E Street Report from Darlington

This weekend I officially kicked off the hunt for the 2015 season replacement for the Mazdaspeed Miata.  I was co-driving a stock 2001 Miata owned by my friend Kyle, who chairs the autocross program for our region and who has been finishing a solid second ahead of me at each event all season.  

Kyle and I were taking turns knocking out a lot of cones, but he was still consistently about 1 second faster all day.  We each slowed down a little bit to bring the 4th run of our 5 total in without hitting any cones and I wound up with a top time good for 3rd place in ES of 35.8 second.  

During fun runs I knew I could at least match Kyle's best time.  The first fun run I ran about the same as earlier at a 35.5.  Time to keep the right foot down more.  I overcooked the back half of the course and lost a lot of time, no improvement.  I pulled past the timing van and could see Kyle leaning out the window "Do it again!" and it seemed the whole SCR crew was egging me on. Alright, one more.  I lined up at start, focused down through the first stretch of cones and floored it.  This time I managed to keep my right foot down through more of the course and nailed the back stretch to come across the line in 34.2!  Bam! There's the time I needed to see.

After 6 events I'm solidly in 3rd place in ES even though fun runs are showing a pace much quicker than the official points would suggest.  Must keep driving.  Keep learning.  Keep the right foot down!

At Cars and Coffee last weekend I met a father and son who had a Mini Cooper S and I let them know about the Darlington event and encouraged them to come check it out.  Sure enough, they showed up bright and early and jumped right into the mix, getting numbers taped on the car and walking the course.  They both did really well in the novice class and said they were absolutely hooked and would have to come out again.  It was pretty cool to help other people find the sport that the NMS team also has gotten thoroughly addicted to since our first event right there at Darlington almost 2 years ago!  Looking forward to seeing the little blue car out there at the future events.

I took a quick break from running timing inside the van just in time to take a shot of the Abarth crossing the finish line.

G Street Report From Darlington

Today was a fun autocross event held at Darlington Raceway, and I'll just have to emphasize the FUN part because it seems that almost everyone in my class was driving faster today! You name it, Ford Fiesta ST, Ford Focus ST, Honda Civic Si, and a VW Golf GTI, they all went faster than I did. With just a few more points on the day, I'm solidly in 3rd place for the year.

 Oh well, here's a few photos that can be good without being fast! You can find more photos on our NMS Flickr page, linked over there on the right.

Among the cool cars that were driving today were a Dodge Viper, a Lotus Exige, an old Volvo wagon, a kart, about a bazillion Miatas, and one other FIAT Abarth in addition to mine!

Also this nice old Porsche:

Maybe you like the look of an old Lotus 7 type of car:

I felt like I was improving with each run, and for the first 4 that was true as I knocked off a few tenths per run, so while I ended up nearly last in my class, out of all 79 drivers I still managed the 31st fastest PAX time, so well into the faster half of the field.

Here is Brian heading out for one of his runs in Kyle Ray Smith's Miata, and I imagine he'll be posting more info and photos on how his day went over in the E Street class.

Dead Man's Curve Update: PAVEMENT!

 

 

It's been a few weeks since we showed you the current state of a safety upgrade on Rimer Pond Road.. AKA...Dead Man's Curve Part 1, the section I call Dead Man's Curve, so let's take a look at how it looks now.  The first photo is from right near where I live, just a little reminder that it takes months to make these kinds of changes to roads, but in the end the increased safety should make it all worth it.

Starting in the east, we're going to walk westward (like Columbus sailing the ocean blue) down the graded dirt path, and just maybe we'll find some new fresh pavement along the way! Remember that we're heading downhill here, and up ahead you can see that there has been more grading and clearly showing where the future pavement will be. The old road was straight ahead on the right, close to the tree line. The port-o-let probably won't be permanent!

Ahh, freshly graded dirt!  Great for walking and running on. Judging by the tire tracks, a few of the locals have been driving thru here too. Everybody wants to drive on a new road!

 Still going downhill, approaching what will be a kinder gentler curve, instead of the previous abrupt almost 90 degree tight bend. Safer, faster, smoother, sounds like a new razor from Gillete!

Since we're approaching from farther to the left, yep, it will be a smoother curve, and probably result in cars able to go faster here. As long as the road is designed the right way, faster can be safer...otherwise I guess the national speed limit on interstates would only be 10 MPH.

AHOY....PAVEMENT AHEAD CAP'N!!!!!!!!!!

 

You can see above that the construction guys have parked their vehicles like this on the weekend to prevent traffic from coming thru here. Not 100% effective, and I'll show you why in a few more photos when a driver snuck up on me! Up ahead you'll see the new pavement!

(cue DREAM SEQUENCE music, as the following image appears.....)


Artist's concept for a new Formula 1 race, the
BLYTHEWOOD GRAND PRIX OF SOUTH CAROLINA!

(fade out dream sequence music, return to regular blog post....)

Right about here we're at the lowest part of the section, heading uphill. The corner up ahead is still going to be partially blind, meaning we can't see all what's coming up. Can you smell the ashphalt?

A quick glance to the right shows you the small lake close to the road. Scenic view while I'm walking, but not recommended for viewing while driving a tricky bit of road.

At the top of the hill, we have an improved view of the next curve to the right!  The old road is now over on our left.

 A quick look to the left as we go by the church. I guess they will have to extend their driveway since the road is now farther away.

Just over the hill and now we can see the end of the construction zone...and the day I was taking this photo was 1 day BP (Before Pavement) right about here the guy kicking up dust came up from all the new road we just walked. Not sure how he got his SUV and trailer thru the tractor that was blockinthe road, but he did it!

Day 1 AP (After Pavement)

The latest word I've seen is that the road will open again in October, so that will certainly make life a lot easier for those of us that have been taking the detour for several months.  At least the guy that cut thru the construction zone put the "ROAD CLOSED" barriers back in place after he went through!


One last look back, and yes Virginia, there is new pavement down there!