skibigsky's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guess I'm a Corvette Woman, now. Okay. The Mini is a cool car. No doubt about it. Our boys (two local drivers we have adopted) drove the Mini to its fullest this weekend, and in the end, our one ‘son’ who has been battling with a guy in a Lotus Elise for top driver of the year, snagged it this last weekend, due to the excellent handling of the Mini in inclement weather, and equally excellent handling in non-inclement weather. Great little car. But I’m done with it. Now before you ‘tsk, tsk’ me, let me explain. To back up a bit…. This weekend was the last weekend of autocross for the Utah region. Charles wanted to drive the Corvette (wait, I’ll get to that!), so he flew in on Thursday, and helped us get ready for the trek to Tooele (about 1 hour from our house, maybe). We were taking the Mini, the 5th wheel, and the Corvette. Because we didn’t want to mess around with unloading and loading the Mini, we had to do a 3 driver deal; one person towing the 5th wheel, one driving the Mini, and one towing the Corvette (which has been taken off the streets – it is licensed and all, but as soon as we start doing ‘real’ work to it this winter, it will be too to expensive (if we break something!) to run it on the road). So, we ended up with Mr. V. and myself (and the dogs, of course), in the 5th wheel, Charles driving the Mini (he’s 6’3, and whined about getting ‘scrunched’ until he drove it, and then was happy), and one of our adopted sons towing the Corvette (which now lives in its own enclosed trailer). Note to self: before we buy Any More trailers/vehicles/whatever, Get Another Truck. Three trailers and one truck is a bit of a challenge. Anyway, we got out to Miller, and got ourselves set up, noting the chill in the air, and the clouds building. Yippee. Charles got himself settled in a hotel near that track, and we went to bed. It was cloudy but dry Saturday morning, and there was some discussion about running the Corvette (it had race tires on it, and set up for rain). I opted to run the Mini, and as the rain started to fall by 8am, Mr. V. and Charles opted to run the Mini as well (which, along with our two adopted sons running the car, made for 5 drivers in one car….). I was learning to be a safety steward, and therefore did NOT have to stand out in what was rapidly becoming very cold and very wet and chase cones; instead, I had to walk around in the cold and wet, but got to get back to dry spots and thaw out a bit. By the end of the first run group, there was so much debate about continuing the race; there was a ton of standing water on the course, the course workers were freezing, and it was looking to be somewhat miserable. Instead we (including me, as I was officially part of the safety team) made the decision to give the course workers a half hour break before we ran. I dashed back to the RV and made some soup (I was FROZEN). Then, we ran; since Charles, Mr. V. and I were all sharing the car, we made the choice to let each driver take all 3 runs before letting the next driver run. Which means that I got to sit in the trailer until I ran. So I got to warm up, and when I DID drive the Mini, I had the seat warmers on! Heh. Actually, despite (or possibly because of) the weather, I did extremely well; having one of my best finishes of the season, beating a few people that I have never beaten. Mr. V. did VERY well, beating Charles (first time ever, in any car), and finishing 3rd in PAX (time adjusted for the car you drive) overall. By the end of the day, it was starting to dry out, and while there was some discussion about fun runs, everyone decided to do the club BBQ first, and then talk about fun runs. But…. Mr. V. was DYING to take out the Corvette, so he got one of our adopted sons to chase cones for him, and took a couple of untimed runs. I debated taking a couple of fun runs, myself, but when it came time for the ‘real’ runs, I saw a wall of clouds, and decided that I was cold and wanted to just get back to the trailer and warm up. As it was, we spent a better part of the evening talking with a variety of muckety-mucks in the region. By the time we were done with all of our ‘business’, it was late, and we went packed Charles off to his hotel, and we went to bed. And woke up to snow on the grass, and slush on the ground. Because of the previous night’s discussions, Mr. V. was unofficially chairing the event, and wanted it to be ‘perfect’. So, I was up at the crack of dawn, riding around in the region’s truck, trying to help set a course. I was frozen by the time the course was done. But since I was still being a safety person, I then had to go ‘inspect the course’. And it was supposed to be a learning session, so we were going slowly (hence, freezing our collective asses off). Until a couple of other course designers (one of whom was in contention for the top driver of the year) showed up and started messing with the course. I was really cold by then, and the trainer told me to go back to the trailer and warm up. So I let the kids continue to dink around the course. It was clearing slightly, and with a lot of work with shovels and brooms, the course was wet, but pretty much ready to drive. It was still wet, so I opted to drive the Mini again. Mr. V. and Charles were in the second run group (I was in the first) and decided to drive the Corvette. I ran fairly well in the Mini, but not super fast. By the time the second run group was ready, the track was fairly dry, and in my capacity as a safety person, I was able to hop in the Corvette for a couple of runs. And decided that I would throw away my chance at bettering my time/finish in the Mini, and run the Corvette for the second session. Because Mr. V. would not let me drive the Corvette by myself (he’s a little touchy, ever since one of his buddies spun the car into the mud on a freeway on-ramp), Charles rode with me. And my first run in the car was a parade lap; 7 seconds slower than my best run in the Mini. In truth, I was a little scared of the car, as when I had ridden with Charles on his runs, he had spun the car a couple of times…. So, after having a slow but clean first run, I decided to get more aggressive. My second run I was as fast in the Corvette as in the Mini, but with a couple of cones. My third run, I was faster yet, but still carrying a cone. But I was having fun. Damn was I having fun. You couldn’t have wiped the grin off my face if you had tried. I was having WAY too much fun. The fourth run I decided to go for it, and had my fastest time of the day (by 2 seconds), clean. I’ve got a few more seconds to go to catch the fast women in the speedy cars, but given that this was only the second time I had driven the car, and the first time that I had driven it with an audience (everyone there knew about the new car, and was watching it). Oh. My. God. This car is So Bitching. I LIKE the big horsepower, rear-wheel-drive thing. I’ve got a lot to learn as to how to drive it, but I LIKE it. A LOT. So, by the third run, I had told Charles that I was done with the Mini; this was going to be my new car. After my fourth run, I was telling everyone. Oh and the results? Charles beat Mr. V. by 1.4 seconds, taking 5th overall in raw time, and our kids running the Mini did INCREDIBLY well, earning our one 'son' Top Driver of the Year honors. So the Mini is now up for sale, as is the DP car that Charles built. (It took him a while to admit it, but even Charles had to admit that a car with a roof, heat/air conditioning, and adjustable seats was definitely the way to go.) We are going to try to add another Corvette to the ‘stable’ so Charles and his co-driver in California will have one that we can drive when we are out there, and have two that we can run at the Nationals. But oh yeah. I am So Totally Sold on the car. This is just Too Much Fun. I LOVE this thing. Yeah, I was skeptical at first, but I am more than convinced. So I’ll be running Super Stock Ladies next season!!!! Alas, no pictures, as it was raining, and we were busy all weekend. But I still haven’t been able to totally wipe the grin off my face. Heh. 9:37 a.m. - 23 October 2007 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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