There is no amount of money that will win at the top level in autocrossing. I
have been at this long enough to know the drivers does much more than any
parts.
When I took my first McKamey school, I figured it may make me more cnsistent
and have my first run closer to the limit. WOW, was I wrong. We had a Sunday
event, I was 6 seconds off of index running in EM with a street car, and I
felt I drove to the limit of my car by the last run. The following Saturday I
took a phase one school. Steve Tamandli and Jim MaKamey himself were my
instructors back then. I did pretty good runs for my first 3 dial in shots.
In fact Steve was only a few tenths quicker, but he never drove my car
before, I have been running it over a year in turbo form. My times droped a
bit all day til I was beating the first morning runs by 2 seconds. Steve and
Jim matched those times after 6 runs in the car, and I was very curious to
see how I would do. And, we had an event the very next day.
My first run felt downright slow. I was not sure what to think, until I
started looking at other drivers times. I was almost 2.5 seconds higher on
the index standings, and the slow feeling was due to my brain being ahead of
the car. A feeling I never had before in an over powered underprepared beast.
I had been running GStock times, I was now runing ESP to SS times. My car was
still stuck in EMod but I was having fun again.
I have since taken a phase 2 and bought a stock class car and I have run
within 1 second of top index on a good day. Within 2 even on a bad one. I'm
still not as consistnet as I would like, but getting there. I am re-taking
phase two soon, and going to the Peru warm-up. I did put shocks on the car,
and I am buying the 3rd set of tires in just 12 events. The shocks were about
the same price as one set of tires.
Gary M.
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