Nothing worse than knocking yourself out of 2nd place by making a kamikaze final run...

Chasing last years national champion was fun. I didn't think the challenger would come anywhere close to being competitive with a very well dialed camaro but she held her own. Now if the driver was a bit better.

Car likes being run with a full tank. Not sure if it is weight or fuel slosh that makes it loose in the rear. Ran just under a 1/2 tank and the rear end was everywhere saturday. Full tank sunday had much better rear grip.

Hotter it is, the lower tire pressure it takes for the front to grip. Usually run the hankooks at 37.5/36. With heat index of 105 sunday, ended up with 36/35 for the best runs.

I need to learn to calm down when i'm down on time. Being all spun out before a run isn't doing me any good. Got to remember that it's me vs the course no matter what others are running.

Feeling more confident going into nationals. Every time out is a learning experience.

Great job Chris!
What tires does the Camaro run?

Yeah nothing to hang your head about there at all man. It seems you cant "force" a good run by trying harder. I used to slalom water ski and was told by a 2 time world champ once...."be smooth, no matter what, always be smoooooth...." and I think it applies to all timed events as well lol!

Top 3 were on hankooks, mustang on re71 and Buick was on rivals.

Actually my 2 fastest runs were sideways and out of control. I coasted the finish both my best runs cause i thought i blew the run. The smooth runs sure felt better in the car. I still have a lot way to go as a driver

One thing I do, and it seems to help me anyway, is to take my first lap as smooth as possible, and as I do, look for maybe 2 or three spots on the whole track where driving harder might be faster. The next laps I try and stay smooth everywhere but push harder in those 2 or 3 spots.

I have no room to give any advice, but I have not forgotten advice I have been given lol! Chris the runs I saw you make personally were completely drama free, like way smooth. Then I saw the times and was like "WHAAAAT?",, DuDE is faaast!

I always use my first run as my safe, clean run. Get to know the course a bit and see how the car is responding. Each run after i try and go a bit deeper into a corner or get tighter on the cones. I don't know what happened sunday. They had a wiggle in the course that was gated with cones and i was just sure i could run it flat out even though no one else had succeeded before me. Once i killed that cone i just kinda let it all hang out sense the run didn't matter. I need to drive with a bit more gusto sooner in the runs if i'm going to play with the big boys.

It's funny. I have 2 buddies with awd mod cars. One drives like he is on fire and his first run is usually his fastest. It is intense to ride with him because it just feels so violent and fast. The other guy is smooth as silk and there is no drama ever. He is like a surgeon on the course. Both run similar times with such drastically different driving styles. I'd like to find a middle ground somewhere between them.

day1 vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R_brEvM0-E

day2 vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIYjHnrtrEM

right on! smooth isn't necessarily fast when you have to sabotage rear grip for rotation. ESPECIALLY AWD/FWD.

I have made it a point this year to NOT be conservative and slow on the first run. This does two things, it expands my idea of the capability of car/myself and QUICKLY confirms the the right way around the elements. e.g. you don't know what you cant do unless you do it and you don't know what works until you do it with aggression... seriously this season I'm pushing <8/10ths on the first run. Now that i KNOW the right way around i try to clean it up on 2, spin it to win it on 3. runs past that are icing. The confirmation of a would be winning scratch time that was possible to bring it home clean is hugely rewarding.

Check out the old timers/club veterans where there is barely a 1/2 second between their and first and last. They walk it once (maybe) and then let it rip. besides the big races are 3 and out.

Just don't be *that guy* to completely wreck the course on the first element only to keep going 10/10ths and bowl down 6 more. its as bad as hitting a cone after a red flag... as a worker i hate that guy.

We were discussing the "last run kamikaze cone killers" when we were working the course. I barely touched a cone the first runs but never stopped shagging the last run. Must be a nebraska thing...lol.

If his first run is the fastest and his intense and violent approach doesn't net any faster results through the day, he is overdriving the tires.



This approach will also allow him to post consistent times throughout the day. If this was an eliminations style event, this guy would go deeper into the rounds than the first guy. At the end of it all, probably saves him some on the tire bill too.

I'm not typically a cone magnet but you need to be CLOSE to cones to be fast and occasionally that means you backside too much and chip a couple out or miss your brake zone by a little. If your not hitting cones, you're more than likely adding distance and therefore time.

Before I would take 2-3 runs to get my head out of my butt and by run 5 I had it figured out and reasonably quick. I would creep up to a fast run as I solved each section. going faster sooner speeds up that process. Weird right? drive faster = go faster.

YMMV