SCCA Camaro

As it turns out, 44.449 was good for third place in the ESP class, 81^st overall out of 113 competitors, and 75^th overall after PAX.  I was thrilled with this outcome for my third race, and was starting to feel like the 1968 Camaro could be competitive if only I could bring up my skills and dial the car in.  Although there was a wide gap between me and the first and second place competitors in ESP, there were three other competitors in the class, including two Mustangs that I was faster than on that day.

There were 12 domestic cars out of a field of 113 total racers, so about 10% of the cars were domestics.  The breakdown was six Chevrolets consisting of 3 Corvettes (two C6s, driven by Randy and the Z06 driven by Jay and one C5 Z06 driven by Mitch) and 3 Camaros (my first generation and two fourth gen Camaros).  Pontiac was representing with two third gen Firebirds (one of which was driven by my new buddy Rick, who invited me to hang out in the “Musclecar Tent” he puts up every race day).  Ford had two Mustang entrants (one Fox body and one new Mustang) and there was a single Dodge Neon R/T as well as a single Saturn Ion Redline.  Of all of the Domestics, Jon from the ESP class in his 4^th Gen Camaro SS finished first again at 13^th overall that PAXed to 10^th.  Next was Jay in the C6 Z06 at 21^st overall and PAXing to 19^th.  As usual Charlie was very competitive in his bone stock 4^th Gen Camaro which was 39^th overall but PAXed to 22^nd.  So again about 10% of the cars were domestics and only a single domestic car got into the top ten standing for the day.  The abundance and relative dominance of the imports creates a certain camaraderie among the guys driving domestic cars, which is fun.

I decided to start with 32 lbs of pressure in all four tires.  During my first run, I had a first—I hit my first cones while autocrossing.  In fact, I finished with a 48.232 s time but hit two cones, so was awarded a 52.232 official time.  I felt one of the cones as it went under my right rear tire, but wasn’t sure where I hit the other.  After returning to the grid, I reviewed my map and where I hit the cone as well as where I thought I was fast and where I thought I was slow.  I also envisioned myself racing through the course using my map as a guide for where and when to turn, and how I wanted my lines to come out.  I started trying to imagine where I might want to execute a “late apex” because there was a straight-away after some turns into which I wanted to have as much speed as possible.  The two corners where I thought this most important were out of the first hairpin turn for the short straightaway and then out of the second hairpin turn before the slalom.  This concept is covered in detail in the book “Secrets of Solo Racing” by Henry Watts.  I also left the air pressure in my front tires at 34 lbs which is where it had risen by virtue of being heated up during the run, and maintained my rear tires at 32 lbs of pressure by letting a little air out of each after my first run. 

My next run was clean, and I finished with a time of 46.568 s.  Again upon returning to the grid I reviewed all of my gauges to ensure the car was operationally sound and then checked my tires.  This time I kept my front tires at 34 lbs but dropped the rear tires to 30 lbs.  After checking the car, I spent some more time reviewing my map in the grid.  The result was that my third run was clean and clocked at 46.174.  I was improving with each run but was quite a way from making an impact in my class.  During my routine review of my gauges I noticed the car was running hot and the voltage was down—sure signs I had thrown a belt somewhere out on the course.  I had a spare, so quickly ran to my toolbox and grabbed a few wrenches and the spare belt before dashing back to the grid and putting the belt on the car.  For my fourth run I concentrated on staying in control while in the car, and pulled out a clean run at 44.449 s!  Upon seeing the time on the board I threw my fist up—I was thrilled to have pulled off such an improvement in my last run, which I was sure would put me in good standing in my class.  Unfortunately I noticed upon returning to the pit area I was running hot again—I had thrown the belt that runs the water pump and alternator again.  I had time to find the belt and put it back on before run funs, but when I threw it again during my first fun run I decided to call it a day.  I was disgusted enough that I didn’t even record my fun run time.

I arrived Sunday morning ready to race and with a new strategy for walking the course at my third autocrossing event in the 1968 Camaro with my local SCCA club here in Hawaii.  At the January event I had sketched the course as I walked it but found it difficult to keep to scale and therefore not as useful as it could have been.  For my third race in the Camaro I downloaded an aerial map of the parking lot where we autocross at the Aloha Stadium and pasted it on a single sheet of paper along with some space allotted for times and notes from each run.  My hope was to collect some data that would help me improve my driving skills for SCCA Solo II generally and for autocrossing and racing in my first generation Camaro specifically.  After arriving and tech’ing in, I got my clipboard out and walked the course, noting where each cone was placed on the image.  This was easier than you might think since the parking lot is riddled with white lines indicating each parking space, which are generally easy to follow and place cones precisely on the map.  Unfortunately, I had not accounted exactly for the space we race in, so I had to do some free-hand coverage of the course off my image on one side.  My Heat, Heat 3, was scheduled to run in the middle of the day after lunch so I had an opportunity to watch others run the course after I had copied it to my map, and make some corrections on the free-hand part and also start to note the best “lines” in which to try to get my Camaro. 

The course was slower than the other two I had raced in so I expected to be out there a bit longer.  As you can see from the map I scanned in and provided here, it started off with a turn to the left through a section that was sorta like a modified slalom in that it was a series of lefts alternating with right turns to keep you from hitting any cones.  It was slower than a slalom in that rather than a straight line each point was out past the last, so you had to turn farther in for each than you would in a slalom with straight cones.  This was followed by a 180 degree turn to the right, and, after a short straight, another 180 degree turn, this time to the left.  Then followed a slalom, followed by a 90 degree turn to the right, a turn to the left, a long sweeper to the right coming all the way around 180 degrees, than another slalom followed by two tight corners to slow you down before the exit.  Kudos to the volunteers who set up the course; it was a lot of fun!