Winged Warrior VII Charity Event Results

Winged Warrior is a charity event for Riley's Children's Hospital in Indianapolis. Its a multiple faceted event with drag runs, autocross, time slalom (in AX), and car show. Each event is worth points for the overall champion in the class. NASA AX sanctioned the event. So classing is a little different than SCCA. NASA does base class then points per mod. Hit a certain number of mod points and your car will bump up to the next class. Classes are Top Gun (unlimited), A, B, C, D, E.

Our cars start off as D classed cars. Good base class. Other cars in D are 98-02 F-Bodys. 4.6 GTs. Saturn Redline / Cobalt SS, MazdaSpeed 3s, etc. Either 250-300hp RWD, FWD, AWD. With the few mods that I have I was still in D.

Day started off hot. By 8am it was in the 80s and humid. T-Storms on the outskirts walking in. D was paired up with E class for the day. Our first event was drag racing. 4 runs. Lowest ET counts for event. We used ORP for the 1/4 section. They added the tack agent to the start line, but after that - it was an ice skating rink. I would have had better luck on an ice skating rink...

Shallow staged, 3000 rpm, walked clutch back - ignited tires. Once I pedaled back to traction, into 2nd gear. Repeat of 1st. Gingerly into 3rd. Walked sideways. Felt like a 600whp monster going no where fast.

Next pass was my best run. I went to the other lane. Lowered launch RPM to idle. And tried to feed in the clutch between shifts as best as I could but with speed. I clicked off a 2.26 60' and 14.17 ET at 100.1 mph. That is slow for the car. Everyone (Evo, Mustang, F-body...) ran .5s slow and 3-5 mph slow. Just one of those days.

Third and forth passes ended like the first. Smoking and sliding. I gave up after 2nd on both runs. 14.17 was good enough for the class.

Our next event was autocross. Back to RWD after years of AWD and FWD cars. Should be fun. And it was. As we staged for grid a massive thunderstorm came though. Sideways rain type of storm. Buckets of rain. Oh...joy...

In-Car Picture Waiting:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/smikeevo/IMG_20110522_121340.jpg

Once the lightning stopped we all re-walked the course and fixed the cones.

Course:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/smikeevo/IMG_20110522_124501.jpg

3 to 4 inches of standing lakes in the track. No drainage. Upside for the Mustang was no low cold-air intake to suck up water like some of the other cars had. And no low front aero to rip off in the water. I have Conti DW (dry/wet) tires. Really put that W to the test.

First 2 runs had downed cones in the slalom from previous run. Both re-runs for me. Third run was clean and I got off a 75.93. Everyone else was in the 78-82 range. Saturn Redline and MazdaSpeed 3 eventually caught up to the 75.x range. Redline got in a 75.91. Then the MS3 did a 74.6. FWD pulls you though corners. In the wet, thats an advantage. I had to be on/off throttle and left foot brake for stability. If I was in FWD, I'd just keep my foot to the floor. Stepped up to my third run. Muffed the box coming into the slalom. Decided to go for fastest slalom time and not worry about the run as a whole. Went for broke on the slalom. Had an awesome tank slapper after that. 360* both feet in. Car still shut down. Stayed in track. Finished with an 88.x. Forth run was for all the marbles. I had to beat the MS3. Had a friends wife in the car. Not always the best time to take someone with me. Not the added weight. Just might scare them. I was going to go all out. Clean run of 74.4. Beat the MS3. All was well until it stopped raining and the MS3 was gridded just right for that. He managed a 74.2 on his last run. Besting me by .2s. Foiled.

Car show as a much of a car show you could have after puddle diving in the autocross for an hour.

End of the day?

3rd place in the drag racing.
3rd place in the slalom.
3rd place in the car show.
2nd place in the autocross.

Overall is still being calculated. I was the most consistant top 3 driver in the day. I hope to add one more trophy to my list of D Class Overall Champion.

Trophies!
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k61/smikeevo/IMG_20110523_090020.jpg

Not a bad start in a new car :)

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=099rDNdLodo