Quick report from Topeka before we hit the road for home today. (Thanks for watching, guys.)
Besides being the most slippery asphalt I have ever run on (and I share that sentiment with what might be 90% of the other competitors), the car had handling issues the entire time. I was first one out on Friday morning at the ProSolo, and the back end of the car would not stay under me. There wasn't a turn I could take at speed or with any power so I had to slow up at every transition. Mark had many spins.
He tried everything to get the rear end to stay in place - we went through multiple spring changes, rear bar changes, (even disconnecting the rear bar for one set of ProSolo runs), lowered tire pressures, more rear toe-in; Koni was onsite, and along the way all 4 shocks got revalved. The handling got a little better by Tuesday afternoon when I ran in nationals, but it still wasn't good enough to be able to pitch the car into a turn. On my first run on Wednesday, I took a spin through a wall of cones which was next to the dividing line to the other course. I got rattled, and then I couldn't get my head back into the game to be able to put down a really fast run on the west course.
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Interesting story to watch will be the Thu/Fri CP competitors. We heard a bunch of them were running around over the last 2 days looking for Hoosiers to run (instead of their slicks). Mark was working the course on Sunday in the test & tune event, and watched the CP cars sliding all over the place. I hope for them, they can find more grip.
Can't wait to hear how this year's results are going to factor in with 2007 pax (or not).
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