NMS Returns to the Winners Circle

FIRE!

Not FIRE, NMS #77. 

Driving with the Triad Sports Car Club at the First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro NC, the NMS #77 took first place in B Street class from five other drivers! The Cayman took on the "Toyota GR" army of a Toyota GR Supra, and two GR Corollas, as well as another Porsche and a Corvette, so it was a good day of competition. At a lot of autocross events there might only be one or two cars in my class, so having six of us out there added to the competition level. 

Who doesn't love a purple Mustang!

Out of the 68 drivers, NMS came home in 21st fastest actual RAW time, and 20th on the adjusted PAX time. That comes out to about the 70th percentile, so our best time of the year with the TRIAD club. My goals for this year have been to finish in the top 50% on both RAW and PAX, so this was pretty good for the #77. 

This Jeep Cherokee was very fast!

Fueled by another round of NMS homemade lunch, the team Chief of Nutrition believes that the "crunchy" peanut butter, combined with a new homemade NMS Peach Jam recipe really made the difference. Unlike a previous experiment that got the steering wheel all messy, the Nutrition team really came through this time, and put the ingredients in between two slices of bread! This new food from the NMS Nutrition Department of Future Foodstuffs says it is what scientists call a "sandwich." This new to us configuration is sure to be a hit, so try it in your garage with your team!

The McLaren orange hat is out because while we were autocrossing, Lando Norris of McLaren was starting on pole and winning the F1 race in Hungary. He's the defending champion, but this was his first win of this year. Hey, I won my class and he won his race! We have a lot in common! Well, minus the salary, fame, and fortune part that only Lando has! Oh well, I bought a hat. 

Speaking of orange, I worked on course with Joey here, and his Nissan 350Z was quick!

On a tight and technical course, the NMS team saw top speeds of only 43.5mph, so there was a lot of tricky driving out there. Sometimes on autocross courses the set-up might be a lot more wide open and we see top speeds of 60, but not today. This type of course might favor the smaller and more maneuverable cars, and we can look at the fastest times of the day  and see that the top three were set by a Miata, then a Scion FR-S, and third place was taken by a GMC Syclone pickup! Well, maybe plain old horsepower and having a good driver helps too!

Let's go to the video of the fastest NMS run of the day: 

NMS FAST RUN ON YOUTUBE LINK

This version of the Toyota Celica with the wing always looks cool to me for some reason. They make a great birthday present...

I believe this is a Club Edition of the Miata, comes with the groovy Brembo brakes. This driver John had put these slick after market Enkei wheels on it too.

Following the competition, the #77 was cooling down, and the chief engineer came up with a new cooling package, by taking the leaf blower that we use to clear the course in the morning, and firing it up to high and aiming it right at the front radiators. This worked great, and was inspired by seeing Formula 1 teams do the exact same thing. Since this was the first time the team had tried this upgrade, there was a "teachable moment" incident, when the unattended leaf blower slipped away from the car, and while still blowing full blast, proceeded to race along the downhill pavement about 10 yards! There were no injuries, and we just might start a new form of LEAF BLOWER RACING! Watch for it on ESPN 8, THE OCHO!!!!!!

NMS tries out the Formula 1 team trick of cooling the car by aiming a leaf blower into the radiator. How about that for technology!

Here in the Carolinas we just had a few days of lots of rain, which was a good thing, so it was great to stay dry and not get too hot during this autocross event!

End of the day awards time!

This handy magnet was my trophy for 1st place in BS class.