I used to complain that I was the only Fiesta driver at the events I attended. But it appears the car has caught on. Today there were three white ones present, along with a couple Mini's and a Civic, all competing in the H-Street class.
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Today was just the first day of competition, but it was a blast. The weather held for all the runs in our class, and competition was fierce. Yesterday my co-driver Marshall and I did four practice starts each, and I felt a little like I personally could have used 20. But it was a good thing we practiced, because we learned a lot about the car in that short time.
One learning moment was that the hill-brake-assist function will not hold the car on a hill if you hit the accelerator. I thought it would hold until the car sensed it was moving forward, but it simply releases, so you can't rev the engine without rolling backwards. Since the drag start is on a hill, you have to hold the e-brake to keep you still until your launch. The four practice starts were enough for me to realize I needed a LOT more practice launching the car.
Saturday Results
Marshall's starts were consistently better than mine, but he drove somewhat conservatively, with consistent times, no Red-Lights, no DNF's, no cones. I drove a bit wildly, but fortunately I managed a clean run on each course, so it paid off. As of Saturday evening, I'm sitting in first, which was a huge shock to me. So we are currently 1st and 2nd in class, which is neat. Everyone in the class is running nice sticky Bridgestone RE-71R tires, which is the "tire du jour". I just didn't really imagine I'd pull this kind of result off among this group.
The 2016 Tire Rack Washington DC Pro Solo is being held at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland
Sunday is a New Day
Tomorrow will be dry, but cold and windy. The Bridgestones should perform well in the cold temps, but we'll see if the group can improve on today's times. If the others can, I only hope I can as well.
Sunday also features the Super Challenge, and I honestly don't really understand how it works. From what I gather, it's some set of complicated rules that reward consistent driving (which is not my strong suit). If I qualify for the Super Challenge, I'll line up where they tell me to and drive as well as I can, I guess. This is my first ProSolo in at least 15 years or so, and they didn't have Super Challenge way back then.