<VV> Season opener

[AeroNed at aol.com]

The Wichita SCCA had the season opening autocross today. I was very warm  
yesterday and very cold today. I ran in the first heat, the coldest time of the  
day. The course was very slippery and very tight, the car pushed and was 
loose,  but I didn't spin. One part of the course was a 3 cone slalom with a turn 
around  back through the slalom. On my first run I totally messed up the slalom 
and  ended up getting "lost" at the end and DNFed. The second run was much 
better, I  completed it without going off course. I felt that I was using the 
brakes better  than last year. The third and fourth runs resulted in lower 
times. I tried  downshifting into first at the turn around on these two runs. I 
decided that I  would downshift during braking on my fifth and final run. 
Warren's "Red Haze"  took over and I managed to actually get the transmission into 
reverse. Not the  fastest way to get through that part of the course. The good 
news is that it  doesn't seem that I broke anything, no strange noises, and the 
car still shifts  fine forward and reverse. The bad news is that after the 
car stopped, I  corrected the gear selection, eventually, after putting it in 
reverse 2 more  times. Oh well, I was still happy with my good runs. My best 
time was 50.5 and  FTD was 43.8. Last year I was usually 15+ seconds behind FTD. 
Several of the  SCCA regulars commented that I looked better and asked what I 
did to improve the  car. I guess it was all those stories in Dayton.
 
Ned