Man have I ever been slacking when it comes to this site, but I’m back and the 2010 driving season is well underway, so here’s the scoop to date…

The first outing of the season was St. LAC’s traditional test and tune on April 18th. A few of us convoyed down to the Picton airfield that morning for a day of autox fun with our St. LAC brothers and sisters. I was running the same Hankook R-S3 (225/45R15) tires I ran all last season and things were fine. No big surprises except for the normal “rattle the car to death” issues that Picton reveals. In this case, the blow-off valve rattled off, then the throttle body inlet pipe did the same. It was a test and tune, remember? I didn’t pay much attention to times as I was more concerned with finding all the clamps I hadn’t quite tightened enough. Big positive? The brakes remained firmly attached to the car!

My second outing was probably the most highly anticipated — 3 days of lapping at Calabogie Motorsports Park! We started on April 30th and as a CMP newbie, I was assigned to a driving instructor who would show me the line and then “sign me off” to drive solo. I got Canadian Touring Car driver Alex Healy who came showed the ropes as I built up speed over the first couple 20 minute sessions on track with the beginner run group. Alex was great, giving me great tips throughout the lap, but I swear that I made him flinch at the end of Rocky Road as I resisted braking too early. After a couple of sessions, Alex gave me the green light, I thanked him, and off I went to drive CMP solo. During this first day, the track was intimidating with complex corners, tons of elevation change, and some intimidating walls, particularly in turns 1 and 2. In the afternoon, I moved into the advanced group and ran with buddies Rob, Bill, and Physk. Bill, in his boosted Miata was predictably lightning quick and while I could hang with him if I really pushed, I couldn’t lead him. Impressively, Rob in his M3 stayed with us, but Physk’s super-charged NA miata couldn’t. A couple of weeks later, he would purchase an NB Miata with an FM II Turbo Kit.

Day 2 saw us leave the full track layout to run on the East course layout, which felt considerably different because turn 1 now went right instead of left and Deliverance was now a genuine problem spot. I started to get more comfortable and started to get faster, slowly building to Shawn’s pace in his BMW. I figured if he can do it in that car, on those tires, I can do it. I was right… thankfully. Around mid-day, was switched to the West Track, the shortest and fastest layout for a couple of hours. While not as entertaining as the other layouts, some hard braking zones made it exciting, especially in the rain. And believe me, it rained… hard. I did a few laps in the downpour with fellow MCOer Ian before we decided to pull off and take a break. Pulling into my parking spot, we noticed everyone’s stuff was drenched. Luckily, I had my waterproof bags keeping my gear nice and dry. :) As the rain slowed, it was time to return to the East Track. While it continued to rain lightly, by the end of the day, I was able to run top down again. Oddly enough, I seemed to be going faster in the wet than I was going in the dry the day before. Felt pretty good.

Day 3 began on the East Track again. It was hot and sunny and suddenly, I was having to watch my temperature gauge and run with the heater on to keep Ginger from over-heating. It was obvious I was going even faster today as I tried to hang with Steve Fong and had a couple of “moments”. The weekend wrapped-up on the full track with me turning my best laps of the weekend and feeling relaxed enough to check my watch on Rocky Road. :)

I had brand new Toyo R888 tires on (225/45R15) with the standard baseline alignment. The car tended to understeer the whole time and the inner shoulders of the tires took a real beating. They were pretty good in the wet, perturbed only by standing water.

The next event was the Rumble at The Strip — Regional Double Header at the Picton Airfield, hosted by SPDA and St. LAC on May 29 and 30th. This was a terrible weekend for me. In an effort to manage the understeer I felt at CMP, I had altered my alignment a bit to decrease the level of negative camber overall and make the front and rear camber settings equal. Combined with the tire wear from CMP, the grip of the airfield, and the very different conditions (autox vs. lapping), the alignment transformed high-speed understeer to low-speed oversteer. The car would rotate rapidly — great in slow sections — but would tend to want to spin in high-speed sweepers — not good for Picton. I softened the rear shocks and stiffened the front and it made the car drivable. Still, I didn’t make out particularly well netting only the most mediocre times. Still a good time with good friends. The R888 tires looked like hell at this point.

The double header was turned into a long weekend with lapping at Shannonville with St. LAC on May 31st. It was another hot day so managing the car’s water temp was a primary concern. I tried a few different things, but still saw water temperatures as high as 257F. Yikes! Met some guys from miataphiles.ca and took Physk for a ride with me for some valuable feedback. Unfortunately, he had some issues towards the end of the day and had to tow his car home to Cornwall — St. LAC autox fairy Bill to the rescue. A few weeks later, Rob and I headed to Cornwall to help Physk with an engine swap as the car’s motor was done.

We’re now into June and still no MCO event (damn hockey play-offs), but that was to be rectified on June 5th when I drove Jeff’s Protege in MCO Event 1. Ginger was fine, but I was kind of in the middle of a job so rather than rush to reassemble what I would end up disassembling later, I just asked Jeff to co-drive. If someone had told me that going back to a softly sprung, under-powered front wheel drive would have been so hard, I never would have believed them. I was shocked at myself be shocked. I found myself yelling, “Turn, damn it, turn!” Jeff ended up being quicker on the day, which was appropriate, but I wasn’t too far off at only half a second behind. MCO 2010 – Event 1 Results

With no MCO event until late June, I was happy to have session scheduled at Shannonville the evening of June 25th with the guys from midnightruns.com (thanks to Greg and Carey for organizing). In addition to my regular partners in crime, Jeff (Protege2886) and Pat (condor888000), we also had Kevin (Karmaboy) heading down for the 2 hour session. I ran at wastegate boost (7psi) to avoid any over-heating, which worked beautifully aside from hurting my straight line speed. Still I managed decent lap times with a few onlookers indicating that I was among the quickest three cars out there. My best lap was a 2:06.295, which is way off anything that could be considered “fast”, but I was pleased given how poorly the car was handling with over-steer in just about every phase of every corner — I think my R888 are done. This outing was also my first with the AiM MXL and SmartyCam. I think the video speaks for itself regarding the coolness of those two gadgets.

Jeff had a bit of drama that night with a dramatic off-course excursion into the very muddy grass. Luckily, car and driver were unaffected. It was good to see Jeff maintain his aggression after that off. I guess is sense of self-preservation is waning.

June 27 brought with it MCO Event 2 at Scotia Bank Place. Ginger was back in action and the course was a fun one. However, it was becoming more and more apparent that the R888s were done as I continued to battle over-steer throughout the event. Still, I managed 5th in class, although the time was nothing to write home about. At the end of the day, I gave the car to our favourite Canadian Tire service manager for a fun run. I figured it would be good to determine whether the over-steer was in fact the car or just my driving. Ralf enjoyed the drift-fest that ensued and agreed that the car had no rear end grip. At least it wasn’t me!

MCO Event 3 came up the very next weekend on July 4th. I offered Jeff a drive in Ginger so he could help be burn-off the R888s. He agreed and had a good time, although I felt bad as the car was downright evil. Evil enough that I spun it three times on one run! Suffice it to say that I didn’t rank well, but Jeff kept pace, about 1 second behind. The tires were done and they were coming off. MCO 2010 – Event 3 Results

Given the handling issues I had been experiencing, I wanted to minimize the variables at play so rather than mount the brand new Hankook R-S3 I had at home, the R888 were replaced with the very well worn set of Hankooks I used last season. With them mounted and the alignment returned to settings I liked last year, I headed out for two hours of evening lapping at CMP on July 9th. It had been pouring on the drive up the track was drenched and greasy, but still the Hankooks restored Ginger to the happy fun-loving, do anything car I loved. Gone was the evil demon threatening to spit me out of every corner ass end first (yippee!). I guess the R888 required fundamentally softer rear suspension set-up. Further vindication came as Christian (eyemaster), a longtime R888 driver, was funding his car had gone to crazy oversteer with his new, stiffer suspension.

Laptimes weren’t great given the wet and my worn rubber, but it was still a blast. In particular was a dice with Greg (1morelap) in his Mustang. Greg had completed a big CMP-organized lapping event the week before and had clearly gotten faster.

No rest for the wicked as Pat and I left for Peterborough the next day in preparation for the July 11th Regional Series Event at Kawartha Downs and Speedway. Thanks to Greg, who despite living in Peterborough, drives hundreds of kilometres to come to MCO events. Going to this event, which he was organizing, was the least we could do, particularly as he offered us a place to sleep the night before. It was almost as hot as Event 3, which was a scorcher and for the first time, I drove with the top up on a dry day. Having the A/C on made it quite comfortable, but I still felt weird until I put the top down around the junction between highways 7 and 37.

The event itself was very interesting with the course set-up on what appeared to be a quarter-mile, banked oval track. This made it even hotter, kinda of like standing in an oven. Thankfully, the event went smoothly and the driving was fun. With Ginger back to being her old self,  I pushed and managed to win my class (STU) by nearly 2 seconds, PAXed 2nd overall, and landed 5th overall in raw times, albeit nearly 2.5 seconds back. Thanks to Greg and the Peterborough Motor Sports Club for putting on a great event. PMSC Regional results can be found here: Raw Times, PAX, Run Times By Class

That brings us to now and the upcoming MCO-CADL Inter-Provincial Cup Event on July 18th. Can’t wait! And yes, I’ll keep up the site… I promise.