How'd it go?

 

Lots of dirt on this one.

Chiles won GS, Minis took 1st and 2nd in STX (Well done - OasisT (2nd) in a very underprepared car). Craig could probably expand on the details of the competition.

Now for the interesting part. Apparently the course was too fast for a "legel" solo 2 course and Carpenter (GS Celica) protested it, the protest comittee upheld the ruling and the verdict was that Sunday's runs would be thrown out and the event would be based on Saturday's times. But whether that is the final word is much up in the air at this point. More here.

Jake

 

Wow they didn't tell us about the possibility of throwing out Sundays results! Thats really not fair for alot of people and i think especially OasisT as i don't think he held 2nd after day 1 (i'm really not sure, bimmer might have got him). But OasisT drove his **** off on day two. I'm reading through that thread you posted right now and i remember seeing alot of the event officials going into a meeting right before trophies into the sweep car and i thought it was a bit strange as everything was delayed for a long time.

BTW, along with MINI's taking 1st and 2nd in STX. They were both NAM members..... I'll let you guess who the other was

 

Judging by your location and the smiley, I'd say it was you!!

Good Job and congratulations on your win!

Jake

 

Thanx, OasisT and the two drivers in the 330i really put the push on and honestly i think OasisT would have taken the win since he had some faster runs but coned on them. Also that whole team running that car in GS and STX while changing out the front suspension mid day to be able to compete was incredible. The car was more setup for GS than STX which Wayland(hope i spelled that right) said, so OasisT said it was basically a bit too tail happy for STX.

 

Here are some pics i took:







In the pits:





G-Stock





Grid:



Wayland(i think hehe):

 

Thanks for the MINI-centric scoop. I caught wind of the protest chucking Sunday. . . was wondering how the challenge would effect people here. That would suck for Craig.

Congrats nonetheless. Hope to see a bunch of you in DC.

 

I had a .18 margin on Saturday and stepped it up to my normal game on Sunday, to take HS by, I think, 1.8 seconds.

Per

 

Let us not forget Jodi Bradley who took first in GSL in her
'06 MCS.

 

Yup the GS and HS cars were going incredibly fast! Blowing away many faster cars.

 

Congrats to Jodi "doesn't-drive-like-a-girl" Bradley and "smoken-run" Per who found that nitrous button hidden somewhere in his car

TomA

 

The 2 courses were great, even if Sunday's course was "too fast". In honesty though, I held 3rd all the way on the second half and was flying! Chiles had me by 24 thousands after Saturday, and if it wasn't for that tapped slalom cone I would have had him by 4 tenths on Sunday's course. Ohh well, next time I'll get him. Congrats to him though for being a second faster than anyone else Sunday. Also congrats to Thameth on his win, and holding off Craig (OasisT). Craig was running my GS car with 2 leaking Leda's up front, but just couldn't quite put down the crazy good time he usually does. Thameth did run great both days.

Finally congrats to Per for his great HS performance and all the ladies that ran. I really didn't get to watch HS or GSL run much though. My co-driver Waylen (waymotorworks.com) and I swapped the fronts during 2nd heat for Craig, which was fun in the 80+ degree weather (not that I'm complaining since it was 80 degrees warmer than where I drove from). Don't think we'll be doing that again, WAY to much work. All in all it was a great weekend and I can't wait to see everyone in San Diego.

 

Thanks, it's been about 6 years since my last tour win, so that was overdue. I was tickled pink with how my wife Kim did in HS open...vying for third at one point, but wound up 4th. Maybe next time!

Per

 

Just walked in from the trip home. Man, what a bunch of BS! Not going to expand too much on my thoughts on the protest other than saying that the course was completely safe, and, the protest being upheld is a complete shame with no proof that anyone exceeded 75mph. Also, they shouldn't have thrown the results out after the event, thats a joke.

Anyway, all the GS guys were FLYIN both days, Jensen/Chiles really laid it down on Saturday as well as Sunday, its too bad that cone fell for Jensen, that would have been one heckuva come back with that National Championship caliber performance by Jensen/Chiles. Great comeback for Tom Austin for pulling out 3rd. Per looks extremely fast as well in HS. Thameth just flat out beat me in STX, I felt that I drove OK saturday and Sunday I felt great with what I had, but, I just couldn't catch him, so, my hats off to Thameth for taking the win in STX. His car isn't real prepped for STX either, he needs the JCW kit! :-)

I definitely want to thank Waylen and Matt for swapping the leda/Camber plates on the front for both days, I would have gotten beaten badly without those I'm sure. Also, thanks to Matt for loaning me his car, that was extremely cool. Just take it easy on me in San Diego!! :-)

Craig Wilcox

 

Craig,

So far according to everything on SCCA website there is nothing saying that sundays times have been thrown out. They also have a "Final" results posted and it includes sundays run including you in 2nd place. Its very important since for MINI contingency money it will only pay to 2nd place because we didn't have 10 competitors in the class, only 9.

So it looks like the position you deserve will stand.

And wow i just noticed othe than the one 42 Subaru i think i was the only other Falken tire car in the class......

And thanx Craig, it was great meeting you and racing with you, your a great competitor. Have you run at Nationals before? In a prepped car you probably would have whooped us all. And i'm not too sure about the whole JCW in STX thing, it just doesn't seem fair to us normal MCS owners. The too cars don't deserve to be in the same class, but that might be a debate for another thread(still reading through some of the other ones).

 

I was 6th at Nats last year in GS. I had top time on the north course, but, coned during drying conditions on day 1, otherwise, if I'd ran the same time that I did on day 2, I would have won by .2 or so I think. Thats a lot of if's though, anything can happen with pressure I realize so who knows.

On the JCW in STX, yeah, its real tough for regular MCS's, they basically have no chance with equal drivers. you can legally add the dealer kit though, so, if you ever decide to, you can easily do so. Its just too bad its $5K+ though.

Anyway, great driving and nice to meet you.

Craig

 

Also has anybody seen pictures from the event posted online anywhere? Would be a real shame if no pro photographers were out there.

 

I think SCCA might have to rethink the whole JCW STX thing and they might eventually exclude it from STX before nats. Though i understand that in STX a full prepped JCW would probably more competition to the prepped WRX's which dominated last year. It just leaves us MCS owners left out in the cold.

 

I'll post some shortly, although, the problem is, I don't have a 300mm lens yet. So, they will be off my 24-70mm lens. here are some of the pics that Ian Stewart Hosted for me to show the size of the course. He'll be posting more later I think.

Craig
http://www.mrsideways.com/craig.html

 

thanks for the props.
Wish we had in-car footage for this one! Anybody seen any?

 

I couldn't take either of my big cameras this weekend, they were at VIR. Got some close-ups w/ my little glovebox camera for the little blurb we'll put in GRM.

Per

 

Round 1 only gets a little blurb in GRM? There was no GRM photographer at the event for action shots?

 

Uh, nope. That GRM "photographer" would have been me if I'd been able to bring our one big camera, it was already spoken for.

Blurb = 300 words or so, one or two pictures at most.

 

Note to self: GRM needs a photog.

 

BTW, That article on mini autox setup in the latest issue was much appreciated!