May Autocross Report with NEW TIRES!

Did NMS just buy a classic Porsche 911? 
Nope. This is someone else's car at the Darlington autocross. 

It is now the month of May. Many people say it's the Merry Month of May, but I think they're just big fans of the letter M. Like James Bond's boss, you know, "M."

NMS Porsche Cayman: 2nd in B Street.

Anyway, after a bunch of autocross events and six track days, the Continental tires wore out, so NMS is now happy to be competing on Hankook RS4 tires. Out of the last five different sets of tires we've tried, the Hankooks lasted the longest by far, so we're looking for an excellent return on investment here. Or maybe they'll just last longer! The Continentals wore pretty well, but it looks like my car could use more negative camber to get more mileage out of the tires. The Contis were great in the wet too. 

Saying goodbye to these Continental tires. 

So, with the new tires, we headed to the first event of the year with the South Carolina Region of the Sports Car Club of America down at the parking lot of Darlington Raceway. This was where NMS started autocrossing, and it's the first autocross by the SCR for a few years too. 

There were just a few bits of rain when I got to the Darlington Speedway, and about as quickly as I put on a rain jacket it stopped, so the little bit of rain had no impact on the driving. The course was basically a series of slaloms, a big turnaround sweeper at the far end, and then some more slaloms and offsets coming straight back, including the world's largest Chicago Box bunch of cones. Mostly this event was fun just to be back at Darlington, and running with the South Carolina Region again!

After six runs on a very nice day, NMS came home in 2nd place out of 3 cars in B Street. A Honda Civic R took the victory, with a 2000 Porsche 911 in 3rd place. On the good news side, I was less than half a second behind 1st place, with my best time on the final run of the day. That always feels good to improve all day. 

Porsche 911: 3rd place in B Street

My best time came with lower tire pressures in the afternoon, the traction control turned off, and a different approach to the big sweeper turn. Unofficially I took 20th fastest time out of 70 drivers, so not too bad. There's always somebody faster out there!

Honda Civic: 1st place in B Street. 

The South Carolina Region has five more events scheduled for the year, so we've got them on the schedule!

Lotus cars always look cool!