My alignment changes from a week before did make the car drive straighter but definitely slower around corners. This was most likely due to camber angles being reduced by half a degree from what they used to be before. Next step is to revert back to what they were and adjust ride heights once again.
The brakes worked fine on my way to the circuit but on the circuit it was a completely different story. They squeeled and exhibitted judder and despite checking for cracks, warping or worn pads I couldn't get rid of the problem. On my 4th and final run the problem went away but the track had become much slower by then compared to earlier in the day and I just couldn't get a good lap together.
The event started off very chaotic and disorganised. I waited in line of 20 people to sign on. Once signed on I was told to go next door to get a timer. It turned out the timer I got was not the right one for the event and so I was told to go to yet another location to get the right timer. There I was told I needed a competition number which people at the sign-on window failed to provide me with and so I ended up waiting in a 40 people line again just to get the number. Finally when it was all sorted I chased down the guy who handed me the wrong timer and returned it and went back again to another window to grab the correct timer. Had to pay $10 for a bracket to affix the timer to the car also (!).
Following that we all moved to our drivers' briefing where we were all told of the rules. Unfortunately they changed the original plan of splitting people into 4 groups to telling everyone (up to 86 competitors) to line up with people they "thought" were close enough in terms of time. That added to yet more confusion and cars were let out with other cars either much much faster or much much slower than them. I personally was seriously held up in 2 out of my 4 runs by cars slower than me and refusing to give way.
The idea for events like these is to space yourself out at least 7 car lenghts so that everyone has a clean track and an undististurbed run but there were fools out there doing just the opposite spoiling it for the others.
Photo 1
Anyway despite these hiccups the event was good fun and i'd highly recommend it. I am definitely going to attend future rounds at other locations and see how they turn out.
Congratulations to the 1st place winner in my class driving in a Honda Civic EG platform.
- Rod
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