Well after months of prep and car setup, it was finally time for the big show. This was my 7th trip to Nationals and one big difference from past years is that this time I was going to drive there in the competition car and not tow.
SCCA Solo Nationals - 9-5-2019 Photo by: GotCone
The first leg of the trip was pretty intense. We had so much rain that at one point I couldn't even see the car in front of me through all the spray even with my wipers at full speed.
Crazy rain - 9/2/2019
Eventually though the clouds cleared and we got to Iowa and it was nice and sunny. I convoyed out with James who was trailering his car and he was kind enough to bring my competition wheels/tires for me on the trailer so I could drive out on my OEM wheel with Continental DWS so the rain was no big deal.
Clear skies in Iowa 9/2/2019
We finally got to Lincoln, Nebraska, on Tuesday late afternoon. I was so tired that I just had a quick meal and got some rest. The next morning, I went to the nearby car wash to get her rinsed off. The ceramic coating is still doing wonders. A quick soap and rinse and she was back to being nice and shiny again.
Washing the car near the hotel 9/4/2019
My plan was to swap wheels and get tech inspection out of the way first thing in the morning so I could put the remaining required decals on the car before heading to the test 'n tune but it turned out that tech wouldn't be open until 1 pm so I ended up getting some practice in first. The only adjustment I need to make was an increase in front rebound by 1 click stiffer and upped the pressures to 32 psi front, 35 psi rear. She was feeling really neutral and controllable. I did an afternoon session too but failed to improve on my time. I couldn't tell if it was because of the car or all the concrete dust I was picking up in grid. Either way, I felt that doing more practice wasn't going to be helpful so that wrapped up the final day before competition.
Dusty test 'n tune grid - 9/4/2019
Day 1 of racing had us on the West Course. In grid, we had a nice variety of cars in STU which included EVOs, STIs, Focus RSes, Caymans, Corvettes, M3s and even a Mazdaspeed Miata. This is probably one of the most diverse grids at Nationals. The West Course was fun but didn't play to our strengths. There were quite a few 180 degree turns that were fairly slow and despite the Cayman having a good amount of torque, it wasn't as much compared to some of the competition. Combined with the taller gearing, I just couldn't accelerate out of corners like they could. The day ended with me sitting in 15 out of 27. The final trophy spot was 7th but the spread between 7th and 15th was only half a second so there was still a chance to move up on Day 2.
STU Grid - Day 1 - 9/5/2019
Day 2 of racing had us on the transition heavy East Course. This is where I could potentially make up time since if there's something a Cayman does well, it's transition. I coned my first run early on so I used the rest of the run to test for grip, slightly overdriving to feel where the limits were. On the 2nd run, I opted to do a safe run so I improved from run 1 only by a modest half a second but this time it was clean. For the final run, I was ready to give it everything I had. The first half was feeling really good. I felt my car placement was where I wanted and I was carrying more speed. Then, I misjudged my corner entry on the back left-hander. The car turned in almost too well and I went straight into a cone. There was no point in pushing the car further after that so I slowed it down and I'd have to end the day on my 2nd run's time. I did manage to move up a few more spots to 12th but still well out of trophies which was my goal for this event.
STU Grid - Day 2 - 9/6/2019
Was I upset or shocked? No. Frankly I'm even surprised I'm above mid-pack in an underdog car for the class. Also if I have to be honest with myself, unlike previous years I've been really chill all year. I've only done a handful of events and despite doing well in those including the ProSolo win earlier this year, I really didn't give it my all and practice and prep the way I normally would. The funny thing is that results aside, this has been my most fun Nationals to date. I truly enjoyed the drive out and back (who would'v thought GT2 bucket seats would be that comfortable) and with no real expectations for myself, I had no stress so while I'm disappointed I didn't do better, I'm also not heartbroken. Solo (autocross), is such an incredible sport. The level of skill you need to develop to be fast in only 3 runs each day at the national level can only ever be understood by those who have participated in it and I have massive respect for those that have done so successfully.
SCCA Solo Nationals - West and East Course run
The drive home was generally smooth but I did have two issues while I was out there. First, the frustrating P2196 and P2198 CEL is back. It seems to only happen if I let the car idle for a while. If I start the car and drive immediately like I did on the way home, I could go 1300 miles and never see the CEL go on. I suspect I have an exhaust leak again. The exhaust note has changed and I'm definitely hearing something different by passenger side header. I put the car on the quickjack but didn't see anything obvious so I'll have to have to shop look at it when it goes in later this month. The other issue was more of an annoyance than a real issue. The brake pad wear sensor light came up which I knew was total BS since I just got the brakes replaced on all four corners in June. Well, it turns out that the driver side rear sensor was routed behind the shock instead of over it which meant it was touching the axle boot and it eventually wore through and caused the open circuit that triggered the light. Since I'll probably be switching back and forth between street pads and track pads in the future, I opted to just bypass the sensor since track pads don't support the sensor anyway.
Doing a post-event inspection under the car - /9-9-2019
Brake pad wear sensor looped, soldered and heat shrink wrapped
I took all the decals off the car right after my final run but left the yellow stripes. Over this past week, it grew on me so I've decided to leave it on for now. I like that it adds a bit of character to the car without looking too over the top. Today, I also put back the ducktail spoiler, my LED tail lights and the RS-style yellow door pulls.
Ducktail and rear lights re-installed - 9/9/2019
Yellow door pulls reinstalled - 9/9/2019
I also had PeeJ do a full hand wash to get all the nasty road grime off the paint. I don't think I remember seeing the OEM 19" Carrera wheels look that clean before. I don't plan to autocross Kay for the rest of the year so I'll probably leave these wheels on for the winter while I go and remove the OPR from the Advans.
So Clean...Thanks PeeJ! - 9/9/2019
So where do we go from here. Well, later this month she's heading back to Speedsport Tuning in CT to make her track "capable". I'm specifically saying "track capable" and not turned into a "track car" because it's not my intent to make a dedicated track car.. I want to have to option to be able to take her out to a PCA DE for fun anytime I want but I fully intend on still enjoying driving her everywhere else I want to go including autocross, mountain driving, road trips or whatever I feel like. There are just too many fun ways to enjoy driving and I choose not to have the option to not limit myself.
