Autocross 4: SCCA NNJR Test n Tune 4/2/17

I did my first Test and Tune event last weekend. I picked it over Evo school, MSNE and PCA because of the price and the seat time.

I did 17 runs in total. I didn't look ahead for my first 3 runs. For the rest runs I tried to be faster.

I've unlinked the rear sway bar today.

I still spun out once at the exit. I lifted off cuz I felt like I was running into the green cones!

Things I've learned are:

1. Look ahead! Not only because you want to stay on course and pick the best line, but also you need to look ahead to know how fast (how much gas or brake) you should do everywhere.

2. Stay close to the cones and turn in early! Check out Hez's turn in at this last turn vs mine:

https://youtu.be/JgZpsZENEe8?t=43s

vs

https://youtu.be/OcIU5o0RF_I?t=1m

But more importantly and the main reason I was so slow, was that: I was turning too late at this cone so I ended up accelerating from 25mph through the turn. Hez was already at 35mph at turn in and it gripped well:

https://youtu.be/JgZpsZENEe8?t=18s

vs

https://youtu.be/OcIU5o0RF_I?t=33s

Here is the comparison: 

https://youtu.be/OtTJ9YQgQxw?list=PLNNt53y553K4MF3xc1qcFZNoevz2GSLCW

You could see how big the difference was in that turn.

3. Be more aggressive everywhere but do it progressively! Add throttle after the apex gradually.  At the very beginning I was making turns too slow. With the closest line picked, I should run the car and feel like it is at the limit (almost understeer, you can hear it!). After knowing the max speed for each turn, get back on gas sooner and more aggressively. Be gentle on the gas but don't be too gentle.

4. Make the car balanced everywhere. It's like dancing on the course. Try to feel it.

Here are all the times (results) of the event:

Super Stock
1	86	SSR	Joshua Lipman	39.447	38.636	38.822	39.959
pax: 2 (-0.699)			2007 Porsche 911 GT3	38.591	38.615	38.454	38.234
				38.037	37.697	38.246	36.725
				36.032
2	92	SSR	Evan Schickel	39.715	38.887	39.828	38.798
pax: 4 (-0.955)			2009 Chevrolet Corve	38.585	38.379	36.89	37.458
				37.552	36.694	36.334	37.692
				37.514
3	186	SSR	Jeff Hurst	42.787	23.788+X	38.744	68.113
pax: 5 (-0.962)			2007 Porsche 911 GT3	38.261	37.889	38.411	38.229
				38.085	37.93	37.719	36.982
				36.343	36.517
4	192	SSR	Mark Labbancz	65.947	40.625	40.37	39.446
pax: 15 (-1.807)			2009 Chevrolet Corve	55.9	54.776	37.34	37.591
				37.509	46.412	39.475
5	156	SSR	Peter Gigliotti	87.408	22.712+X	41.232	40.883
pax: 48 (-3.485)			2002 Chevrolet Corve	40.022	39.985	40.225	39.322
				41.199
6	1	SSR	Mark Clifford	66.63	51.332	54.549	53.329
pax: 64 (-8.832)			2016 BMW M4	50.879	50.338	51.413	51.763
				49.429	47.092	45.634	47.395
				46.503	50.493
Super Street
1	86	SS	G.J. Dixon	37.793	38.055	69.862	37.577
pax: 1 (-0.000)			2004 Porsche GT3	37.328	36.987	37.792	36.102
2	113	SS	Perry Aidelbaum	39.317	38.749	38.159	40.158
pax: 3 (-0.947)			2016 Porsche GT4	38.074	37.984	38.043	37.469
				37.249	38.061	37.793
3	13	SS	Adil Abdulali	39.805	38.924	38.817	38.706
pax: 8 (-1.346)			2016 Porsche GT4	38.637	38.545	38.49	38.681
				38.625	38.212	37.763	38.016
				37.731	38.043
4	924	SS	Ka Kit Gary Tsui	65.827	44.293	41	57.07
pax: 28 (-2.132)			2009 Nissan GTR	40.223	65.266	38.94	39.791
				39.947	59.263	40.638	39.506
				38.683
A Street
1	178	AS	Pat Salerno	48.344	39.206	38.755	38.365
pax: 13 (-1.601)			2006 Chevrolet Corve	38.505	38.646
2	68	AS	Harvey Meeker	45.394	43.403	42.091	41.375
pax: 31 (-2.212)			2006 Chevrolet Corve	41.262	41.191	41.854	40.604
				40.825	43.358	41.044	41.723
				39.112	40.005
3	2	AS	Julian Brown	43.853	42.094	41.252	40.74
pax: 46 (-3.129)			2008 Honda S2000 CR	40.231	40.71	40.639	50.69
				41.04	41.586	41.779	41.984
				41.672	41.786
B Street
1	199	BS	Jacob Dawson	39.707	43.006	50.469	39.642
pax: 10 (-1.498)			Focus	40.026	40.828	38.522
2	9	BS	Ken Houseal	40.842	39.931	39.712	43.424
pax: 11 (-1.577)			2016 Ford Focus RS	39.259	39.338	39.229	39.388
				38.619	39.232	39.038	38.951
3	6	BS	Yury Kholondyrev	42.822	41.807	39.904	39.693
pax: 19 (-1.960)			2017 BMW M2	40.429	39.899	39.214	39.537
				39.146	39.176	39.178	40.063
				19.058+X	40.574	40.936	39.09
				40.125	39.986
4	37	BS	Adnan Kaiser	42.917	40.875	40.648	41.517
pax: 32 (-2.231)			1999 Chevrolet Corve	41.343	41.249	42.754	41.726
				41.423	41.823	39.423	41.469
				41.061	41.085	40.975	41.005
5	99	BS	Donour Sizemore	45.975	40.409	39.808	40.888
pax: 36 (-2.446)			2016 N/A Blur	40.551	40.203	40.148	39.688
				40.172
C Street
1	17	CS	Andrew Kessel	42.926	39.419	39.641	57.385
pax: 9 (-1.447)			2016 Mazda MX-5 Miat	39.559	40.527	39.508	39.068
				38.936	39.575	39.323	38.704
				13.459+X	38.602
2	41	CS	Nick Babin	40.661	40.258	40.104	39.955
pax: 29 (-2.153)			2016 Mazda Miata	39.878	40.56	39.546	39.473
				39.619
D Street
1	8	DS	Slavik Belmas	41.93	42.216	40.797	40.304
pax: 14 (-1.662)			2014 Scion FRS	40.264	40.965	40.696	40.303
				39.843	39.304	39.437	47.635
				56.569	37.861+X	39.897
2	93	DS	Steven Berrodin	41.985	41.37	40.668	40.49
pax: 26 (-2.121)			2013 Subaru BRZ	40.307	40.227	40.956	40.139
				40.336	40.502	21.252+X	39.877
				61.588	40.676
3	7	DS	Satya Menon	47.624	45.16	44.867	44.497
pax: 53 (-4.303)			2016 Subaru WRX	44.434	44.488	114.410+X	43.125
				43.309	43.236	42.601	43.341
E Street
1	94	ES	Niko Romanzi	57.951	50.774	49.166	48.6
pax: 55 (-5.124)			1994 Mazda miata mx-	47.926	47.609	49.821	44.011
				47.453	45.902	55.093	45.808
				50.767
F Street
1	35	FS	Ancel Henry	43.297	42.35	41.551	41.091
pax: 40 (-2.721)			2007 Ford Shelby gt	41.464	41.156	13.431+X	102.956
				41.776	41.399	41.176	40.838
				40.474	40.887	70.371+X	20.482+X
2	55	FS	Ilya Kipnis	53.729	52.034	49.188	47.921
pax: 59 (-6.555)			2016 Ford Mustang Ec	46.463	47.988	46.424	195.174+X
				48.582	49.617	47.718	48.37
				45.908	45.243	45.483	47.247
				47.125
3	20	FS	Francis Vargas	53.215	50.271	18.027+X	48.088
pax: 60 (-6.855)			2015 Ford Mustang GT	46.663	46.72	47.724	46.502
				46.104	46.49	45.616
4	2	FS	Josh White	53.856	50.546	64.98	47.846
pax: 62 (-6.985)			2015 Ford Mustang GT	47.486	47.19	46.743	47.198
				47.588	46.764	46.036	45.778
G Street
1	126	GS	Max Wolfinger	43.711	42.547	41.79	41.276
pax: 23 (-2.031)			2016 Ford FOST	40.632	40.54	40.703	40.748
				40.277	40.166	40.358	40.415
				40.592
2	32	GS	tODD fORNO	66.975	45.673	43.451	42.835
pax: 50 (-3.956)			32	42.593	44.262	43.255	42.916
				42.699	42.821	10.017+X
3	5	GS	Andrey Khvostov	51.469	48.969	47.823	48.844
pax: 63 (-7.055)			1997 BMW 328i	47.597	47.595	47.326	46.501
4	51	GS	Dmitriy Kishkarev	72.839	53.304	52.049	49.499
pax: 65 (-8.896)			1997 BMW 328i	48.823	50.134
H Street
1	98	HS	Jeff Yatsko	53.865	45.509	44.088	42.48
pax: 30 (-2.205)			2015 Kia	41.338	41.346	41.212	41.156
				41.246	40.745	41.301	41.398
2	24	HS	Elisabeth Flannagan	55.062	44.555	44.058	43.252
pax: 43 (-2.901)			2008 Honda Civic Si	62.143	42.836	42.327	42.906
				41.63	42.23	42.811	42.48
				42.302
3	681	HS	Andrew Stackhouse	47.046	44.612	43.754	43.529
pax: 49 (-3.927)			2015 Honda Civic Si	44.431	44.246	44.451	44.189
				44.836	43.065	43.139	44.976
				42.936	43.985	44.066	43.224
A Street Prepared
1	13	ASP	Deniz Pamukcu	46.508	40.487	40.521	41.506
pax: 52 (-4.247)			1993 Mazda Rx7	49.653	20.385+X	40.091	39.798
B Street Prepared
1	33	BSP	Michael Guevara	46.13	41.277	47.029
pax: 57 (-5.389)			1997 BMW
2	3	BSP	John Ryan Lewis	43.811	71.874	59.545	43.31
pax: 58 (-6.007)			1997 BMW M3	42.001	62.674	52.787	42.4
				47.734	42.61	47.578	42.139
C Street Prepared
1	5	CSP	Ryan Duncan	44.883	42.21	42.086	41.767
pax: 54 (-4.305)			2001 Mazda Miata MX-	41.693	41.074	40.848	40.563
				40.492	40.325	40.995	40.757
				40.097	39.927	40.212	41.067
				39.681	39.856
D Street Prepared
1	185	DSP	Tamra Hunt	51.816	43.292	39.85	38.813
pax: 6 (-1.261)			2005 Mazda RX-8	38.467	38.241	38.323	37.409
				36.914
2	85	DSP	Andrew Krystinik	44.869	40.469	40.98	44.144
pax: 37 (-2.568)			2005 Mazda RX-8	39.68	38.466
E Street Prepared
1	249	ESP	Kevin Lau	40.709	38.839	39.827	39.852
pax: 24 (-2.065)			2006 Mitsubishi EVO	39.565	38.701	38.095	38.414
				39.058	38.554
Street Touring FWD
1	25	STF	Darian Taggart	55.537	62.795	42.04	41.63
pax: 35 (-2.441)			2005 Mazda 3	40.97	40.749	40.944	41.241
				40.622	40.326	40.997	40.695
				32.694+X	20.930+X
Street Touring Sport
1	22	STS	Michael Roleira	41.491	41.084	40.207	40.37
pax: 20 (-2.000)			Mayhem Miata	40.842	40.309	40.316	40.339
				39.973	41.317	40.007	58.157
				38.9	39.826	39.626	41.462
				44.756	39.802
2	122	STS	MIKE	44.219	48.33	40.808	40.541
pax: 33 (-2.308)			MAYHEM	44.241	40.757	40.233	39.532
				39.657	39.651	39.277	39.807
3	85	STS	Joseph Wong	48.149	52.91	43.615	43.937
pax: 44 (-2.937)			1989 Honda Civic	42.573	42.636	42.079	42.507
				40.046	43.601	43.246
Street Touring Xtreme
1	67	STX	Lex Kirichek	41.511	40.799	40.792	40.269
pax: 45 (-3.099)			2001 BMW 325ci	68.81	40.878	40.156	40.404
				43.23	42.475	42.201	40.287
				40.124	40.052	40.048	41.98
Street Touring Roadster
1	171	STR	Nathan Young	41.753	39.597	38.474	38.266
pax: 7 (-1.340)			2006 Honda S2000	37.543	38.046	37.801	31.616+X
2	74	STR	Tim Kong	41.525	39.984	39.292	68.654
pax: 12 (-1.595)			2008 Honda S2000 CR	39.126	38.713	38.48	38.972
				0.411+X	38.49	38.662	37.85
				38.289	38.128	38.055
3	91	STR	Noel Leslie	42.776	40.013	39.333	39.428
pax: 16 (-1.809)			2008 Honda S2000 CR	39.221	38.778	39	68.134+X
				44.827	38.107	38.86	38.596
				38.593	38.49	38.506	59.950+X
4	129	STR	Hezron Laluces	53.485	42.042	41.252	39.608
pax: 18 (-1.926)			2008 Honda s2000 CR	61.848	39.069	39.03	39.192
				38.86	39.848	39.121	38.469
				38.423	39.135	39.209	39.02
				39.864	38.249	39.943
5	186	STR	Clyde Siazon	52.375	43.019	41.612	40.607
pax: 21 (-2.017)			2004 Honda S2000	39.853	39.642	39.348	38.971
				38.75	38.545	38.358	38.507
				38.596
6	71	STR	Eric Simmons	42.737	40.061	39.887	39.559
pax: 22 (-2.019)			2006 Honda S2000	39.01	39.216	38.699	38.913
				38.438	94.821+X	39.504	39.018
				38.543	38.36	38.407	39.364
				39.547
7	72	STR	Michelle Knoll	57.267	43.215	48.461	41.726
pax: 27 (-2.121)			2006 Honda S2000	62.514	31.394+X	40.555	75.030+X
				60.322	40.23	38.771	38.484
				48.539	39.927	40.316
8	86	STR	Rad Tatis	42.386	41.073	40.097	40.174
pax: 34 (-2.325)			2004 Honda S2000	40.067	40.019	38.899	39.736
				39.213	44.594	39.163	38.811
				38.824	39.173	38.729	63.887
				39.13
9	23	STR	Bryan Borkey	46.596	41.859	41.144	39.828+X
pax: 39 (-2.706)			2000 Honda S2000	39.925	40.299	61.755	40.004
				39.529	39.764	39.318	39.188
				39.831	39.647	40.002
10	69	STR	Michael Fineberg	44.326	42.615	41.664	40.859
pax: 41 (-2.815)			2005 Honda S2000	40.142	40.032	40.995	40.229
				39.698	40.387	40.459	22.892+X
				39.532	47.937	39.883	39.672
				39.319	39.57
11	31	STR	Cody Gromel	40.042	40.146	39.665	40.104
pax: 42 (-2.873)			1995 Mazda Miata	39.56	40.465	39.476	28.578+X
				39.595	39.405	39.39
12	28	STR	Yiling Huang	47.646	47.018	45.373	44.883
pax: 51 (-4.054)			2001 Honda S2000	40.812	44.1	43.839	42.437
				43.641	42.07	42.782	42.945
				42.576	42.59	41.906	42.197
				42.035
Street Touring Ultra
1	74	STU	Wojtek Hajduczek	41.777	40.452	40.175	68.414
pax: 17 (-1.825)			2003 Nissan 350z	39.126	38.742	38.708	38.982
				38.66	38.399	38.461	38.081
				39.421	38.318	38.721
Street Touring Pony
1	5	STP	Don Slevin	44.142	40.978	40.176	39.881
pax: 25 (-2.090)			2016 Ford Mustang GT	39.488	39.249	40.27	39.341
				39.687	39.752	41.721	40.922
				26.091+X	39.443	39.031	48.79
				40.452	39.022	38.915
CAM Traditional
1	71	CAM-T	Fred Kratzel	62.5	42.932	56.07	78.027
pax: 56 (-5.255)			1990 Ford mustang gt
CAM Contemporary
1	92	CAM-C	Jeffrey Darbig	41.729	40.811	40.518	40.719
pax: 38 (-2.657)			1999 Chevrolet CAMar	40.149	40.73	40.53	41.12
				39.462
2	192	CAM-C	Christopher Vanderwolk	56.107	43.613	42.454	41.548
pax: 47 (-3.303)			1999 Chevrolet CAMar	41.787	41.309	41.266	22.674+X
				41.196	40.772	40.247	40.517
3	909	CAM-C	Joshua Pacada	76.868	51.2	49.44	48.691
pax: 61 (-6.911)			2017 Ford Mustang Sh	47.425	47.01	45.952	44.75
				44.641	45.97	44.631	61.759
				44.761	58.451+X	45.736