SCCA National Tour, Report from Milwaukee Options

[Dave-O]

Well...a relatively stock 914 has competed in a National SCCA event for the first time in...well a long time.

I took my STS2 914 to Milwaukee for the National Tour event this last weekend. For those of you who don't know how these events work, it is a two day event. You run a different course each day. You are allowed three runs each day, they take your fastest run from each day and add them together to give your final time. The friday before they have a short practice course that you can run for $2 a run as many times as you like.

I arrived on Friday, got the car unloaded, did some practice runs, got the car teched, and registered. They have five heats and I didn't run till the fifth heat, so I had a lot of time to kill. It didn't matter because 22 fellow autocrossers from the autocross club in Minneapolis made the trip over, there was plent of fun off the course as well!

On my first run I wasn't pushing the car nearly as hard as I could. Miller park is a very nice and smooth venue. Also, after hundred of runs on the course before me, there was a ton of rubber down. Your shoes would stick to the pavement when you walked on it! (I think most of this was from a monster C-prepared 1970 Cuda (IMG:style_emoticons/default/burnout.gif) . I improved on my second run but I knew there was way more time out there. I thought I really nailed my third run but ended up with a slower time.

Sunday was pretty much the same story, except I was unable to improve on my first run. The only thing that I can come up with is that my falkens were overheating, causing my runs to be slower.

I finished 5th out of 7 in the class. I didn't mind being 5th but I really wish I could have cut the time gap between me and the leader(s). (fyi, Andy Hollis is a multi time national champion)

In the end, it was just a great event. I would STRONGLY reccomend that you make a national tour event if there is one nearby. 914's may not be the most compeditive cars in the SCCA anymore, but I had fun regardless. Also, SCCA people really do love 914's, I had people talking to me and admiring my car all weekend!

Here is a picture of my car heading into a slalom. I guess I really am learning to look ahead!