Phoenix - 2000 Divisonal



2/18/00 - I took the day off work so I could spent a little time tuning in the suspension and doing my regular maintenance before the big race. It ended up being a very good choice. I started off by installing my new rear camber kit by Ingalls. It's a pretty cool setup. Similar stock bushings at each end connected to threaded spherical rods. The inside bolt had a normal threaded bolt on one side and reverse threads on the other. Thsi way you can turn the inside bolt and you can adjust the camber positive or negative without having to remove it from the car. Basically I kept the same settings in the front as I liked the way it was turning in and sticking. In the rear though I just added a little negative camber and readjusted the toe to zero again. Unfortunately the only testing I was able to do before the big race was down the street near my house which usually isn't very helpfull as I don't take it to the limit. Later in the evening I went to the track to register, tech my car, walk the course, and socialize a little. I got to meet my competition and Russ and his gf Naomi from Sacramento too.


2/19/00 - Pretty nervous but I did fairly decent. I only had two other guys in my class sharing a car but they had been doing this for years and have placed in the top 6 or better at Nationals the past two years (out of a class of 40-50 cars). Rick beat me by just a little less than .2 seconds on the first course but Arie beat me by about .7 seconds. Not good! However the car was handling awesome. A little bit of push but still better than ever before. The afternoon session was the same course only run backwards. I liked this my better the corners mostly turned into increasing radius turns. My competition was running a Ford Capri with a V6 and I think they had a lot more low end punch out of the slow corners. This helped level out the playing field and the times reflected that. I beat both Rick and Arie in the afternoon. I beat Rick by about .7 and Arie by .5 seconds. This put me in 2nd overall and I was feeling a lot better.


2/20/00 - Sunday rolls around and the course looked great. Much better than the day before as it was very flowing and wide. Definitely more of an "equalizer" course. I had a .2 second cushion over Rick and all I had to do was beat Arie by .2 seconds to take the overall win for the weekend. However when it came down to it I didn't make the cut. My first run was pretty good and it even beat both guys by a VERY small amount. The second run was quicker yet but their second runs were even better which really put the pressure on me. I figured I could make up for it in the first corner and I really went for it. Unfortunately I asked the car to do a little more than what the tires were capable of delivering and I got the car sideways... REALLY sideways. By some act of god I caught the side and kept the car on the line even but I knew that I had already lost. I still drove my hardest until the end but it was my slowest time of the day. The surprising thing was Rick somehow pulled off a superman run and blew by both Arie and myself and ended up taking the overall win for the weekend. The difference between Rick and Arie's times was only .1 second. I think if you added up all our times they ended up being 116.8, 116.9, and 117.3. So when you look at it in that respect I wasn't even close but still I was only .5 second off of top finishing National drivers. I also figured if I just kept my last run smooth the score would have been much closer, not to mention they were driving a full blown car preped car that never sees the street and was wearing Hoosier "autox" tires. I feel that if I had the same tires or and LSD I could have won pretty easily. So it sucks that I lost but it was a learning experience and now I also plan to go to Nationals in September. I'll be on a cruise so there may be a conflict in my schedule. If so I'll definitely make Nationals in 2001!