We had such a good time running with Capital Driving Club back in August, it was a shame that we had to wait two months before getting to run with them again. But our schedules aligned for CDC's November 7 event at Bowie Baysox Stadium and we prepped for battle during the week before.

The biggest change we made from previous events was taking a different weapon of choice. With Captain Slow's suspension swap still not yet done, we opted for taking the '99, which hadn't run since our Autocrossers Inc. debut back in June. In SCCA or AI competition, that car more or less slots into C Street Prepared but it's not competitive there since that class allows a lot more modifications than it has. CDC doesn't break it entrants into different classes, with the only nod towards a separate class being a "Small Bore Series" that carries its own points tally while those drivers also earn points towards the overall championship.

The course at Baysox Stadium was made up of a couple circles. At the start, it went right and around one circle that went near the bottom of the lot. Coming back up the hill we entered another wide circle with a couple huccups that we went around one and a half times, peeling off halfway through to hit the finish line. It wasn't complicated and, something a newbie like me enjoyed, let a driver get up some speed and, if he's lucky/good, hold that speed through some fun bits. Hopefully that speed resulted in good times.

I put up a decent time in my first run, but the second try didn't go as well. The '99 likes to hang its tail out in sweeping turns and I, while not exactly condoning or encouraging this behavior, did not discourage it. Coming around to finish my first pass around the second circle I got a little tail-happy and while it didn't spin, in the process of saving myself from certain embarassment I managed to wipe out three cones in one corner and a fourth not much farther up the road. Four cones in one run is a career high and a feat I hope not to repeat anytime soon.

At the end of the morning runs I had put up some decent times, knocking on the door of approaching the good guys - at least, the good guys in small cars. I got dangerously close to Frank Dam, a good guy and fast stock-class Miata driver, and that must have pushed him over the edge so he went right out and got himself coilovers after the event.

With encouraging results from the morning, I was looking forward to running in the afternoon. But the course got slick as the day cooled and nobody really picked up any time in the later session. But the results were still pretty good for a nearly-stock car on street tires. I was in the top half of the overall results with a fast time that was better than the mean time of the entire field. In the Small Bore class I was eighth out of thirteen, which wasn’t what I wanted, but it’s a tight field (first through third were separated by 15/100ths of a second) and once I start improving to the point where I’m running with them, it’s going to be small bites to go from running with those guys to beating those guys.

There’s only one more event on the 2009 Parsimonious Racing agenda, and it’s not even a competitive event. But with Captain Slow’s new suspension and Kate’s general need of track time to get more comfortable behind the wheel, Capital Driving Club’s Test ‘n’ Tune later in the month should be just what the doctor ordered.

Return To Front Page