsets and then into the big left hand sweeper. The left hand sweeper we chose to limit the entrance and the exit a little more to force people to pick a line and stick to it. Miss your mark at turn in and you paid the price (me run 1), missing your mark on corner exit you paid the price (me run 2,4,5,6, maybe 1 and 3 too honestly). Having worked with the team on setup and doing the sight lap I should’ve had a better plan in place but I think I need to start walking courses again. haha.
We switched up the novice walk and driver’s meeting this time around, how did everyone like the switch? It did give me more time to work on the heat splits, thank you everyone for your flexibility. After the driver’s meeting it was on to the first run group. It was hot. It felt like it went on forever, it was 1 hour on the nose 102 runs. Heat 2 got moving after a 21 min switch over, Heat 2 did take 1 hour and 2 minutes to complete 97 runs. After being out in the sun all morning and then working or running for 2 hours people needed a break, some went home some stayed for fun runs. Timing wise the times were faster than I first expected. Alot of people in the mid 30s some in the upper 30s and a handful cracking down to sub 32 seconds! Great driving everyone.
With competition runs over, we gave anyone the chance to do some fun runs. If you wanted to stick out the heat and were willing to work course and help with tear down you could do some fun runs. We had quite a few people stick around, some probably wish they went home, but after the short break the people who stayed were ready for some non competition action.
We’ve got the fun run results here below, now mind you these are not official in any way and there weren’t any radios for cone calls. This is for entertainment purposes only. I will note I was able to squeak out some faster runs between people driving the GR Corolla for a few hits, which felt nice since my morning runs all felt “off”.
Once fun runs were announced Jeff with his Sierra Echo got an idea.
“I need to use more battery, how about a Sierra Challenge, see who is fastest?” – Jeff
“YUP” – Everyone
A few of us were lucky enough to squeeze into the Sierra Echo and take it for a rip around the course. Goodness gracious was this thing a hoot and half to drive. So much power, so nimble, it was on edge the entire time. Jeff’s fastest time during competition was faster than all of the others who tried to best him, I had no idea what my time would be. All of the speed references go out the window. No sound from an engine, no doors or windows to give a sense of scale, just unlimited vision and the memory of a tire squishing a cone right in front of me (oops).
Here are the results from the Sierra Challenge. Can’t wait for Jeff to organize it again, I’m 100% down.
Before I decide it’s time to go to sleep I wanted to say one more thing. Thank you. The day was miserable, but a miserable AutoX day is still a great day. From all of us on the Board for Iowa Region SCCA I want to say thank you for all that you members and drivers do to help make this club what it is. The extra help before the event, during the day and after for clean up does not go unnoticed or under appreciated. Thank you again and hopefully the next event is a little cooler.
Good night, or good morning. Today is tomorrow.
Drew
RE Iowa Region SCCA