SCCA Camaro

As for the rest of the results on the day, there wasn’t a single domestic car in the top ten this time around.  The driver of the C6 Z06 had placed 12^th overall.  There were 13 pony cars (6 Camaros, 2 Firebirds, and 5 Mustangs).  The highest-placed F-Body was a 4^th gen Camaro at 31^st overall and the highest placed Mustang was at 94^th overall of the 122 racers that day.  Interestingly, Camaros were represented in three classes:  A Stock (AS), E Street Prepared (ESP, the class I competed in), and C Prepared (CP).  The PAX for each class is as follows:  AS .838, ESP .834, and CP .864.  As the PAX numbers get numerically higher, the faster you need to run to be competitive because your class is considered a “faster” class, due either to the level of modifications on the car or the performance of the car from the manufacturer.  Put another way, if you have a car that qualifies for multiple classes, you want to compete in the class that has the lowest PAX number, because this will move your PAX standing up higher relative to your overall standing.  This got me to thinking it might be time to invest the effort into figuring out what modifications I had done to the Camaro that placed it in the ESP class, and what additional modifications might be required to place the car in a position to be competitive in the class (if I had the skill to drive it at that level).

As it turns out, the PAX values for AS and ESP are so close to each other there is unlikely to be a big difference in your PAX standing when moving from one class to the other.  In our club, the PAX of .834 pretty much has no bearing on your Overall standing versus your PAX’ed standing, as it is basically the median PAX.  So if you have a standing of 100^th in the overall you are likely to have a standing of 100^th in the PAX standings as well, or 99^th or 101^st anyway.  The class of CP, on the other hand, is a faster class, and the PAX works to move competitors in this class down from their overall standings for their PAX standings.  For example, the winner of CP on this particular day was 44^th in the overall standings, but PAX’ed to 60^th place, since cars in this class should be much faster than stock cars.  Being competitive over time was certainly going to require an understanding of the rules in each of the classes the Camaro was qualified to run in, and the pros and cons of each class.  I didn’t have a good grasp on any of it at this time, and wasn’t even sure I had been placed in the proper class the day Dad and I showed up in December. 

I had completed the official racing part of the day and I had my first fun runs in front of me.  I decided to experiment with the tire pressure in the fun runs, and for the first run I let some air from the tires all the way around, arbitrarily starting with 32 lbs in the front and 34 lbs in the rear.  I also put some chalk on the tires to see where they were rolling over, which one of my competitors had suggested might be the best indication of how much air to run in the tires.  I also made an effort to drive more smoothly, and with less herky-jerky motion of the car—easier off the throttle so as to minimize unsettling the car with dramatic engine braking.  On my first run, I was clean and was on the track for 38.307 with a top speed of 37 MPH.  The front tires had scuff marks running down the side of the tire, indicating not enough air, while the rear tires showed the chalk nearly undisturbed, indicating they may have too much air in them.  So I did’t do anything to the front tires (they had warmed up so were now at 34 lbs) and I let a little air out of the rear tires to maintain them at 34 lbs.  This netted about six tenths improvement on my second fun run at 37.639 with a top speed of 36 MPH.  My second run during fun runs had already netted me a faster time than my best during the competition—and at a full 3 MPH slower on my top speed!  There was something to being smooth—but it isn’t easy to be smooth and fast.

For run number three, I let air from the both the front and the rear tires based on the chalk—in the front I maintained 34 lbs and in the rear I went down to 32 lbs.  This run was a little slower than my second fun run at 37.939, but was faster in the sweeper with a top speed of 37 MPH.  I decided to let the air in the front tires creep up a bit to 35 lbs while maintaining the pressure at 32 lbs in the rear tires for fun run number 4, and was rewarded with a run of 36.924 while hitting the 40 MPH mark on the course.  I didn’t have a chance to check the tach, but I had calculated 40 MPH to be approximately 6200 RPM, and definitely felt the motor loose power in the sweeper, so I backed off the throttle rather than break something or upshift.  I was feeling confident enough to get into the throttle and torque steer a bit coming out of the right hand turn just before the sweeper, which was really fun!

For fun run number five, I allowed the front times to come up a bit more, to 36 lbs, and let air out of the rear tires to get them to 32, and tore around the track in 36.542 seconds with no cones and a top speed of 40 MPH.  It was a great feeling to shave a full 1.5 seconds from my best run during competition, and I could help but look at the final standings to see where I would have placed had I been able to run that fast during the competition.  That time would have placed me 83^rd overall of the 122 racers, third in my class of ESP, and in front of all three of the Mustangs representing the blue oval that day.  This was a good exercise because it proved to me the car could be competitive, if only I could improve my driving.

My third run through the course, this time back in first gear, netted another clean pass with a time of 38.161, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than run number two, with a top speed of 39 MPH.  I started to feel the engine lay down around 39 MPH in the sweeper, which was after all about 6,000 RPM, pushing it for my hydraulic flat tappet valvetrain I’m sure, so I laid up a bit rather than push it.  Run number four was my best of the day—I improved upon run number three by almost 2 tenths at 37.972, with no cones and a top speed of 39 MPH.

My final run of the day was enough to put me at 6^th place in the ESP class out of 8 competitors.  I had hoped for a greater improvement from my first time out but at the same time was happy with the result.  I didn’t, however, break into the top 100 of the field, I was held at 101 (by 0.004 s) by a Mustang!  The field was a bit bigger than the group in December, though:  I was 101 of 122 racers, and was 100 of 113 racers in December.  In December there had been only 13 racers slower than me, whereas in January I was faster than 21 of my competitors based on overall time.  I had moved from the 11^th percentile to the 17^th percentile based on overall time (there is a PAX system to normalize for different car’s capability that I am not accounting for since it’s unlikely with my very limited autocrossing skill set that I am anywhere near the capabilities of the car).