I entered the South Carolina Region/SCCA non-points event at Florence Civic Center today on street tires, and boy! was I old and slow. In five runs, I looped the car 180 degrees twice, and did a flat broad slide once.

Needless to say, my times were terrible. But…I learned a lot.

I have recently been trying to change some of the front end settings to try and eliminate (at least some of) the inherent understeer (pushing) of the Z3. Having autocrossed the 1.9 with both street tires and competition tires, I believe I’m able now to discern how the car would perform on comp tires – even when I’m driving on street tires. If that’s the case, yesterday was a resounding success, as I was able to kick the rear end of the newly "loosened-up" Z3 out at any time I wanted to do so (obviously more than I wanted to do at some points).

I hope I am correct in being optimistically excited about next year. If I have found a way to eliminate most of the car’s understeer, I think I will be competitive in E stock next year with the 1.9, or in A Street Prepared with the 2.8 if that is what I decide to do.

So! If I’m old and slow, why do I do this? Honestly, when I looped the car around today, it was just plain FUN!!!

Next event is next year.

My times were about 110% of class winner Rick Butters of Raleigh in his Honda S2000, who beat out Michael Bright of Mooresville in his Nissan 350Z. While 110% of the winner's time is pretty slow, it was better than I was doing on street tires in the 1.9 Z3 versus the Miatas in C Stock.

There is a tentative event scheduled for December 11th by the SCR/SCCA, and I hope to have an HMS Sportbar Rollbar installed by then. I hope this will have the same chasis stregthening effect on the 2.8 as it did on the 1.9. If the back-ordered Sportbar, arrives in time, I will try to enter the SCR event (if it is held) in ASP with Hoosier Tires.

I have decisions to make in the off-season about which car and class I will compete in next year. Right now, I am leaning toward E Stock with the 1.9 - if that is where SCCA classifies it next year, or competing in A Street Prepared with the 2.8.

More Later.

I have mixed emotions as Grumbles, who has emerged as the best C Stock Miata driver in the Carolinas this season, destroyed all C Stock competitors by 1 1/2 seconds. Triad Sports Car Club's C Stock champ Butch Lovell uncharacteristically struggled with the course and left the door open for my second place finish.

This was a fast track, with speeds in excess of seventy miles per hour at one point on the course, and should have favored the Z3's horsepower. But I struggled, as well, and was unable to improve on the 54.897 time I posted on my second of six runs. I have not been able to "come to grips" with the new Hosier tires at this point, and need to return to the "drawing board."

This will be a point of great focus for me in the off-season, and I believe this will be my final event of the season. I want to step back and analyze all that has happened so far this year.

Thank you to all whom have supported me. - More later.

Veiw results at http://www.auto-x.com/

Jake Hester was on hand, so I knew I was facing a competitive field of nine C Stock cars (8 Miatas and me), but young Chip Manuel emerged from the field with a time of 39.627 to overcome Hester and recent Florida transplant, veteran autoxer Glenn Murphey of Gaffney.

I was only 1.1 seconds back, and may have even finished as high as second place if I had not overcooked the new Hoosiers in an off camber right-hander on my last run. Now, I feel competitive, and I can start to concentrate on "fine tuning" in order to pick up tenths of seconds - not full seconds.

Congratulations Chip! You're becoming a great driver - I knew you would be.

View results at http://www.scr-scca.com/

(Photo by Per Olof Ezelius)

With this extra stiffness, much of the high speed oversteer disappeared, but unfortunately, not much of the Z3's inherent low speed understeer went away. However, I managed to close the gap on a strong CCR field of Miatas, as Ed Brackney beat out Mike Grumbles on his last (6th run) with a time of 47.66.

I was about 3 1/2 seconds back, but the last three runs of my run group were rained out, while the C Stock cars each had six attempts at the course. After Spartanburg, it felt good to be more competitive, and considering the deficit in the number of runs, I felt pretty good about the time improvement. Both of the Miatas were on R compound tires, and I feel the addition of R compounds on the Z3 will make up most of that 3 1/2 seconds deficit.

View results at http://www.ccrsolo2.org/ ]

There was a strong field of eleven C Stock entries, headed by SCR's top points drivers Bob Balliet and Jake Hester. Additionally, CCR stallwart Ed Brackney was on hand to make this a stellar field of Miatas. Other than one Toyota MR2 and me, all cars in the class were Miatas.

Jake Hester won with a time of 46.112, but all I could muster was a 51.725. Although I did manage to place ahead of two Mazdas, the day was somewhat disappointing.

With my Kumho V-712 W rated tires, I felt like I was driving on ice, and the car handled like a beast. It was not a good "homecomming" for the Z3, and not a good effort on my part.

View results at http://www.scr-scca.com/

My time was about 2.5 seconds behind the winner Butch Lovell, but I was satisfied with the result, as I feel most of the time deficit was due to my tires (or the the lack thereof).

Not a bad day after dusting the "drivers seat" off, but there is a lot of dust on that seat, and this was certainly not the most competitive field of C Stock cars I have seen recently.

View results at http://www.auto-x.com/