Many Ohio names. Almost was one myself but there was some very fast times squeaked out on a course I couldn't squeeze any more time from. Is what I get for bringing a hammer to a knife fight. I think Ed and Orion were the only other Ohio guys who DIDN'T trophy.
Chris - I think he's still on the 5 speed. At least it was a 5 speed when I drove it last year.
It was great to meet a lot of you guys and put faces with the forum names. For those of you who were watching the live results, I am David in PF who Bob beat on the last run of Sunday to take the championship. 
While I would have loved the win, I'm glad Bob won, given his many years of being oh so close and he's a class act.
Knurled wrote: Thought I felt a tickle in my throat yesterday, figured I must have been snoring last night. The last four or five hours, no it's not from snoring. Ugh. Hope it's just a fluke and not like the weird flu everyone got in 2011.
Pete, I had this same tickle yesterday morning and I am now very sick with a cold. I hope your symptoms pass without it turning into this cold!
Nope. Too cold to shiver, can't breathe, massively sore throat/can't swallow.
Did you have the meat or the fish?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ir1rzzGugIU
(It's going to take me FOREVER to assign "name" with "face" and "car", apologies if we talked and I forgot! Talked to a bazillion people this weekend, quite a blur)
On the right, we had "fun" as the protest committee. 
That's who i thought you were.
Nah, last year was the "Fun" year. Something like 11 vehicle protests, one of which ate up the entire Friday night bull session and one of my off-heats, another one of which required a 5-way conference call later that week. This year was way smooth in comparison, only one protest!
That was the "oh crap" moment though. Warren comes up to me and tells me to form a protest committee. I put names and faces together like that scene in Idiocracy with the pegs and holes. All the people who I did want, initially, weren't here this year. It worked out in the end, I think. (Fortunately I did remember Draco's rules-lawyering in the past, so I did to him what they did to me )
I also thought it was great, to put faces to names from here... and that so many of you did so well. Congrats to everyone!
My biggest victory was not shredding the rear end on the drive home.
I drove straight through and made it home around 4:30am. I would have liked to place higher but I'm happy how it turned out. Bee finally beat me at a national level event. I was glad to be back in MR this year.
The Miata started overheating in grid after the parade lap on Sunday. The coolant expansion tank was empty so I filled it with water, last time I had checked it was in Frostburg I believe. On my first run the temp gauge was high at the start but seemed normal on course. The next couple runs it was reading high but went back down to normal after sitting in grid. I could see some coolant leaking but it was being flung off the fan/pulleys so I didn't know where it was coming from.
After the last run I let it sit idling in grid because the temp gauge was nearly at max after the run. It started to come down and I figured it was fine. A couple minutes later I headed back to the paddock area and the temp gauge pegged and some steam was coming from the hood. I parked it and the coolant was boiling and steam escaping from several places. It hissed away for 10-15 minutes before I loaded it on the tow dolly. I'll look into it sometime before next year. Maybe.
Seems like these are all the pictures I took.
Loaded up Thursday morning.
Ohio Miatas in class inspection. Darker red one is John England's, now the second supercharged Miata MR champion in a row.
Damp start to Saturday morning.
After some morning runs before I remembered how to drive. In 5th place while Takumi was in 1st.
This thing was awesome to watch on course.
Foggy morning on Sunday with the MR field lined up. It was plenty dry by the time we actually ran after all the delays. Only one was caused by an upside down incident this year.
I warned y'all this would happen. (Knurled curses in this one)
(A lot.)
(So does Orion)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/dmd6K0E9vRU
I had been trying to make amusing bleep-out sound effects but Movie Maker doesn't make changing audio simple, so I gave up.
Madhatr wrote: I also thought it was great, to put faces to names from here... and that so many of you did so well. Congrats to everyone!
Putting faces to names helps sooo much!
I've met Evan a few times, so that part was easy. Madhatr and the dirt ball were pretty easy to put together from pics, but I can't tell where he finished. And now I get that Knurled was there in a Volvo thanks to his debead video
I guess the only real way to correct this is to get out there with you guys and join in the fun!
EvanB wrote: Ohio Miatas in class inspection. Darker red one is John England's, now the second supercharged Miata MR champion in a row.
England (W.) can drive, and he's only going to get better. I managed to pass him on the last run at the Eastern Championships with one of my best runs EVER. And I think he's only been rallycrossing for a couple years. And that was BEFORE he S/C'd the car. He would have had me there too, but I think he let off to be a little bit careful and it bit him...doesn't look like he made the same mistake at Nationals.
EDIT: of course, you were at Easterns too, duh...so I'm talking to myself 
John the Younger was awesome to watch on course for his smoothness. Never saw a bobble.
I don't think anyone battling for trophies was leaving time anywhere. The ferociousness you see at nationals is always impressive.
In reply to irish44j:
Yea, he is always faster than me. I need to get faster.
Checked the radiator when I unloaded my Miata and there was no fluid visible. I should have checked it before but figured it was fine since I hadn't driven it much since I checked it a couple events ago.
I'm thrilled with how I did in PR. I spun the car on my first two runs but after that, kept clean and tidy. If those first two runs were instead at Shawn Robert's pace, I would have taken 3rd. If they were instead at my codriver's pace, I would have taken 1st. In conclusion: suck less and win more!
Seriously, I'm glad I had a ton of wet practice and finally think I have the hang of it. Also, Indy Sport SGs always beat gravel tires in the damp UNTIL dust starts appearing behind cars, then SWITCH IMMEDIATELY. Snows weren't as fast as gravels but kept us in the running. 
It's amazing to see how clean the winners drive. Dustin didn't hit a single cone. That in itself is astounding. As someone who's driven that car a bunch and was supposed to co-driving it, to drive the Corolla as fast as he did cleanly is almost super human.
Screwed by the weather/tire/prep gods again.
After losing out to a guy with mud tires last year I brought some older mud tires this year but they did not help enough. I only ran them Sat AM. If I had run them first Sunday runs it might have been a different story but I thought it was a little drier than it was underneath.
Looking at the unofficial statistical data https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ErHeh_rwsOVVBQQ09HUFVDaFU/view For the second year in a row my average finishing rank was #1 but I lost because of mud runs. I need to just buy some indy sport tires for next year. Now to decide if I should get the SG's or the BR's.
For the Prepared classes the run conditions were.
Sat AM. Grass/Mud, Mud/Grass, Mud, Mud
Sat PM. Grass/Dirt, Dirt/Grass, Dirt, Dirt
Sun AM. Grass/Mud, Mildly Moist Dirt/Grass, Dirt with a few wet spots, Dirt with a few wet spots.
moxnix wrote: Screwed by the weather/tire/prep gods again. After losing out to a guy with mud tires last year I brought some older mud tires this year but they did not help enough. I only ran them Sat AM. If I had run them first Sunday runs it might have been a different story but I thought it was a little drier than it was underneath. Looking at the unofficial statistical data https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ErHeh_rwsOVVBQQ09HUFVDaFU/view For the second year in a row my average finishing rank was #1 but I lost because of mud runs. I need to just buy some indy sport tires for next year. Now to decide if I should get the SG's or the BR's. For the Prepared classes the run conditions were. Sat AM. Grass/Mud, Mud/Grass, Mud, Mud Sat PM. Grass/Dirt, Dirt/Grass, Dirt, Dirt Sun AM. Grass/Mud, Mildly Moist Dirt/Grass, Dirt with a few wet spots, Dirt with a few wet spots.
Nice driving Shawn! Would it be blasphemy to suggest both? BR mud paddles on the drive wheels and SGs in the front? I was extremely pleased with the SGs in the slop!!
By the way, I have the exact same question about dry tires. You were kicking butt on the Maxxis option, but wanted to know if you fully endorsed them. Given your silly-fast times, I'm guessing the answer is yes. General Arctics didn't compare.
Maxxis gave me two free tires for winning the east coast national challenge on their tires so of course I'll endorse them.
I ran them back to back with lightly used DMack tires at our gravel site and both times were pretty close enough that I would be happy to run either of them at that site. If they continue to support SCCA rallyx I will continue to support them as long as nothing else is way faster.
My problem with experimenting with BR/SG mix is that we have no surface anyplace nearby that is at all like the nationals surface. Our farm site is a more clay based dirt and the gravel site is nothing like nationals.
paranoid_android74 wrote: Madhatr and the dirt ball were pretty easy to put together from pics, but I can't tell where he finished.
That is easy... look at the bottom of the list
Saturday, I came in with no expectations of being competitive. So I was just there to take it all in, frankly I didn't even keep close track of my times.
Sunday, I did put more thought to my driving, but more of an experiment of what worked and what didn't.
After watching my videos I can hear that I am 'off throttle' more than I should be... but it sure does not sound/ feel that way behind the wheel.
Hopefully next year I will be back and be less disappointing for everyone
The Des Moines Register has a few pictures up from the races. If anyone finds others, please link us all there!
moxnix wrote: Screwed by the weather/tire/prep gods again. After losing out to a guy with mud tires last year I brought some older mud tires this year but they did not help enough. I only ran them Sat AM. If I had run them first Sunday runs it might have been a different story but I thought it was a little drier than it was underneath. Looking at the unofficial statistical data https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ErHeh_rwsOVVBQQ09HUFVDaFU/view For the second year in a row my average finishing rank was #1 but I lost because of mud runs. I need to just buy some indy sport tires for next year. Now to decide if I should get the SG's or the BR's. For the Prepared classes the run conditions were. Sat AM. Grass/Mud, Mud/Grass, Mud, Mud Sat PM. Grass/Dirt, Dirt/Grass, Dirt, Dirt Sun AM. Grass/Mud, Mildly Moist Dirt/Grass, Dirt with a few wet spots, Dirt with a few wet spots.
Damn, sorry to hear those mud tires didn't work out as well as I had hoped. Surprised you didn't just keep with them - as actual rally tires I would think they'd still do well even if it dried out some. I saw that first run without them (I guess) on the timing and figured you spun or something since it looked like you were winning basically every other run in the class.........
So what's the chances a base/3cylinder Fiesta ends up on an exclusion list next year?
Did.....something happen?
mazdeuce wrote: Did.....something happen?
Yeaaaaaah. It was not rut-induced and the course was not altered after the incident. Very fast driver + stock car.
Well crap. Just when I was thinking that maybe I was being paranoid and B cars were really ok and it was just me that had a problem with them.
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