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Ben & I had a great time on the Targa Southland this past weekend. I highly recommend it if y'all ever get the chance to participate. We left Birmingham about 1030am Thursday for Charlotte. Friday included an autocross at ZMax Dragway and a Track Night at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the new Roval configuration. Other than a handful of TGPR worker laps Ben had never been on a racetrack. He's got a knack for it for sure and he set our fastest top speed of the weekend with a GPS-measured 124mph entering NASCAR turn 3.
Ben Autocross Run
Rod Autocross Run (less than 2/10ths from the Road & Track Civic Type R which is more powerful & 500 pounds lighter)
Ben on track
Track Night wrapped up about 830pm local time and we headed to Gainesville GA getting to the hotel just before midnight. Saturday started off with a Time Trial at AMP. Ben ran the first untimed session and then I ran for time. Unfortunately at AMP we learned about intercooler heat soak which crippled my attempts to keep up with the Type R and GTI that were leading our class.
After the TT we had a Road Rally through northwest Georgia. Never done anything like that before and it was fun. We learned to really pay attention to the questions, but we did not get lost! The rally ended about 230-ish Eastern and then we hit the road for Memphis.
I wasn't sure what to expect with Memphis International Raceway, a dragstrip with a road course section that winds back to the start of the strip, but we really enjoyed it. I tried my best (123.8 mph) but couldn't quite get to Ben's top speed at Charlotte.
Ben's laps at Memphis
The final competition event was a trackcross, basically the fastest autocross you can imagine. They used no cones, start was at the end of the dragstrip and then we ran the road course back to finish. There were cones for the track near the finish that caught a few cars and going off track was a DNF. We really need to try something like this at TGPR sometime.
Ben trackcross
Rod trackcross (again, less that 2/10ths off the Civic Type R)
We arrived home putting over 1600 miles on the Ecostang and already looking forward to next year!
We finished third in Stock 2 behind the Road & Track Civic Type R and a Mk 7 GTI. We were right with them a the autocross and trackcross but the heat soak issue crippled us at AMP. Our biggest gap to the leaders was the Road Rally. We've never done one before and weren't on the lookout for spelling differences and other rally master tricks.
Ben Autocross Run
Rod Autocross Run (less than 2/10ths from the Road & Track Civic Type R which is more powerful & 500 pounds lighter)
Ben on track
Track Night wrapped up about 830pm local time and we headed to Gainesville GA getting to the hotel just before midnight. Saturday started off with a Time Trial at AMP. Ben ran the first untimed session and then I ran for time. Unfortunately at AMP we learned about intercooler heat soak which crippled my attempts to keep up with the Type R and GTI that were leading our class.
After the TT we had a Road Rally through northwest Georgia. Never done anything like that before and it was fun. We learned to really pay attention to the questions, but we did not get lost! The rally ended about 230-ish Eastern and then we hit the road for Memphis.
I wasn't sure what to expect with Memphis International Raceway, a dragstrip with a road course section that winds back to the start of the strip, but we really enjoyed it. I tried my best (123.8 mph) but couldn't quite get to Ben's top speed at Charlotte.
Ben's laps at Memphis
The final competition event was a trackcross, basically the fastest autocross you can imagine. They used no cones, start was at the end of the dragstrip and then we ran the road course back to finish. There were cones for the track near the finish that caught a few cars and going off track was a DNF. We really need to try something like this at TGPR sometime.
Ben trackcross
Rod trackcross (again, less that 2/10ths off the Civic Type R)
We arrived home putting over 1600 miles on the Ecostang and already looking forward to next year!
We finished third in Stock 2 behind the Road & Track Civic Type R and a Mk 7 GTI. We were right with them a the autocross and trackcross but the heat soak issue crippled us at AMP. Our biggest gap to the leaders was the Road Rally. We've never done one before and weren't on the lookout for spelling differences and other rally master tricks.
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