Tweet
It's similar, but with 284 people trying to run. Moving through grid is tedious. I think you have to work an hour for each three runs you buy, but I'm not sure. Just be ready to go at 11 and get three runs in early.
-
Rod H
Bringing a knife to a gun fight. -
- Jerry Ledford
'16 Ram 2500 Big Horn - daily driver / tow vehicleComment
-
It' real now. 21 in ES lol should be fun. Haven't ran a true autox in...eh 6 months.. Let's do it.Originally posted by jledford View PostHeath Patterson
"Look...both....It's like turbo." - CComment
-
And you get to go second out of the 21!Originally posted by HPEVOX View Post
- Jerry Ledford
'16 Ram 2500 Big Horn - daily driver / tow vehicleComment
-
So, go on! Let's hear how it all went?Nick StoneComment
-
I'll start with the ones I can remember. There were lot's of good showings from all the Alabama regions (ALSCCA, TAC/TVR, Wiregrass):
- Charles Krampert - won BS
- Chris Sparks - 3rd CS (trophy)
- Dennis Sparks - won DS
- Jordan Towns - 2nd DS (trophy)
- Clay McCool - 4th DS (trophy)
- Mark Canekeratne - won FS
- Wes Hughson - 4th STR (trophy)
- Nathan Gordon - 6th STR (trophy)
- Jesse Waymire - won FP
- Steve Brolliar - 2nd HS (trophy)
- Matthew Brower - 3rd SMF (trophy)
- Jerry Ledford - won STU
STU ran in the 1st heat so we got to be part of the course cleaners for the rest of the groups both days.
Saturday started out fairly cold but by the time of my first run I had taken my jacket off and was in a t-shirt. Rod was my co-driver and went out first. He left a good bit on the table on his first run but cold tires and being about the 8th car out in the morning will do that. The rest of the run group went and then on to 2nd drivers. My first run on Saturday with the little bit of warmth in the tires from Rod's run put me up into 1st by a decent margin. The 2nd runs in STU saw the Sti clean up his first run and dropped my time by ~1 full second and the Vette dropped my time by 0.5 seconds. When my second run came around I was able to drop about 0.6 off of the Sti putting me back in 1st. As 3rd runs started I was watching all the times to see what I would need to do on my 3rd run. As the cars ran the Vette got faster but was still 0.5 behind my 2nd run and the Sti came across much slower than before. So my 3rd run on Saturday ended up being a bit of a free run / Saturday victory lap. I went out and put together one of my best runs only to hit a cone I hadn't even thought about all day. It was a dumb mistake and cost me what would have been my best run of the day by over 0.6 seconds. So at the end of Saturday I had a 0.499 lead which is great, but that last run could have given me a lead of over 1 second going into Sunday.
Sunday started earlier so the temps were colder and it was incredibly windy all day. Rod went out on his 1st run and put down a good time that gave him the quickest first run of STU and let me know there was more out there. I went out on my 1st run thinking I would have similar traction to the previous day because Rod had already warmed the tires some. I was wrong and when I shift to 2nd off of Sunday's straight drag race start the car went sidways and I about drifted through the first element. This got me off line and behind and the tail was sliding out a lot. I came back with a raw time that would have matched Rod but had 2 cones in the process. The Vette was only 0.3 behind Rod and took the lead for both days because of my cones. The Sti was dirty on his first run as well. On the second round the Vette and Sti both improved their times which dropped me to 3rd when combining the times of both days before my 2nd run. I knew I needed a clean run but also needed to improve my scratch time from the first run. I was able to go out and put down a run that gave me the lead again by 0.049s when combining Sat and Sun times. So the Vette and Sti were still faster on Sunday at this point but my Saturday margin was helping (and I was wishing my last run from Sat had been clean so I would have had another 0.6s to add to that gap). Again I was able to watch all the other STU cars do their 3rd runs. The Vette improved his time by ~0.3 seconds and was back in the lead by around a quarter of a second. The Sti coned his run and was out of a chance to win. As I was prepping for my 3rd run Clay told me to just get in the car and started thinking about what I needed to do. This was very helpful. I know Rod and the others were doing the math on their phones and knew the exact time I needed to run to win. I knew where I could gain some time and just had to put together a clean run. I went out and improved the first 2 spots I had planned before the turn around but ended up with probably my worst slalom of the day, then came through the finish kink better than before. I looked up at the time and I had dropped over 0.7s off my time. This gave me the fastest STU time for day 2 by 0.037s and gave me the win for the weekend by 0.536s. I think Rod said I also wiggled 3 cones on that run but they all got waved off.
It was a crazy battle with Matt Colley in the Vette and he gave me all I could handle on day 2. I never felt as comfortable with the course on day 2 as day 1 but was lucky enough to put together the run I needed to take the win.
I got my trophy hat, but it's too close to Tennessee orange to wear in public so I'll be putting it on the shelf at home with the other hats and shirts from my National events.
I think for PAX for the weekend I ended up somewhere in the 50s. Not bad for over 280 entrants but could have been better had we run later in the day.Attached Files- Jerry Ledford
'16 Ram 2500 Big Horn - daily driver / tow vehicleComment
-
In addition to the folks Jerry mentioned, Miles Crabbe made the trip for his first Champ Tour and John Allen codrove Steve Saunders' Vette in AS for his first Tour event. Heath was there is ES, Mike & Josh Cavanaugh in CS, Jeff & Max Appelbaum in STX for their first big event in the Mini, Gabe Ward in SSM.
Jerry's car was pretty much perfect all weekend. Errors in braking zones cost me my 3rd runs both days, and I clipped the last $%^# cone on course on my Sunday second run. I should have finished higher, but I am fairly satisfied given it was my first serious autocross since the Wilmington Tour in July.Rod H
Bringing a knife to a gun fight.Comment
-
Congrats to everyone bringing home hardware! Sounds like it was a fun trip. As I always say, maybe I'll make it next year!Nick StoneComment
-
Comment