Autocross #9 is in the books! This marks the last autocross event for the Chicago Region, and likely the last autocross I will attend this year. Ended things on a good note with another 1st place win! More importantly, this was THE most exciting course I’ve raced on thus far. I was shifting into 3rd gear in not one, but TWO sections of the course! It was a relatively wide and open course with lots of high-speed elements to keep you on your toes, and with plenty of room to choose your own line.
Date: Saturday, October 30, 2016
SCCA Chapter: Chicago Region (Event #9)
Location: Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, IL
Weather: Overcast, 55 degrees F, and breezy. (Rather wet in the AM due to recent storms, but dry by the afternoon.)
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Car: 2015 Subaru BRZ
Class: 345 STX
Wheels/Tires: 949 Racing 6UL (17×9)/Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R (245/40R17)
Brakes: Hawk 5.0
Suspension: KW V3 coilovers, Raceseng Cas/Cam plates, Velox LCAs
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Raw: 61.298 (1st of 4 in Class)
PAX: 51.245 (36th of 88 Overall)
A Wet Morning
The course started off fairly wet in the morning, but proceeded to dry out as the day progressed. I learned at my last event that I needed to push the car harder coming out of corners, and I tried to do that for this event as well. I have to admit it’s also WAY more fun to come out of corners with a bit of opposite lock. I still don’t have much experience in the wet, so I’m still learning just how hard the car can be pushed in those conditions. I continue to look forward to an all-wet autocross next year where it’s properly raining, because I really want to see what that’s like, even if it would be annoying to deal with.
Lots of 3rd Gear
Immediately below is a clip of my fastest morning run in the wet (3.2 seconds slower than my fastest run of the afternoon.) I’ve included this for two reasons. First, it’s fun to see how much more slidey it is. Second, this is a great example of a course where 3rd gear proves to be incredibly useful. This course was designed by a Corvette driver, and it shows because it’s much more open, with some sections that are so wide and relatively straight that the BRZ can just endlessly accelerate through them. Some people get frustrated when it is a course designed “for an entirely different kind of car,” but I think it’s a lot of fun because it allows you to do things you wouldn’t normally do. In this case, hitting speeds that put you well into 3rd gear. I was entering the second slalom at at around 70 MPH! Watch the clip below, and pay attention to the tachometer at around 38 seconds and at 50 seconds. Remember that this is a wet run, with slower speeds, and I was banging the limiter in both of those spots. For my afternoon runs, I was shifting into 3rd at both of those locations. Not entirely certain if it saved my any time at the first spot, but it definitely improved my time at the second location.
Blue Brakes
One interesting thing I noticed during my runs today (well, technically, my competitor noticed it first) was that the inner 3/4 of both of my front brake rotors had turned blue. I’d never seen this before, so this was a bit alarming at first. I still need to do some more research, but the immediate feedback I’ve received is that it isn’t anything to worry about in the short term. It just means I’m using the brakes pretty hard. (I know the color change is heat-related, I just wasn’t sure if that was an indication of OVER-heating or not.) What I need to do is keep an eye on the rotors because eventually they will start to develop cracks and once that happens, then it will be time to replace them. I was also kind of curious why only the inner 3/4 of the rotor surface had turned blue. Some people claim that is because the outside of the rotor is exposed to more airflow and therefore remains cooler, whereas the closer you get to the hub, the hotter things get. However, the transition from blue to not blue is so abrupt that I wonder if it isn’t just the pad pressure being applied unevenly. The calipers on this car are floating calipers, and they only have pistons on the inside. The outside just reacts to the forces from the other side, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this results in uneven pressure distribution. Perhaps only the inner 3/4 of the pad gets full pressure? In any event, I never noticed any loss of braking force, or any change in pedal feel, so I’ll just keep an eye on things next time and see what happens.
A Good End to the Season
Below is my fastest run of the day. It wasn’t perfect (as always) but it wasn’t too bad. I also didn’t screw up either of my downshifts from 3rd to 2nd, which is… unusual, lol. With the season over, out of 9 events, I only attended 8. Of those 8, I won 1st place in 6 of them. It is your best 5 that counts towards the Class Championship, so I more than secured 1st place in STX for Chicago Region this year. There will apparently be a banquet at some point in the future, and I’ll eventually get a fancy jacket! Whooo!
Next year, I think I’m going to broaden my horizons and perhaps try to compete at both Chicago and Milwaukee Region events. Milwaukee has much more competition, and I don’t expect to challenge 1st place, but it will be a lot of fun to fight with some national champions and see how I stack up!
