Solo PLP
Well this weekend my car club, the Furrin Group, hosted its first AutoCross of the season. I had to be in Moline, MI at 9:30 AM so it was an early morning for me. I was excited to see how the GXE would run with the new mods and how I would run in my new class (my mods put me into a more competitive class). I went to the AutoX alone... which meant I had to prep my car all by myself and that slowed me down and limited the amount of time I was able to spend learning the corse.

Unfortunately the weather was not as nice as they predicted. It was cloudy and windy which made it not as much fun to be outside. Either way it was a great, I had a lot of fun meeting some of the new drivers and checking out the new mods on other members cars. The turnout was not great, but it meant everyone got to have six runs on the course which was good.

I did okay... In my class was 7 cars. It was the class I used to race with my NX... so compare my NX to my GXE and you can see the major differences in performance. My GXE had its work cut out for it. The first run was great, the car took off well and at the end of the run I was in 2nd out of the 7 in my class. No bad! My second run I pushed her harder and ended up hitting a cone on the second slalom. With the time penalty from the cone that run put me in 4th out of 7. Still not bad... I figured I could improve on my times and if I don't hit cones I can climb higher.

Well the 3rd and 4th runs did not net me any better times... the problem is that as I pushed her harder the suspension and tires really gave out on me... I could not hold my grip on corners cause of my all season tires and the roll from my OEM suspension really hurt. Two of the guys beating me.... drove J-Body Cavs which had $1000 Tein suspension and $600 race tires... how can I compete? On my fifth run I was determined to do well. I jumped the start gate well (throwing some blue smoke...) and killed both of the slaloms. I controlled the speed curve well, and then coming into the final turn of the course I was going a little too fast for my tires and I lost control and hit the 2nd to last cone before the end gate... NO! I had one more run and was not able to capitalize on that either... I ended 4th out of 7 in my class.

This course is a little bumpy, and the design this year was very fast with long speed sweeps.

Some great cars turned out for the event... Corvettes, Honda S2000s, and this pair of EVOs

Wide range of rides... from BMWs to GTOs.

There she goes... round the first sweep.

Coming out of the second slalom heading into the tight chicane.

Immortalized... understeering trying to avoid hitting that second to last cone on my fastest run...

Some highlights from the day... my intake and exhuast really did provide me with some needed power on the speed sections. I also did get better times then some pretty nice rides in other classes that had a lot on my little GXE... I beat a Mazda RX7, a couple VW Jettas, Subaru WRX, Triumph Spitfire, and a BMW 325i. So even though I did not place, it was a good day.

After that I went to GVSU where I was facilitating Recruitment Bootcamp. It was my first time working with that curriculum so I was excited to see how it went. We had two lead facilitators from CAMPUSPEAK and then six of us small group facilitators. It was a great bunch and Saturday after training was done we all hungout and caught up on AFA stuff and just relaxed. Sunday was a long day... the program was 13 hours long... we went from 8am to 9pm! Ouch... but it was a good day. I think the students got a lot out of it and I hope that recruitment next year for GVSU is amazing!

They learned quick simple talking points.

They worked in small groups, and then in their chapter group.

The students came up with some great ideas!

The facilitation team.

Needless to say I got home late last night, very tired... so I am dragging today from the busy weekend. I need a relaxing weekend one of these days so on Monday I can come in refreshed... maybe once the students leave.

Well that was my weekend... this week is busy here. Tonight is Order of Omega initiation, Wednesday is the Emerson Drive concert, and this weekend I am heading to Chicago. Catch me if you can...