Corvetteforum Natl Race report from South Carolina!

[YO-EL]

Yep here I am reporting from the deep south just after the race...

The 700 mile drive took 12.5 hrs, not too bad with my wife's nephew Justing sharing the wheel.

Had an open trailor from Dale Cherry of Berrell Auto, (THANKS!), to tow my car with the COOL AID CO van doing the hauling..

Nice weather, 70 degrees....

Raced Fri night, LED tree, did not have to make any major adjustments. Seems the lights come on a little faster, thats all..
Had all .050, .040. .070 & some .020 lights along with some reds in my 17 runs.

Sat was the race only about 40- 50 cars...
Open time shots until 12, then 2 "official" time runs, them elimns..

I went 3 rounds..but comitted cardinal sin..
I changed my dial at the last minute in the lanes after I had posted it..

Yea, dialed a 12.36, but after a long wait in the lanes, I bumped it uo to a 12.39....

Sure enough, I had to run it out & yep, ran a dead on 12.36..

So I did myself in.

Lesson learned. NEVER change your dial once your paint it on!

Like a multiple choice test, always go with your 1st choice..

I am very ticked at my error.
I am still learning & more mad than red lighting...

grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, I was not impress at the track at all...
I will not come back. We have it best in the world at Englishtown!
Nothing can compare expect Texas Motor Speedway I am told..

I expected something more like Atco, or even Cecil.

What I got, to me, was many levels below...

The water box was uphill like Lee Soffer's driveway, I kid you not!
Then the burnout area was so short, one spin & you could be at the line, or over it!!!

Track went uphill towards the end, and hardly any runout road after the line...

I had to LITERALLY SLAM & SMOKE my brakes once I crossed the finish line or else I'd run out of room & go into the gravel & trees before making a REALLY HARD turnoff..

Return road was gravel city.....

I really disliked this track..

Also time was 1/10 off E-town database predictions.
DA was 1500-1800.

All in all a nice time, but I'll keep my racing to local tracks I believe.

For something promoted as a National event I think the physical track itself had much too many deficiencies in my book.

I do applaud Edgar, John Mackey & Tracy Lewis for putting this together, & understand the track is not their responsibility, but even if I had won, my feelings would be the same.

But it was still nice to get away for a few days & racing is always good, win, lose, or draw! (however, my dial in blunder & subsequent breakout loss, while running my prior number dead on WILL stay with me for a long long time...)

Hey, it can only go upward from here.

Oh wait, I'm not talking about the burnout box area or the track here in South Carolina, I'm talking about racing with CCDV!

See you all soon!

[REDGAR]

I did not suffer to great a fate either.

I was lucky enough to have a bye in the first round courtesy of a .006 light and I qualified number 8 in for the quick 8 with an 11.60.

2nd round I break out and have to buy back in. Third round I break out a again on a .013 light.

Then I get to sit it out while elims finish and run first round of head-up against the number one seed Keith Valone at 9.82.

Needless to say, I got my ass handed to me more than once so far.

[Tony B.96LT4]

Thanks for the heads up guys. Sorry you didn't finish up higher. Now I'm really looking forward to March 13th. BTW I heard Mr. Mojo got into the semi-finals. Wishing all of the ECS CC racers a safe trip home.;bt

[Bill Burkholder]

Thanks for the up date El and Edgar. I'm glad you had some decent weather, and got some track time.

[Glennm27]

Ellis
Good to hear from you! I'll take that note on changing dial-ins and put that one in my book of things to not do. That must have reeeealy been agravating ;at

I'm sure you still had fun.

Have a safe trip back home.

[Richy]

Nice going El & Edgar!
El,I was curious as to why your car wasn't running closer to 12.00?Weather was cool enough?Track?Talk to you this week.

[C5pilot]

Hope everyone has a safe trip home. See you both soon.

[Al Betz]

YO EL! Thanks for the first race report from a CCDV member.

You are right E-Town is a very good track except for the holes in the pedestrian walkways. :D

Safe trip back.

[VetBoyZR1]

Way to go, guys. You both did a great job representing this area!

[YO-EL]

Just got in all and all i can say is its good to be home.

Al, not sure why I was running 12.30's...

My E-town database had me at a solid 12.20 all Friday night, and I ran 15 12.30's & 31's, with two 12.26's... Hooking up with 1.74-1.75 60' times.

I used Friday nights 17 runs for my database for Sat.

Was dead on with a 12.32 dial first 2 rounds, then a 12.36 in the third round, but because it was like an hr sitting in the lanes, and it was starting to get warm & also my 60' times were going up as well, thats when I deceided to jump out & bump it up to a 12.39..

Oh well... See you all soon!

[naples]

YO-EL,

Thanks for the plug on my driveway. I have been practicing all winter to improve my ET,s.
I start at the bottom where my built-in water box is, and use the line-loc for my burn-out. My 60 foot times suck, but I am able to get up the slope in 12.24 seconds before I hit the tree at the top.

Glad you are back safely.

naples

[Mike Campbell]

Yo-El, I cannot tell you how many times I changed my dial-in and screwed up...;yn Sounds like you had a nice trip though.. See ya soon...only about 2 weeks guys!!:D:D

[C5pilot]

El, you said the track went uphill towards the end, that would account for slower times. The weather station won't be as accurate when you plug in numbers from a different track. I keep Atco runs in a different database because I'm always faster there. Atco is either downhill or 2 feet shorter. ;)

[YO-EL]

I "think" your probably right there Joe...

Some guys were saying DA is DA, no matter where its measured, but the physical track properities do come into play.

I think most of the northern guys were running about 1/10 off their databases...

We all made new ones just for this track though, and after about 30 entries, I was dialing dead on...

My own judgement for bumping it up in the lanes in the 3rd round..

But I could "feel" it getting hotter, as we sat for almost an hr before they said to start your engines..

[REDGAR]

Joe the track went uphill after the finish line.

I also agree that you need to look at each track separately and another thing you cannot account of in these databases is wind (well we can in the TAG). The wind was weird over there. Headwind to tailwind to no wind very abrupt changes. That is the only way I can explain those two successive big breakouts.