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 6th 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 11th percentile to the 17th 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).