First place in the rain
 

Hey all, wanted to share some good news. I ran at New Hampshire International Speedway this weekend with COM sports car club and won my class,SPA,by 3 seconds in the wet and cold on Avon slicks!!! I'm pumped. We all had a lot of fun,great guys, and controlling a 3rd gen with power in the wet on a low 40 deg. day was about the most fun i have had on track!! I don't think my hands or feet stopped moving for a second on the course. I wish we had no winter here in the northeast, you westcoast and southern boys are lucky. The only racing fun in winter here is ice racing!! Jim

congrad's

have any photo's or vid's from nhis?

Great to hear someone out there having fun and doing well. I hope we have as good a result as you did. I also hope it does NOT rain at Thunderhill this weekend.

Rain racing is a bunch of fun... I wish we got the chance to do it more often here in Texas.

It sure seems to seperate the men from the boys, though. :D

Tim, In gather you will be at T'hill? It is not going to rain, but it will be cold, a good test day for the 25. I'll be there screwing around, maybe i can pick your brain if we get a few moments. i'll be instructing, and running TTU, so I'll be pretty busy. is Benny going to be around? Are you going to run your TII? PLEASE make a point of saying hello, I'll probably be in a blue g force suit, you know the car. I'm at the amerihost. 707-696-2705

BTW, Jim, good job, but why where you on slicks in the rain...(must have a budget like mine:D). Carl

It rained with temps in the low 50's (wind felt like 40's!) this past Sunday during an autox event. I've been fightin' for tenths of seconds lately but this time I put 4 seconds on them in the rain and I was on slicks! If it rained every weekend I wouldn't have such a hard time competing with these guys ;)

I love how the car moves in slow motion in the rain so you have lots more time to get scared before whatever bad thing is getting ready to happen happens :p:

Congrats and glad you finally got the damn airpump LOL :)

If it's a cold misty rain slicks are the way to go. IOW if it's not puddling.

Slicks
 

True, i am a cheap bastard,ha ha , but i did have a set of nearly new yokohama es 100 v grooved street rain tires that i tried one other time it rained and it was like being on ice.Terrible. I made one lap very slowly,complete slide while braking could not apply any power..... so i tried the avon slicks,figured they couln't be worse and they were much better. We were first run group out to pratice and there were a few large puddles and "rivers" draining in some spots but the hydroplaining was predictible and you could "catch" the car after the standing water and pick your spots where to press...... lots of fun.

vids
 

I do have some in car footage from sat. dry. I havent lookked at it yet and i'm a knuckel draggin' luddite when it comes to getting vid's on the computer,maybee the wife can help,she's the brains of the operation here. lol

air pump
 

Yeah, thanks Fritz for getting me that.... BTW, our first event of the year is at Summit Point. Do you run there? and if so you should come show me the fast way around and do some time trial racing with us. Jim

Tire cleaning
 

Good job Damon!! As a side benifit i found that cold and water?? get all that molded in rubber chunks and strips off your tires.They are as clean as a babys bottom now!! However,very noisy and disconserting coming off, rap rap rap rap,on the fender wall as the two pieces of rubber seperated. I pulled in the pits that first run group cause' i thought i had a major issue. Jim

Good info, Avon makes a super soft compound that my buddy uses on his Lotus 7 AX car, those things are sticky even at 50 degrees. they are special order, but they are available, and stick like crazy. This weekend is my last event of the year, then my baby is going on a major diet. Where do you get your Avons? I have been tempted to go with them, as they are the only manufacture I can find that makes a 23.3" high 13" wide tire for a 16" wheel, that would let me drop my car almost an inch. Have fun, Carl

Avon tires
 

Hey Carl, i got mine from the tire rack. I have always been a Kuhmo guy,but the price was similar and figured i would try them as i bought new SSR rims. I think they feel real good,great grip and wear. Jim

I'm all over that if I can get away for it. Which club do you run with and what's the format?

So they are DOTs, not slicks... Tech R, or RA?

Tires
 

yeah Carl, they are DOT's , Tech R ,by slicks i meant no tread, Jim