It's been a few weeks now, but I've still got the experiences of the first-ever SCCA Time Trials Nationals event, held at my local track, NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, fresh in my mind.
Three full days of lapping and "track sprints" (standing start timed runs along a segment of track, using the autocross timers). This event was hip enough to be written up by Road and Track and attended by Grassroots Motorsports writer JG Pasterjak, who attended with the GRM project Corvette.
Here's a link to the R&T article:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/motors...e-trials-nationals-the-future-of-motorsports/
I cashed in some good-husband points and was fortunate to do this over my birthday weekend. To prep for the event I needed to replace my disintegrating race seat, which I wrote up here: http://ssgtirep.com/forum/viewtopic...xP2EtF_zLYD0enoYZn0mgkbzYp3hyjqif9HaDR0#p3083
And replace my exhaust, which maybe I'll write up later.
The weather was flawless, the car was running great and I pulled into grid on Friday morning with gusto and ambition.
Nothing like gridding up behind an ex-NASCAR to make you feel like you are ready to race
That was the "novice" grid and I ended up eventually sorting up through towards the pointy end when we started gridding up by time, but that didn't offset being a bit under prepped for the class I was running. I ran in Max 3 due to some weight reduction I did for my autocross class which is hard to undo, but these rules also allow aero and forced induction for a car of the Swift's weight and displacement For reference, my closest competitor for 6th place in Max 3 was an Exomotive Exocet, if you know hat that is :shock: The battle for 6th was pretty close, too, as I turned a faster lap Sunday, but missed two shifts on my second track sprint and was much slower on Saturday, which hurt the final total.
Mostly, I'm pleased to have dropped no less than 17 seconds off my initial qualifying times, which I wouldn't have thought possible :mrgreen:
Here's my fastest, at 2:34.822, apologies for the poor sound and shakiness (back up camera, couldn't find battery for good one )
https://youtu.be/77I9YYTpHC0
I bought a couple more images from the professional photgraphers on site:
The heroes of the event were really these guys (red shirts), however, who are my neighbors in the KY SCCA and whom you will see in GRM soon enough, if you subscribe. They pulled another 8 seconds on me and were faster than most of the field despite having less than a few $1000 total in the car.
The formal results will be published somewhere, I suppose, but the best lap times as compiled by the above Team Cold Lotion and indexed relative to a Ford Probe, are more fun. I was not faster than a Probe, but my best lap was good enough for 79th out of 123 :roll:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15lz44K9QrwG6FOCIsHIqdlyageMzXT83wsdNVOF60Fo/edit?usp=sharing
Check out those beaten by a Probe and a Swift GT. There are some surprises.
What a great experience!
Three full days of lapping and "track sprints" (standing start timed runs along a segment of track, using the autocross timers). This event was hip enough to be written up by Road and Track and attended by Grassroots Motorsports writer JG Pasterjak, who attended with the GRM project Corvette.
Here's a link to the R&T article:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/motors...e-trials-nationals-the-future-of-motorsports/
I cashed in some good-husband points and was fortunate to do this over my birthday weekend. To prep for the event I needed to replace my disintegrating race seat, which I wrote up here: http://ssgtirep.com/forum/viewtopic...xP2EtF_zLYD0enoYZn0mgkbzYp3hyjqif9HaDR0#p3083
And replace my exhaust, which maybe I'll write up later.
The weather was flawless, the car was running great and I pulled into grid on Friday morning with gusto and ambition.
Nothing like gridding up behind an ex-NASCAR to make you feel like you are ready to race
That was the "novice" grid and I ended up eventually sorting up through towards the pointy end when we started gridding up by time, but that didn't offset being a bit under prepped for the class I was running. I ran in Max 3 due to some weight reduction I did for my autocross class which is hard to undo, but these rules also allow aero and forced induction for a car of the Swift's weight and displacement
For reference, my closest competitor for 6th place in Max 3 was an Exomotive Exocet, if you know hat that is :shock: The battle for 6th was pretty close, too, as I turned a faster lap Sunday, but missed two shifts on my second track sprint and was much slower on Saturday, which hurt the final total. Mostly, I'm pleased to have dropped no less than 17 seconds off my initial qualifying times, which I wouldn't have thought possible :mrgreen:
Here's my fastest, at 2:34.822, apologies for the poor sound and shakiness (back up camera, couldn't find battery for good one )
https://youtu.be/77I9YYTpHC0
I bought a couple more images from the professional photgraphers on site:
The heroes of the event were really these guys (red shirts), however, who are my neighbors in the KY SCCA and whom you will see in GRM soon enough, if you subscribe. They pulled another 8 seconds on me and were faster than most of the field despite having less than a few $1000 total in the car.
The formal results will be published somewhere, I suppose, but the best lap times as compiled by the above Team Cold Lotion and indexed relative to a Ford Probe, are more fun. I was not faster than a Probe, but my best lap was good enough for 79th out of 123 :roll:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15lz44K9QrwG6FOCIsHIqdlyageMzXT83wsdNVOF60Fo/edit?usp=sharing
Check out those beaten by a Probe and a Swift GT. There are some surprises.
What a great experience!
