SCCA National Rallycross Championship, 2008
 

Hi all, I thought I would take a minute to "toot our own horn" (and mine ;) ).

This last weekend, Oct. 25 / 26 2008, SCCA held its "National Rallycross Championship" in Nashville Tn.. 69 entrants from all corners of the Country battled it out for National Titles in 8 classes. Although it was intended to give everyone 3 runs in each of four heats (Saturday morning, then afternoon, and Sunday morning, then afternoon); issues and course length and conditions limited it to 9 total runs. Course length was ~1.3 miles, and very wet to begin with. This resulted in run times in the begining to be ~3.5 minutes and decreasing to ~2.5 minutes at the end of the event. A different but simular course was run each day. In this Rallycross event ALL RUNS ARE SCORED. Therefore total combined and scored times were 20+ MINUTES!

I am very happy to announce that RX-7s are in a new record book! I was able to come from behind with a DNF on my first run (stock 85, open diff., stuck in the water and mud) to win "Stock Rear Class" by 9 seconds. I ended the first heat (Saturday morning) over 15 seconds behind and took the rest of the event to catch up!

Although I was in a small (and slowest) Class, it did not diminish the competition between "ice racer" Keith Little, in a Miata, and myself. I had several individual runs in our group (heat) that were faster than other classes, which is always one of my goals. It was a very stressful but fun event knowing I had to make up some ground on every run; but having runs eliminated by the organizers which took away opportunities to make gains on the gap between us.

Putting a 1st Gen. RX-7 in the Rallycross Record Book has been a goal of mine for over 2 years, and NOW IT IS in "Stock Rear Class". Also joining me was the 1st Gen RX-7 of Charles and Shelton Wright, with Shelton's WIN IN "Preapared Rear Class" with dad Charles finishing 2nd.

Results are posted at:
http://scca.com/eventitems.aspx?item...ent=5645&hub=2

With comments and pictures being posted at:
http://www.sccabb.com/forum_topics.asp?FID=53

congrats. and in before the move

Well done always like to hear 7s doing well in RWD class

After a day of fun in the mud and dirt.

Hey now, mine is dirtier than that........oh yeah, I got stuck in the mud.

Let me know if and when you find your problem. I'm always curious....

Well keeping the carb cool with water seemed to help. We didn't have any problems on Sunday. We've got a couple more events before the year is out.

From what I gather since the event, the fuel pump either runs or not - so I'm thinking that it's not the problem. So either dirt in the carb as you suggested, the roll over valve, and someone mentioned possibly the charcoal cannister.

I guess it could be trashy fuel lines. Maybe I'll put another fuel filter right in front of the carb.

Congrats on the win! How were the DNFs scored? Usually if you get even one bogey time it knocks you out of contention for the day. I'd like to make it out to a national event one of these years but due to conflicts and car repairs, etc. I only made it to 1 regional RallyX this season :(

DNF = slowest time of your class in that run +10 seconds

CW, I agree they usually work or not, but I have seen weak or intermitit too (rarely).

Matthew, I was able to get back into the game by the shear amount of time eventually scored, 23 minutes+, over 9 seperate runs. So 9 seconds (winning margin) is is 1 second per 2 1/2 minutes (average time per run). Other classes were closer!

I am glad I did not go. Word was that it was a complete cluster-f*** organizationally. That makes two Nationals in a row that sucked.

Next year may be different, my region may be hosting it :)

Rain on Friday made for a sloppy course on Saturday morning. Can't do much about that. The course was slightly modified for the afternoon session. They needlessly put the course across some old ruts - that caused a delay. Once the course was adjusted all was okay.

I was responsible for setting up Sunday's course. I couldn't get it all done before darkness. So Sunday's start was later than expected. After the 1st 5 cars ran they decided it was too fast in a particular section. We had to modify a section and then they wanted another parade lap. Once that was done, the event went fine - well until the one car went shiney side down.

There were some difficulties but I was reasonably satisfied on how the event was run. Sure some things could be better but part of the problem is course degradation.

I spent over 22 minutes on course this past weekend. So the car got about 45 minutes of action. Other than the fuel issue we were managing, the car performed great.

You heard wrong than, remove one person with power from the mix and the event was very well run. Course changes are normal in RallyCross but that person had a personal agenda in making the changes.

Dan

peejay, I have no info about Dan's "person with power", and I would not consider "execution" to be perfect, regardless of the effort. However anyone expecting this kind of event to be run perfectly, without problems, has set the bar too high. The sport itself, at a National level, is still quite new; most everyone involved is still gaining experience and knowledge as they go along; and the very nature of the beast required course changes for safety and thus delays everytime it is done.

Many of us who are long time Solo people have benefited from a huge number of experienced people having put on a huge number of events from 100+ cars at a Regional to 1100 at the Championship for nearly 40 years. There was probably less overall experience of "bigger" events in the Host Region, and the effort was conducted with less help and manpower, even from the National office, than would be experienced at a "National" type Solo event........and it was staffed primarily by local Solo people (as I understand it).

I wish you WOULD have been there, and I am sure you would have had some fun too! even if the event had some problems. What the sport needs at these "National" type events is MORE entrants with experience, rather than those folks staying home because the event isn't perfect. That way the learning curve will be steeper and reach the level of expectation of everyone quicker. There are and will be threads at http://www.sccabb.com/forum_topics.asp?FID=53
to discuss the problem and solutions, and as long as the dialog is constructive, I am certain the next event will be better - no matter where it is held. I will also bet that the experience gained by those who were there will result in better events at a local level too.

As a driver I did enjoy the longer courses that were presented, but I do believe the concept was carried to the extreeme, and to the detriment of the event. The site would have allowed 4 seperate "normal" courses - that shared no part of each others turf. Logistically it was a nightmare since every substantial course change required the entire heat (each being half the entrants of the total at the event) to take another parade lap, because it was just so very long. Shorter more confined courses would have allowed drivers to see the changes - often from just standing in grid. All other things being equal this WOULD have resulted in less total "track time", BUT, the time saved would have made up for part of it, and we would have had more runs. If we would have had 4 seperate courses, and run each run group on only 2 of them; we may NOT have had to make ANY course changes at all !! That just may have resulted in the same amount of total track time or even more.!.

I hope everyone who has thought about going DOES go next year. And brings with them their experience and realistic expectations and a willingness to step up and help wherever possible. I have no doubt the next event will not be perfect; but we can continue to make progress toward that as a goal.

And peejay, I wanted to run in STOCK the first year, but beyond that the door is open. What class will YOU be in next year?? ;) I am strongly considering joining Charles in PREPARED.......... :)

I stayed home because it would have required taking two or three days off of work and a SUBSTANTIAL amount of money to go, before counting lost pay.

To put it another way: I went to two regional rallycrosses and one "SuperMoto" rallycross last month. The CLOSEST of those to me was 2 1/2 hours away. If I were to go to Nationals, I would have had to go to NONE of those, because of the cost factor. That's a hell of a lot less seat time, less fun time, and I wouldn't currently be first in point standings in my region.

I run in M2. Don't you know that Stock class cars are faster than Prepared or Modified? 1st OA in my region is regularly taken by an SF Golf (2 liter!) or an SA Outback Sport. (Both of those guys are RX-7 owners, BTW) Prep/Mod allows people to crutch their driving with modifications, Stock guys just have to learn to drive better. That's part of why I borrowed random nization's OBS a couple times this year, including at the National Challenege event held by WOR. (Okay, that, and my RX-7 was having issues both times) Funny, after driving Stock class cars, I drive a whole lot better the next time in my own car.

It still doesn't like runs longer than 45 sec, though.

My take on that is that in Prep/Mod there are more things to screw up. My car is not too far from stock though. I basically get to fiddle with the springs and ride height. I had it screwed up quite a bit. Currently it's only screwed up a little.

After a day of work and taking part of the long way home :)

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/p...56_mmthumb.jpg

:icon_tup:

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/p...06_mmthumb.jpg

After another weekend of rallycrossing, someone got to drive it!

Charles!

the oil filter that came on the car had a 2009 or 2010 date written on it (I forget), so it has to have been about that long since he'd driven it.

I picked the car up at the end of 2016. Took a while to collect enough parts to get it back on the road, the largest hurdle was the fuel tank. Stretch goal was 12A parts, and I managed that as well.

The funny part (for me) was when he noticed I was loading up all my stuff and he asked "You drove it here??" Yep. It's not a statue, and the car drives beautifully.

I was at his house just after you picked it up to get all his FB stuff. He has a FD now. Did you see his Mariah red FB?