2009 SSIS (Super Slalom In Saskatoon) and 2009 Canadian Autoslalom Nationals.
(Photos are still trickling in, all photos in this post are linked back to the page where their owner posted them).
Friday after work I packed up the car, filled 'er up with gas and drove straight East into so hard of a rain storm that I got to feel what hydroplaning felt like. Thankfully the rain petered out before Vegreville so the rest of the drive was nice & easy. Set the cruise, point the car East, and don't stop until I pull into the parking lot @ the Saskatoon Inn. I'd gotten approval to do Saturday morning tech, so I had to be at the venue and all unpacked and ready by 0730hrs... But it was only 2215hrs, time for a frosty beverage or two with Rei, Jon and Andrew!
Saturday morning, *buh*... 0600hrs is early.
Got up, got Any up, got timmies, got gas, got prepped, got teched, got course walk done.
This is an amazing venue, large with elevation changes but the surface is super abrasive. Usually when there's asphalt with exposed aggregate the stones get polished and it ends up slippery (ie. Penhold, Griesbach and the Westerner). But the exposed aggregate here is pointy like sharks teeth.
For being only ~23 degrees it was stupidly, sun/heat stroke inducing.
As for my driving, while I should've been around a 68 second run, I was doing 71.992, then 71.312+1, a 71.649 and then a 69.462...+1!. For a quickest time of ~71.462 seconds. Uckfay! I just couldn't find the speed I needed, and I was trailing to a Type R in another run group who wasn't that quick with a quickest time of 70.183, but he was clean. He was in the other run group because he was running a different class for Nationals, so while we were in the same class for one of the concurrent events, we were in different run groups. This made it hard to compare times, see his car at the impound, and to trust that we'd have the same conditions (I was worried the changeable weather would give him a dry run and me a sopping wet track).
Then we went for the "banquet" of finger food, went Karting (*whoo*!), and then to the evening entertainment at the live band & had a drink or two.
Sunday morning, *bughh* 0600hrs is _early_!
Got up, got Any up, got timmies, got gas, got prepped, and did course walks in the other direction. Wow, this is a *lot* faster. Run order was reversed from day 1 so I was in the 3rd run group now so I got to play photog, then marshal, then run. I did my first tentative run, 70.768, uckfay this course _is_ tons faster. Then, just as I got towards the start of the line to do my second run (belted in, helmet on, A/C blasting, tunes going, doing the course in my head) *screech* *thud* *glug glug glug* a guy in an RX-7 understeers wide & taking out the timing light and ripping the bottom end tank off his car in the stop box. Reach down, turn the car off, take off helmet and start milling around with the others. Amazingly, only about 20 min later the course is swept, the timing equipment is still working (they have a welded Al box for their lights, instead of our milk crates). Time to belt in again, but I put in another tentative "first run" type run. I had completely forgotten how the course went!! 70.566 damnit! Time to go rest, then marshal again. Before my final two runs, I got some
trashtalk advice from Ian B about where I could go quicker 'cause he knew he was losing time there too. I also
copied chatted with Mark B about damper settings. Belted in, pushed harder in those spots Ian said and enjoyed the front end grip from the softer front, 68.048, w00t! Any my codriver did better too! w00t! Time for one last hail mary run. Launched hard, looked out the side windows, tried to "grow a pair" through the fast sections, by the end I knew it was going good so I just needed to not uckfay it up! 67.877! Yes! I was clapping in the stop box like the "most special kid in the class".
For the SSIS, and the Nationals they combine your times from both days. And in the end I was 0.210 seconds behind that Type R. Oh well, I did that to myself and I've got a shiny "2nd place" trophy to remind me of it.
Due to the fact the Type R was running in DSP for nats (I was in T2) I did get 1st for my class in Nationals!
(Note, the difference in my look is due to beers # 3 & 4 that i drank between accepting the awards)
(The actual trophy will be mailed out, will have the correct class on it and won't say "Johnny Driver" on it.)
Afterwards, it was pointed out by someone else who'd managed to see the Type R in Parc Firme that he wasn't 100% STX legal... He had a different steering wheel and I could protest him & get first in STX. But I chose not to. It's not like he had some power mod & I couldn't chase him down. I could've and *did* beat him on raw time, but I coned it away. Besides, the points for the championship are based on the difference between me and the best placed ST car, which was Fernando. So it wouldn't change that at all.
All in all, a great weekend, and a pretty cool trophy
