Motorsports
Table of Contents
2024 Overview
This year I’m going to be competing in two local clubs’ autocross series: Oregon Region SCCA and Bridge City Autosports. In the ORSCCA, I’ll be running the 2011 C6 Corvette in the B Street class. In Bridge City Autosports, I’ll be running the 2004 350Z in the D Street Prepared class.
2024 Preparation
The 350Z is in a very good spot in terms of prep for the 2024 season. I just recently swapped on the 18x10.5” Enkei RPF1 wheels & 285/30R18 Bridgestone RE-71RS tires. Running in the first BCA event, the car felt great. It’s been five years since I last ran the Z in an autocross and a lot has changed since then. The Swift Spec-R constant rate springs lowered the car about an inch, and the combination of square wheel/tire configuration along with the significant increase in tire footprint - combined with an aggressive autocross-focused alignment meant that understeer was pretty much eliminated. I spent a lot of time trying to push the car to the point of losing front grip, and even in the cold weather with non-optimal surface conditions, the car just kept turning. I will need to get much more comfortable with adding more throttle with the Z this year. At some point in the next couple of months, I will need to get the new power steering cooler and oil cooler installed, and then it will be ready for track days.
As of this writing, the Corvette is with Jeff at Kaioti Motorsports Dynamics getting the clutch replaced and a set of RE-71RS. The noise the car had been making was verified as being from the pilot bearing. Unfortunately, it also destroyed the torque tube. I was able to find a replacement low-mileage torque tube from All American Classics in Vancouver, and dropped it off with Jeff. With any luck, the car will be complete this week in time for the first SCCA events of 2024 March 9 & 10, this coming weekend.
2023 Event Results
SCCA Event 16 - 10/21/2023 - Corvette
- I came in 50th overall out of 99 drivers (103 registered).
- I ran Time-Only
- Video of my runs here
- Note: this was the only event I ran in 2023. The Corvette had 3 year old Falken RT-660s and a street alignment, so it was fairly handicapped and I was pretty rusty.
2024 Event Results
BCA Event 1 - 02/25/2024 - 350Z
Highlights:
- 350Z ran in D Street Prepared
- Best performance I’ve ever had at an autocross before.
- Fastest PAX run
Oregon Region SCCA Event 1 03/09/2024 - Oregon Region SCCA Event 2 03/10/2024
Highlights:
- Corvette ran in B Street. I was the only person in B street not running ProPAX. Starting to second guess my selection of Corvette and running in Street. Even if I went to SST (?) I would be in a super class by myself, I think. I’ll have to double check. This might necessitate me switching to ProPAX eventually since there’s a couple of advantages - primarily I could run the Z and still be able to earn points in class if I’m understanding it correctly.
- Event 1 I ended up 25th in PAX
- Event 2 I ended up 28th in PAX
- Both days were wet, however the first day I ran in the afternoon after the course had dried out a bit. The second day, I ran in the morning when things were still very cold and wet.
- Fastest event 1 PAX run
- Fastest event 2 PAX run
BCA Event 2 03/23/2024
Highlights:
- There was 3 people in NS2 this time around. I was able to take first in the last run by dropping 1.5 seconds off my time. I had a passenger on this run as well, and it had stopped raining. Not sure if the extra weight helped balance the car
- I think I ended up 38th overall PAX, 5th in my run group, 1st in my supergroup.
- Fastest event 2 run
