Mickle Motorsports: NER Autocross 09/25/11 Devens

I had another awesome day of racing last Sunday. The course was very tight, technical and cone penalty intensive. Many people had a difficult time getting even a single clean run. I managed two clean runs one of which was thankfully my fastest time for the day. After the first half of the day I was actually in first place because only two of us had gotten a clean run in and I was nearly two seconds faster at that point. In the afternoon, however, everyone got a little better. I managed to improve by nearly a full second but the three competitors that beat me all somehow pulled out a great run on their last runs.

In addition to my classes results I also included the top 18 drivers based on raw clean times. I wanted to post this to show just how fast of a run I had. If you look through the list you will notice that, besides the other BSP competitors, all of the other drivers are either in the PRO class (denoted by the P at the beginning of the class title), in Modified classes (open wheel race cars) or the one FP car which is a stripped down race prepped Triumph Spitfire. I am thrilled with the fact that I can hang with all these drivers! I am generally a very humble person but I am really starting to gain a lot of confidence in my abilities. I know I always blame my tires and I will continue to do so this time. In all seriousness my tires were loosing chunks of rubber on the outside edge very quickly (see photo below). I had hoped I could just finish this season with them but so many people noticed that they are so bad (including one of the tech inspectors and a safety person) I am done using them. It's probably not a bad thing because I am willing to bet that they are hurting more than helping at this point! Also keep in mind that I am not only on stock suspension still but it is all over 100k miles old now. I am sure it is all very tired at this point. I can't wait until next year when I will be back with coilovers (already ordered) and a new set of rubbers. I am really looking forward to what I can do with a proper setup.