Ramble Time

Redux

2012-01-20T20:09:00.003-05:00

The WRX will be at the Washington Auto Show again this year! Make sure you swing by the WDCR-SCCA area to say hi, especially if you're there on Thursday, 2/2, which is when I'll be manning the area.

Anticipation

2012-01-14T20:16:00.001-05:00

For the first time in probably 3-4 years that I'm actually been eagerly awaiting the first autocross of the year, rather than trying to think of reasons to avoid going to events. I have conscientiously tried to cut out a lot of the toxic elements of my life over the last few months, after a stunning exhibit of just how horrible some people can be at the Toledo National Tour last year. The effort has rewarded me with some of my best driving in years, my first Nationals trophy in open class, as well this exciting anticipation of the new season. :)

Right now, I'm just waiting on some parts to come in for the WRX, and then it'll be going in for a tuning session at IAG Performance at the end of February. The parts I'll definitely be adding include :

Perrin equal length headers
KillerB oil pickup
TurnInConcepts lateral link bushings
Whiteline front control arm, front bushings
IAG Performance TGV delete plate

The "most likely will be done" list includes :

lightweight battery
GroupN motor mounts
slotted brake rotors
master cylinder brace

The "possibly will be done" would be a wingless trunk, if I can find one, and then if I do, maybe have IAG construct a spoiler for downforce.

Of course, I've already added several pieces to the suspension, compliments of TurnInConcepts, and those will undoubtedly make a huge difference for next season in and of themselves. The front control arm, rear (FCAR) bushings, and the front and rear trailing arm bushings have already proven themselves to me, and adding the lateral link bushings will hopefully just be the icing on the cake there. :) The rest of the "definites" are some power-adding mods, mainly due to me driving Pat's Camaro and realizing just how much torque and power that car has -- and knowing that Madarash's car is on par with it.

All of this, while waiting to hear if WDCR-SCCA will be having space at this year's Washington Auto Show... hopefully, I'll hear something in the next day or so, since the car would have to be at the Convention Center next Sunday in order to be displayed.

Review : Turn In Concepts/MSI Collaboration Front Control Arm Bushings

2011-10-29T17:36:00.008-04:00

A few weeks ago, Turn In Concepts made a post on NASIOC asking for some prospective testers for some new bushings they are developing.

Clint's teaser pic on NASIOC

Knowing the difference between driving the Camaro with the lower control arm bushings near the end of their lives and when I would replace them with new 1LE bushings, I have been considering an upgrade to the control arm bushings in the WRX for a while. In street prepared, offset bushings are allowed, and I'd been thinking about doing just that, but hadn't really done a lot of looking. While I've replaced many of the suspension bushings since last year, the control arms, trailing arms and lateral links are still on the "figure out what to do" list. So, I decided to toss my name into the hat. TiC contacted me a few days later to confirm my address and the bushings were on the way.

I immediately scheduled an install with IAG Performance so that I could have the bushings in before the next (and last of the season) Autocrossers, Inc. event. The bushings arrived on a Thursday, and were in the following Monday afternoon.

special delivery!

getting ready to press out the old bushings and put in the TiC/MSI ones, photo by Boris Petrovich

sad stock bushing next to the TiC/MSI bushing in the housing, photo by Boris Petrovich

all buttoned up, photo by Boris Petrovich

The install was relatively painless, except for a tweaked bolt that didn't want to come loose on the driver's side. It's difficult to say what caused that problem, considering the control arm/ball joint separation from last year, plus the fact that I bought the car used. In any event, that was the only hangup with the actual install, and had I not had a full plate before the AI event (league game, class, hockey class, etc.), I may have even attempted to do it myself. When time is of the essence, however, I prefer to leave things to the professionals.

I can't say I felt much difference in the car's handling on the way home. The WRX is generally a handful on the highways around here anyway, since it's got such an aggressive alignment, and the roads are fairly rutted. To be fair, my car is pretty set up anyway, and a small adjustment such as the rearward of the control arm bushings may not be immediately evident.

So, I took it out to the Maryland Renaissance Festival that Saturday (AWD is a necessity to get in and out of the parking field after weeks of rain), and then to the last AI event in Waldorf on Sunday. ESP was running first heat, and it was pretty chilly (mid 40s) when we arrived. Pat was driving his Camaro, and Rod McGeorge showed up with a new '12 Boss Mustang that he'd be sharing with Big Mike Snyder, but beyond that, there wasn't anyone else running ESP-Pro. Adam George was partaking of the AWD-turbo Kool-Aide by driving the Eskandari STi (STU-prepped) and Brian Burdette was driving a BSP-prepped 350Z. Still, Pat isn't called "Mr. October" for nothing, and having driven that car last month, I now understand how formidable it can be when driven properly.

My first run was pretty bad. I hadn't driven the WRX in anger since Nationals, and the rear tires still had tons of OPR all over them. Combine that with "cold," and "not really paying attention during the course walks," and yeah, this is what you get.

I was happy to not spin when the rear end stepped out across the bumps I hadn't noticed, and then I was pretty irritated with myself for the DNF. I don't know what I was looking at through that turn, but it wasn't what I should have been looking at. I only noticed the cone I was on the wrong side of at the last second, when I jerked the wheel to the left and tried to hit it to stay on course.

So, second run, I had a passenger, so I guess I sort of switched into a different mode. She just wanted to see what I was doing out there, as she drives a stock Miata on street tires, and really only does autocross for fun. Her primary motorsport is offroading (as in Baja). In any event, I improved my raw tire significantly (41.8) and ran clean and on course. I was still a few tenths behind McGeorge at this time.

I was really struggling with coming out of the turnaround, though the car felt great everywhere else. I figured I was coming in too tightly, and so not just slowing down too much for the turnaround, but also impeding my ability to just jump on the throttle and let the diffs do their thing.

Third run, I had another passenger -- an FS 335i driver from Russia -- and then on fourth runs, I got down to a 41.5, just under 0.050 back from McGeorge. At the time, Mike Johnson was top in Pro class, McGeorge was second and I was third. Pat, as usual, was have cone problems, and was back a little ways. When Mike Snyder ran in the second heat, he would get down to a clean 41.1 in the Boss.

So, come the end of the competition, and the AI "screw around time" was about to commence. I wanted to push the WRX a little harder, and Adam wanted to ride along. I think he was feeling cheated from his last ride along, which was in the rain at FedEx Field. So, after a "bleh" first fun run, where I was really just getting heat in the tires (and getting the pressures back to where they should be), I belted out a run that I was sure could have won the class.

Of course, the timer was spazzing, and we both knew it wasn't a 67. So, one more run, and I know it wasn't nearly as good as the previous, but it was still a 40.8.

The only things I've changed on the car since Nationals and the Packwood ProSolo are these bushings and the addition of the gauge pod. While the gauges are pretty and all, the bushings are the things that I was testing here. Did the car feel better than it did at Packwood, which has a more comparable surface (asphalt) to the Blue Crabs lot? Hard to say, considering I seem to just now be starting to harness the car's full potential. It did seem a bit better in the slalom, and less pushy in the off camber sweepers, but how much of that was just driving? I did finish better on index than I have in a while locally, so there is that.

So, I did the only other thing I could, test wise. I cajoled Pat Griffith into taking the WRX out for a few runs. Keep in mind that every time he's driven my WRX, he's not only won ESP, but has done so convincingly. The last time he drove it, he only got one run in before the rain, and he won over me by a second. That, like Packwood, was on asphalt (FedEx Field), and so a comparable surface to Blue Crabs Stadium.

He takes one run to reacclimate himself to the car (it's not like driving the Camaro), and then one run to get the cones out of his system. One the third run, it looks damned near perfect, and when I ask him what the time was, he balks then, grinning, tells me it was a 39.9, on par with Junior's raw time in the ASP C6 Z06 in the morning heat, and, had he done it during competition, easily good enough for the overall PAX.

When asked what he thought of the handling versus the last time he drove it -- again, keeping in mind that the only changes to the car since then are the gauges and the TiC/MSI bushings -- he emphatically said, "It's better."

Ultimately, I think for myself, I would want to change the forward control arm bushings as well. Again, I know how changing the bushings in the Camaro made a huge difference in the crispness of the handling, but that was also a stock class car without any other bushings. The WRX also has the Whiteline steering rack bushings, which certainly help with steering feel and input, but after driving the Subaru a little bit more on the street, I am starting to think that the improved steering feel isn't just in my mind. In terms of adding to the NVH of all the other bushings, there is little additional noise or vibration (which I only experience below 1800rpm anyway), except for slow steering, such as backing out of or pulling into a parking space. Then, yes, there's a little more "creaking" than I had with just the steering rack bushings, but nothing else.

Depending on the weather next weekend, I may try to take the car to Virginia Motorsports Park for another event, and more testing. We'll see how things go for that idea as the week progresses. There isn't a Capitals game that weekend, so I'll need something to do with my time. Until then, I've got to arrange for installation of the TiC rear trailing arm bushings I got from their 1/2/50/100 Facebook promotion! :)

Hopefully, by the end of the winter (and maybe even before the Washington Auto Show), I'll have all new suspension bushing throughout, plus a smaller battery, a master cylinder brace and a few other street-prepared legal upgrades.

A Quickie...

2011-10-24T19:34:00.002-04:00

I've got an 11PM game tonight and I want to take a nap, and I don't have time to give a full report about the autocross... just yet.

However, I continue to be amazed with how the WRX is handling. The only suspension change I've done since Nationals is the replacement of the rearward control arm bushings. Sometimes, when you do something that, in the big scheme of things, is relatively minor, it's hard to say what is real and what is conjecture. Did the car feel different on the way home from IAG when I picked it up after the install? Or was I hoping it felt different? With the street prepared setup, it's not easy to say.

However, I also let Pat Griffith take the car out for some fun runs. Okay, really, I cajoled him, taunting him with the fact that the keys were in it. Then he took it out.

I'd run a best of a 41.5 in competition, during the 45-50 degree first heat. Pat had run a 41.2, but coned it, and settled for a clean 41.8. Of the ESP drivers in the first heat, I finished second by less than 0.05 to Rod McGeorge, who now has a Mustang Boss that he's setting up for ESP. Mike Snyder ran Rod's car in the second heat, and got down to a 41.2 or 41.1.

So, after the third heat, I decided I'd take a few fun runs. Adam George wanted to ride with me too (since his other ride along was in the pouring rain at FedEx). So, I take two runs in quick succession. The first, I was just warming up the tires, and the second felt spot on. But the timer was out of sync, and I knew I hadn't just run a 67. So, one more time, still with Adam in the passenger seat, and while it didn't feel quite as "on" as the previous run, it was still a 40.8. I was happy, and of course gloated to Pat, who had already loaded his car up and was sitting in the Lightning as I jogged out to work course for a little bit.

"I just ran a 40.8. You know the keys are still in it...."

So, he goes and takes the car out, and on his first run, plows through the 90 degree at the end of the fast straight. This doesn't surprise me, since the WRX doesn't brake as well as the Camaro (even as well as my green Camaro). So, he goes back out and I can hear cones thumping on the far end of the course, and he hits another as he goes through the final turn into the finish chute. I guess he wasn't happy with that run, so he goes for a third, and it looks great. I yell across to him, "What was it?"

"What?"

"What did you run?"

"What?" He is grinning stupidly. I just scowl. "A 39.9."

"Damn it. Get out of the car."

I asked him what he thought, since he hasn't driven it since the rainy event in mid-August, and again, the only difference between then and now would be the bushings. He said it was certainly improved.

So, more on that later. Here are my first two runs from competition, since that's all that fit on the card (I forgot to delete some other videos).

Testing Time

2011-10-21T22:46:00.002-04:00

Looks like I get to play around with some testing this autumn.

I was chosen by TurnInConcepts to test out some bushings for the rearward control arm mounting point. These are a collaboration they have with MSI.

I had them installed at IAG Performance this past Monday, and will be testing them out at the Autocrossers, Inc. event this weekend.

And even before I can test these out and report back to TiC, I get another box in the mail.

These are the rear trailing arm bushings. Looks like I should try to make a couple of events this autumn. :)

You Always Remember....

2011-09-05T17:22:00.003-04:00

It's so cliche. "You always remember your first." But, more so than the D Stock Ladies National Championship, more so than the E Street Prepared Ladies National Championship, I will remember my first open class trophy at the SCCA Solo National Championships as being one of the most incredible times in my autocrossing career.

It was only seventh in ESP. It was the last trophy position in the class. But, to me, it finally validates my driving in a way two ladies class championships and too many times on the bubble never could.


trophy and picture (picture from Rupert Berrington Photography)

Let's rewind to the Friday after the Packwood ProSolo. I'd left my car at IAG Performance because the timing belt was about to fail -- talk about excellent timing! -- and so my departure to the Northeast Divisional Championships was being delayed. A couple of my west coast friends, especially Kevin Dietz and Mike Lillejord, had encouraged me to at least ask my principal about taking off time for the SCCA Solo Nationals. I was skeptical, because he hadn't seemed very keen on my going out last year, but I told them I'd at least ask.

I emailed my resource teacher first, to see if she had a feel for whether he'd approve it or not. I knew she'd let me go, but she wasn't the one who had to give final approval. Her response was, "If you're going to ask, you'd better ask today, since he'll be on vacation all next week." Crap. The last day for "early" registration (ie., $150 vs. $300) was that day, and I really wasn't prepared to ask. This was worse than asking Joel Fehrman about codriving Stompy, and that took an entire six-pack. Feeling sick to my stomach with nervousness, I crafted an email (which included a link to the "Why We Go" post on SoloMatters) and sent it. About an hour later, I got a response asking me to clarify which days I was actually asking for, and I emailed back, "Just Thursday and Friday." Shortly thereafter, he said, "Then I support your time off. Good luck."

I was incredulous, and so needed to find a sub, someone to take my car out, a flight, and a rental car, ASAP. When I got to NEDivs, I mentioned the need for a driver, and both Dan Shalkowski and Jeff Hurst said they might be able to do it. In the end, Dan's the one who took the car out.

Wednesday, August 31, I left work at 2:30, got home to finish up a few domestic duties and then drove the green terror to the airport to catch my flight. As usual, I was in and through security in about 15 minutes, and so proceeded to kill time on my phone until the flight. Having the inflight WiFi was pretty cool and got me another FourSquare badge.


about 40000 feet, on the way to Milwaukee

the "mile high" badge on foursquare :)

We landed in Milwaukee ahead of schedule, and I checked in with the gate attendant to find out that the second part of my journey was on a "regional jet." This would be a plane that would test my ability to deal with confined spaces. Fortunately, it was only half full, so everyone had their seat and space next to them. I slept for about 30 minutes, and as usual, the descent woke me up. I staggered into Omaha Eppley's terminal, blinking furiously to clear off my contact lenses, and encountered Mark Davis and Brian Larose, who were fresh from Lincoln. Evidently, Mark's girlfriend was on the same flight I had been.

I grabbed my craptastic rental car (a Hyundai Accent with rock-like seats), and headed to Lincoln and blessed sleep. While Pat had tracked down where Dan paddocked the WRX and changed the tires, the car still needed to be teched, and I needed to register and walk the course. I went to sleep probably around 1AM local time (after being up at 5AM Eastern time), and the alarm went off waaaay too early at 5AM.

Got the numbers on the car, and crap cleared out and into the rental, then took it to a nearby gas station to get the fuel level up to where it needed to be. Instead of going for the 95 octane at the Harley dealer, I just went for close and cheap and, yeah, sucked it up with 91 octane. Anxiety was setting in, and I wanted to make sure I got two course walks. I was happy to see Nancy and Mari at the registration area at 6:50, so got checked in, then waited 10 minutes at tech before anyone could look at the car. I took it straight to grid and walked twice.

We were on the West Course (designed by Kevin Youngers) first, and even though I'd been in town less than 12 hours, I'd already heard unflattering things about it. Sure enough, the first half of the course was comprised of fairly tight slaloms (wall-loms) and offsets before it opened up into a "regular" course. I'd been warned by a couple of people to recognize that the start lights were pretty far from the staging line, and if I gave it up a little bit before the lights, I wouldn't push out too much into the first slalom.


I have no idea where the moth came from, but it wasn't in the car when I left it with Dan.

ESP was in the second heat, and I was the fourth car off. It was funny that after me, in quick succession, was the rest of the DC area crowd -- Adam George (codriving with "Big" Mike Snyder in Strano's Mustang) was fifth, Pat was sixth and Brian Burdette was ninth. Some people like to play the numbers game and run as close to 99 as possible, especially at Nationals, but with the exception of Adam (because he was codriving this time), we all stuck with our usual numbers (me = 34, Snyder = 41 (141), Pat = 59 and Burdette = 75).

So, my first run was less than awe-inspiring. I was literally winded after making it through the wall-loms and into the five-cone slalom that marked the beginning of the "fun" part of the course. I did exactly what Strano told me not to do in the showcase sweeper, and turned in too early because of the trick cone, but the rest of the course (the last fourth?) was okay. I knew several places I could improve, and my 71.7 was quite poor in the big scheme. Pat was sitting pretty with a run that was 3rd quickest. Lots of people had cones, though my time was slow enough that several of those with cones were still beating me.

I tried to give it up a little more through the start lights on my second run, but I was carrying more speed due to a harder launch, and I still pushed out a little bit. I tried to be tighter on the cones through the first section, because I wasn't going to gain anything significant on speed, just on minimizing real estate. I saw the trick cone in the showcase, and wasn't fooled, gave up a bit too much at the bottom of what some people called the "banana", and came in with a 1.3s improvement. Back to the bubble.

So, third runs come up, and I launch hard, and push out into the opening slalom. Gahhh! I rein it back in and try to recover. The showcase feels good; I don't get fooled this time either. I dive harder into the end part of the banana, and then I see it, like Launcelot finding the Holy Grail.

Downed cone. Corner worker backing away frantically, knowing she can't get it before I get there.

I stop briefly and yell, "Thank you!!" while pointing at the cone, then take off again at about 80-85% so that I don't give Adam a rerun. Everyone in grid knows I just got the bonus round, and as I pop the hood, Courtney Cormier (ASP National Champ!!) is bringing Pat's spray bottle over and checking my tires. He sprays the fronts as I pull a psi or two out, Jay Storm is keeping tabs on the hood, and then I get the call to go to the line.

A gotcone.com photo from the West Course.

I correct my understeer from the start, and drive a little harder into the banana, while checking up just before tagging the outside cone at the end of the element. I manage to look a little further ahead into the final two sections, and make it even smoother than before, and the final time... 69.328, another 1.1s improvement. I know I left a lot on the table, but when the results come out and show me in 7th and final trophy spot, I'm kind of happy. Madarash, of course, is leading.

"Kind of" because it's the same damned spot I seem to be in when I run open class every year. "Kind of" because less than 1 minute after I look at those results, all of a sudden, "revised" results come out, and I'm in 8th.

I'm confused, and then I see Mark Walker has moved up to fourth, because where there had been two cones on his third run, now there are none. I am not happy, since I stopped for one of those cones, and I tell him as much. He seems a little less sure that his third run was clean after I say something to him, but he doesn't talk to the chief steward to tell this, and many people in the class aren't aware of the revision, much less why there was a change. I'm hoping for integrity to prevail, since he did seem a bit less sure his run was clean after I talked to him, and I can't believe the fates would let me be behind someone who knowingly hit a cone again (after Dale Klein knowingly coned his dry run on the South Course and I finished behind him, one out of the trophies), so I don't pursue the issue.

Our nemesis, class leading car owned by Mark Madarash.

Jason Kolk and Dave Heinrich aren't so nice though. After seeing the corner logs clearly displaying two cones (one of which was the one I stopped for), and no ambiguity in who hit the cones, they track down the girl who was backing away from the cone when I had to stop, as well as the corner chief, and in the end, the cones are added back to Walker's final run, putting him back in 9th position for the start of the second day. Not everyone knew that the cones had been put back on, including me.

Thursday night festivities included beer (of course), some of Shuman's carne asada at the ATL... uh, SEDiv tent, foursquare and just chilling with friends old and new. The new divisional tent idea was kind of cool, except that the Great Lakes and Southwest tents were so far away from the Southeast tent that it was difficult to interact with multiple people. Many went over to the SWdiv area for Bigwheel ProSolo, while others were at GLDiv for a cookout there.

I was pretty tired after an extremely long day on Wednesday, and so we headed back to the hotel "early." Granted, I still didn't go to sleep until close to 1AM, and I'd only done one course walk on Andy Hollis's East Course, so I wanted to be there early to walk at least twice again, which meant another day of 4-5 hours of sleep.

Brad Owen's '06 WRX.

PJ Corrales had warned me about the "boxes" on this course, and not to be greedy with them, while Matthew Braun came over to tell me his ideas on making it through this course's showcase sweeper. I was trying to internalize all of this when the start of the second heat came, all too soon.

My first run was, again, less than awe-inspiring; a 66.3 just wasn't going to get it done. I'd launched way too softly, was way too tentative in too many places, and just left a ton on the table. It was as if I was trying to sabotage myself and my attempt to get into the trophies. I picked a couple of spots to try to maximize my improvements (including the start, which Sammy yelled at me about, transmission be damned), and set out on run #2 to get it done.

A 1.3s improvement after charging harder from the get-go. The 65.082 didn't make me happy, especially knowing I'd left time everywhere, and in fact, my Facebook status reflected that I wanted even more time on my third run. I was still on the cusp of a trophy, and I knew there was still time out there that could be mine.

The Merideth Mustang and Heinrich's Boss (codriven by Jason Kolk)

My third run, I gave it everything, and I pushed out in the showcase sweeper, almost tagged a cone in the boxes, and then everything went to hell. As I made the right hand turn toward the finish run, I heard something in the rear, and just wondered. Then, on the brakes and tossing the car into the finish "bus stop," I heard it again, and got scared. When the car stepped out on me, I didn't even fight it to keep it off the cones, as I was more worried that I had an axle that had given up the ghost, like Martin Kriz at the Atlanta Tour. In fact, I had Andrew Howe listening to the rear end as I came back to my grid spot, but he pronounced it "okay." The time wasn't there anyway, as much as it felt like it, and while some people were already congratulating me on a trophy position, there were still two people behind me that had more than enough on me after the first day, they were very likely to get by me on their last runs.

bumper covers don't like hitting four cones in quick succession at 50+ mph.

So, it was with extreme apprehension that I watched Mike Snyder (who was sitting in 6th after the first day) and Kent Kroll (who was third after the first day) take their last runs. Sean O'Gorman was standing with me, letting me know that Snyder needed a "mid 65" run to get by me, but he didn't tell me what Kent needed. Both Mike and Kent were on the course at the same time, and my eyes are scanning back and forth to watch both of them so rapidly that I probably looked like I was experiencing vertigo. Snyder crossed with a 65.7.... enough for 8th, as Heyward announced, and twenty seconds later, Kent and his broken shock crossed with a 65.9... and when Heyward said that I had won my first open class trophy and Sean congratulated me, I told him, "No. I want to see the final results. And then I'll wait another 30 minutes until they are final."

And that's what I told everyone, because I didn't believe it. And when the finals came out, and they were final -- no weird revisions moments after I saw them -- that's when the tears of happiness started to fall. Heyward wanted me to come over to the announce vehicle to talk, so I pulled myself together enough to sound coherent on the mic, and thank Burdette and Snyder and Adam and Pat for the competition to make me better all year. And then Heyward turned the mic over to Raleigh Boreen (who was happy for me, but wished I'd done it in Pat's purple Camaro), and he cried too. He knows how hard it is to get a trophy, especially when it's "expected" of you, and he was honored to be the one who got to present me with that trophy later on at the awards banquet.


Parking in between BSP Champ Corey Ridgick and SMF Champ Brian Karwan had to help, right?

Ten tries in open class, and I finally did it. Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen. I still find it sort of surreal. :)

I pinched my arm, and the trophy was still there.

And now... what to do to make the car better for next year? For one... maybe I'll get new tires just before Nationals instead of "making do" with last year's tires. As for the rest... well, there are more suspension bushings, and I guess I should do a lightweight battery. And maybe get rid of the rear wing? It's a street prepared car... it's always a work in progress, right?

I'm gonna need more than a snarky magnet to stay ahead of the DC guys in the future.

Final results are up on SCCA.com.

Add a Dash of Salt

2011-08-08T19:25:00.006-04:00

Before you read about the ride home, did you read about the ride out, the hike and the competition?

I'd already decided as I left Packwood that I didn't want to go home the same way I'd driven out, and the real question on Monday morning was simply how I was going to go about getting to I-80.

Was I going to take I-84 through Boise and meet up with I-80 north of Salt Lake City? Or was I going to take a three-hour detour through Twin Falls, ID and Wells, NV?

I had plenty of time to think about it, as I got on the road and into Idaho. I knew how US 93 was likely to be -- two-lanes, lots of nothing in between Twin Falls and Wells -- and I knew that I-84 was a "safer" bet. But if I didn't make that side trip, it wasn't like I could just decide later on to go back. In the end, I took the detour, even though construction on US-93 made it closer to four hours out of the way. And I don't regret it at all.

The view from the end of Salt Flats Drive.

The salt, close up. It was stickier than usual this year, due to lingering moisture.

I drove out about a half mile, at about 15mph, and put the magnetics on.

It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Nearly four thousand miles since home, and the bug spatter on the front is pretty impressive at this point.

Pointed poignantly towards the west, towards home, looking out at a horizon full of possibilities. I can not describe this picture to you. It is my favorite of all the ones I took.

After spending probably 30-45 minutes out on the salt, I slowly drove back in, parked the car momentarily to clear out some of the salt, then decided it was time for a late lunch.

Just a small amount of the salt packed into the rear fender wells.

My $6 lunch at the Salt Flats Cafe.

I dawdled at the Salt Flats Cafe for a while. I considered heading back into town to throw some money at a blackjack table, but in the end, I opted to get back on the road.

Eight more hours on the road, and I was pulling into Cheyenne, Wyoming, with lightning dancing in the sky. Lots of ball lightning rolling through the clouds, very spectacular with the lack of light pollution from the surrounding areas.

The next morning, I got an early start as Frontier Days were going on, and I didn't want to get caught in any traffic. Western Nebraska was as desolate as I remember, and at one point, I saw a Western Box Turtle on the side of the road. I stopped to either pick it up or move it off the shoulder, and when I got there, I saw that it had a shattered shell and had obviously died a slow death as it dragged itself to the shoulder. It made me quite sad to see.

As I trudged back to the car (it's hard to slow down rapidly from 80mph when you've got an unsecured load of tires in the car!), I saw a small cactus growing by itself in the sandy soil. I carefully pulled it out, and moistened the root with some water on a shop towel, and wrapped it up.

Nebraska cactus, at home in its new pot.

I don't know why I brought it home with me. Maybe to remind me of the turtle I couldn't save.

A few more hours down the road, I see the exit for Gothenburg, along with the notice for the Original Pony Express Station. I've seen this so many times, and wanted to stop every time, so I decide, yes, I'm doing it.

The original station, though not in its original location.

Original lantern outside the entrance

Obligatory pose with car

Back on the road, I make mental notes about the construction zones and such approaching Lincoln, so I can let others know what to expect come late August as they convene for the ProSolo Finale and the Solo Nationals. I see the Missouri River, swollen so much it looks to be a lake, and know that the danger for Omaha and much of Iowa is still very present. Signs tell me that I-680 is closed at the river crossing into Iowa and I-29 in Iowa is closed due to flooding. I make a quick stop just across the river into Iowa, grab another beer for the souvenir collection, and keep pressing on, wanting to make Illinois before sleepy time.

This was quite tasty.

I made it to Morris, IL, before calling it a night, and having hit some nasty construction zones, was wondering about the condition of my suspension the rest of the trip.

The remainder of the journey was uneventful. It was almost a relief on Wednesday to be rolling into Maryland, peaks under 1000ft and all, parking the Subaru in the driveway long enough to throw my hockey equipment into the black Camaro and bolting for hockey class at Kettler. In the space of eight days, I drove through 18 states (MD, PA, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD, MT, ID, WA, OR, NV, UT, WY, NE, IA, VA) and the District of Columbia. Needless to say, I was bushed.

And I was supposed to be in Geneva, NY, in less than 48 hours for the Northeast Divisionals. But that story will have to wait.

Souvenirs : Air Force Bear from Cheyenne, American West recipe book (behind the bear) from Gothenburg, and the beers.

High Anxiety

2011-08-06T16:01:00.017-04:00

You might want to make sure you've read part I and part II of the road trip first.

Looking across the site from Grid B. Yes, that's Annie Bauer's car at the lights.

I was pretty anxious to get to the site Saturday morning, which is odd, because I haven't been this excited to autocross in a long time. But this felt different. It was a completely different group of people than I usually run with, and so ridiculous drama wasn't a dark cloud over every aspect of the event. I had a simple work assignment -- starter -- so I wasn't stressing out over making sure things were being done correctly.

Well, to some extent. I hadn't worked start in five years, and for the first time in recent memory, the shot clock was functional. I needed to get into a rhythm for sending cars, but it only took a few pairings to do so.

When was the last time you saw this counting down?

There were only three run groups, so after shift A was done, there was about a 10-15 break so that shift A drivers could get out of impound and go to their work assignments. In the meantime, I found I had downtime... something I haven't had in a long time at any autocross, whether a local or a National event. I wandered around a bit, talked to some of the guys who'd just driven (like Andy Hollis) to get some pointers. Then I leisurely made sure the WRX had air in the tires, and put it in my grid spot.

I didn't have a crew person with me, so I decided to just start my pressures low and let them come up, rather than worry about checking them on my own between runs. It was cool -- mid 70s -- and so I went with 39psi up front and 35psi in the rear, figuring they'd come up to something close to what I wanted.

Getting ready for Saturday morning runs

Bump class 2 was the motley group of me (ESP), Ryan Otis (SS), Steve Barnes and James Shepherd (SS), Tom Kotzian and Allan Zacharda (SMF), Dustin Burns (F125) and John Burns (F125). I wasn't sure how the ESP index stacked up against SMF, SS or F125, but I was more just concerned with driving. To start, I was paired up with John Burns in his F125, so I knew I just needed to concentrate on my driving and not on the fact that the kart should be beating me all over the place out there.

I started off on the left, and a lazy 3500rpm launch saw a mid .8s reaction time and a 1.9s 60ft. But as I came in, Ron Bauer was announcing me as off course. I wasn't sure where I'd screwed up, and when Ann Hollis came over and asked if I needed anything, she couldn't say where the DNF was either. So, I chalked it up to just being too lackadaisical, and decided to try to figure it out on my next left run.

On the right, after another "safe" launch, I made a point of telling myself to trust the car through the right hander into the crossover straight. A bit of a lift, and I was flying into a three cone slalom, then the turnaround back to the crossover. The car was feeling good as I zipped into the finish slalom, and I posted a respectable time of 26.9.

Heading back around to the crossover on the right hand side. Photo by Andrew Howe.

Gearing up for my next left side run, Ron Bauer is really hyping up my trip from Maryland while being complimentary of my driving. I wasn't very impressed with my driving right then, and on the next launch, was pretty tentative while looking to see where my off may have been.

I see it right away. Where the three cone "slalom" was after the crossover straight, I'd straight-lined it instead of wiggling. I made it through there, around the backside, and then came flying into the slalom a little too quickly. The backend stepped out, I gathered it back up without hitting anything, and posted a time, which is all I wanted. It was only good for fifth in class when all was said and done.

The lunch break was pretty relaxing, and I talked with a variety of people I rarely see except for Nationals. Fast Mike Lillejord gave me a hard time for missing out on margaritas on Friday night, while others asked me what made me drive a street prepared car all the way out to Washington State. Some quality quotes came out of this :

"Wait, what? This isn't the Washington DC ProSolo? Crap."
"I'm putting the 'street' back in 'street prepared'!"
"I wanted first place ESP points to, you know, scare Strano."
[someone else, as I stand next to my WRX, checking pressures] : "Did you fly out?" [me, looking confused] "Uh, yeah. And the WRX was checked baggage."

To be honest, the ride out was smoother and more comfortable than when I drove the car out to Wendover in 2008. The Sparco Evo seat is much more supportive and forgiving than the stock seats. My only complaint with the Sparco is that it doesn't recline. Even with all of the Kartboy, TurnInConcepts and Whiteline drivetrain bushings, the noise, vibration and harshness of the ride is more than tolerable, unless I let it lug around 1500-1700rpm (rare). The softer Swift springs on the zzyzx/Koni coilovers, and the brand new Koni 8611 inserts were probably a better choice for a cross-country road trip than what I had been using too. My only real concern was the transmission, as even on my morning "reconnaissance" runs, the car was definitely making more power in the cool mountain air than it does normally in Maryland humidity.

Heading into the finish slalom on the left side course. Mount Rainier is hidden behind some clouds.

So, around 12:45PM, we started up the second set of runs, and I'm back in the starter's chair, plugging along. There is certainly something sweet about being in that chair during particular pairings, such as Laurie Hyman (ASP GT-R) and Teresa Neidel-McKee (SSM RX7) or Stacey Molleker (BS GT500) and whichever S2000 he was paired up with at that point. Andy Hollis is a total machine at the lights, both in competition and in the challenge. Listening to guys give each other crap as they were staging (such as some of the STS guys) is pretty funny too.

Again, during shift B, I found myself very relaxed, and with plenty of time to take a quick jaunt through Packwood to put a couple of gallons of gas in the car. While there, some locals asked if I was doing "the rally" and everyone was very nice and supportive of what the SCCA is doing. In some ways, it reminded me of going to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and how it was a huge production for the SCCA to come to town and stage an event. The locals thought it was awesome I'd driven all the way from Maryland.

For the afternoon runs, I was paired up the the yellow Corvette of Steve Barnes. The karts had both had issues in the morning (Dustin's kart just wouldn't even run due to air in the fuel lines), and so were at the back, and Ryan Otis was paired with Tom Kotzian. Zacharda and James were in the second driver grid waiting for their turns. Like the morning, I was less concerned with who I was paired up with and more worried about what I needed to do. I knew I had a lot of time on the left side, and at least a few tenths on the right. So, starting on the right, I coned away a 0.6 improvement.

Stupid cone. Photo by Andrew Howe

I shrugged it off. The left side was where I really needed to improve. And as I pulled up to the stage lanes, I realized something.

My ProSolo nervous habits were back.

Pull up. Reverse. Ease up into the lights. Set the e-brake. Turn off the radio. A/C off. First gear. A/C off? First gear? Bring the revs up. Launch.

It was all back.

I tried not to let the realization throw me as I took off on my run. Thread the needle, get on it, ease up through the tighter-than-the-right-side section, hard on it into the slalom... whoa, whoa, get it slowed down, then back on it through the slalom into the finish.... now, breathe, and listen....

1.3 second improvement. Bauer was incredulous. I was smiling. The car felt awesome.

Radio on, back to the right side...

Overall, I would drop 2.5 seconds (0.8 on the right and 1.7 on the left) to move myself into second position heading into Sunday's runs. I was ecstatic, and I was loving how the WRX was feeling. Finally, after two years of ESP frustration, the car wasn't all pushy and irritating. I just needed to start trusting what it would do now. I had forgotten to tell myself to "trust the car" on my last right side run and actually tapped the brake before the right hander, so I knew I had time there. I also was leaving a lot of time at the lights. 0.6s on the tree and 1.9s for 60 ft times... I didn't want to push too much harder there, as that was a "I must drive this car home" kind of issue, but I knew the car had more in it.

I was the cutoff after Saturday.

Andy and I chatted with some people before heading out to dinner at Peter's Inn, and then I just found myself tired and not really wanting to push too hard on Saturday night, not with another 40 hour drive ahead of me starting the next evening. So, I laid down and eventually :facekindled: with my e-book while he went back over to Peter's Inn for Saturday night karaoke and Blue Spruce for some mingling with the rest of the autocross crowd.

Sunday saw people dropping time in the morning, a few tenths on each side. Classes were tightening up, and I knew if I was going to stay eligible for the Challenge, I needed to improve too.

Paired up with Ryan Otis for the Sunday morning runs

Unfortunately, I didn't improve at all on Sunday morning, while Tom Kotzian got half a second on the right side, and moved by me for second. I stayed in the trophies though, though a Hoosier tire for second would have been a nice souvenir for myself.

Brought this one back from Oregon for Pat

So, I helped out by working as starter during the Challenge rounds, and seeing how masters like Andy Hollis bowl their way from start to final round, then said my goodbyes, and headed off towards Yakima to come to rest near the Oregon/Idaho border (Ontario, Oregon) for the night.

In the end, I was pretty happy with how I did. Could I have gotten by Kotzian for second? Sure, if I had been anywhere close to home, I wouldn't have been as tentative at the lights, and just another 0.1s per side in the 60ft could have moved me up. Could I have caught Ryan? That's a tougher question. The WRX felt good, but I haven't competed with it since the NJ Pro, and it felt awful to me there. I know I wasn't driving it as well as I could have because I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall. I had a great time, and it was nice to know that autocross can still be fun, when I'm not on the periphery of drama queens and under the pressure of being a chief. It made the decision to go to the Northeast Divisionals when I got back a bit easier.

The next day, I had a decision to make. To Wendover or not to Wendover?

A new friend for Andrew Pallotta tagged along on the ride home.

To Be Concluded!

And I Shall Call It... Mini-Cone

2011-08-06T13:25:00.011-04:00

Did you read part I yet?

Forty-two hours of driving after leaving the house on Tuesday, I arrived at the Johnston Ridge Observatory just minutes ahead of the 10AM time that my autocrossing friend Andy Howe had given me. It was a little chilly in the mountains, and I was nervous that I hadn't exactly brought appropriate clothing for the hike, much less the weekend.

The temperature as I was driving through White's Pass; compare that to the heat index of almost 120F on the East Coast at the time
A blasted "spider" sensor that did not survive the 2005 eruption

We stopped up at the visitor center to get our wristbands for the day and then prepared for the journey around the Boundary Trail by making sure we had water and snacks (I'd hit up Bass Pro Shops on my way out of Harmans for a new Camelbak and hiking shoes), and then Andy asks me an interesting question.

"You're not afraid of heights, are you?"

I considered the question for a moment, thinking of the CN Tower's "glass floor" and the drop on Cedar Point's Top Thrill Dragster. "Nope, not at all," I told him.

And off we went.

Looking down at the entrance road from the Boundary Trail.

Many of the clouds have dissipated only 30-40 minutes into the hike. The mini-cone is clearly visible.
Andy told me this was an "Indian Paintbrush" and very common on the mountains.
Another small flowering plant taking root amidst the ashes.

Maybe a third of the way into the hike, we came to a sort of stopping point around a bit of a crevice. There was a sign posted, warning that the next section was not appropriate for inexperienced hikers, and when I looked, I see a path maybe two feet wide, with a pretty steep drop on the righthand side. Andy says, "Oh, it's only 800 or so feet to the bottom." I'm a little apprehensive, but everyone else seems unfazed by this section, so I'm not going to wimp out. The first part isn't so bad, but then about halfway through it, I start thinking about how I'm not used to being at altitude, and what if I pass out, and then I freak myself out and have to stop for a moment. The rest of the way through this part, my heart is hammering in my chest, and I am just focusing on putting one foot ahead of the other, carefully, and trying not to think about the fact that I have to come back through on the return.

Looking at down (~800ft) at the valley filled with ashes. The trail continues to the left.

Looking back at the scariest part of the hike.

Sort of the halfway point, where the trail branches. We went up Harry's Ridge.

These little star-shaped flowers were all over the lower part of the trail. It looked and felt like spring.

As we got closer to Harry's Ridge, we started to see more and more snow.

All that remains of trees that were shattered in the blast from 31 years ago.

Mt. Adams stands watch over Spirit Lake. The remnants of the blasted trees make an eerie log jam against the eastern coast line of the lake due to the winds that were blowing in from the west that day.
Remains of cornices.
The end of the trail.
Looking back down the path we'd just taken.
Looking to our left, over Spirit Lake and a ridge of snow.

After chilling -- literally, it was maybe 30F with the wind chill -- at the end of the trail for 15-20 minutes, we started heading back. One of the other guys in our group also had problems on the narrow ledge portion of the trail, and told me that his "blinders" had worked wonders. He'd taken painters' tape and basically blocked off his peripheral vision. It made sense; and once we'd returned to the dreaded area, I just used my hand to block off my left side vision whenever it became overwhelming, which was pretty much just the center section, where the trail was the narrowest, and there were no shrubs or flowers to block the view down into the crevice.

Andy forges ahead, while I use "taking a picture" as an excuse to steel my nerves.

During the return through here, some impatient "hikers" behind us almost caused a disaster when I paused at an area to let some people coming the other way come through. They decided to rush past our group, and one of them ran headlong into one of those coming the other way. For a long moment, it seemed that someone might lose their balance, but fortunately, everyone was fine.

The view was incredible on our way back.

We made it back to the parking lot just around 2:30PM, and chilled for a little bit before Andy and I headed off to Packwood and the rest back home to Oregon. It would take just about two hours to get to the Hampton Mills lot and I was in for quite a surprise when we got there.

Indoor paddock. Covered impound. And a nice sized asphalt lot nestled behind in between those buildings, with a gorgeous view of the mountains, including Mt. Rainier.

There were motor homes in here too!

Very laid back atmosphere, easy registration and tech, saying "hi" to my west coast friends... at some point, I walked each course once, then we decided it was time to check into the hotel and hang out at Friday night karaoke at the Blue Spruce Saloon. Kyra Jenkins and George Hudetz were the karaoke stars until Ron Bauer and Karl Coleman showed up, but by that time, I was ready to sleep. My legs were killing me after the hike, and I was antsy for Saturday morning and competition, even if I was the only ESP car there and so in bump class 2 against the likes of Tom Kotzian and Ryan Otis.

To Be Continued!

Road Trip!

2011-08-05T21:11:00.012-04:00

In all the years I've been autocrossing (since 1993, for those keeping count), a car that is fully prepped to the SCCA "street" prepared rules has been anything but streetable. Stiff springs, unforgiving shock settings, harsh bushings, no A/C, no radio, race seats....

So, it made perfect sense to drive a nearly fully set-up ESP WRX three thousand miles, from Baltimore, Maryland to Packwood, Washington.

Let me preface this story by saying that Packwood wasn't my first choice for a summer road trip. I was supposed to go to Colorado Springs instead. But due to some problems that popped up after the Delaware Tour, and some bad timing on everyone's part, I ended up asking to transfer that entry to the last ProSolo of the year. Shortly thereafter, I was asked if I wanted to join a friend and some of his buddies on a hike at Mount St. Helens before the autocross. I was in.

I left Tuesday, July 19. My last regular season hockey game was on Monday night (and I scored a goal!), so I slept in, and took my time getting packed, so I hit the road around 2PM. I only got as far as Elkhart, Indiana, when I finally decided to find a hotel. SCCA has a member discount through Choice Hotels, and I have a gold membership with their Choice Privileges, so I was making reservations on the road the whole time, starting with this one. Their staff was awesome in helping me find hotels along my route and picking something that would work for me.

The biggest problem with staying in Elkhart was that my timing to get through the Chicago area was going to be terrible. I left the hotel just after 6AM, and it was bad, nearly Baltimore/DC area bad. Once I got through that, it was clear sailing into Wisconsin, where after a poor experience trying to find a Subway for lunch, I decided to do what Brian Ciarlei did on his trip to California -- no chain restaurants. I couldn't go all out and do the "no interstates" thing too, as I wanted to make sure I got to Mount St. Helens by 10AM on Friday, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of no chains.

And then I got the idea of getting microbrews from various areas as souvenirs for Pat. So, the first one I picked up was a Two Women by New Glarus Brewing out of Wisconsin.

From Wisconsin, I continued across I-90 through Minnesota and South Dakota, coming into Rapid City around 10:30PM. I'd stopped earlier in Murdo for a buffalo burger at "The Diner" that was part of the "Pioneer Auto Show" (an indoor museum/gift shop), so once I'd checked in, I was ready to sleep, though I was thinking about how to get over to Mt. Rushmore and/or the Badlands in the morning. In the end, I figured I couldn't sneak it in, and just got on the road.

Sunset at a scenic overlook near Northwest Jackson, SD
Thursday was Montana day. That was pretty much the jist of it... Montana. It's damned huge. I jumped back on I-90, squirted onto US212 for a bit to cut out a section of the interstate that went to Gillette, WY, then came back to I-90 in Montana. A stop in Livingston (Yellowstone Valley) for lunch netted another microbrew to bring back to Pat.

Traveling through Crow Country in Montana was a bit depressing. I've never really been around Native Americans, and seeing what Heather Everett aptly described as, "urban problems in a rural setting," was sobering. Here I am, a single woman, traveling across the country on what amounts to a whim, in one of my three vehicles, while Crow natives walk miles along the interstate to and from their destinations. It's a good reminder that a lot of us take a lot of things for granted in our lives, whether it's a roof over our heads and food on our tables, or extravagances like being able to go to amusement parks at the drop of a hat.

I spent hours hoping to see this train of 737s again to get a better pic!
Just across the state line into Idaho, I made another stop, mainly to clean the bugs off the windshield. I should have replaced the wiper blades and put some Rain-X on the windshield before I left, but hindsight is... yeah. This was the "skinny" part of Idaho, and with a 75mph speed limit, I would be through it in under an hour.

My goal for Thursday night was Yakima, Washington. I figured Yakima would give me enough time to get to Johnston Ridge Observatory on Friday morning. Spokane saw some crappy road construction that slowed me down, but Yakima was an easy reach, and I had time to grab some dinner at Mel's Diner just down the street from my place of rest.

Just over three hours of driving on Friday morning, though Packwood and Toledo, and I pulled up to the group of Subarus and one Mazdaspeed 3 at 9:58AM, a full two minutes early. Andy Howe greeted me, we went to the Observatory to check in and get our wristbands, and we were ready to start the nearly nine mile hike of the Boundary Trail.

I will continue the trek tomorrow, but until then, here is the view from the trail at the beginning of our journey.

To Be Continued!

Review : Kartboy Driveline Bushings

2011-02-19T19:56:00.004-05:00

As I mentioned previously, I received a "care package" from Kartboy that included a white Delrin shift knob, an oil filler cap and some bushings. I had to wait until after the Washington Auto Show to have the bushings installed, and because of prior commitments (okay, okay, I had hockey games and hockey class to go to), had to wait almost a week after dropping the car off at IAG Performance before I could pick it up.

I also had IAG install a set of Whiteline steering rack bushings at the same time.

I've had the chance to put some miles on the car in the last week, and figured I'd give a quick review on how the car feels with the upgrades.

Bear in mind that the rear differential outrigger bushings and the transmission cross member bushings really just completed the Kartboy driveline ensemble I'd started when I ordered the front and rear shifter bushing combo from Turn In Concepts at the time I was installed the double adjustable MODE Racing shifter. Kartboy also sent a set of their pink exhaust hangers.

Kartboy PINK exhaust hangers for the WRX

Since picking up the car last Friday, I've logged over 400 miles, combining highway, rural and stop-and-go traffic along the way. My impressions :

There is a lot less clutch shudder when starting off from a stop sign/stop light. I didn't ask what the condition of the stock cross member bushings was, but I have to wonder if they were "dead," so to speak. There is still some shudder, but the whole "movement-of-the-drivetrain" is certainly minimized now.
I can't get away with lugging the motor at less than 1800rpm. I'm guessing this is due to the exhaust hangers and so the exhaust is vibrating. It's a bad habit of mine from driving a torque-monster Camaro Z28 anyway, so it's better that I don't do it.
I should have upgraded all of the transmission bushings (shifter, cross member, etc.) at the same time. Piecemeal wasn't the right way to do it, but hindsight is 20/20.
I'm not noticing much from the steering rack bushings, but maybe I need to be in a more aggressive setting, ie., an autocross.
Overall, I'm happy with the changes so far. Hopefully, the upgraded bushings will aid in keeping the transmission a bit happier this year than last. If it goes... I'm likely looking at taking the car to Street Modified with an upgraded unit (PPG gear set or even an STi six speed) rather than dealing with repeated rebuilds.

So, thanks again to Kartboy and IAG for the parts and the installation. I'll update my thoughts once I've played with the car on race rubber.

Back Again

2011-01-27T13:33:00.008-05:00

For the third year in a row, the Subaru Impreza WRX will be back at the Washington Auto Show as part of the WDCR SCCA exhibit. One of these days, they are going to make me join the region. ;)

As usual, I've done a few things to the car since it was on display last year. It's got a Sparco race seat on the driver's side now. Billy Brooks sent me a MODE Racing double adjustable short shifter, to which I added a TurnInConcepts bushing, plus Kartboy front and rear shift bushings.

It's got the purple Rota Grids with 285/30R18 Hoosier A6s, plus zzyzx coilovers that I bought in Greg McCance's fire sale.

The day before I took the car to the Convention Center, I received a "care package" from Kartboy that included a white Delrin shift knob, some drivetrain bushings, an oil filler cap and exhaust hangers.

I managed to get the oil filler cap and the shift knob installed, but the rest will have to wait until I pick the car up after the Capitals vs. Penguins game on February 6th. Then I take the car up to its second home, IAG Performance, where it will also be getting some steering rack bushings.

The worst part is, I'm liking the modding of the car, but I'm still not excited about the upcoming season. I did get my own HD camera for the holidays (my mom bought a GoPro Hero HD camera for me), and so I can do more video. But, I'm still kinda scared about breaking things. Maybe I can convince Pat to let me use his new-to-him F150 Lightning and Econoline trailer when he's not playing with his ESP Camaro.

We shall see.

Rockin' in the Land of Red

2010-09-19T14:27:00.009-04:00

It's been three weeks now since I've returned from the 2010 SCCA TireRack Solo Nationals, bitterly disappointed in my tenth place finish in ESP. The car is back at IAG Performance to fix its current ills, and I contemplate what I want to do going forth.

The trek began five weeks ago when Eric Kriemelmeyer, Josh Luster and Shane Chinonn-Rhoden showed up to caravan out. Eric and Pat were trailering the BS Solstice GXP, Josh and Shane were trailering the STU STi, and I was driving the ESP WRX. Yeah, the Street Prepared car was being driven to the event, while the Street Touring and the Stock classed cars were being trailered. Since Eric needed to replace a steering stabilizer on his truck, we didn't leave until close to 2PM instead of the noon we'd originally been striving for.

Twenty-three hours later, we pulled into the paddock area for the Nationals and carved out our spaces; Pat, Eric, Josh and Shane in the WDCR paddock, and myself hanging with the ATL crowd by "the tent."

For the rest of the story, I'm just going to post what I did on NASIOC. I'm still quite bummed about the experience this year, and I will likely expand on my journey later, when I'm not quite so bitter about how I did.

from a post on NASIOC

Hard to believe that the SCCA Solo Nationals were three weeks ago, and we're now in the unofficial "off season" of autocross.

I ran ESP open this year, after winning the ESPL National Championship in 2009. I'd done well enough the week before at a local event in Toledo (8/29) and at a local DC event (8/15) that I figured I'd have a good chance at my long-sought goal of an open class trophy at Nationals. I'd hoped to have a co-driver, even though we were running fourth heat, but the stars didn't align for that. I almost ended up with Sam Krauss in my car after Charles Moss's Talon blew a turbo on the practice course on Monday, but they did a banzai run to Omaha to pick up a junkyard turbo and managed to get the car in grid just seconds before Tuesday runs started.

My first run on Tuesday was on sticker Hoosiers, and I managed to nearly miss second gear when I shifted. It ended up being my fastest run after I completely boned my second run and then got all tentative on my third.

After the first day, I'd be 0.019s out of trophies in 9th spot. Mark Madarash was leading by a good bit, over Sam Krauss in the Talon. McCance and Brooks would be in solid trophy spots, though Madarash's lead was certainly intimidating.

I was upset with myself though. I'd left a lot of time out there on my first run, only to throw it all away on the subsequent two. Hearing the hated, "You'll do it tomorrow," only made me feel worse. I always heard that when I ran FS, and I never did do it the next day.

I walked the West Course in the dark on Tuesday night. I needed to be alone to think about driving.

Tentatively hopeful on Wednesday, I started off with a moderate run to feel the course out (much like I did on the East Course). Like the day before, the car felt good, even on cold tires. I actually remembered to put the tire covers Terry Baker had lent to me on the tires right after my run (unlike the day before), and I sat in the car and thought about where to improve.

Getting ready to head out for my second run, the car decides to throw a misfire code just as the grid worker gestures to me to pull up to the staging line. I call for a mechanical time out, pull out the Cobb AP and look at the codes. Misfire on cylinders 2 and 4. :huh: I clear them, wait about 30 seconds and then start the car up again. It's running like crap, obviously misfiring. I pull codes again -- misfires on 2 and 3 this time. Billy's taken his second run at this point, so he comes over and looks at some stuff with the AP. His unofficial diagnosis is a coil pack going bad. I'm just mad at the car at this point, and I really don't have any options since most of the cars in the class are two-driver cars. I decide to go out and take my run anyway.

The motor didn't let go, and I dropped about 0.6s on the run. The car is still running terribly at this point, and pulling codes a third time gives misfires on cylinders 1 and 2.

I go and take my third run, dropping a little more (about a half second), and sitting in the eighth spot at that moment. It was short lived. Despite Drew Little also having issues with his car (starter, codes, etc.), he managed to get past me on his last run, and Jason Kolk got by us both. Kolk took the last trophy while Drew finished 0.019s back (yep, the same margin I had the day before). I was another 0.27 behind Drew, in tenth.

I was bitterly disappointed with my finish, and despite the fact that I know they mean well by it, hearing people tell me, "You'll get it next year" actually brought me to tears before I even left impound. I've heard that so many times -- just as many times as I've heard "You'll do it tomorrow" after the first day -- that I just don't believe it any more.

Of course, the car had one last little surprise for me later that day, as Pat and I headed over to the awards ceremony that neither of us really wanted to attend, but had to go to since he was one of the announcers. As I merged onto I-80 towards downtown Lincoln, the clutch slipped. By the time we were ready to head home on Friday, it was almost insufferable to drive in the higher gears. Two years of ProSolos and regular autocrosses was always the limit with the stock Camaro clutches, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

So, the car's back at the shop, getting the clutch replaced and the misfires diagnosed. Where do I go from here? Good question. If the 2011 National Championships are indeed the week before Labor Day, I don't think I can go, as it'll be the first week of school. If I do go, I'll have to fly out and likely back, and that means I need a more reliable codriver who isn't going to leave me wondering how to get the car out there. Maybe I just need to drive something else and not worry about my own car. I don't know right now. :(

It's still early in the off-season.

At least it's almost the NHL season, so I can take my mind off things.

Cool Down Laps

2010-06-21T21:15:00.002-04:00

The 2010 SCCA ProSolo series visited the Washington, DC area this past weekend, and as usual, I was there. My not-so-trusty WRX and my codriver Gabe decided to take on ESP as a cohesive team this year, instead of me running ladies class.

I'll post a full writeup later -- obviously, I've been lacking in the "make a blog post" bit lately -- but to make a long story short, it was a carnage-filled weekend for too many folks. Starting with Jay Storm's FSP Impreza during the practice starts on Friday, through McCance's scare with some blown hoses on his WRX on Saturday and then the Kozlak's Solstice GXP going into limp mode on Sunday, I could only pray I might get through the weekend unscathed.

No such luck. As Gabe came off his final run of the heat on Sunday, he found the car stuck in second gear. :(

In the end, I finished in the third and final trophy spot in ESP. The car's at IAG right now for diagnosis, and hopefully repair.

Falling Down The Mountain...

2010-05-01T22:26:00.006-04:00

...end up kissing dirt.

So goes a song by one of my favorite bands of all time.

Being good or even dominating during the regular season means nothing when it comes to taking the big prize home. What's worse is being told over and over again, "You'll do it this year," after having been unsuccessful the previous one, and after failing, "Next year it'll be yours."

I know. I've been there. And I, for one, got sick of the set up.

People who engage in a sport are, by nature, competitive as hell. That's half the reason to participate, to work out that competitive nature. My sport is autocross, a time trial involving driving a temporary course as fast as I can, without knocking over the course markers. Cars are classed based on modifications and perceived handling/horsepower advantages.

For many years, I ran that green Camaro Z28 in FS at the National Championships, which were held in Topeka, Kansas until this past September. I started off running ladies class, with tons of expectations to win, and when I didn't even earn a trophy those first two years at Nationals, I started running open class, against the guys. Seems odd, yeah, but my mentality was that I'd push myself even harder, and wouldn't choke at Nationals as I'd done my first two attempts. Plus, to me, it would mean more to earn an open class trophy than to win a ladies-only championship.

From 1999 to 2002, I improved steadily each and every year, coming closer to my goal of an open class National Championships trophy. In 2002, I even finally managed to earn some trophies during the season in open class, starting with the Ft. Myers ProSolo where I snagged the final trophy in FS, driving my trusty green Z28. I held that medal the entire fifteen hour ride home to Maryland. I also earned a trophy driving a stock-classed Corvette in a street-prepared class, pissing off a fellow competitor along the way when he told me that I "couldn't" drive a stock car in a street prepared class (which you can) and I responded, "Do you have a problem getting beat by a stock car or by a girl?"
the AS Corvette being run in BSP; I got the third and final trophy spot
Finally, in 2003, after a solid year in ProSolo and at a few National Tours, I found myself within the trophies after the first day of the National Championships. Alas, I fell to two out on the second day, finishing 0.149 behind the final trophy spot. My friends told me, "Next year, you'll do it," and I believed them.

Come 2004, after another solid year of competition, I again was in the trophies after the first day, though this time, I was running someone else's Camaro Z28 1LE. However, after staying out a bit too late, and not really getting a chance to walk the north course as well as I should have, I again fell out of the trophies -- a heartbreaking 0.068 out of trophies, to finish 8th in F Stock. "You will do it next year," everyone told me. I sucked it up, and nodded.

The rain of 2005 made a bad situation worse. I'd allegedly coned my first run, then it started to rain. This wasn't the first time this had happened to me during the 2005 season, and it hurt like hell to have it happen again. The only reason I even showed up for the second day of competition is because I had a codriver and he was in the trophies. He finished in the final trophy spot, while I languished in the bottom third that year. However, I did beat him over four events to win the 2005 Southeast Division championship. Did it ease the pain? No.

I didn't consciously realize it, but 2006 would be my final attempt at an open class trophy in F Stock. The 2005 Mustang was thought to be a dominant chassis to the established third and fourth generation Camaros, and an even better version -- the Shelby GT -- was coming for 2007. The 2006 Solo National Championships would be the final hurrah for my 1996 Camaro Z28 1LE that was my darling, my baby, my little green terror. As had been the case for two of the past three years, I was right there heading into the second day of competition. On my last run on the second day, I distinctly remember getting the time slip from the course worker at the end of the course, and her saying, "Awesome run!! 52s?!" And I just stared at the 52.9 that I'd just run, realized it wasn't enough for a trophy, and burst into tears.

I drove back to my grid spot, and sat in the car, crying. Everyone knew why. No one dared approach me until I'd let it all come out. Did I drive my best? I thought so at the time. Did I do everything I could? Again, I thought so at the time. We'd put my front sway bar on Jerry's car and did back-to-back testing. His car was set up exactly like my green one, and we codrove for maximum tire warmth, since Heartland Park was a terrible site for cold tires. But I just didn't drive fast enough.

Why do I bring this pain up? Because I'm tired of seeing so many people who have no competitive background whatsoever rag on the Washington Capitals for their first round playoff loss. If anyone thinks that those guys aren't being their own harshest critics, that they aren't feeling like they've let down themselves as well as their fans, then those people don't know the meaning of the word "competitive".

Did the players play their hardest? They thought so. There was cases where it didn't exactly look like much effort was being put forth, yes. Where a player wasn't making his presence exactly known, yes. But, as an amateur athlete, even I know that my best may not actually be the best I could have done, and I am damned sure that those professional athletes have done that kind of self-reflection on what happened during those seven games and don't need a ton of couch-jockeys telling them what they allegedly did wrong.

The Time Is Now

2010-04-14T00:24:00.003-04:00

I've been a Capitals fan for a very long time... a die hard since 1988. In all that time, the Caps have only ever visited the Conference Finals twice (the first time being swept), and the Stanley Cup Finals once.

The 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs start today, Wednesday, April 14. The Capitals have their first playoff game tomorrow against the Montreal Canadiens, on Thursday, at Verizon Center.

Here's hoping they can do what no other Capitals team could do since 1974. :)

I'm a Loser, Baby...

2010-04-08T11:56:00.003-04:00

So, this morning, the Washington Capitals Club Scarlet posted the winner of their "How I Became a Caps Fan" contest, in which the winner gets a game worn jersey after the team takes on the Boston Bruins on April 11.

Read the winning entry and tell me how this woman is a Caps fan?

I didn't expect to win, but I also didn't expect to lose to someone who isn't even a fan of the team. :( For contrast, my entry is posted below.

Title : You Never Forget Your First

The year was 1986 and I was a high school sophomore when my mom won a set of four tickets to a Washington Capitals game during the Montgomery County Fair. Mike Ridley would be acquired from the New York Rangers in a deal that sent Bobby Carpenter to the Big Apple in return. Larry Murphy and Scott Stevens would be two of the top three scorers for the team.

And I would still not see my first Caps game live.

For some odd reason, my mom never redeemed the voucher for the tickets that year. My family – myself included – wasn’t that much into hockey at the time. We were passing fans in that we’d watch it on TV, but it wasn’t a passion for my parents, myself or my younger brother.

Yet, my mom still didn’t forget about the tickets, and at the onset of the 1987-88 season, she wrote a letter to then-owner Abe Pollin, asking if she would still be able to use them. Mr. Pollin himself wrote back, asking what game she would like to go to. After looking over the schedule, we settled on the February 14th game, as it was the closest game to my birthday. They’d be playing the Calgary Flames, which, coincidentally, was the team pennant hanging in my bedroom at the time.

Our seats were excellent, just four or so rows from the ice. In retrospect, it was amazing what we got to see – future Hall of Famers, including Mike Gartner, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime, and Brett Hull, who was a tenacious rookie on the Flames, mucking it up in the corners and blasting pucks towards the net with that wicked shot of his.

Seeing Gartner hustle down the boards in overtime to clinch the 5-4 win over the Flames sealed it for me. After watching my first NHL game live, I was hooked, and by my senior year in high school, I was skipping out early on Fridays in order to get to the Capital Centre for games. The year after I graduated, I was working full-time and had the spare cash to get a single season ticket for myself, and was able to see the Capitals make it to the Wales (Eastern) Conference finals for the first time in franchise history, even though they were swept by the Boston Bruins. It was heart-breaking, but I was thoroughly hooked by this time, it didn’t matter. I would be back for more.

I was a season ticket holder at the Capital Centre for all of two years before I went to college full-time and had to come to my senses. I never forget Mr. Pollin’s kindness in letting my family use those tickets after the fact, and the excitement of that first game being won in overtime. Over twenty years later, I am a full season ticket holder, and again, I am witnessing franchise records and history being made. It’s an exciting time to be a Capitals fan, but then again, when isn’t it?

I'm Bad... I'm Nationwide...

2010-04-04T21:33:00.020-04:00

Pat and I, along with friends Heather and Dennis, ventured out to Columbus, Ohio this past weekend to take in a Capitals game in a town I've only driven through (many, many, many times on my way out to Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska or further west, for autocrosses). After the March 12th game against the Lightning, we came to an inebriated decision to drive to Tampa Bay for the March 20th rematch, but fortunately, we all sobered up and scrapped that before our credit cards were charged. Instead, Heather and I individually decided that driving the six hours to Ohio would be "smarter" than the fifteen hours to Tampa, and so the idea to go to Nationwide Arena on April 3rd was born. Some discussion, some emails, and voila, we were all set to meet up with an autocrossing friend of mine from Cleveland at the arena on Saturday night.

Heather and Dennis left about thirty minutes ahead of Pat and me, and it took us about the same amount of time to get to the hotel. Monitoring our whereabouts via Twitter and Foursquare, we managed to confuse each other with late and duplicate "check-ins," plus Dennis thought Pat and I had left closer to 11 (instead of the 9:30AM we actually did leave). Needless to say, he was shocked when I tweeted that I was 45 minutes from Columbus, despite the fact that I was driving the famed 400K mile Camaro Z28 1LE that's been affectionately nicknamed the Green Terror for my alma mater's mascot. Pat and I arrived at the hotel about thirty minutes behind Heather and Dennis, and Sean was done autocrossing at National Trail for the day, so he was getting ready to head over as well.

A quick jaunt from the hotel to the Tip Top Kitchen (on a recommendation from NHL.com contributor and former Washington Times sports writer Corey Masisak) saw all four of us ordering the delicious pot roast sandwich (on a pretzel roll, some of us getting the sweet potato fries as a side, and other getting fried green beans or regular fries). The savory meal would last us through the game until further exploits at the Horn-Guy-recommended "R" Bar after the game.

Nationwide Arena evidently has issues with "printing" tickets ordered via Ticketmaster, and Dennis couldn't retrieve the tickets until after 6PM. Sean arrived while we were waiting for the tickets to be "printed" and we immediately took up spots for warmups while Pat went for refreshments.

We would need the alcohol. Greg Wyshynski, of Yahoo Puck Daddy, had clearly called Columbus the "Central U.S. command center of Jersey Fouls" and he wasn't kidding. From the general foul of wearing a jersey of a team that wasn't playing, to the "Hockey Town" Red Wings #97 jersey, we saw quite a plethora of eye-numbing fouls. However, coupled with the fact that the bunny was wearing a powder-blue Crosby jersey, this chick was the "winn4r" of the pathetic sites we witnessed.

We did get a good view of the warmups, as well as of the game, however. We ended up being near both of the Caps clubs that were in attendance (the Road Crew and the Fan Club), on the end where the Caps were shooting twice.

The theme for the Blue Jackets is "Carry the Flag." It doesn't seem very threatening, especially when coupled with a weak video introduction that was a parody of the "needs more cowbell" SNL skit (here's an old version of it from 2007). This one was a play on the AC/DC "For Those About to Rock" video, and the line was "needs more cannon." This led into a "Live from Columbus, it's Saturday night!" with some of their top players (not the opening lineup, which I think would have been more appropriate) mentioned.

The Caps started off very strongly in the first, with crisp passing and a dominant presence in the Blue Jackets' zone. Mathieu Garon was tested early and failed often, letting through two of the first four shots on net. Semin started the scoring, and Flash continued it. However, things were about to change for the worse.

Jason Chimera, coming into Nationwide Arena for the first time since the late December trade that sent Chris Clark to Ohio (along with Milan Jurcina, temporarily), was coming into the BJ's zone at, as he put it, "full speed," and got caught up with defenseman Anton Stralman as he entered the crease. Garon was the unfortunate braking point. While he tried to shake off, Garon would end up being replaced by Caps killer Steve Mason.

A few miscues on the part of the Blue Jackets minutes later would find Mason facing down the league's best power play on a 5-3. Mike Green, after whiffing on a perfectly open net moments previous, would take a sweet setup and send the puck straight in for his 19th of the season. However, the Caps would not score again, and, in fact, the defensive breakdowns would begin almost immediately. With the rest of the second penalty still on the board, Rick Nash and Antoine Vermette would take the puck to Jose Theodore and slide one by to "fire the cannon" (which is damned loud, by the way) and narrow the lead to 2 before the end of the first period.

The cannon was mercifully silent during the second period, and most of the way through the third, not for lack of BJ attempts though. Theo would face 36 shots versus the 23 taken on Mason (and 4 on Garon), and he'd stop all but two, including a flurry of shots during a 5-on-3 situation caused by a Chimera cross-check followed closely by a Shaone Morrisonn tripping call.

Vermette would score even strength on another Nash feed late in the third period, but Theo would hold off the rest of the onslaught and as a result, take the first star of the game. It was a too-exciting finish to what should have been a routine win for the league-leading Capitals. Yet, another mediocre game -- and -2 finish! -- for Alex Ovechkin and more disinterested play for countryman Alex Semin would be part of the problem. With Brooks Laich back in the lineup, albeit with a college-style cage, some of the weak points of the penalty kill and the power play units have been shored up -- let's face it, Jason Chimera was not a good replacement for the Iron Man -- but even Laich wasn't up to the task of cracking Mason beyond that one Green tally.

RJ Umberger would make some disparaging remarks about the Capitals' post-season chances in the press conference after the game, saying that Washington doesn't "play right" and that no Western Conference team would be outmatched by them. However, no other Eastern Conference team has a better record against the West than Washington, so if not the Capitals, then who should face the best of the West for the Stanley Cup? Maybe Umberger is a bit bothered by his team being out of the playoff picture in the West, though teams with worse records in the East are still in contention, and if so, that's a valid concern. Yet, to call out the Capitals -- who would still be in the playoffs even if the wins over supposedly weaker division opponents were left out -- is just being a poor loser on his part. He later tried to backpedal on his comments, but honestly, I'm not surprised about his initial remarks, considering he's a former Flyer.

After the game, we all headed over to the R Bar, which was touted as "the most awesome hockey bar ever" by Sam "The Horn Guy." Sure enough, the place was a mecca of hockey souvenirs, including a Baltimore Skipjacks pennant! Turns out that one of the owners is from the Baltimore area, hence the Skipjacks, Baltimore Colts and Orioles pennants being tucked away in the entrance area. Other cool touches included the penalty box/boards booths, hockey sticks and pucks everywhere, and the 100oz beer towers of Molson Canadian for $18. Well, the $3 PBR 24oz cans weren't bad either.

After chatting with some Pens fans from Waterloo, Ontario (may your French-speaking, Habs-fan children be the bane of your existence!), and Todd, who told us he was one of the guys responsible for the boards at Nationwide, we called it a night. Sean went back to Cleveland (with his own interesting story of the drunk-driver-in-a-mirror-image-car), and the rest of us staggered back to our hotel. All-in-all, it was a great time to be had. Nationwide Arena is a very nice site, and the Columbus fans were very gracious hosts! If the Caps are in Ohio again next year, I think I'm going to have to make the trek again.

March of the Penguins

2010-02-08T13:23:00.002-05:00

I'm glad I was able to make it to the game yesterday -- oddly enough, I made it because my Subaru WRX was "snowed out" of my neighborhood since I went to the game on Friday night and stayed overnight in DC. It turned out to be an excellent battle between the two teams. I'm also glad the Caps won, because the trials and tribulations of getting to and from the game were, in a word, unacceptable.

My brother came from Hagerstown in his own Subaru. I-270 was, in his words, "a disaster." He had to drive all the way to Bethesda to the closest Metro station, Medical Center, where he then waited 30 minutes because he'd *just* missed the departing train. Metro neglected to post anything about only running trains every 30 minutes on their website, otherwise, he would have just tried to drive into DC and park in a garage. It took him nearly three hours to arrive. Meanwhile, because I had his tickets in my hand, I, too, missed the entire first period because I waited in the Green Turtle for him.

And Mr. Leonsis, while all of "your" employees may have shown up for the game, not all of the Verizon Center staff was present. That much was clear when I entered during the opening minutes of the second period, even if I hadn't already received a text message telling me that the concession lines were ridiculously long because more than half of the stands were not open. My brother and I sprinted to our seats, and respectfully waited for a stop in play to enter the actual seating area despite no usher being present (not sure if the usher was taking a quick break or if they, too, couldn't make it due to the weather). One of the season ticket holders next to me missed the *entire* second period waiting in the concession lines. There may have been enough staff present to "run" Verizon Center, but it was very obvious to anyone there that not "all" of the arena staff was present.

I understand the need to hold the game, Mr. Leonsis, and if both teams were there and the officials were there, I would have been sorely disappointed to not be able to see it. What does disappoint me is that part of the justification for hold it (from a previous blog entry) was that the NBC crew was there, and then telling people who were there that the ends (the win and a majority of seats being filled) justified the means (Pittsburgh's players on busses for 5+ hours in conditions that were, at best, treacherous; thousands of people -- including "super fans" such as Sam "The Horn Guy" and the announcer Wes Johnson -- making borderline insane trips to get to the arena). Please don't tell us things that we could see with our own eyes weren't true either (that "all employees" were there). You may not have had a vastly different game experience than you usually do, but many of the rest of us definitely did. To belittle our journeys and our experiences by dismissing them out of hand is insulting to those of us (Caps and Pens fans both) who went to, literally, fanatical lengths to see this team play.

For the record, my brother sent me a text at 8:14PM last night. We'd departed the Irish Channel after a late lunch at 4:15PM. Four hours for him to get home, and he said that I-270 was even worse going northbound. But, as a true, diehard Caps fan, he said it was all worth it.

Containing the Rabble

2010-01-29T14:28:00.008-05:00

Well, I spent all day at the Washington Auto Show on Thursday, which was the second day it was open to the public. I was helping out at the WDCR-SCCA area, and was supposed to be answering questions and generally trying to "sell" SCCA events as a great legal alternative to playing on the street.
the autocross cars
The first thing I noticed after about noon was how light the crowds were, even for a week day. I didn't get a chance to venture much out of the area (I did talk to some of the National Capital Region Mustang owners, but that was about it), so I don't know if the light crowds were due to the area we were in, but what a difference from last year. The other thing I noticed, and this was immediately, was that as soon as the doors were open to the public (10AM), there were people gathing in line to see some WWE wrestler (I looked it up later -- his name is Randy Orton). The wrestler wasn't due to be on stage until 6PM.

Well, the wrestling crowd that was gathering for this game was unfortunately of the stereotypical wrestling fan type -- very white trash. They were also completely ignorant of the chains that Ian and Carrie set up around the autocross cars, and I found myself constantly telling them to not push past the chains or move the chain holders. At one point, I had Mike Collins, the floor manager over to help move the chains back in position, hoping that his "officialdom" would make an impression. I should have known that if my suit and name badge didn't convey authority, neither would his.

I was very disappointed, because Ian had told me on Sunday, when I dropped the car off, that the Capitals would be signing at the stage that was about 100-150 feet from my car. Nick Backstrom, Mike Green and Bruce Boudreau were due for signings, but they turned out to be upstairs by the Ford exhibit. I asked Mike was the chances were that he could get one of them to come and pose by my WRX before they left, and he said he'd see what he could do.

Brooks Laich was also present, though he was there for Potomac Garage Solutions, who'd done a garage makeover for him. He wasn't very far away from our area, and in fact, Carrie went over to get his autograph on two hats (we all know they are both yours, Carrie!), and then since the wrestling crowd was dying down and we had enough coverage of our area to keep the rabble in check, I caved in and got my hat signed. I told him I figured I'd get his autograph on it, since I'd pledged to throw it the other week when it looked like he might get a hat trick. He laughed and said that he'd try to get one against the Panthers on Friday night, to which I said, "But now I don't want to throw this one! I'll have to get another to throw."

I felt like a moron for being up there in my suit and with my exhibitor's badge, so I didn't get a picture or anything. Carrie was needling me about that when Mike came back over to see if things were still okay. I asked him about the other players, and he said that they actually left early, so he didn't get a chance. I told him that Laich was still there, and so he went over there and told me that the "handler" said once the line died down, he'd call Mike on the radio.
the 'diorama' with rescue1 and obadia's spec miata was in front of my wrx
Well, it was approaching 9PM, which was the close of the show, and the line was pretty much gone. But suddenly, there was some drama going on with the wrestler's fans, and Mike was called away to deal with that fallout. So, I asked Carrie to come with me (for moral support, of course), and we went back over to where Laich was. I waited until the rest of the autograph seekers were done, then asked the "handler" about if I could get a picture of Laich with my car. He acted unsure, and deferred to a younger guy behind him, who introduced himself as "Brooks' cousin." I asked him about getting the picture, and he asked where my car was again, what kind and color the car was, and then said, "I'll make sure he walks that way on the way out." I thanked him, and then Carrie and I went back to the SCCA area, realizing how many Subarus there were right there and I was very thankful he'd asked about the color!

I wasn't completely convinced that it would still happen, but a minute later, Carrie says, "Oh my god, they're coming!" and sure enough, Brooks, his cousin and the manager walked over the the car. Brooks noticed the weagle magnet on the car right away, then asked where he should stand. I hadn't even thought that far ahead, and so said, "Just anywhere." His cousin was telling him to smile for the camera, "No, really smile, Brooks!" and then after Carrie had taken one picture, he told her to "take another, keep shooting!" I couldn't stop laughing.
brooks laich graciously allows me to get a couple of pictures in front of my wrx
We thanked them for taking the time to come over, and they headed out. But how cool was that? :)

So tonight is an attempt to prolong the winning streak, taking it to what would no longer be a tie for the second-longest streak in franchise history. The Florida Panthers are coming to town, and Brooks Laich said he was going to get a hat-trick, while Tomas Fleischmann said he needed to get started on scoring 45 goals for the season ASAP. It's a good time to be a Caps fan is all I can say.

Auto Show : Change Happens Here

2010-01-22T08:55:00.003-05:00

The 2010 Washington Auto Show is open to the the public starting January 27 and runs through January 31, at the DC Convention Center. The theme this year is "Change Happens Here," and the highlights will be alternative energy, such as hybrids, biofuels and the like.

And, my Subaru Impreza WRX will be part of the WDCR SCCA exhibit again this year. :)
the WRX at FedEx Field for a regional WDCR autocross, photo by Danny Kao

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch?

2010-01-18T17:57:00.007-05:00

ovechkin gets ready for his sixth career penalty shot
"We just want to give fans free chicken wings and give them free food, you know?" said Ovechkin after the Washington Capitals put away the Philadelphia Flyers for the third time this season. He made it sound simple, despite the fact that it was his first career goal via penalty shot, after five previous attempts. His shootout percentage is marginally better (1 for 5 this year), but the decision to award a penalty shot for Coburn's actions during Ovechkin's late breakaway had some in the stands wishing for a traditional two-minute power play.

Ovechkin's 30th goal wasn't the story of the game however; that distinction belonged to Brooks Laich who snapped an eighteen game scoring drought after a one-on-one video session with Coach Boudreau.

"We went through the shifts from the Toronto game and at the end of it we discussed what we saw. And the term he used was 'You’re kind of just existing out there.' And the term I used was that 'It kind of looked uninspired' – the way I was playing," Laich told the media after being named first star of the game. He scored twice, once short-handed and once even strength, and added an assist in the 5-3 undressing of a Philly team that is trying desperately to climb into a playoff position before April.

Laich certainly wasn't just existing on the ice during the matinee matchup. After his first goal, which tied the game at two, he played his position solidly and relentless, resulting in the short-hander against a Flyers squad that has allowed six other SHG this season.

knuble in his office
Since coming back from a broken pinky finger, Mike Knuble had been slow to get back into form. But, in the last week, "Noobs" has netted five goals in five games, working to a +2 overall, and virtually none of those goals were from more than five feet away from the net.

Since switching Tomas Fleischmann to a center position and pairing him with Brooks Laich and Alexander Semin, Coach Boudreau seems to have finally found a happy medium with his lines. As much as he's known for switching things up every game, and oftentimes during a game, the 8-19-22, 28-14-21 and 16-9-25 lines seem to have clicked and as such, have persisted for over five games (which is likely a record for Boudreau's Capitals). The only line that has seen change is the fourth line, as Boyd Gordon and Quintin Laing have been in and out of the lineup.
backstrom waits patiently for the flyers to begin a breakout
Maybe not coincidentally, the Capitals have won four of the last five games, and scored an average of 5.6 goals per game. The last time the Capitals scored fewer than four goals? Their loss to the Los Angeles Kings on January 2nd. In that span, Capitals faithful at Verizon Center have netted free wings in the Glory Days promotion three times of a possible four (only four goals were scored on the Canadiens on January 5th).

It's been said that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Looks like the exception to that rule is if you're a Caps fan!

The real test for the team is coming up in the next week. The Stanley Cup finalist Detroit Red Wings come to town tomorrow night, and then the Capitals visit the Cup winning Penguins on Thursday. The week wraps up back at home with the Phoenix Coyotes -- a surprise of the season with 61 points as of this writing -- coming to DC. If the Capitals are going to contend for the Cup in a serious fashion, these next three games will illuminate strengths and weaknesses for sure. And the Coyotes game is the next Caps on Tap bar crawl, so it will be entertaining in more ways than one! :)

For some other enlightening reading on the Flyers/Capitals matchup, check out : The Examiner, Japers Rink, Rock The Red, Washington Post and Russian Machine Never Breaks.

Raindrops Keep Falling...

2010-01-17T11:26:00.005-05:00

Last time the Capitals played Philadelphia, it was snowing. This time, it's pouring rain. It would be nice to have a sunny day during the Caps vs. Flyers contest, but I digress.

In the last week, we've seen the extreme side of the Capitals' offensive ability; they currently lead the league in goals-for, with 177. Chicago is the next closest at 161. Going back to the January 5th game against the Canadiens, the Caps have scored an average of 5.1 goals per game!
just another celebration of a Semin shot in Atlanta

The defensive work is what is still troubling. Despite the overwhelming ability to score goals, the team still lost one game and had another go to shootout in the last week. Those two games also saw rookie netminder Michal Neuvirth give up a total of 8 goals over the span of about 50 minutes, and get replaced by veteran Jose Theodore. In the first of those two matches, against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Theodore unfortunately lived up to the derisive nickname of "ThreeOrMore" by allowing another 3 goals to slip by even as the front line juggernaut tied the game at 4-4. In the second game, however, "Contract Year" Theodore came in to stone the Florida Panthers for the final period and a half plus overtime, and then held on during the shootout. "Contract Year" Theo also played against the Maple Leafs this past Friday night, where he stood on his head to keep Toronto to a single power play goal even as six were scored against Vesa "For All Your Backup Needs" Toskala.

Just before the Canadiens game, Brooks Laich told the media that the team has a hard time buying into defensive work, even though, as he put it, it's when they play good defense that they get the opportunities to score four, five goals. Sure enough, that night against Montreal, they played well defensively, and they scored four goals. Two nights later, again, the defensive effort was decently solid, and they scored five. Those two games however, may have led to the shoddy first period in Atlanta, where it was only due to Neuvirth that they weren't chasing the Thrashers after one, considering the 18-7 shots-on-goal differential. However, Johan Hedberg's and Ondrej Pavelec's sieve-like qualities likely led to the disaster against the Lightning; the Capitals got lucky in Atlanta, knew they got lucky, and still didn't adjust their defensive game in Tampa until it was too late. And when things got "chippy" in the third period, they'd expended too much energy in the second just to pull into a 4-4 tie, and they had nothing left.
neuvirth works up a sweat against the thrashers

Did they learn their lesson? No. The next night in Sunrise, the exact same thing happened, almost to a tee. There was no Matt Bradley-coming-to-Ovechkin's "rescue" this time, though.

capitaLOLs hits the nail on the head

A quick first period goal on Friday night took some of the fight out of the Maple Leafs, and the defensive work was fairly solid, despite John Carlson not arriving at Verizon Center until 6:10 (literally minutes before warmups) and Brian Pothier's late scratch.

So what is to be expected against the Flyers? The last game was a rout, partially due to Daniel Carcillo's ill-advised "fight" with Matt Bradley and the resultant nine minutes of power play that netted a couple of goals. It's almost inevitable that the Flyers will try to punish the Capitals, as it's widely thought that Boudreau was just running up the score at the end (when he put Semin, Backstrom and Green out on a late power play... even though the point was to help David Steckel get that elusive first goal of the season). However, if the Capitals play like they did Friday night -- solid defense, cutting back on the cross-ice and cutesy passing, and unrelenting on the shots on goal -- they should improve their Eastern Conference leading home record to 16-3-3 easily.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

2009-12-06T22:08:00.012-05:00

Well, not this time, not really.

Alex Ovechkin was serving the second of his two-game suspension. The weather was cold, snowy/rainy/generally icky, and the Flyers had just fired John Stevens and replaced him with former Hurricanes coach, Peter Laviolette.
it's half past noon, and the Camaro has a half-inch of snow on it
We had tickets through the Caps Road Crew, who were schedule to leave Greenbelt around 3:15 to arrive at Wachovia Center around 5:30, so with the weather looking bleak and a mildly ESP-prepped Camaro Z28 as the sole transportation available, we left at 12:30. The original plan to go to see BodyWorlds2 at the Franklin Institute or the Mutter Museum at the College of Physicians got scrapped when I forgot to set an alarm to get up on Saturday. I didn't wake up until 11:30AM, as usual for me on a weekend without an autocross. So, we were going straight to check in at the hotel, chill there for a short period, then to the arena. We were also considering going to see Sloan after the game, as they were playing at Kung Fu Necktie that night.
The roads were fine. I tested the brakes on the way out to the main drag, and even though the Green Terror's on 3+ year old Kumho Ecsta 711 performance tires, there were no traction problems at all. The roads were wet, and fortunately, the people in Baltimore and north are not nearly as idiotic as DC area drivers are. We arrived at the hotel by 2:30, even after running errands before actually "leaving."

Pat was weirdly sleepy, so I let him nap for a while and I played on my still-pretty-new-to-me Nokia Surge, checking email, Twitter and Facebook. We headed over to the arena to arrive around 5:30, and were the first Capitals fans in the suite. Turns out the bus was running late.
view from the suite
We grabbed a bite to eat and a drink, then headed down to the glass for warmups. The bus arrived just before the warmups started, and the rest of the Caps Road Crew filtered in at the corner, while we were next to the tunnel. I started off taking some random pictures, but once the players came out, I took some cell phone pics to post to Facebook Mobile, while Pat took some camera photos. Most of them turned out pretty good.

We headed back up to the suite after warmups, and it was packed. Talking to only guy wearing a Laing jersey, I found out that the bus had a late departure, then an unexpected stop with delayed their arrival. At least they didn't have traffic issues.

The game started off with a quick goal from Tomas Fleischmann, less than a minute into the game. It was so unexpected, we all had a delayed reaction when it came to cheering. Things were relatively subdued after that -- a lot of back and forth, no clear domination -- until the Flyers fourth liners managed to get a rebound stuff on Jose Theodore. It was all tied up, and the Flyers faithful were getting geared up for a loud game.

Then Matt Bradley put a hit on Daniel Carcillo, who'd just had an assist on the goal. Carcillo took exception to the clean hit, and hit Bradley with a cross-check, followed by a shove, and inexplicably cold-cocked him. Brads went down in a heap and was so woozy, he needed help off the ice. As for Carcillo, like Mike Duco on Thursday night, the refs threw the book at him. Two minutes for cross-checking (the ref's arm was in the air for that when the rest happened), two minutes for instigating (the shove), five minutes for fighting, a ten minute misconduct and a game misconduct. All told, the Capitals would end up with a nine minute power play, even better than the seven minutes they had against the Panthers on Thursday night.

The major penalty is run first, so for the next five minutes the Caps would have an all-you-can-score opportunity. After a shaky two minutes, where Richards and Carter snaked into the Caps' zone on a short-handed attempt, the Caps settled down and got to business. Fleischmann tipped one by Ray Emery, and twenty-seconds afterwards, Mike Green slapped one through. The Flyers faithful went silent, and the period drew to a close.
Dan Carcillo was generous this holiday season
The second period starts off with a brief period of intensity on the part of the Flyers' penalty killers, but again, less than a minute into the period, the Capitals score. This time it's Brooks Laich, and it knocks the rest of the penalty kill down to a mere two minutes, as the major penalty had now expired.

After last December's game that Pat and I had attended, we had never dreamed that the score would be similar, but on the opposite end. Less than a minute into the second period, and it's 4-1. And the bleeding would continue.

Karl Alzner was called for a penalty for the second game in a row -- very uncharacteristic for him -- and the Caps PK unit went out and methodically killed off what would be the only Flyers power play on the night. Then the Flyers made the critical mistake of letting the puck slide up the boards by the penalty boxes, just as the penalty expired. Alzner erupted from the box, grabbed the puck and sent it over to a streaming Chris Clark, who stuff it past a reeling Ray Emery. Within seconds, Emery (12 saves on 17 shots) was replaced by Brian Boucher.

Boucher barely had time to be settled in the crease when the puck was dropped and he was tested. Before the end of the period, Boucher would let in two more goals, and the teams would retire to the locker room for the second intermission with the score 7-1.

The third period, the Capitals went for, as Mike Green put it during the intermission interview with Craig Laughlin, "keeping it simple." Basically, they tried to avoid the all-too-common third period meltdown, and while they weren't driving as hard to the net, they were also trying to avoid neutral zone turnovers and odd-man rushes. While Scott Hartnell did eek one past Jose Theodore to make it 7-2, he also took a poor slashing penalty (or was it his medusa-like hair that actually took the penalty?), leaving the Capitals the chance to help goal-deprived David Steckel get the elusive first marker of his season.

Yeah, so maybe with Backstrom and Green out there to help him, it was cheating a little bit. But why should Laich, Fleischmann and Fehr get all the fun on the power play unit? ;)

The scoring was over then, sadly. However, for the first time I can remember, an opposing team's players called as stars of the game actually came out to salute the crowd. Tomas Fleischmann -- with two goals and two assists -- was the third star, and he came out and waved at the meager crowd that was left (mostly Caps fans at this point, as a vast majority of Flyers fans had left before the second period was over). Mike Green was the second star, also with two goals and two assists, and he actually saluted towards our section. Nicklas Backstrom was the top star, and I'd like to think the only reason he didn't make it out was because he was being interviewed.
Mike Green waves at the Caps Road Crew when he's deemed second star of the game
The ride back to the hotel was uneventful -- fortunately -- as it was a quick jog to the car, and the parking lot was basically empty at that point.

The most pathetic parts of the game, besides the goaltending? Referee Stephane Auger took a puck to the ear during play in the second period, and fell to the ice. The classless Philly fans cheered his injury and booed as he skated, with help, to the locker rooms. :( He did return at the beginning of the third period, but I can imagine it was with a heavy dose of painkillers.

The other pathetic display was the fight in the stands, over near section 100. We heard someone say, "Fight!" but we didn't see anything happening on ice. The scuffle in the stands was actually between two Flyers fans! Both were escorted out by Wachovia Center security, needless to say.

So, in all, we're glad we went. While Matt Bradley was out for the majority of the game, it looks like he just needed ten or so stitches to patch his cheek up, and he'll be in the lineup for Monday night. Carcillo ended up with a four-game suspension for his trouble -- and a lot of criticism for his post-game lies and half-truths. So, after a seven-minute power play against the Panthers and a nine-minute power play against the Flyers, the question remains -- who on the Tampa Bay Lightning will go full retard and let the Capitals now-number-one-ranked power play have its way with their goaltenders?

And, no, we didn't go get to see Sloan at Kung Fu Necktie. By the time we got out of the Wachovia Center, Pat figured we would have missed most of the set. We did get to see them in Vienna, Virginia, on Tuesday night, so it was okay to miss them this time around.

Grounded!

2009-12-06T11:00:00.002-05:00

I just got home from Philadelphia, and I don't think my voice has recovered yet. Pat and I went up to see the Caps play the Flyers, and it was the complete opposite of the lop-sided 7-1 blasting they gave the Caps last year (December 20th).

I'm gonna go have lunch with my Dad, but when I come back, I'll post up some pictures and give an account of the game. We sat with the Caps Road Crew in club suite 16, and it was just awesome.

Question of the Day

2009-11-08T12:28:00.002-05:00

The Caps won last night on an inspired five goal surge in the third period to come back from being down, 3-2 and win 7-4.

Question of the Day : Will Danny Snyder's Redskins score more points today than the Capitals did last night?

What If...?

2009-11-01T12:43:00.009-05:00

The brightest and hottest stars burn out the fastest. Is there a lesson here?

Marvel Comics has an on-again-off-again series of comics called "What If...?" which explores various momentous decisions and occurances in the Marvel Universe. What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four? What if Jean Grey had submitted to a psychic lobotomy by Professor Xavier at the end of the Dark Phoenix saga?

This weekend marks the ten-year anniversary of the tragic accident that killed Greg Moore, a rising star in the open wheel racing series that was, at the time, called CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams). While Moore only had an official five wins in his four years of racing in the CART series, he was a force to be reckoned with on the track, and a bright soul off of it, according to his friends, teammates and even his competition.
photo from speedcenter.com
John Oreovicz explores some of the "what if?" in this poignant article marking the dark day that may have been the beginning of the end of CART and possibly of US open wheel racing. Greg Moore's infectious enthusiasm for life helped vitalize those he raced with, as well as drawing in fans to a sport that has always had a tenuous American existence, amongst the grittier NASCAR and circle track crowds. As Dario Franchitti put it in Oreovicz's article, "[Greg] was such a bright light. It's kind of a cliché, that he lived every day, but he did. From the time he got up, he was flat out. Right away the phone was ringing. You're still coming to, but there's Greg saying, 'Right! What are we doing? We're going mountain biking! We're doing this, we're doing that! We're going skiing!' There was never a dull moment."

Too many parallels exist between how Greg Moore sparked a renewed American interest in open wheel racing and how Alex Ovechkin has sparked a renewed Washington -- and American -- interest in hockey. Ovechkin is a larger-than-life personality, enjoying each and every day to the fullest.
Ovechkin and Semin goofing off at Six Flags during the STH party
What if the Capitals had chosen Malkin instead of Ovechkin in the 2004 draft? Would a Crosby-Ovechkin line be any more or less dominant than a Malkin-Backstrom line? Would Malkin be able to captivate the fickle Washington fan base the way Ovechkin has?
can you imagine the jerseys reversed? photo by Getty Images
More importantly, with Ovechkin as a larger than life personality, enjoying every moment to the fullest in a life that most of us can only dream about, how long until he burns himself out? Fans have already been "treated" to some close calls that are considered "goofing off" only because nothing happened in the end. Greg Moore's end was foreshadowed from the beginning with his exuberant driving on the track; it seemed only a matter of time before he had a terrible -- but not necessarily fatal -- accident. Ovechkin publicly admits to putting himself in danger on the street, and while Moore was a professional driver in a car with top-of-the-line safety equipment, Ovechkin is in a very fast street car without a roll bar (much less a cage), and hasn't (to my knowledge) taken any kind of performance driving lessons beyond his own "playing around" on the ragged edge.

And this doesn't even address Ovechkin's 110% play on the ice. The running joke is "Russian Machine never break." But how long before the wear-and-tear on his twenty-something body adds up?

It's worth noting how often the best and brightest human stars, like their cosmic counterparts, use themselves up long before what we'd consider to be "their time." Can the Capitals brightest star continue living his life his way?

Here's to hoping that Alex Ovechkin learns the meaning of the word moderation before he joins Greg Moore and myriad other stars who went supernova too early.

Unconventional

2009-09-26T22:32:00.019-04:00

The Inaugural Capitals Convention was today at the Gaylord Resort at the National Harbor. It was supposed to be modeled after events held by the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Blackhawks, and the announcement of this event had a lot of long-time season ticket holders worried that it would supplant the now annual season ticket holder party. The Capitals organization constantly stated that the Convention and the season ticket holder party were not connected at all, and in fact, an email was sent out two weeks ago announcing the date of the party. And the Convention was today.

Season ticket holders were given an extra hour in the exhibit hall to purchase used equipment, buy souvenirs and otherwise take in the exhibits, before the rest of the "general admission" tickets were admitted. Pat and I arrived around 9:30, mainly because I didn't feel like getting up this morning after a very long week at work. We'd parked in the Gaylord parking garage, and knowing we'd be there most of the day, I wasn't particularly happy about being slapped with a $19 parking fee. Even the $11 that others reported paying off site wasn't really a "bargain," though I should have known that at a "resort hotel," everything would be overpriced and underwhelming. At least the spaces in the garage were "normal sized," plus we managed to get a parking space next to Clyde and his new Miata top.

The first thing we noticed was that the line to sign up for the autograph sessions was long, really long. We opted to just go into the exhibit hall (bypassing all the general admission people who were grumbling about waiting) to see what it looked like. The "History Lesson" session was taking place on the main stage when we entered, but the sound was pretty bad if you were standing against the skills "rink," and we decided to go look at what was available at the jersey shop. The equipment sale line was crazy long and the interactives were dominated by kids, so there wasn't much else to do at this point.

I saw a couple of shirts I was interested in, but Pat was fixated on the jerseys. Since Brashear signed with the Rangers, Pat had decided that Brashear was "dead to him." He wanted another jersey, but he wanted an American-born player, and preferably one who would stay with the team for at least a few years. We'd been discussing this (along with Clyde) for the last couple of weeks, and even on the way down to the Convention, Pat had mentioned sadly that new Capital Mike Knuble was from Toronto and had only signed a one year contract. So, it was no surprise that he was glancing between the Poti and Steckel jerseys hanging along the back wall. He tried on the L/G Steckel jersey, and I knew his decision had been made. He took his claim to the first line of the day, and I went to check in for autographs.

I picked a 4-5PM timeslot at first, and when I came back to Pat (still in line to pay for the jersey), I told him I knew it was during one of the panel sessions he wanted to go to, but I was going back with his (the other) ticket, and I'd get a different session then. I was just about at the actual window to get the second wristband when Pat showed up with his new jersey in hand, and I gave him the 1:30-2:30 band, telling him that I hoped he'd get Tyler Sloan to sign the Sloan CD he'd brought with him.
Pat didn't really steal the jersey from Steckel's locker... but the locker room area made for a good background!
Pat headed upstairs to sit in on a panel discussion about the media coverage of the Capitals. That was really no surprise, since Pat's a photojournalist by trade and while he was trained by the Air Force and he currently works for an Army affiliated group, I'm sure he wouldn't mind covering the Capitals (or Nebraska football... and I think Nebraska would win if it came down to those two!). I told him I might come up to join him, but I wanted to wander around some more in the exhibit hall.

I took some pictures of the various trophies on display -- it was very much like the Hockey Hall of Fame set up with these -- but I was sorely disappointed that the Stanley Cup wasn't present. Was this a ploy by the Penguins to irritate the Capitals fans? I'm not sure what the "rules" are when it comes to public showing of the Stanley Cup, but every other trophy was there except for the Calder Trophy (for the top rookie). The Kelly Cup for the ECHL Champion (South Carolina Stingrays) was there, and I think the Calder Cup for the AHL Champion (Hershey Bears) was there too. Why not Lord Stanley, unless someone couldn't part with it for a night?

I ended up joining Pat in the panel discussion, which was very good. Frank Brown, the NHL Director of Media Relations, was the moderator, and Jon Press, Lindsay Czarniak, Corey Masisak, Joe Beninati, Craig Laughlin and Steve Kolbe were on the panel. It was a real show of camaraderie, as it was evident how much the broadcasters as a whole enjoyed working with each other, especially Kolbe, Beninati and Laughlin. Press, a blogger, and Masisak, a beat writer, seemed a bit out of their element in front of an audience, but when handed the microphone, they could still hold their own.

Afterwards, Pat and I looked around a bit for food, and we weren't impressed with the options on site. Instead, we meandered back toward the exhibit hall so that Pat could get in line for the autograph session. He was in group B, and I had chosen correctly for Tyler Sloan... except Sloan was in group C, along with Tom Poti. Group B was Shaone Morrisonn and Chris Bourque. I suggested to Pat that he try to switch wrist bands with someone from group C, since we are SCCA experts at removing wristbands. He considered it, but ultimately decided to just get in the "B" line. I guess he's hoping that Sloan makes the big team this time, and that he can meet him at Kettler.
Pat talks to Chris Bourque
We looked at the trophies some more and waited in the line to see the mock locker room setup, which was cool in some respects (the real Jose Theodore mask and the real Semyon Varlamov pads, albeit from Hershey, for instance), and completely lame in other respects (the wrong jerseys hanging (logo forward) in some "lockers").
Does the Chris Clark jersey in the Semin stall count as a jersey foul?
The real Theodore mask was cool...even if some assclown thought it was cool to try to put it on :|
We had some downtime after the autographs, and so we hit the hotel's atrium for lunch. We opted for the buffet place, at a mere $23.50 apiece, and while there, Steve Kolbe stopped by and chatted with me for a few minutes, which was very cool. Pat was kind of astonished when he came back from getting a second helping to see Kolbe talking to me about attending games in Philadelpha. One of the most interesting things he said to me was that he really wanted to place a bid on the Eastern Conference Champions banner that was available in the silent auction, but he also thought a fan should get it. His desire for the banner was due to the fact that he'd first announced for the Capitals in that season. I asked him, "But aren't you a huge fan of the team too?" I have to wonder if he did end up bidding on it.

Heather was at the Convention too (along with Julie -- one of our skating friends -- and Kelly -- who has season tickets next to us), and while we were trying to eat that late lunch, she was spazzing that she wasn't going to get Semyon Varlamov's autograph. Like me choosing Pat's session, she'd chosen the correct time, but didn't get the right stage (B vs. C, just like Pat). So, she wanted me to snap a few shots of Varlamov for her while she languished in the other line.
poor Heather
I got in line for my autograph session soon after, because I wanted to go to a panel session at 4:30, so I wasted a good 40 minutes of my time just standing around so that I could be one of the first to get an autograph. I didn't even know who would be in my session until about 3:40 when Pat came over with his newly purchased Steckel jersey.

Alexandre Giroux and David Steckel were the two players I would get autographs from. Not being a psycho about getting autographs, I hadn't really brought anything to get signed, so it was a good thing Pat had brought some ticket stubs and given me the jersey. Otherwise, I would have felt like a total fool. At least the stub he gave me was from a game where Giroux had played (the preseason game again the Blackhawks last Wednesday). As I presented it to him, I remarked that he had been robbed several times in that game, and he completely agreed. While he may have set a new record in the AHL for goals scored, he has still struggled to get the puck past the goal line in the NHL.
Giroux signed the preseason game stub, while Shaone Morrisonn signed the playoffs game stub
I told Steckel that the jersey belonged to my boyfriend, who'd bought it because he was an American born player, and Steckel responded, "I like his style." I amended that Pat hoped he'd stay for more than just one more year, and Steckel replied, "I'll work on that." I hope he does. I think that game six against the Pens in the playoffs really upped his fan approval, considering the number of Steckel jerseys I saw today, and his faceoff ability is only matched by Boyd Gordon's.
Steckel comments to Giroux about something before autographs begin
I headed upstairs immediately so that I could hit the "Dropping the Gloves" breakout, and on the way, I saw Eric Fehr heading downstairs. I asked him, "Aren't you late?" as I was pretty sure he was supposed to be with Jose Theodore in the group B autograph signing, and his reply was, "I'm on time!" with a big grin, as if he knew he was going to be reamed for being late.

The "Dropping the Gloves" panel was moderated by Steve Kolbe, and the panelists were John Erskine, Alan May, Gary Rissling and Ken Sabourin. Seeing Sabourin at the back of the room before the session began, I asked him why he was there, since I didn't remember him getting into that many fights when he played. He remarked that he used to be "worse" when he played for Calgary. This was another good panel, as the stories told about the penalty box and the opposing players fought were very good. The most awkward moment came when someone asked about how incidents like the Patrick Kane idiocy were breakdowns of "turning off the fighter," but all of the (former) players agreed that what happened with Kane wasn't normal, and that any professional player can turn off the fighter off ice.

Heather and her friend Dennis were ready to leave after the session, so while Pat went to get my skates and jacket from the car (since I'd left them with her after our skating class on Wednesday, instead of trying to carry a duffel with hockey skates into the Verizon Center), I waited to ask Alan May a question I'd been dying to know the answer to for over fifteen years.

"A guy I went to college with swore up and down that he was close personal friends with you, to the point of 'calling you' during our chemistry lab one day. I just have to know... do you know Craig Fitch?"

May immediately responded with, "Do you mean Fitchette?" and I confirmed that (Fitch was his nickname). Then he asked, "Where did you go to school?" I told him, "Western Maryland, but I think Craig was working on his second bachelor degree then." May nodded, "Yeah, I knew him from when he was at Princeton..." After over fifteen years, I finally had my skepticism erased about Fitch's association with Alan May. So, that phone call during lab was for real after all...

My other question was about his propensity towards instigation via goaltender interference. I asked him if he feared certain goaltenders, like Ron Hextall. He said that Hextall was a lot less scary when he faced him than if it had been a few years earlier. He also pointed out how small Hextall was outside the pads, which I know, since I'd met Hextall at one of the Flyers' fan club activities.

So, it was cool talking to Alan May for a few moments at the end of the panel. I then went to the room next door for the athletic trainer's panel, and texted Heather to tell Pat where I was (since I knew he didn't have a phone). He popped in shortly thereafter, then went next door to watch the "'Bear' Facts" breakout session.

Not many people were at the session I attended, but I guess since no players were there, there was a lot less interest in the discussion from the general populace. Ken Sabourin was the moderator for this group, and I was chosen to ask my question, which was in reference to my teaching. I asked how high school students interested in being athletic trainers should prepare themselves, and the head trainer (Greg Smith) said that they should consider if they want to go the sports medicine or the physical therapy route (he's evidently done both!), then choose the school appropriate to their decision. The strength training coach, Mark Nemish, also suggested networking as an important tool to getting into the "big leagues."

Pat gave some funny stories from the session he went to, including a question asked of Karl Alzner about the craziest thing a female fan has done. :o

We went downstairs again to scan around the exhibit hall one last time. The line to get into the Capitals Shop was gone. The equipment sale was essentially done. Even the late autograph sessions were poorly subscribed, likely because everyone knew there was zero chance of Ovechkin being in the last session (since he was signed up to do photographs then).
Karl Alzner and Nicklas Backstrom sign autographs in the final session
Besides Heather, Clyde had also already left, when his autograph session included Ovechkin... at another line (gee, sounds familiar). His line was Milan Jurcina and Tomas Fleischmann. I wish he'd told me, because I would have gotten Jurcina's autograph. Oh well.

We surveyed surroundings, then decided we could wait until next Saturday to see the opening night video. Before leaving entirely, we did the "hard shot" interactive (the only one that didn't seem to be dominated by children under twelve).
Pat whiffed on more than one shot
I never got a good time, but I didn't whiff on any, so I win.
We waited in one last line (to prepay for the parking), then came home.

Knowing it was the first attempt at this sort of thing, and knowing there are 4998 other people with opinions (me and Pat being the other two of the 5K passes sold), I'll just sum up our pros and cons here.

Pros :
* Season ticket holders had extra time (over the general admission ticket) to survey the souvenirs and the game/used equipment
* Breakout sessions that we attended were fun AND informative
* Interactive sessions with puck shooting, etc. were interesting
* Availibility of players and others was good
* Some of the "players" were very polite and accessible -- including Ted Leonsis, Bruce Boudreau, Steve Kolbe, Al Koken, and Gary Bettman

* Honest attempt to include children in the Convention.
* All players -- current and possibly-current were available for autographs.
* Very inexpensive ticket costs.
* Most of the NHL trophies available to look at.

Cons :
* One hour extra was not nearly enough extra time for the season ticket holders
* Breakout sessions did not have enough room for the number of attendees, and there were a lot of people being disruptive via opening snack bags and talking to each other during the sessions
* I saw the various skills clinics on the schedule, and wanted to do one or more of them. But the overwhelming majority of participants in the interactives were children, and I felt like I shouldn't participate if it was meant for children. But I'm not sure it was meant that way.
* Lines for various things -- including getting souvenirs -- were out of control. I might have gotten a souvenir T-shirt if the line for such hadn't been ridiculously long from the moment of arrival. Pat waited a good 20+ minutes in the line to buy his Steckel jersey. I wanted some alumni autographs, but upon monitoring how quickly the line was moving, I realized that by the time I got to the table for signatures, chances were that the current players would have been replaced by other alumni by the time I got there.
* Some of the players were there for as short of a time as possible.
* There was no order to the alumni table autographs, and the line was inexcusably long. Of all the autographs I would have liked to get today, the alumni autographs were at the top of my list. I was very disappointed that the alumni line was the most sluggish, and the least predictable when it came to who would be seated upon arrival.
* Too few seats and very poor acoustics for the main stage.
* Too many children in then interactive sessions made it impossible (or at the very least, awkward) for adults who wanted to participate in stick skills or other clinics.
* The autograph sessions ran into breakout sessions too much. Too many people in some sessions with hardly as many in other groups.
* No photo-postcards or anything for the players to sign for people who didn't bring/buy something to get signed. The alumni table had an "autograph sheet" for signatures, but the regular player tables didn't even have that.
* Parking and food costs not disclosed until too late. Captive audience doesn't equal people who will pay anything -- I know some people just left the convention early to avoid paying the hotel $25 (or more for lunch), and they didn't come back.
* No Stanley Cup.

Other thoughts :
* Have a second room available. This would allow for a larger main stage, and more space for the autographs. The equipment sale and the preseason sale could also be expanded (meaning no line to get into the souvenirs). A second room where the interactives could be the primary thing would be cool, and could allow for kids and adults to compete but not against each other.
* let people know costs (parking, food, etc), ahead of time so they don't get slammed with ATM surcharges. $19 for parking is a bit exorbitant. On the other hand, the $175 Pat paid for the Steckel jersey is less than I paid for his Brashear jersey at Verizon Center.

After seeing Boyd Gordon and Michal Neuvirth at the A stage, we decided to call it a night. Something about needing to be up in time for a noon event on Sunday. At least I don't have to work on Monday!

The Good Life

2009-09-19T19:14:00.020-04:00

Nebraska is the home of Arbor Day. Welcome to Nebraska, from the Wyoming side
And, for the foreseeable future, Nebraska is also the home to the SCCA Solo Nationals, which is where I spent most of the second week of September.

The car arrived on site on Monday, and Shawn turned it over to the capable hands of Billy Brooks and Greg McCance to figure out why there was a persistent drip from the front passenger side axle. The Mfactory front differential had been a difficult install, and I suspected that there may have been a resulting issue with the axle seal. However, the two of them could not get the axle out in order to see what was going on. Since there hadn't been enough of a loss of diff oil to register on the dipstick, it was decided to just drive the car as it was.

Wednesday morning came way too early for my liking, as I'd spent most of the previous evening getting ready. My suitcase had been packed with the car, so I didn't need to do laundry and the like, but I still had to decide what I was bringing with me as my carry-on. Ninety minutes of sleep also wasn't a good idea, but I was too anxious over the whole trip to go to sleep. I left the house around 4:20, and after some side trips, parking, the shuttle bus ride and "re"printing my boarding passes, I got to security around 5:00. I was through security around 5:02. Gotta love BWI at god-awful hours.

I spent a miserable hour or so at St. Louis waiting for the second leg of my flight. I was pretty much bored out of my skull the entire time, to the point that I paid $5 for an hour of WiFi time, just so I could at least do something. Oh, and on both flights, I found myself unable to fall asleep until the descent had begun. Major suckage, which continued with the rental car pickup -- bright yellow Aveo with a bent rim. Joy.

An hour drive to the site, and all was well through MM399. Between MM399 and MM395, it started misting, then a light rain, and by the time I'd driven down 48th to the turnoff for the site, it was a downpour. WTF? It had been sunny in Omaha! The rain stopped shortly after I arrived, even as I parked the rental near the WRX and started looking for people. It wasn't hard to find anyone; it was actually hard to walk more than five feet and not get hailed by someone asking, "Did you just get here?" Why, yes, I just arrived 3 minutes ago.

I got through registration (thanks, Connie, for the rulebook!), and said hello to John Thomas (who was driving his FP Datsun) and Steve Mieritz (who was driving, of all things, an SS Z06), the latter whom I hadn't seen in years! I puttered around for a while then was told in no uncertain terms that the car "needed to be teched." When I deigned to ask why it hadn't been teched in the 2+ days it had been on the site, I got yelled at. I grabbed the keys and took the damned thing to the tech area before they closed. Don't know why I bothered, since it was Corey Ridgick and Jon Krolewicz on the job.... I'm not sure they really looked at it. ;)photo by Danny Kao
So, once competition was done for the day on the West course, we waited (impatiently, I might add) for the abomination known as the CP parade to finish (some people didn't know to avert their eyes.... I hear their sight is just now returning! :o ), then I did a quick course walk so I had an idea of what I was going to be driving the next day. I was still too tired to really process it much, but I also needed to get over to the awards ceremony to help Rupert Berrington with photographs. I figured I was clean enough to be presentable, and jetted off to downtown Lincoln.

I was dying of hunger by the end of it all, and ended up getting to the hotel with nothing to eat until the next morning when I grabbed some disgusting roller-grill things at the local convenience store. I really wanted to walk the course at least twice in the morning, now that I had a few hours of sleep, but I was still in pseudozombie mode, and I didn't really pick up on important stuff during my walks.

Chris Cline had jumped into my car for Nationals, since his other ride offers consisted of FWD, FWD and more FWD. Considering he's been driving an STX E36 BMW the last two years, he wasn't exactly looking for a FWD Civic or CRX. He'd called me on Monday to discuss driving the WRX, and we come to an amenable agreement for the ride. He didn't get a chance to drive it besides taking it up the road for a fill-up with 100 octane, so his first real experience was the first run. Pat followed up with a decent run that would have had him deep in the trophies, except as is too normal for him, he'd coned.

The next run, Chris was a bit faster, and Pat tried to tone things down just to get a clean run in. I don't know what he did, but the resulting time was slow. It was clean though, and that was a start.

Then third runs.... Chris went a bit faster -- good. Pat started off great, then about two-thirds of the way through the course, through the showcase turn...
I just turned around and started to walk away, then I remembered I should warn Chris not to even think about going to the grid spot. Sure enough, Pat needed.... "time" to decompress. I felt bad, but I couldn't dwell on it. I needed to start thinking about my runs.

I got one walkthrough during the break between heats two and three, and then I waited through the slightly-less-than-a-billion STS first drivers before I got to run. There were merely three of us in ESPL -- me, defending ESPL champion Lorien Feighner, and Hilary Anderson in McCance's car -- which meant it was "win or go home" in terms of trophies and tire contingency. Just a tiny bit of pressure.
photo by GotCone.com
My first run was all over the place. I don't think having my last autocross attempt be an RX8 on A3S03s was a good idea. Still, it was a tick faster than Feighner's first run (less than a tenth), even if it was a lot slower than I would have liked. My second run, I pushed it a bit harder through the opening offsets, and up into the showcase. I thought I might have coned coming out of the big sweeper, but nothing was called, and I'm glad I resisted the urge to glance in the mirrors.

The run was minutely quicker than my first, and it would ultimately stand as my best, as I coned my third run in the opening offsets. Lorien slowed down on her second run, and coned her third as well. I would have a 0.295 lead going into day 2.
photo by GotCone.com
Some alcohol and foursquare with the Atlanta Region would ensue in the evening hours, and finally, I decided that sleep would be good. I think we might have made a run to Taco Bell for some kind of snackery, but OMG was I tired. I realized quickly that I had to spend pretty much all day in my grid, with Pat and Chris running first heat, me covering AS and GSL for SportsCar in the second heat, running third heat, sitting around for an hour in impound waiting for results during fourth heat, and then announcing during fifth heat. It made for a long day, but when I was done, I did get a walkthrough on the East Course before the foursquare began.

I started off the second day in a similar manner to the first, except one of my course walks was with Anthony Savini, a local who drives a supercharged Mini Cooper S in GS. He was leading GS by a scant 0.09 going into the second day, but he's also an Evolution instructor, and he went into instructor mode while we were walking. It was something I needed, with my addled sleep-deprived brain needing something to focus on during my driving.

Pat and Chris were well out of the trophies going into the second day, so they were both trying to salvage their respective prides with some decent times on the Feldpusch-designed course. Pat's third run was 0.4 behind local driver (and trophy winner) Brian Burdette, so I think he felt better about how he did. Chris didn't improve every run like he did on the first day, but he was driving the car harder, to the point that he actually coned his final run (which had his fastest raw time, unfortunately).

I got one walkthrough during the break, like before, and as Pat and I approached the start line, I asked Billy Brooks to join us. Pat decided to take offense at this, and walked away. So, even as Billy and I are walking, and Billy is telling me what he was doing in any particular area, I'm worried about how Pat is mad at me, so ultimately, I don't think my attempt at getting input from two people really helped. I would end up falling back on the advice Savini had given me during the morning walk.

My first run, I had a front row seat for Lorien's first cone of two. Seeing her cone made me relax -- probably a bit too much -- since I knew she wouldn't catch me on that run. Her time was a mid 60 second run, while mine was about 1.5 second slower, raw. It was a wake up call, but I was still hitting snooze, since with one look at the course and a driving pattern "set," I wasn't sure what I should do in order to rectify my sluggishness. photo by Aaron Boltman
It didn't help that we had a huge delay before our next runs, due to two GP cars breaking, then an STS car breaking. Yikes. Multi-car breakage when you're driving an *SP WRX is a bit unnerving.

Fortunately, Lorien slowed down on her second run -- by a lot. She went almost a second slower on raw time, while I dropped 0.7. I was still in the lead, though I wouldn't say "comfortably." If she was even 0.3 off her initial raw time, she would be beating me -- that's how slow I was running. photo by Aaron Boltman
The last run, I really don't know what I was doing to prepare. The lack of sleep and the anxiety of not having much in the way of downtime was starting to wear on me. I really couldn't think of a plan to go faster; this was the same situation I found myself in for the previous day. I knew I could go much faster, since Pat had run in the 59s. Hell, even Cline had a raw time in the mid-60s. Yet, I was sitting on a 61.2. I just was at a loss of what to do, and I felt it all slipping away when I pulled up to the line.

You can hear me cursing through the "wall-lom" about two thirds of the way through the course. I am so late on those elements, it's disgusting, and I know it. The funny thing is that in my mind, what I said was a lot louder, and a lot faster. Weird. The run was marginally faster than the second run, but either one was good enough for the win, as Lorien went even slower on her third run. More than an hour later, results were finally handed to us in impound (after having to fix an issue with Hilary's times), and I was declared the new champion.

Now for the "but" part. Pat ran 1.5 seconds faster than me on the East Course. 1.5. I can't remember the last time he legitimately drove 1.5 seconds faster than me when we were in the same car (I'm not counting the abortion called the WDCR Practice Event with me in his SE-R). Generally, we're pretty close, at least on raw time, and I was pretty flustered that he was so much quicker than me on both courses (raw time -- he had to sit on a run 0.2 slower than me on the West Course due to his conage). photo by Aaron Boltman
I'm not sure if the issue is me still driving the car like a DS car, or what. I just know it's got to stop. I drove like crap at Toledo, and I drove like crap at Nationals. I didn't feel nearly as bad about my driving at the DC Pro, but I'm sure it could have been better there too.

So, I'm the newly crowned ESPL National Champion, thanks in huge part to IAG Performance, Vorshlag Motorsports, and Billy Brooks with MODERacing. As for next year, we'll see where the WRX goes from here.

Pick Up The White Courtesy Phone...

2009-09-15T22:53:00.005-04:00

My cell phone rang at 4:15 today, while I was frantically trying to prepare the first test of the semester for the college anatomy class I teach. As I was wracking my brain over how to phrase a question dealing with Tomas Fleischmann's recently diagnosed deep vein thrombosis, I heard the dulcet tones of Modest Mouse's "Dashboard," then suddenly remembered that there was a season ticket holder teleconference today.

The guests of the hour? Brooks Laich and Matt Bradley!
Brooks Laich during practice
So, even though I had work to get done before I left for the 7:30 class, and despite the spotty cell reception at my desk, I answered the phone to listen in.

What's the season ticket holder teleconference, you might ask?

It's yet another perk of being a Capitals season ticket holder. Along with the three ice skating "parties" held at Kettler Capitals Iceplex over the summer, this is the second of the season ticket holder exclusive teleconferences, where you can just listen to others talk to the guests, or you can dial *3 and ask your own question. The first teleconference was with Bruce Boudreau and George McPhee, and I just listened in to that one. This second one had Matt Bradley and Brooks Laich as the guests, and while I listened to a variety of questions, I decided I was going to ask them what they thought about the thrombosis diagnosis.

About two minutes after I pressed *3, "Kirk" with guest services popped in and asked me what I wanted to ask. He entered my question in the queue, then told me that when I heard the facilitator (Steve Kolbe) introduce me, I should just ask my question again to Laich and Bradley. I waited through questions such as, "If you were to have a child, who is the teammate you would least want to babysit?" and "Brooks, do you think you're going need to step up to fill Fedorov's place?" as well as "Matt, with Brashear leaving, does this mean you're the number one enforcer?"

Bradley and Laich were awesome, obviously taking their time to thoughtfully answer each and every question posed to them, no matter how serious or inane the question. Bradley would interject some humor into the answers as well, which isn't a surprise, considering he is known as the team jokester (remember Red Line, and Professor Bradley?).

After about 5-10 minutes, Steve Kolbe came to my question. I asked them if the blood clot being linked to a blocked shot and subsequent plane ride would maybe have them rethinking how they block shots, especially during penalty killing. Laich remarked that it shouldn't change anything, since that's their "job, and it's what [they] are paid to do." As he explained it, if he's supposed to stop the puck, he's going to do it however he can, and if he gets injured, so be it. Bradley lamented that he doesn't usually get the chance to block shots, but when he is out there during a penalty kill, he's usually "behind the shot" (maybe alluding to his awesome shorthanded goal during the playoffs).

I didn't listen much after I asked my question, as I really needed to finish writing the test so I could print it off and make copies before leaving. But, I do know the entire teleconference will be posted on the Capitals website, as the first one with Boudreau and McPhee already is.

The fact that the team involves the stakeholders with small things like the teleconference and the skating parties is just part of the reason I love this team. I have my tickets to the Convention later this month, and my season tickets arrived while I was in Nebraska. Plus, I already got notification that the season ticket holder "appreciation party" will be at Six Flags America on October 13th, and I already got my sub for the college class that night. It's just awesome how the season ticket holders are treated here, and it makes the cost of the tickets just that much more of a deal to me.

Training camp is three days in. Our appetites have been whetted. Let's go Caps! :)

The Short Story

2009-09-12T08:37:00.002-04:00

It was a tough battle, but me and my WRX came out on top. More when I get home from Lincoln.

Lock and Load

2009-09-06T17:54:00.012-04:00

I picked up the WRX from IAG on Wednesday night, forgoing a Capitals season ticket holder event and another chance to skate for free at Kettler to do so. I wasn't particularly happy about having to do so, but it was either then, or wait until Friday, and I wanted the chance to put some miles on the new differentials before leaving the car with Shawn, the B-stock driver who was going to take the car out to Lincoln for me.

The Mfactory front differential is evidently not completely "plug-and-play" for the 2006 WRX. While Greg McCance had no issues with his 2002 car (which requires "axle stubs"), my car was a bit of a challenge. The guys are IAG were evidently having issues with getting the axles and the new front diff to cooperate. The rear Cusco diff was no problem at all.

Saturday morning, I dropped off Pat at BWI for his flight to Omaha, or, as he calls it, "The Homeland." His dad still lives in Omaha, and he is going to visit for a few days before heading to Lincoln. I came home, and started to clean and load the WRX for it's trip.
loading the WRX
I need a better vacuum. Between the vacuum at the local car wash and the attachments to the vacuum at home, I still couldn't get as much grime out of the car as I would like. It was a lot better than it was when I was done, in any case. I also washed the Rotas before putting them in.

I started all this around 9AM and by noon, I was grabbing a quick lunch and getting ready to head out the door. I touched base with Gabe, who would be picking me up at Potomac Mills, and with Shawn, the driver, and then I was on the road. 1:45, I was at Shawn's house, and then he took me over to the mall where I got to ride back to Gabe's apartment in the ghetto-fabulous DSP Maxima. Mary must really like him if she puts up with riding in the back of that car instead of insisting that he drive the M3!
tires in the car, and ass-kicking boots ready to be packed
Three hours later, I'd successfully navigated the Metro and Amtrak mazes, and had finished the 40 minute walk home from the BWI rental car building.

Shawn and his codriver/car owner Chike were leaving Sunday morning around 7AM, and I got a phone call about five hours into their trip. "Did you have any issues with the transmission leaking?"

I couldn't lie, especially considering how worried I am about my vehicles when others are driving them. "When I picked the car up on Wednesday, I was smelling gear oil after driving it. It didn't really leave any spots in the driveway, and I took it to a car wash to get the undercarriage cleaned off because I knew they'd had issues with the axles and there was likely gear oil spilt."

He told me that he'd looked underneath and there was a "steady drip." I clarified that it was a drip and not a flow and then told him I'd call JJ and find out what he thought. Shawn asked if he should wait for an answer, and I told him, "I didn't smell gear oil when I dropped it off, and if it's just dripping and there wasn't anything in your driveway after last night, I'm not going to worry about it. I will let you know what he says."
the larger of the spots in the driveway is visible here. it didn't seem significant until the phone call
JJ thought it might be the axle seal, possibly slightly damaged from the issues with getting the axles and the front diff to play nicely. I also called Billy Brooks, and conferred with him about what to do with the car once it got to Lincoln, as there were a couple of days before competition and even before Pat would want to drive it at the Evolution School Test-and-tune. I relayed the information to Shawn, and five-and-a-half hours after the initial call, he just checked in and said that the transmission dipstick is showing that the level is okay.

The car should be in Lincoln tomorrow morning. Billy and Greg (McCance) will look at it for me, and everything should be good to go.

In the meantime, @WDCRSoloNats is reporting via Twitter that Ian Baker won the Finale Hawk Super Challenge over Sam Strano, but Strano took the year-end Challenge win. Annie Bauer took the L2 win and therefore the L2 year-end win, as expected, despite some shifter linkage issues on the FSP car. Leslie Cohen won the Ladies Challenge for the event and for the year.

Maybe next year I'll revisit the ProSolo Finale. In the meantime, I've got some work to do in order to be prepared for the days I'll be gone.

One Week

2009-08-29T22:47:00.006-04:00

In one week, the ProSolo Finale will be 2/3rds of the way over. In one week, my WRX will likely be starting the trek out to the newest home of the SCCA Solo Nationals, Lincoln, Nebraska. In one week, the first five days of the new school year will be over, and I'll have a three day weekend to recover.

One week. So much to get done. So much time, yet so little.

The rear Cusco diff showed up at IAG on Thursday. Pete and I had dropped the car off on Wednesday, as that was the only day I really had the time to do so. The work to install the front and rear diffs commenced on Friday, and I'd hoped that the install would go smoothly enough that I could pick the car up Friday night.

No such luck. Pete came over around 5PM, and I called to see if the car was ready. JJ said, no, and it probably wouldn't be, but he'd call me back around 7 to update me on what was going on. True to his word, he called back around 7, and the work to install the diffs hadn't gone nearly as well as it could have. The front diff was needing to be shimmed in order to get acceptable backlash, and they didn't have enough shims to do the job in house. They couldn't get any more until Monday. :(

Since I wasn't going to be driving the car on Sunday at all, I decided to drop the rims off today to get the sticker Hoosier A6s mounted up. The next event would be Nationals, so they were needed. My poor car was stranded on a lift, with the transmission cracked open in the clean room. Boris is sure it'll be done on Monday.

I do want to drive it around a bit on the street just to get somewhat acclimated to the car. I also would like to get the diffs broken in before Nationals.

Oh, yeah, getting the car to Nationals. Eesh.... When I got home from dropping the car off Wednesday evening, there was an email message from Gabe, starting off with :

"I have to miss nationals..."

I had to reread that part a couple of times before it sank in. My initial thought was simply, "Shit." I continued to read.

"I crashed my bike last night and landed on my chin."

Okay, all selfish thoughts out the window. Mark Bettin, a longtime member of Corner-Carvers, recently passed away due to a bicycling accident, so the dangers of biking are very fresh in my mind. Even as I finish reading the email, I'm hitting dial on the cell.

He's okay, just really banged up, and buzzing nicely on Percocet. He was wearing a helmet, but landed squarely on his chin when the chain on his bike "jumped" as he was switching gears during a ride with his girlfriend. Thankfully Mary was there with him, as he said a couple of riders not too far behind them just rode on by without offering assistance. :( He tore up his chin bad enough to need around twenty stitches (he says it looks like a goatee right now), and one tooth was cracked badly enough that it needed extraction on Wednesday afternoon. Five or six others will need to be fixed with screws and/or crowns over the next month. Between the multiple dental surgeries and the fact that he used up all of his accumulated leave for the "sick time" instead of hanging onto it for the trip to Nebraska, he just can't afford to go to Nationals right now. The real kicker is that he hasn't been at his new job long enough for the dental plan to kick in. :(

So, I did put out a plea to see if anyone else in the area might be able to take the car out for me. Billy Brooks offered to fly out to Maryland and drive the car to Lincoln, but local RX8 driver Shawn Roberts has also offered to take it out. Thankfully, I wasn't planning to do the ProSolo Finale this year (thanks to skewed index numbers, I couldn't justify the wear and tear on the car and tires when I figured my chances of making the Challenge were between slim and none, not to mention how impossible it would be for me to win L2). I shouldn't have to drive it myself.

So, in one week... the latest chapter in Nationals autocross will begin. The action will be broadcast all over the web -- Twitter updates will be available on @CamaroWRX (me), @patred48 (Pat), @AutocrossersInc (AI), @AtlRegionSCCA (Atlanta Region), @WDCRSoloNats (DC Region at Nationals), and @WDCR (DC Region), among others. WDCRSoloNats also will have a blog page to follow, and I'm sure the amusing aspect will be documented at SoloLOL too.

It's a new venue, I'm in a new car with new diffs that I haven't even competed on yet.... and it's all in one week.

Kill Bill

2009-08-21T21:18:00.007-04:00

Autocrossers, Inc. is supposed to be running the fifth event of the Yokohama/Radial Tire series tomorrow at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf. It's pouring down rain outside right now. Pat is snug on the sofa, watching Formula One practice, and I'm thinking I might not drive anything tomorrow.

The Subaru is laid up for the week with a leaky strut. Brian Hanchey at Vorshlag feels it's a loss of nitrogen pressure resulting in an improper oil seal.

It was okay before the last event, and it's not leaking bad enough to leave a puddle or anything, so I'm going to wait for JJ at IAG to get their shop's nitrogen tank fixed, and then let him refill the nitrogen charge. If it's still leaking... then we have a problem. But Vorshlag is supposed to have their repair stuff on site at Nationals, so I'm not too concerned.

Pat will actually be in his SE-R tomorrow, codriving with Pete, and Gabe might be driving a DS WRX Limited. We'll see how it works out.

Oh, me?

I might be driving a blast from the past..... we'll see.

Keep It On The Up

2009-08-18T22:11:00.008-04:00

The WDCR points 5 event this past weekend was going to be hot and nasty. Fortunately, ESP was running first heat, so we could get out of there pretty quickly.

Except that I had three people signed up in my car, so one of us would have to run out of class. :(

I opted to be that person, and ran second heat while Gabe and Pat worked. This allowed me to work third heat while they changed tires and packed the car up. Score! Pat and I were home by 2 (with a stop at the store). I think Gabe was long home and deep into his nap by then. ;)

Pat at the line; photo by Danny Kao
First off, the course was another "meh" setup that Craig Garfield had described as "flowing" on the DC mailing list. Lots of offsets, and a three cone slalom into the finish. With part of the course being on the newly sealed section of the A lot, I was shocked to hear a lot of tire squeal from my Hoosiers on the opening turns, and then pretty much silence from them the rest of the way. Still , the course was okay until to the "yump" about three-fourths of the way through the course, where Gabe described the car as feeling "airborne" and I actually yelled "holy shit!" the first time through. My subsequent runs weren't nearly as hard through that section as they could have been for fear of breaking the car. :(

Gabe checks the tire pressures; photo by Danny Kao
So, Pat and Gabe ran first heat with about 17 karters (no exaggeration), and unfortunately the heat was a bit on the small side. This meant that they were fighting with keeping the tires and intercooler sprayed down enough, and there wasn't a lot of time to discuss runs or what the car was doing.

Pat was getting decent times, but was having cone issues, especially in the finishing slalom. I know his 42s were on par with the times Brian Burdette was turning in his Camaro.

Gabe wasn't feeling well, and his driving really showed it. In fact, by his last run, I was just happy he didn't lose his breakfast in the car.

Still, even unhappy with the conage on his runs, Pat found time to be silly.

The unfortunate thing about the above video is that when he put the camera back in the rear window, he mounted it just fractionally higher than before, so when we hit the inevitable bumps on course, the W/T switch rubbed against the roof. This resulted in both Pat's and Gabe's fourth runs being useless, and for some dynamic camera zooming during my runs.

The car leaving the line ahead of me is the CS Lotus 7 that a lot of people are yammering about online, as it will be in Lincoln. I overheard the car owner talking about his expectations of being protested. Reminds me of several years ago when a TVR ran stock class, and there was talk then of a "sunset rule" for stock cars. I saw a request for member comment on a sunset rule in a recent Fastrack, and I wonder if this Lotus was the impetus for the rule being put out there.

Like Pat, I was having cone issues. I knew I'd hit a cone on my second run (it's the second slalom cone heading into the finish, and pretty obvious even over the stereo), but it was news to me that I'd hit a cone on my first and last runs as well. The third run, being clean, stood as my best, and since Pat coned all of his runs, I was the "fastest" in the car. He had better raw times than mine (42.6 vs. my 43.4), and I know where I was losing some of the time (the "jump", for instance, I was taking easy, as I mentioned before).

Me, getting air under both right side tires over the bump; photo by Danny Kao
I was 17th on index, even with the poor showing (cones), so I guess I didn't drive too awfully, despite how I felt. Pat and Gabe were in the 30s on index. The off-camber offsets really exacerbated the lack of diffs, and it's nice to know that the new MFactory front helical is sitting at IAG right now (though it won't be installed until next week). I'm just waiting for the Cusco rear to arrive.

The fifth event in the Autocrossers, Inc. season is this coming Saturday, and then it's a Corner-Carvers DC Party on Sunday. Just unwinding a little before I go back to work next Monday. :(

Hot-lanta

2009-08-13T00:56:00.003-04:00

It was going to be miserable no matter how I looked at it -- either spend the weekend at home, where weathermen were calling for the hottest, most humid day of the summer so far, or go to Atlanta for a points event so that I could get four of them in before their autumn Champion of Champions event.

I opted to go to Atlanta. The more interesting thing is that Pat decided to join me for the first time ever. Yeah, he's done National Tours and ProSolos down there, but not one of the regional events.

After skating class on Friday, neither of us particularly wanted to be in the car for a few hours, so we left early on Saturday morning. We were going to hang out with some of the Grassroots Motorsports Challenge guys for a cookout, and then head to Turner Field in the morning so we could get our work assignments out of the way early.

The course was designed by Jay Parcon, who has been doing most of the courses in the region of late. The start was similar to the last Turner event I was at, but instead of the slalom dumping into a tight 180, this one opened up and went all the way the length of the lot to the "Taco Bell turn". That 180 was open enough to stay in second gear, dumping the car into a long section that was essentially straight (one small kink to the left). The next 180 was even more open, into a three cone slalom that I never got right, then some off camber stuff leading into the finish.

I chose to run first, and Pat didn't want to ride with me. I guess he figured he'd driven "enough" Subarus to know what he was doing. That's fine. I launched, and drove too tentatively through the course, but it was clean, and as usual, Pat's first run was not.

Since only the first three runs are looked at for Pro class, I decided to push my luck on the second run. The problem with Turner is the wall -- I don't want to get too out of shape and damage the car, but I don't want to be a total wuss either. I bog on the start, and manage to be late in a lot of places, costing me tenths here and there. Then I smack a cone in the offsets near the finish, and a second one coming through the end. Oh well. Pat ended up coning his second run too, so I was still ahead.

I didn't have a game plan before the third run, and I guess that's where my problem was. I hadn't really thought about where I was losing time to Pat (who had much faster raw times), or even where I could improve. I knew I was bogging on the start, but that was really pretty low priority for improving overall.

I still bogged on the launch for the third run, and then when I went to shift, I got crunch. Not a good feeling, but on the second try, it went in. Amazingly, I didn't cone further into the course, but I was certainly still late in the fast sections, costing me valuable tenths.

Even with the bad start and the missed shift, it would stand as my fastest run. The fourth run was marginally better, but suffered from the same sort of mistakes, only without the missed shift, which alone could count for the few tenths improvement.

The car was definitely spinning inside tires. I could see Pat lifting the inside rear through the second 180, about 1-2 inches. I can't wait to get the differentials from Billy and installed. Billy ordered them last Friday, and I have a time scheduled next Wednesday at IAG to get them installed. I hope they arrive before then. I will have an MFactory helical front and a Cusco Type RS 1.5 way rear.

There is a DC event this weekend that Gabe and Pat are both signed up for, but I'm finding motivation difficult. Pat has decided to drive my car at Nationals. I'm excited about the diffs, and I'm looking forward to driving my car once they are installed. I am not excited about driving this weekend, mostly because of fallout from two weeks ago. Eh, we'll see.

Defections

2009-08-11T11:24:00.004-04:00

Today, I have a special treat -- a guest blog from Pat! He was toying with bringing his B13 Sentra SE-R out to Nationals this year, but pretty much gave up after the rain at the last DC Region event. He also owns "Barney," a 1982 Chevy Camaro Z28 that's won multiple ESP National Championships. He also has run a plethora of V8 powered machinery in F Stock, including my green Camaro, my black Camaro, and two vehicles he's since sold -- an LS1 Camaro Z28 and an F150 Lightning. At the last minute, he decided to come to Atlanta with me for Points 8, and, more importantly, he even drove the WRX. And, without further ado :

Pat's Perspective

I hadn’t driven the car since one fun run last year when it was in D Stock. Having never driven it in ESP trim, I was trying to remember how I drove the STi I drove a couple years ago in the Subaru Challenge at Ripken Stadium, which was fairly stock with minor suspension stuff.

The course was kinda “meh” – really a point and shoot type of course with an opening slalom where the cones were offset the right way, a short straight, a 180, then a full throttle “straight” down the middle of the course, another 180, a big sweeper into a “bus stop” then another sweeper into the finish. I was hoping for some more offsets and/or slaloms to see how the car was in transitions.

My first run, I went out and hit a cone pretty good in the opening slalom. The time was a 44.4, which was announced as leading the Pro class, and then the announcer corrected himself after the cone call went up on the screen.

My next run felt pretty good but I hit two minor cones (unlike the major one on my first run). Raw time was a 44.7.

Karen told me after the first run that in the Pro class in Atlanta, only the first three runs count, so my third run would be it for the final standings. I did a Tin Cup-style lay up and backed off a bit to get a clean run in. Also didn’t help grinding the 1-2 shift. I ended up with a 45.374, which put me about a tenth behind Karen and 11th overall in the Pro class.

For my fourth run, Bill Bounds wanted to ride along since Joel Fehrman was selling “Stompy,” and he never got a chance to ride in or drive Stompy, and Karen’s car is probably a good clone of the car’s setup, albeit not an STi. I wanted to get a clean run in and at least backup the fast raw times. I was a little late with the throttle coming out of the first 180, then I pushed a little too much in the 180 after the long “straight.” I still ended up with a 44.7 which was clean and put me 7th overall in the overall PAX standings. Probably could have gotten a low 44 or high 43 without mistakes and without Bill in the car (although he probably weighs 0.9 DiSimos).

The car felt pretty good. It has some issues with wheel spin which you can really hear in my videos going across the brick section of the first-base side of the old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Karen has front and rear differentials on the way, which should help. But it didn't seem to push too bad in the sweepers, although the two tight 180s are where I had the most issues.

Now, there might be some ESP pony car drivers who say my finishing top 10 overall in PAX the first time really driving the car is a good indication that the car doesn’t belong in ESP. However, I could think of at least two times where I’ve driven a car the first time and finished top 10 in PAX: the Subaru Challenge in 2007 driving an under-prepared Street Mod WRX STi and last year driving John Crouse’s ESP Camaro at an Autocrossers, Inc., autocross at FedEx Field.

New Sensation

2009-08-05T20:42:00.005-04:00

What did I do to my car?
the day I brought it home
A year after I came to the conclusion that I was actually going to own a car that I had, for years, foresworn even driving, I dropped it off at IAG Performance and picked it up a month later, subtly transformed.
the day I brought it home from IAG
Why on earth did I do such a thing? Some of the work that's been done to the car can't be reversed without replacing body panels. It's also been a lot of money in a tight economy.

I did it because I wanted to. I did it because I had three cars that were not competitive in stock trim, and one of them had to go to ESP. I did it because, yes, I wanted to have the overdog car for once, and not the outclassed also-ran.

In other words, "Yes, I did it because I wanted to **** ESP."

I was reminded of this by some friends after my last blog entry. I was reminded that I got exactly what I wanted -- people crying that my car was too fast for the class, and that it needed to be moved. Shouldn't I be happy?

And, to some extent, yes, I am. The car has gotten a ton of notice whereever it goes. It's mean-looking, it's aggressive, it's "hellaflush." But the one thing I haven't been able to do with it is show that it's an overdog in ESP. I've improved on the consistency of my launches, but I haven't been driving it anywhere near its potential. I'm giving the cones too much space in the slaloms, I'm on the brakes too soon or too late, and I'm definitely not on the gas soon enough coming out of turns. You can see any of that in the videos I've posted, especially if you compare my Toledo left side runs to the one run that Greg McCance takes in my car.

I'm ordering differentials. That'll help (somewhat) with getting on the gas coming out of turns, since I won't be afraid of spinning an inside rear. And I'm getting race seats, either Sparco or Corbeau, so I can shed some weight from the car (at nearly 3100lbs, it's about 150lbs more than McCance's bug-eye). And then, in five weeks, there's the National Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska. Let the best driver win.

And to all the haters out there, who think that AWD and turbo can't be beat?
photo by Paul Magee
It feels great to actually get that off my chest, and to reaffirm just why I converted the car to an ESP monster. I may never love the WRX as much as I love my green Camaro, but it's actually somewhat fun to drive now, and I'm not going to let the hypocrites keep me down.

Gloomy Forecast

2009-08-02T15:47:00.003-04:00

"Gloomy" didn't just describe the weather at the DC points event today. After hearing several versions of the "OMG your AWD is going to dominate today," I was ready to leave even before the event was temporarily suspended due to lightning.

Gabe showed up during the downtime, and after much discussion, we decided to bag it. He didn't feel like hanging around all day to see if we'd even be able to run (SCCA safety regulations mandate a certain wait time after the last lightning strike), and I had come to the conclusion that, like at Toledo the previous week, I couldn't win.

In this case, the despondency stemmed not from a literally inability to win. Once I found out that, yes, my rain tires actually were on site, I could have bolted them up and run. But I wasn't wasting my Hoosier radial rain tires on a local event.

No, my despair was at the fact that no matter how I did, I "lost." It was like the complete opposite of running Mark Davis's car last month in Atlanta, where if I didn't do well, it's because I wasn't used to running an MR2, but if I did do well, it was in spite of it. Here, if I did well, it would be said that I did so simply because of the WRX's AWD and the wet course conditions. If I didn't finish well, it would be said that I must not be a very good driver if I couldn't use the AWD to my advantage.

So, I decided to go FTW and pack up my car and leave. Yeah, the fact that I wasted all morning and the entry fee doesn't sit well with me. But it's better than having to listen to yet more belittling and borderline cruel comments. :(

Stacked Odds

2009-07-28T23:18:00.018-04:00

I haven't been to Toledo in four years. After the National Tour in 2005, when I was all but begged to drive Joel Fehrman's STi in SM but declined in order to drive my beloved Camaro in FS, I haven't been back. That Tour event, I finished midpack on the strength of my Sunday runs, after having had no chance whatsoever of a good, dry run on Saturday. You see, I spun on my only dry run, yet the course workers still barely had time to finish setting up cones from the guy ahead of me. If I hadn't spun, I would have gotten a rerun, which would have been rained out. In other words, I couldn't win.

For four years, I've avoided Toledo, because of that, because of the feeling that I literally can't win there. The best ProSolo finish I've ever had in FS was in Toledo, 0.302 behind Jason Burns, but it still wasn't good enough for a Super Challenge berth. I got a fifth place STS finish in Corey Ridgick's Subaru, but marred his front fascia enough from a cone hit that I thought I was going to have to pay for a new one. :( No, Toledo is no friend of mine.

I really don't know what I was thinking when I signed up for this. I'd already decided I wasn't going to the ProSolo Finale because I can't win L2 against Annie Bauer on her FSP index, and I doubt I can come close enough to even make the Ladies Challenge. However, it turns out that FSP isn't the only seriously borked index out there.

Upon arrival at the event site, I found the spot reserved for me by Billy Brooks, and started to unload my car. Practice starts were going on, but I wasn't interested, as I didn't really want to change tires, and I already knew the site was super flat.

Mike Shields and Chris Franson were among those doing practice starts; they were in Mike's Championship-winning DSP BMW. After Chris took some starts, Mike goes to take a few as well, and promptly has a catastrophic failure of the transmission. The next hour or so is taken up with a discussion of who they can get rides with. Despite Kevin Henry having an open seat in his E30 BMW, neither Mike nor Chris want anything to do with the E30 chassis (which is evidently tippier than their E36, which was bicycling last year at the Toledo Pro), so Mike ends up in Nathan Whipple's DSP Integra Type R, and Chris ends up in my car. This is a good thing for me, though, as it gives me a good driver in my car to compare to, plus it ensures that I won't bail on Sunday if Saturday isn't going well.

The site closes at 8PM, so I check into my hotel, then touch base with Sean O'Gorman for dinner plans. We meet at the world's slowest Chili's, in Maumee, and eventually, I make it back to the hotel for sleep. I hit the snooze alarm at least three times before I get a phone call that permanently wakes me up; it's Justin Rest asking how to get to the event site. I do the best I can with giving him directions, then get ready to go out myself.

Dark skies are threatening when I get to the site, and before long, the rain begins. I grab my rain tires from Ian Baker's trailer, and change tires -- few things are more miserable than changing tires in the rain. I have my rain jacket, but not my rain pants, so in short order, my too-long jeans are soaked from top to bottom. I am not happy about this, but there isn't much I can do, since all of my clothes are at the hotel. I don't bother walking the course in the rain, but instead focus on getting the car ready to go since I'm in group 2. Pretty much as soon as I'm done, Mike and Chris roll in, and Chris feels bad that he didn't help with the tire changing. I figure he and Mike had plenty to drink about with the broken transmission, so tell him it was no big deal.

So, my first runs are in the serious wet. It's no longer raining by the time L2 runs at the beginning of group two, but it's still very wet out. The rest of the class is either on Hoosier dirt stockers or A6s. I'm the only one on the radial wets. I think the way the conditions were at this point, I had the best tires. It was too wet for A6s, but too dry for the dirt stockers. It was no suprise that I was in the lead after the first session, with Denise Kugler in second.

After impound, I changed the tires to the brand-spanking-new A6s for Chris, since the rain had stopped, and the course was getting drier by the minute. I told him how to launch it, as well as any other little nit-picky things I could think of, and then reported to my impound assignment. He drove it fairly well, sitting in fifth after the morning runs.
heading into the saturday afternoon runs, photo by paul magee
The fact that the afternoon runs were dry made both Denise and I comment on the similarities to DC. I was hoping that Sunday morning wouldn't be the same half wet/half dry combination, but I wouldn't have been surprised if it was. I dropped some serious time, as did everyone, and when the results came out, I was somewhat shocked to find myself in second place, with Denise in third. I was behind someone I'd only met on Friday night at dinner, named Beth Smith. She was driving an FM F500. I knew I'd given up some time on my second two afternoon runs, since I'd been called for cones on the first two, but I didn't think I'd sat back so much that I'd be an indexed second behind the leader. I was somewhat perturbed.
photo by Jen Croy
Chris didn't improve much in the afternoon. He redlit away a 27.4 run, which would have had him about five spots higher in the standings, and he was wildly different from run-to-run in his 60ft times. Launches were owning him. He slipped from fifth down to ninth with the afternoon runs.photo by Jen Croy
It was about that point that I realized that the FM index could be partly to blame for my position. As I walked up to the results to look at 60-ft times, I came upon Allen Kugler and David Newman, who were both frustrated with being deep in the R1 standings. Allen was pointing out that Darrin DiSimo was an indexed second behind the slowest FM driver, while I was the same behind Beth. I don't think I can remember ever seeing Allen as agitated as he was at that point. I told him that I'd backed off for my second two runs, so as to get clean runs on both sides, but he wouldn't hear of it. With all of R1 struggling against the FM drivers, it seemed that maybe it wasn't my driving that was the major issue at all.

I asked Doug Gill as the final group was entering impound if I could weigh my car, since I knew Greg had weighed his (since Billy Brooks was running it in SM) and I wanted to compare. He said to bring it in at the end of the cars that needed to be weighed, which I did. As Andrew Lieber's car cleared the scales, I helped push mine on. 3086lbs, with some really messed up corner weights (902/953 front and 649/584 rear). If I do the race seats (which I should), I can be close to McCance's 2912lbs.

Sunday morning was bright and clear, unlike the thunderstorms from twenty-four hours previous. I'd ridden to and from the hotel with Justin Rest, so I didn't need to do anything with my tires except get the pressures back up to par. I decided to walk the courses a few more times, just to reinforce a few things I needed to think about in order to maximize my times. I was still pretty confident that if I could get into the 27s, I could win; I was sitting on low-to-mid 28s at this point. I could pick out two areas on the courses that I knew would be huge time-gainers, and I decided to focus there.
photo by paul magee
Once group two runs came around, I went to implement my plan. The first two runs didn't go quite according to that idea, but the next two, yes! 27.7 on both sides! But, considering the cheering I was hearing from the FM camp, I knew she'd improved too. I had dropped nearly 1.5 seconds, but I had no idea how much she'd dropped, nor did I know how much of a different it would make. I went to impound to wait out my time, and once the results came, I was disgusted.

Martin Valent's footage shows parts of these runs (left side #1 and right side #2) from the outside of the car (fast forward to 8:13, which is when my car first appears).

1.4 seconds back. 1.4. Ridiculous. I was upset, and I didn't want to talk to Beth, because I knew it wasn't her fault that the index was so completely messed up, but I didn't want her to think I was mad at her. I knew I left time out there too, since Chris had run some raw times that were faster, and he was not familiar with the car. No, it wasn't until I made the mistake of pulling out my TI-83 and punching in Greg McCance's Saturday afternoon ESP times (which were good enough for the class lead at that point) and discovering that even Greg wouldn't be leading L2 that I wanted to just curl into a ball and cry.

I just can't win at Toledo. :(
the tape was gone by the end of my sunday runs; photo by paul magee
To add insult to injury, Brian Harmer told me to put my car in impound. I know it was an ugly laugh that I gave when I asked him if he was serious. Denise Kugler said the same thing. In any event, I needed to put my car back into grid, so it didn't stay impounded long.

Chris didn't improve on Sunday, coning away from faster left side times, and having sixty-foot times ranging from a car-best 1.7 to a terrible 2.1. He'd fall to 11th for the weekend. He put the car back into impound after ESP was released, on the off chance that I managed to make it to the Ladies Challenge.

It was for naught though. I was the ninth qualifier, and even if someone ahead of me had dropped out, I would have dropped too. There was no point in me trying to run against an impossible dial-in. On the other hand, it was a good thing my car was still in impound....

During Billy Brooks' runs in Greg McCance's car (Billy was running SM), I couldn't help but notice that it looked like the ABS wasn't working. It turns out that it wasn't working because there was serious left front wheel bearing failure possibly due to or maybe causing the axle nut on that side to back off.
that can't be good; photo by jen croy
After trying to fix it in impound, Greg gave up, and since I'd said he was welcome to drive my car in the Challenge, he came to ask me if he needed to do anything to drive my car, such as put his tires on it or whatever. I told him that he could run my tires if he wanted, but otherwise, he was good to go as soon as he put his numbers on.

So, Greg McCance ended up driving my diff-less wonder in the first round of the Hawk Super Challenge against Tony Savini, who is no slouch either.

Yep, he went off course after the slalom. He says he got his foot caught under the brake pedal. Oh well. I'd been looking forward to seeing what he could do with the car.

But, it meant I could leave early too. Billy, Jason and Greg helped me change tires and load the car, and I was gone by 4:15, and home around 11:45. Not the ending I wanted from this ProSolo, but Chris was able to push me a bit, and also was able to help me with some concrete setup. Greg was able to give a little feedback on the car, too. So, while I was horribly disappointed with the final results, I did get some information from the weekend.

Now I need to decide whether to drive all the way down to Moultrie, GA for the Southeast Divisionals against... no one. Or to stay close to home and run the DC points event on Sunday. Moultrie is concrete. DC is the same old-same old. I haven't decided yet.

Not So Common

2009-07-22T11:51:00.008-04:00

After much hemming and hawing, I finally decided to make the trek down to Danville, Virginia for the 20th anniversary of the Coventry Commonwealth Games of Virginia autocross being hosted by the Blue Ridge Region SCCA. Knowing how Friday traffic in the DC area can be, I decided to try to leave between noon and one. It still took me seven hours to get to the event site, though that included getting pulled over for my exhaust (though I got barely even a verbal warning, as the officer decided he wasn't going to push the issue with a Maryland vehicle, and in fact, only told me "Your exhaust is illegal in Virginia. Have a good day," and didn't even ask for my license or registration).

Saturday morning was more leisurely than I am used to, with registration check-in and tech ending at 9:30 and first car off around 10:30 or so. I walked the course once, and was fairly unhappy with the finish slalom that was the bare minimum in terms of space between the cones. I'd be even more unhappy with it later.

There were only about 65 people running the Saturday portion of the event, and with three run groups, things progressed very, very quickly, despite five runs. The first heat was primarily two-driver cars though, and that made things tricky as there was little-to-no time for car cool down. Even in the third run group, when I ran, there wasn't a lot of time to think about the course or converse with others about various elements.

My first run on Saturday was a respectable 42.7. I was near the top of second gear going into the turnaround at the far end, and just couldn't get the car slowed down. This was a problem throughout most of my runs. My next run I ran the same time to the tenth, and made pretty much the same mistakes. By the third run, I was backing off a tick sooner into that crossover, but still trying to get on the gas too soon coming through the turnaround. I did improve just over 0.2s on the third run, and the fourth run (which would prove to be my quickest for the day) was barely quicker than the third.

That fourth run was good for fifth fastest raw time of the day, and seventh on index. I wasn't particularly happy with that, and I knew what I needed to do on my last run -- most of which involved the turnaround at the far end, as well as the finish slalom, which was a horrible little rinky-dink element that upset cars into the finish more than slowing them down. I felt bad for the course workers in that section.

In any case, I did what I needed to do in the turnaround on my last run. I got the car hauled down from nearly 70mph to probably 25mph (off boost sigh), and eased into the gas coming out so that I wasn't getting the horrific push off the crowned runway. I was in an awesome rhythm coming back through the offsets towards the finish; right, left, righ.... crap. I realized later that the spacing of the two cars delineating the offsets was the same as the spacing of the finish slalom. I crushed the second and third cones of the slalom as I finished with a 46.5+2. Oh well.

We finished competition runs around 2:30, so there was time for fun runs. I really wanted to get into the 46s clean, so I decided to participate. For the first of the two that I took, I grabbed O'maley to ride with me (the fact that O'maley's my passenger should be warning enough for the language).

The second fun run was back to the 47.0 range, and the car was handling weird on that run, likely because the Hoosiers had finally exceeded their optimum temperature range.

Sunday morning, I was asked to come up with the run groups, since I'd inquired about having only two groups instead of three. Ten minutes later, I had pretty evenly divided up the groups so that two drivers cars would have time between drivers, and also so there would be plenty of workers. But, some people went and screwed up my work by still asking to run in the opposite group. So, the second group ended up about 30% larger than the first group. Oh well.

The course looked to be significantly faster on Sunday, and there were no ridiculously tight slaloms this time around. A crossover near the beginning of the course meant that there would be nearly a 30 second interval between cars, but considering the lethargy of some of the course workers, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'd only walked the course once, so when I pulled to the line for my first run, I was a bit perplexed. I couldn't exactly remember the course; I knew where it generally went, but as for specifics (offsets then slalom or vice versa?), I was lost. I nailed two cones on a decent enough run.

The second run was better, and dropped down to within a few tenths of FTD, at the time held by David Clemens in his XP Corvair. I took Tara on a ride on the third run, and managed to slow down. Then my fourth run, I just felt "on." There was just one problem -- a cone was out of place near the end of the course. I opted to not stop, and to instead try to give it the room I should (or even more room) so as not to have a rerun. That run would end up being FTD over Roger Garrett's ASP C6 Z06 by only 0.003s. Would the cone have made a difference? Possibly. Here are runs 2 and 4 for comparison.

My last run, I took Scott Hoffman for a ride, and like with the other ride alongs, the comment "this is not a DS WRX" was made. Nope, it's not a DS car any more.

Overall, I think I was third fastest for the weekend, and fourth on index. Dave O'maley took top PAX honors, and Roger Garrett had top raw time. Full results here.

So, I'm liking the improved throttle responsiveness from the dyno tuning. The car handled well on the gritty asphalt of the airport, but I'm wondering how it's going to behave on the concrete at Toledo this coming weekend. Depending on how the next few weekends go, this could be a major testing weekend for me, as I don't think I'm going to be able to get onto any more concrete before Nationals.

Next up? Getting sticker Hoosiers mounted up at IAG on Wednesday afternoon (and maybe taking the front swaybar off, since it's been disconnected for a month), and then it's off to Toledo for the ProSolo. My fingers are crossed.

Rolling Along

2009-07-14T17:59:00.012-04:00

I dropped the car off at Gabe's house on Friday morning so he could take it to the IAG tuning session on Saturday. The trip home was a bit on the awful side, as I ended up huddled against the window on the MARC train because the 'tard next to me couldn't keep his ass in his own seat as he leaned over the aisle to talk to his friend. So, with that in mind, I didn't want to ride a shuttle bus to the rental car place and walk from there. Instead, I decided to walk the 3+ miles from the train station home, but I was in flip-flops that aren't made for walking long distances. The blisters I got, especially on my left foot, were hideous enough, it was painful to walk even around the house, and so I ended up not leaving for Atlanta until close to 8PM.

I stopped just south of Blacksburg and slept for about five hours in the Camaro. I love sleeping in the Camaro; the seats are more comfortable than many hotel beds. I had my blanket and my Hoosier bear, so waking up at 5:30AM was a chore. :) I got down to Kevin's just past noon, took a shower, and then once Shuman showed up, we headed down to Atlanta Motor Speedway in his Miata with the top off.

Meredith Najewicz had offered up a ride in her husband's STX-prepped BMW, and when I arrived on site, several others asked if I wanted to drive their cars. In the end, I caved to Mark Davis's needling about "best 2-of-3" and signed up to drive his ES MR2, the car formerly owned by Brian Priebe. We walked the course with Steve Waters and Tommy Pulliam, and then settled in to watch the first heat.

The first phone call with regards to the WRX came about then. I saw that it was JJ calling, which had me concerned as I figured any call regarding the car would come from Gabe. He said they'd started warming the car up, and that it was running warmer (about 10 degrees) than it really should. I asked where the dashboard temperature gauge was, and he said about halfway up. I remarked that the only time I'd seen it higher than the quarter mark was in Wendover, after our Saturday competition runs, so something was definitely up. He said it could be an air pocket in the system (though how that would have gotten there is a good question), as initially, no heat was blowing through the vents. Mainly, he wanted to know if I still wanted them to put the car on the dyno.

I told him to go ahead. The car was fine when I had them do the pre-dyno inspection on Wednesday, and it was fine when I dropped it off with Gabe on Friday. The only place Gabe had driven it was to the shop from his house, and I seriously doubted that he blew something up on that trip (though anything is possible, I guess). In the unlikely event that something catastrophic happened, it wasn't my only means of transportation.

Then, I had to go drive the MR2, with the question of the WRX lurking in the back of my mind.

My first run was tentative, as it's been a while since I've driven an MR2, and I was tired and couldn't quite remember the course. Turned out that even driving conservatively, third gear was necessary for a good chunk of the course, and I told Mark that when I came in. Needless to say, he then proceeded to crush my time on his first run.

Gabe called then, and told me that they were done with the tuning, somewhat early. I asked if they did a race gas map, and he said no. I guess it was partly because of the hotter-than-normal engine, as well as the fact that the blowoff valve was evidently working for all it was worth already. I'll find out more about that later. I told him I couldn't really talk, since I was in the middle of my runs, and I'd get back to him later.

Second run, I dropped a good bit of time using third gear through the back part of the course. I was still tentative towards the end of the second slalom because I really didn't know where to start slowing down and downshift, plus Mark's car doesn't have ABS, and so I didn't want to lock the brakes up. Mark goes out on run two and nips me by a tenth or so again.

Atlanta Region's Pro class only counts the first three runs, and so the next run was the last one for all intents and purposes. Even with a passenger, I managed to drop down to a 52.0, as I got on the brakes a bit earlier in the fast slalom, and didn't push out into the marbles through the following sweeper. I knew I still had time out there, and watching Mark's third run, I thought for sure he had me, but he coned it and gave up. He had to sit on his 52.5 from run number two.
photo by Perry Bennett
So, for the last (not-counted) run, I asked Mark if he wanted to ride with me, and he jumped in. Shuman had pointed out to me something about how Mark took a particular turn, so I tried to mimic it, and while I'm not sure how well it worked (segment times or some kind of data acquisition would have been awesome at that point), I did end up dropping another half-second, while Mark's final run was a bust with cones.

In the meantime, Gabe had texted me the results from the dyno tuning:

"Driving impression: the car feels awesome! 224hp 286tq. Throttle is a lot more sensative. Pulls a lot harder. No overheating on the drive home. I adjusted the shocks and the feels much better on the street."

I wasn't particularly happy with the numbers, but I didn't know what to expect either. When I got home, I did look at Greg McCance's ESP build to see what his numbers are, and mine are in line with that. I guess that's good. :dunno:

Anyway, I called Gabe back during the break between heats and told him to check the coolant level once the car had cooled down, and top it off, then check it again in the morning. He put coolant in it when he got back to his apartment, based on the fact that the reservoir looked low. And since it was okay in the morning, he took it to FedEx Field to run the DC Region event.

He said it was certainly handling more in line with what he likes (throttle off oversteer), and that he doesn't want to mess with the rear swaybar right now. I'd asked about removing it, since that's what the spring rates were for (no sway bars at all), and he says, if anything, he'd want a bigger front bar. Travis Finlay had this to say when I quipped, "Why don't I get yet another engineer's opinion, so I can have three different ideas?"

prodarwin: no front bar + big rear makes it drive like a FWD car
prodarwin: except with rear inside spin on sweepers
prodarwin: no rear bar + big front makes it drive like a RWD car with more traction
prodarwin: that being said... I paxed 17th with the front bar disconnected
prodarwin: then again, that event I was 1.519 out of first

I don't know what to think. I figure I can drive the car pretty fast no matter what, but I'd rather not dump money into it if I don't need to.

So, Gabe evidently finished just about 0.4 behind Kenny Sorensen, even though he felt pretty good about the car. He thinks he just wasn't pushing it hard enough, though he's certainly not happy with the two seconds he's behind Burdette. I wonder how I would have fared.

My next event right now is the Toledo ProSolo, and I really don't want that to be my very next event in the car. I'm kind of looking at doing the Commonwealth Games in Danville, though I'm not particularly enthused about the site or the possible course design. Harry Hogenkamp's offered up his WRX wagon for a rallycross at Summit Point, and that could most definitely be fun too, but I probably should look for some seat time in my own car to be on my best game for Toledo. After all, I haven't been back there since the disaster of 2005, and I'm not particularly looking forward to dredging up those memories.

Compression Perfection

2009-07-10T18:56:00.003-04:00

The WRX was at IAG for the pre-dyno inspection and 60K service on Wednesday. While it was there, I had them install the up-pipe and CAI that Billy at Mode Racing had sent.

The verdict? The compression had extremely little variance across the board -- 136, 137, 135, 139 -- pretty excellent for a car that has been ridden hard for the last year, especially with the power mods done over the last two months. I guess the previous owner did take care of the car pretty well during the 15K he owned it. Rick at IAG said that it's more usual to see up to a 10% variance between the cylinders.

Now, I've been using Mobil 1 5W30 since I bought the car, but I let them do the oil change with Motul 8100 5W40, since so many Subaru owners complain about the Mobil 1. I know I haven't had issues with Mobil 1 in my green Camaro Z28 1LE that currently has right around 390K on the odometer, but I also know that the formulation has changed in the past few years, so maybe there are better alternatives.

The dyno tuning session is scheduled for 5:30 tomorrow evening. I dropped the car off at Gabe's this morning, and he's going to take it there and report back (and hopefully take a picture or two). I have no idea what to expect out of it, but it's going to get a race fuel map as well as the 93 octane map. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm still pondering how two different mechanical engineers can come to opposite conclusions on the need for a rear swaybar.

Action Shots

2009-06-27T13:33:00.005-04:00

I finally was able to upload the videos from the Ladies Challenge rounds at the 2009 DC ProSolo, despite the best attempts to thwart me by the shoddy Verizon DSL connection and the craptastic wireless router they provided.

These are not by best runs at all; my fastest times were achieved Sunday morning, moments before the rain started again, and ruined my try at a clean, green-light 29.9s on the right side. :(

Round One : Me versus Meredith Najewicz (L1-ST Honda Civic Si)

We were the last pairing, as I was the top qualifier, and for some reason, despite Meredith being the 5th place L1 trophy (ahead of Chris Peterson), they had her as the eighth qualifier (according to Howard Duncan, there is something a bit screwy with the seeding program, and he's looking into it). I was shaking from nerves at this point, and despite knowing I could go a second faster on the right side than my dial-in and class-winning times showed, I was still very tentative, especially with stone cold tires. I evidently hit a cone coming back through the crossover, on the right side, likely with the front of the car, judging from the video, and didn't realize it. I really botched the finish, as the car went into ice mode as I was trying to slow down at the end of the crossover, and it messed me up mentally for the finish, as I didn't trust the car to slow down. I'd never had ice mode on this car before.

Interlude between Rounds One and Two :

More of me swearing about the ice mode, and asking where the cone was. This is separate from the previous video because Pat was playing with the camera's remote.

Round Two : Blue Ridge Region FTW

I don't know why running against Tara Knoll always makes me more nervous than running against anyone else, but it does. So, Tara benefitted from a Denise Kugler red light in the first round, pitting me against yet another ST Civic Si. This was actually my best round, as it was relatively uneventful -- no cones for either of us, and I even managed a mini-breakout of 0.010.

Final Round : ProSolo Finale Redux

Carrie had won L1 with ever-increasingly quick runs in Jerry Enger's ES Toyota MR2, and when she drives well, she will put down times on par with the open class (kind of like myself). I was concerned in this round only because, as I pulled up on the left side, I noticed the CEL was on. It's something that will need to be looked out later.

Jerry told me that Carrie had broken out earlier in the Challenge, but the results sheet didn't show that, so I wonder if she broke out on one side, but not the other, or if the breakout wasn't put into the system. It ended up not mattering, as she pushed too hard into the left side crossover (the more difficult of the two crossovers, for sure), and coned. She said she DNFed, but that's not what was announced; so she took a red light on purpose, leaving me to my "victory lap." I really should look to see what I'm supposed to do if I'm in that situation again.

So, the car has been washed of the champagne, and divested of the trappings of an autocross car for the most part while I consider what to do next with it. It will most certainly be getting a tune when Jorge makes his monthly trip to IAG in July, but beyond that, it's up in the air.

Revenge of the Fallen

2009-06-23T07:44:00.007-04:00

Last September, on a cloudy Saturday, the ProSolo Finale came to a close in Topeka, Kansas. The rain had stopped, the tires had been switched over to Hoosier A6s, and the Ladies Challenge Championship was on the line as Carrie Snyder and I pulled through the staging lanes. I'd secured the L1 class championship in the DS WRX -- most certainly with the help of AWD and Hoosier radial rain tires, but it's not like I jumped into the car for the event! -- and Carrie had just barely squeaked into the Challenge after her worst class finish all year. With the drying conditions, I'd dropped a bunch of time through the first two rounds (well, in one round, as I benefitted from a Connie Smith red-light), but Carrie had gotten to the final though top seed Annie Bauer's redlight, followed by Kristi Brown spinning. When we paired up, ES MR2 versus DS WRX, I had to give her a several second head start. There was little-to-no chance of me winning without her making a gigantic mistake, which she didn't.

Fast forward to Sunday's Challenges at the DC ProSolo. The top two seeds met in the final round -- L1 winner against the L2 winner -- and it was me (L2) and Carrie (L1) in the same cars as before. The only difference was that the WRX was now ESP, and so I'd be giving her a legitimate head start. I was the one who'd gotten lucky in an earlier round, carrying a cone on a win over Meredith Najewicz, but I'd still managed to break out ever-so-slightly when I took out Tara Knoll in the second round. Carrie hadn't exactly breezed to the final round, needing to get by Chris Peterson and Heather Everett. I knew I had a second of "sand" on the right-side course after posting a 29.9 there earlier in the day on a 0.464 redlight, so I wasn't too concerned.

We paired up to the sounds of Jeff Jacobs announcing the reprisal of the Finale. I turned on the CD, going for Paramore (Misery, Inc.) , and getting Against Me! (Thrash Unreal) instead. The video for this (hopefully I'll get it posted later today) is funny, as my launch is perfectly timed with the music. In any event, I had a good launch, though I was still more tentative on course than I should have been. I was really too worried about cones during the Challenge (and it didn't help me against Meredith, as I didn't know I'd coned until I came in and heard the announcement). I came across the line first -- no surprise, as the difference between courses was close to two seconds -- and I hear Carrie is nearly four seconds back, plus a cone! Wow, wasn't expecting that. So, I line up on the left, bring the revs up, her lights come dow-- redlight. What? I can't remember if I have to complete the course, as she pulls forward and around, so I just do a "victory lap."

Later, she tells me that she didn't just cone on the left, she DNFed, and she knew it. She redlit to "save timing the trouble of figuring out" she'd already lost. Wow. I was relieved though, as the CEL had come on before my runs, and I was happy to not have to push the car hard through the course one more time.

So, my first National event in the WRX was a resounding success! Additionally, MODE Racing is a new sponsor for the season, so things are looking up with the car. And now... it needs a bath. Champagne gets sticky and disgusting after a few hours!
photo by Marnie Soom

Phoenix Comes Home

2009-05-30T12:42:00.005-04:00

Nearly four weeks have passed since I dropped the silver phoenix off at IAG for the ESP work. Last night, after a two-and-a-half-hour marathon session of ride-height adjustment, alignment, a CAI search, and Cobb AP installation, I brought it home.

JJ spent a good 6-8 hours on the fender rolling and flares to cover the massive 295/30R18 Hoosier A6s (which, yes, I drove home on).

The ERZ exhaust has been replaced with an Invidia G200, mated to a catted downpipe. Gabe should be happy, since the Invidia is quieter than the ERZ (even though it looks like it will be louder. The stock intercooler has been superceded with an STi intercooler, and right now, there is an AEM cold air intake on the car; this is only because the Cobb CAI was out of stock (to JJ's surprise).

I need to go out and change the oil and wash the car now. WDCR autocross tomorrow!

Lazy Sunday

2009-05-24T21:08:00.004-04:00

Memorial Day 2009.

The WRX was supposed to be ready to go for a NASA-X event down at Virginia Motorsports Park today, but IAG was too swamped with work to get it done. So, it looks like the debut of the WRX in ESP will be next weekend at the local WDCR event. I signed up to run XP with it, so that we can do some test-and-tune -- me in the morning, Gabe in the afternoon (if he gets his butt in gear and signs up for ESP, that is).

Pat found the ARP studs on Friday while going through some junk in the garage; evidently, they were buried along with the rest of the missing stuff (FRS radios, some Subaru stickers, etc.) under some of his SE-R tires. Go figure. I took them over to IAG on Saturday, so that they can be put on the car with the rest of the stuff this coming week. I took a couple of pictures of the beast-in-progress too.

The primary problem right now is that the struts and the rear tires have less than a quarter of an inch clearance. I can't get my tiny pinky finger between the edge of the rim and the strut body. I hope a spacer will help with the problem.

It looks like Greg McCance is using 295s on his WRX too; I don't know if he's got the 17s or the 18s or not. Frankly, I consider him my stiffest WRX competition, and I know he's not sparing any expense on build either. He's a great driver as well (STX National Champion in 2008), so I'm really climbing a mountain here.

I'm not sure what he's using for suspension; if I recall what Billy Brooks told me, it's Ohlins coilovers. In lieu of zzyzx stuff, I know that Ohlins is top notch, and I'm hoping that the AST suspension I sprung for (through Vorshlag) is up to the challenge.

I wish I'd been able to go to the NASA-X today. The flares, intake, intercooler and strut tower bars should be done for next weekend though, so it will debut at the local DC region event instead.

On an interesting side note, Pat and I went to Lowe's today to pick up a new light fixture and a couple of window A/C units. He was wearing a Capitals t-shirt with Varlamov's name and number on the back. The guy who helped us with the air conditioners was remarking how game seven was so uncharacteristic of the rest of the series and he thought the "young goaltender was left out to dry." The cashier also remarked on the Capitals season, saying it was a shame they couldn't hold on to the series lead.

Since when have Capitals fans been in Glen Burnie, to the point where they are still talking about hockey even though the Capitals season ended a week and a half ago?! I knew the Nationals and the Orioles were having a tough time of it so far this MLB season, but... wow. If people in the Baltimore area have been hooked, maybe DC really has become a hockey town!

Losing Bets

2009-05-18T08:36:00.003-04:00

Gambling is bad, mmmmkay? I say that as I stand here in front of a room of 20+ students who are snickering at a person who they know is a staunch supporter of the Washington Capitals... and she's wearing a very over-sized CCM Pittsburgh Penguins jersey, adorned with the despised #87.

Yep, I made an ill-advised wager on the outcome of game seven. At least it's only my pride that's damaged, and not my wallet.

In the meantime, I'm starting to get psyched for the WRX build. I saw the AST 5200 coilovers in person on Saturday; they are gorgeous. I hope they work as nice as they look. External reservoirs and crazy adjustments... I'm gonna be clueless with shock setup when I take the car out for the first time. Hopefully, that "first time" will be next weekend at the NASA-X autocross at Virginia Motorsports Park.

Pictures forthcoming -- of the shocks, and hopefully not of me in the black and gold! :)

Going Out With A Whimper

2009-05-13T22:26:00.002-04:00

What a terrible way to end one of the most hyped series ever in the NHL.

What a depressing way to finish off an epic season.

Welcome to Caps hockey. Some things never seem to change. :(

Until September comes around again...

Cinco de la Serie (or Игра пять)

2009-05-09T15:24:00.002-04:00

When playing the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs, game five has never been kind to the Capitals. Never. Nada. Not once have the Capitals won a game five against the black and gold.

But then again, not once had a team in the NHL been DFL in the league at Thanksgiving, yet come back to win their division. Never had an NHL defenseman scored a goal in eight straight games. The number of Capitals teams in franchise history to score 108 points? Nada, until this year.

Under Bruce Boudreau, the impossible always seems possible with this group of mostly young men. Yes, they screw up at times -- sometimes the screw up is more like "epic fail" -- but overall, this is most certainly the best Capitals team the NHL has ever seen.

Yet, at times, it seems as if they are playing against more than just the opposing team. Even Washington GM George McPhee commented on the officiating this past week after game three's 7-2 power play disparity, even while the players themselves kept their comments fairly neutral.

The emotions are running high, especially in light of the abuse rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov has been taking in both the series against the Rangers and so far against the Penguins. It's understandable if it's difficult to keep retaliation off the mind, but frustration against constant penalty killing and lack of attack time shouldn't play into the game as much as it has. Game four was a bit more even in terms of calls, but still a lot of clutching and grabbing of the interference variety was ignored.

Game five starts in just about 200 minutes. Here's to overcoming obstacles and doing the impossible.

What the Hell is Wrong With People?

2009-05-07T23:06:00.005-04:00

Some people take their sports a little too seriously. It's one thing to be riled up over the Capitals versus Penguins series, but to go so far as to actually claim that you are going to kill a rival team's player? And to say that you "know [you] will be arrested, but [you] don't care?"

Did this seventeen-year-old brainiac ever consider the impact of his words for just one second?

The worst part about this is the fact that, since he is a minor, this child will not even be properly punished for his actions, and therefore likely won't learn anything from it. Had the Pennsylvania troopers taken the Internet tough guy into custody and let him sit in jail until his parents arrived, maybe he would have learned an important lesson. But, having been around snark-tastic teenagers for the last fourteen years, I am fairly confident that the "talking to" he was given by the police is just fodder for the boy's Facebook status right now.

Hell, he is probably proud of the fact that he "scared" Ovechkin and the hockey world enough that the police were brought in. If, may the gods have mercy on us, the Penguins actually win tomorrow night, this child is going to believe that he helped by making the Capitals look over their shoulders instead of being focused on the game.

What ever happened to good old trash-talk between rival fans? When did watching hockey -- being a spectator -- become a life-or-death thing?

Seriously, when I first suggested that we go to Philadelphia for a Capitals game earlier this year, Pat was horrified by the idea. "We'll get killed!" he said to me. I bought tickets anyway, and he reluctantly joined me. He was even more loathe to wear his Brashear jersey; I all but forced him to don it. He really thought it would incite violence against us. I told him that I'd been to Philly by myself for games in the past (granted, in the early '90s), and emerged unscathed, so he shouldn't worry. And, in fact, we engaged in some trash talk with the Flyers fans around us, and we stood and cheered loudly when Brooks Laich scored the lone Capitals goal (yeah, we went on 12/20), and afterwards, the Flyers fans around us said we were cool, and that our team had played better than the score indicated.

In other words, everyone was an adult about the game.

Yet, when I was discussing my latest Flyers experience with one of the Capitals marketing guys at the ESPNZone viewing party in Baltimore during the Rangers series, he told me a different story about Flyers fans. Last year, during the first round of the playoffs, Ted Leonsis secured a suite for the Capitals' office staff and rented a bus to make the trip. During the game, there wasn't "friendly banter," or even mild "trash talking," but outright nasty discourse. Additionally, when the marketing guy was in line for food on the concourse, he said he was literally kicked in the shin by a child who was rooting for the Flyers.

What kind of parent allows their children to run wild at Wachovia Center, and more so, encourages that kind of behavior? Talk about someone the police need to visit...

At the first game of this second round series, after David Steckel scored to tie the game at 1, the man seated directly behind me got up to use the restroom. As he scooted past three Penguins fans seated towards the aisle, he said, "Penguins suck," in a conversational tone.

The response? One of the Pens fans elbowed him in the face, while another threw beer on him. This resulted in a fight, obviously, with one of the Penguins fans being escorted away by security.

What is wrong with a modicum of maturity these days? Sure, you might say the Capitals fan caused his own situation by what he said, but it wasn't an "in your face" comment, it was just stated, not yelled, and not to any of the Penguins fans, but just directly towards the aisle. Those fans decided to escalate things to violence instead of verbal banter.

On the ice on Wednesday night, the Capitals could have been like these immature, childish fans, and been out for blood in response to Chris Kunitz's hit on Simeon Varlamov. Judging from comments by Alex Ovechkin and Bruce Boudreau, I would not have been surprised to see a lot of excessive hitting and bodies encroaching on Marc-Andre Fleury's crease. Yet, that was not the case, not to the extent one would expect for retaliation.

Seems that the players have better sense than those who are cheering them on. Maybe the fans need to take more away from the game than a simple win or a loss.

Раскрыть ярости!

2009-04-29T00:00:00.006-04:00

Game 7 is in the books, and will be marked as one of those pieces of history that no one will forget any time soon.

Coming into tonight's game, no Rangers team in franchise history had lost a playoff series after being up by 3-1 in the series. On the same note, only one Capitals team in franchise history had won after being down 3-1.

In game seven situations, only once had the Capitals won, April 16, 1988, against the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime. That was the reason me and my lab partners named our fetal pig in AP Biology "Ron Hextall."

Simeon Varlamov had just turned 21 yesterday. Henrik Lundqvist, on the other hand, was coming off a game where he'd been pulled in the third period, for the second game in a row... for the first time ever in his career.

After two games where the Capitals really dominated the Rangers, many were saying that the Rangers were done, and Washington had momentum on their side. Someone forgot to tell New York that, as they came out hard from the start, stonewalling the Capitals attempts to penetrate deep into their zone, and Lundqvist really never was tested until more than halfway through the period. Varlamov, however, had to work hard to keep the home team in the game, after some poor turnovers in the neutral zone.

Then the unthinkable. Avery tossed the puck towards the net from the corner, and his teammate Nik Antropov was able to get it past Varlamov. Knowing that the team that had scored first had won every game so far in this series, seeing the light go on there was a downer.

The crowd was a bit subdued. I remarked to Gabe that Boudreau should call a time-out, as the team was not playing well, and maybe needed a quick rethinking session. Right about then, there was a stoppage in play, and the glass repair crew came out; a pane behind New York's net was evidently broken and needed replacement. Voila! Time-out!

Boudreau obviously took the time to talk to his players, and whatever he said made a difference. While it still wasn't at the level of game five or game three, things had changed for the better, culminating with Alexander Semin taking a pass from fellow young gun, Nicklas Backstrom. Semin's shot appeared to be a double-deflection, off two different Rangers' defensive sticks, and past Lundqvist. While it may not have been "pretty," it was still "pretty effective" at getting the score all tied up.

And 1-1 it remained through the second period, and deep into the third. The number of shots Varlamov faced was pretty low -- after 8 shots in the first, there were only 6 in the second and a miserly 1 in the third -- and the number taken by the Caps was shockingly low as well.

However, maybe Lundqvist suffers from Theodore syndrome, where if he's not "tested enough," he can't stop the easy shots. When Sergei Fedorov took the shot after a long pass from Professor Matt Bradley, and it went in, the somewhat subdued (though usual for a Tuesday night) crowd erupted. Everyone stood, started cheering, and this continued for the next (last) five minutes of the game, meaning for about twenty minutes real time.

The fury had been unleashed, and it was speaking Russian.

It is difficult to say what happened those final five game minutes. It was so loud, so frenetic, all I remember was a lot of keep-away with the puck, and one aborted attempt to dash to the bench by Lundqvist, who ended up trapped in the crease. Avery was taken down by Fedorov, and limped to the bench, and the constant cheering of "Let's Go Caps!" and "C-A-P-S, Caps, Caps, Caps" stopped momentarily to jeer the gnat as he limped off the ice. Then, it was over, and the team mobbed Varlamov so thoroughly that they took the net right off its moorings.

The Devils vs. Hurricanes game seven evidently had been just as -- if not more -- wild, with two Carolina goals coming in the final 90 seconds of the game, including Staal's game winner with just under 33 seconds remaining. The Carolina win means the Capitals will take on Pittsburgh in round 2, while the Bruins battle the Hurricanes.

I received several text messages as I was leaving the game, all basically saying the same thing about the Capitals winning or Fedorov scoring.

But there was one that was different. One that was.... ominous.

It read, simply, "Doobie doobie do."

I think there's going to be a rough road ahead. Saturday afternoon can't come soon enough.

Now or Never

2009-04-20T13:15:00.005-04:00

"The Caps Need a Win in New York" is the top headline on the Capitals web page as I write this.

I guess Captain Obvious is the web developer of the day.

"We have to try something new. Maybe we have to go even more to the net. I mean more traffic, get rebounds and those kinds of things," was what Nicklas Backstrom had to say after the loss in game two.

I'm trying not to be sarcastic here, but it's been pretty evident that driving to the net and getting rebounds by being in the crease has been lacking in the first two playoff games, as well as most of the last part of the season. Even Brian Pothier sees it. "If we REALLY want to score, we've got to get to the net and bang in a rebound or two, that's really what it comes down to for us," he was quoted as saying in the DC Sports Bog.

The good thing at this point is that rallying from a 2-0 series deficit is something this Capitals team can do. This team has broken or tied so many franchise records this year, very little seems beyond them. They just need to follow through on what they know already they need to do.

Otherwise, let the mass hysteria begin.

They're Here!

2009-04-15T15:36:00.003-04:00

Playoffs start today! The sucky thing about it is simply that I have to work tonight, and can't go. So, Pat is going with his friend Bryan, while I make sure I turn my phone off and cross my fingers and try not to go insane with anticipation.

The trip to Atlanta last week was fun. I snuck down to the glass during warmups to get a few photos, only because our seats were on the opposite end of the ice.

Boyd Gordon and Donald Brashear were still out, so the hard-working Keith Aucoin was centering the fourth line (he was just sent back down on Monday since everyone, except Brent Johnson, has been cleared to play).

The game itself wasn't all that great. The lackluster play kinda scared me, to tell the truth, because the only reason the Capitals won is simply because of Simeon Varlamov's heroics in net. He did get the team's "hard-hat" award for his play, but it was terrible to see several odd-man rushes after certain defensemen decided to step up on a play, and then leave their partner out to dry when the inevitable breakdown occured.

Does Erskine look asleep there, or what? Maybe that was part of the problem? Though, to be fair, he wasn't one of the biggest issues last week.

The shoddy performances against non-playoff bound teams during the final week of the regular season has me fearful of what will happen tonight. Hopefully the abysmal game on Saturday will rile the team up a bit and have them wanting to come back from a terrible 7-4 loss to the Panthers. Several stories have been written already about how Theodore will need to step up in order to preserve the team's playoff hopes, but it's not just him; it's the entire defensive corps that needs to rethink its purpose. Don't get me wrong -- it's great that Mike Green contributed 30+ goals to the team this season. But 30+ goals does not a Norris Trophy winner make. The defensive side of his game still needs a lot of work, much like Jeff Schultz needs to work on being more than a moveable pylon out there. Putting the two of them on a line together last week was horrifying, as Schultz was left as the lone defender more than once when Green jumped into the play and a pass was intercepted.

Keys to the game are most likely to be :
*minimizing defensive breakdowns leading to odd-man rushes.
*not letting the Rangers camp in the crease. Make anyone who tries pay the price. Lift his stick, push him around, just do something. As badly as Theodore handles rebounds, letting someone sit in the crease is just asking for trouble.
*have a designated camper on each line. Brooks Laich is the poster child for this. Eric Fehr does it well on occasion. Backstrom is starting to do it a little more. But someone needs to be there for the juicy rebounds, and just to get in Lundqvist's face.

The playoffs aren't the only thing that's here. My AST struts have cleared customs! The coilovers will be on their way here soon, and that means the ESP WRX build will commence.

The car is scheduled for surgery starting May 4th, at IAG Performance. Whee!

To Kill A Mockingbird

2009-04-06T09:40:00.005-04:00

Sunday's game against the Thrashers was more exciting than it should have been, what with some pretty poor Capitals' passing resulting in Atlanta goals -- most notably, Theodore's "clearing attempt" that went straight onto the stick of Slava Kozlov. Theodore says he whiffed. From 404, it certainly looked like he was staring down that empty net and thinking, "Goal," without seeing the white jerseys in front of him. Oh well, c'est la vie. It didn't tie the game and send it into overtime, at least.

One of the high points of the game was the Fleischmann goal in the first period. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of him throw his head back and mouth was looked like, "Thank God!" when the puck went in and the light went on. There was no question that it was a goal, and finally, no review.

Keith Aucoin wasn't so lucky later in the third period. He had a wide angle shot look like it went in, and then after review, was determined to have just hit the post and not actually cross the line. It was all good though, as he'd already scored on the power play earlier.

Michael Nylander broke a goal drought as well, scoring and celebrating with a fist pump in front of the net. Don Cherry's gonna be all over this team for celebrations!

Eric Fehr chipped one in that, after Theodore's miscue in the final minute, turned out to be the game winner. One of these days, Eric, they are all going in. ;)

Brooks Laich had the finishing touches to pull back to a two goal lead seconds after Kozlov's "empty netter," with an empty net goal of his own. That goal gave him back-to-back 20 goal seasons, a feat some thought was a fluke for him last year.

One thing most of these goals had in common was the crease presence. I've seen them practice this before, more than once, and once the team showed up to play in the third period, the practice paid off. It was nice to see more than just Laich mucking it up.

The team heads to the dirty souf for one last Southeast Division road trip before playoff time. Atlanta on Tuesday, Tampa on Thursday and Sunset, Florida on Saturday. Sunset... an appropriate town for the end of the season.

I'll be in Atlanta on Tuesday for that game, and might even post before I come home.

Cuts Both Ways

2009-04-05T11:41:00.006-04:00

The Capitals are the 2009 Southeast Division Champions!

They got there via scoring seven goals on Friday night... the problem being that three of those went into their own net.

Maybe they were just unlucky bounces of the type that plagues Pat during online poker where his pocket aces get cracked by the luckbox that "feels it" with his 2-7 offsuit. Or maybe it was just indicative of lazy skatework (two of them went off defenseman skates), and a general feeling of, "We've got this locked up."

In any event, Melissa's text to me, "The Sabres don't want it bad enough," wasn't true. The Sabres might not have wanted it "bad enough," but they certainly wanted it more than the Capitals did. They outplayed and outhustled the Capitals during the first period, and really, the only reason the Capitals were still in it after two was because the Sabres thought it would be really cool to take a multitude of penalties, leading to a couple of 5-on-3 situations that the Capitals took advantage of.

Why is it that Brooks Laich seems to be the only guy routinely willing to take the abuse of standing in front of the net, whether it's on the power play or even strength? Dude must have a ton of bruises from the battering he gets every game. The worst part is that while he gets beat up when he camps out in the crease, no one seems willing to make opposing players pay the same price in front of Varlamov or Theodore. Not once on Friday night did we see a Capitals d-man push a Sabre who was in the crease, much less lift his stick or otherwise make his life miserable for standing there. This is something that has to change for the playoffs. It's going to be how goals are scored... on both ends.

Sergei Fedorov was on, yet off, on Friday night. Two goals. Multitude of faceoff wins. But, he was directly responsible for the pass that was picked off for the game winning goal in overtime. It was pretty much inconceivable, considering he is usually one of the tightest players on the team in OT. Miscommunication between him and the receiver? Maybe. Tired from a long season? Maybe. Whatever it was, I'm sure that he and the team reflected on it a lot later that evening and through practice yesterday.

Atlanta is up next, for both games. A home game -- the last home game of the regular season -- on Sunday at 3, followed by a trip down to the dirty souf for the beginning of the last three game road trip of the regular season. I'll be at both, hopefully getting some good shots. Cembor has graciously sought out tickets for Tuesday's fight in Atlanta, and Melissa won't be rooting for the Sabres there. :)

Let's go Caps! 107 points is still within reach!

Will Lightning Strike Tonight?

2009-03-27T10:50:00.001-04:00

The Capitals are in the playoffs for the second year in a row, so they don't have to exhaust themselves night after night for the rest of the regular season just to earn that position like last year.

However, the Southeast Division title is still up in the air, and the playoff matchups -- including home ice advantage -- are still to be determined. How Washington plays their few remaining games will likely determine how far they make it through the playoffs this year.

Tuesday night's game against the Maple Leafs showed there has been a bit of a slowdown in the determination that was so prevalent from November 2007 through the beginning of this season. Cutesy, easily intercepted, passing plays have taken the place of grinding and mucking. And the Capitals are paying the price on the scoreboard, even as they aren't getting very beat up in body.

No one wants to go into the playoffs battered and bruised to the point of exhaustion, and that may have been a part of the reason why the Capitals didn't make it past a hard-fought first round series with the Flyers last year. However, playing with less than 100% grit and determination is a bad precedent that may be difficult to break out of come mid-April, and likely will result in a faster ejection from the playoffs than seven games with several overtimes.

The Capitals face Tampa Bay tonight, for the first time since "The Celebration." Tampa has nothing to prove, nothing to fight for tonight, except maybe for pride after Ovechkin's poorly thought-out idea. They are 28th in the league, solidly ahead of the Islanders, but still 14th in the conference. If they fight too hard, they will lose out in the draft lottery, which at this point may be their best hope at dragging themselves out of the rut they are in. However, if they've already dealt away this year's pick, maybe they truly have nothing worth defending, and instead can bank on trying to ruin Washington's chance of winning the division.

The Capitals have done poorly against teams that have nothing to prove this year. Most people refer to it as "playing down to their opponents," but it's more than just the Capitals screwing up; it's a no-lose situation for the opponent, so they just play. If they lose, they are losing to a tougher opponent and it was to be expected. If they win, they beat a tougher opponent, and they did awesome.

The Capitals, on the other hand, more and more aren't playing hockey, they are just playing around. Too many passes. Too many moves that are clearly attempts at highlight reels. No physical presences in the crease.

In the final minute of the game against Toronto on Tuesday night, Brooks Laich crashed the crease, and was relentless against the loose puck. He scored, to tie the game (and to set Gerber off resulting in a three-game suspension, but that's another story).

Crashing the crease and unsettling the goaltender has always been a core part of gritty Capitals hockey, and was the bread and butter for players like Dale Hunter. There's nothing wrong with pretty goals like Semin and Nylander obviously always want to score, but it's going to be guys who play with grit and determination like Brooks Laich and Eric Fehr who will carry this team through the playoffs. Obviously, relying on Ovechkin and Semin alone isn't getting the job done.

Keys to the Game

2009-03-24T19:02:00.003-04:00

The Caps need to rake the Leafs like they were hot coals. No cutesy stuff, just solid hockey.

#1 : Crash the net. I'm not sure why the Capitals -- always known for a hard-nosed, gritty style -- have gotten away from this, which seemed to be a ubiquitous move for every Caps team, from the Murray brothers through Hanlon. However, a lack of crease presence explains the drought for all but the top line players. A striking example of this problem occurred last week, against the Lightning, when the line of Brooks Laich, Michael Nylander and Tomas Fleischmann all managed to end up on the goaltender's right side. Laich came up with the puck, and was obviously ready to chuck it towards someone in the crease, only to have a brief look of confusion as he realized that neither of his teammates was anywhere near the crease, nor were they on their way there. Be in the crease. Be that gnat in the goaltender's face. Be that guy who causes their defenseman to accidently kick the puck into his own net.

#2 : Rebound coverage. Despite some ugly losses in the last week, Theodore has looked a bit more solid than he did just before the Predators game. But, his primary issue is still glaring -- he does not cover the rebounds. Looking at the goals against him from last Saturday, it was his inability to control the rebounds that spelled doom in the third period. If he can't get the rebound, then a more solid defenseman has to be nearby to clear the puck, someone who reacts faster than Jeff Schultz, and who can handle the puck better than John Erskine or Milan Jurcina.

The Capitals have enough offensive power that stopping soft goals against alone will likely prove enough to take the Leafs down. Shaking Gerber up in the crease can only help. Come out flying, and don't look back!

Getting Thrashed

2009-03-16T22:12:00.000-04:00

Well. It wasn't a shutout.

That's about all I'm going to say.

Teamwork FTW!

2009-03-10T23:18:00.003-04:00

Theodore made some amazing saves!

ShaMo and the rest of the Caps blueline worked hard!

Ovechkin and Semin, while goal-less, definitely made Ellis work hard for many saves!

Fleischmann, Laich and Steckel all made Ellis sweat with some breakaway moves!

The TEAM did an awesome job working in sync with one another, with good overall sense of developing plays -- both offensively and defensively.

And Fedorov, with his eternal patience, nailed the coffin shut on this latest losing streak!

Let's hope this kind of play holds true for a couple of games, at least!

Teamwork Redux

2009-03-08T19:02:00.002-04:00

One of the themes that has haunted the Capitals over the last few games is the propensity towards individual efforts instead of teamwork. Don Cherry (improperly) chided Oveckin on his goal scoring celebrations (even though Alex's celebrations are anything but individual), and Boudreau has mentioned the lack of teamwork in the team's 0-3 skid.

Teamwork wasn't the problem today against the Penguins. Steckel's beautiful pass to Laich for an early third period breakaway goal, and Ovechkin's first minute of the third period power play goal were perfect demonstrations of team play at work.

But what can be done when the one player letting the team down is the goaltender?

Unfortunately, that's what today's game against the Penguins came down to -- Fleury vs. Theodore. And Fleury showed why the Penguins are still a force to be reckoned with, whether or not they are flirting with playoff chances.

Alexander Semin continued his turnaround, showing good effort in front of the net, behind the play, forechecking and backchecking. He stayed out of the penalty box again, and put forth a first period goal that tied things at one. His effort was at least 100%. This is a far cry from the Semin who came back from the pinched nerve, and was tentative around checkers. While the current Semin is still prone towards looking for the "pretty" goal over just "a goal," he is grinding more and being less of a puck hog.

No, the problem comes at the opposite end of the ice. Jose Theodore may be a one-time Hart Trophy winner. He may have helped the Canadiens and the Avalanche in the playoffs. However, right now, he's showing weakness that isn't going to help the Capitals get past the first round.

Theodore has said in the past that he needs to feel tested during a game in order to be at his best. But good defensemen don't let their goaltenders get shelled either. Why should they? If the shots on goal are minimized, then the goal scoring chances are minimized, and if the team's offensive unit is producing (as today's was), the game should be won on defensive effort (including goaltending) alone. Theodore has proven time and again that the fewer shots he faces, the worse he does. It goes against all rational thought, but the proof is there in the pudding.

Today's effort? 1-7 in the first (that's a .857 SV%), 2-5 in the second (.600 SV%), and 0-8 in the third and 0-2 in OT, for a game total of 3/22 (.863 SV%). Anything below .900 is abysmal for an NHL caliber goaltender, and Theodore came into this game with a .900 SV%. Fleury, on the other hand, saw 50% more shots (32 total) and finished with a game SV% of .906.

If this was the first time Theodore had fallen down in the face of less than 30 SOG, it wouldn't be of concern. However, it's an ongoing problem. If the defense does their job, and limits the opposition's chances on net, Theodore routinely erases their efforts.

Yet, against the Bruins just over a week ago, Theodore had 34 saves in 37 shots (.919). It makes no sense.

The Capitals deserve a better effort from someone who allegedly wanted to play for them, and who needs to be able to carry this team past the first round of the playoffs. The defense can't be expected to lay down and just let players like Malkin and Crosby walk in and hope they don't deke in a goal. Poti didn't go out there with a touchy groin issue only to let Theodore let his efforts be all for naught.

Either Theodore needs to start being ready to play all the time, whether he's seeing 10 shots or 40 shots per game, or he needs to sit down and let Varlamov and Neuvirth take over now. Period.

Flatline at the Deadline

2009-03-04T14:36:00.006-05:00

Can a team trade for some self-respect? How about for a swift kick in the pants?

I'm sure the Capitals might give up a prospect for one or the other after last night's dismal "performance" at Verizon against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Boudreau tells reporters that Michal Neuvirth didn't know until two hours before game time that he'd be the starting goaltender. How that plays into a poor defensive effort, and lackluster passing, it's not clear. But, knowing the mental game that many -- if not most -- goaltenders have, it couldn't have helped with the mere 14/19 saves through the second period.

The most disappointing aspect of the game last night was that apparently only three, maybe four guys showed up ready to play at all, and it can be assumed that everyone else knew they were playing with much more than two hours of lead time (except maybe Kronwall, but he seems to understand that right now). The sole bright spot was that Alexander Semin continued his streak with a goal (his 100th NHL) and an assist on a birthday that I'm sure otherwise was not worth celebrating. He also kept out of the penalty box, despite some wicked stick moves to strip the puck away from various 'Canes.

Lazy stick moves were all the rage with the defense, though, with the worst of the bunch coming with just over thirty seconds left in the first period. Shaone Morrisonn was overall a disappointment last night, despite some redeeming moves in the third, after hooking down Eric Staal from behind, resulting in a penalty shot.

Even though the power play managed to score one late in the second, the effort was so abysmal that the 'Canes scored two short-handed goals that went in so easily, they looked like they were the ones with the man advantage. Point coverage was spotty, at best, so keeping the puck in the offensive zone was a trial. It's surprising the Capitals managed to accrue 41 shots on goal with the constant neutral zone turnovers, and the intercepted passes. Speaking of which, the Hurricanes also seemed to always know where to put a stick to interfere with the cross-ice passes; why the Capitals persisted in continuing to try such passes deep into the third period is a mystery.

As the trade deadline winds down, whispers in the cool DC air speak of Nylander to some other metropolis, or possibly a goaltender acquisition so as not to "ruin" Michal Neuvirth. A defensive defenseman, or a leader for the locker room are other wishes.

However, the double dose of "Reality Check" fed to the team by Southeast Division rivals over the last two games, where the Capitals have been outscored 11-4, at home no less, may be all that is necessary.

In Like Flynn...

2009-03-03T15:49:00.002-05:00

Well, the crush started nearly an hour ago. Yep, the yearly debacle known as the "DC ProSolo Registration" started at approximately 2:55PM Eastern time, and is in full crush right now.

I entered my information into the online registration form, clicking "register" at 2:57PM, by the clock on my work computer. At 3:21, the button was still dimmed with "please wait...". However, I did receive an email confirmation saying I was in.

Considering how few other people have received that confirmation, I'm wondering if my registration went through, or if I was entered into the system manually because I'm a coreworker.

Eh, there's a hockey game tonight. I'm not worried about autocross yet.

In Like A Lion...

2009-03-02T17:29:00.007-05:00

Wow. March sure came in with a bang this year.

While I got to sleep in, I also got to make the first moves towards prepping a car for this year, as I made the trek over to IAG Performance in Westminster for a meeting with the owner about this year's sponsorship. I came in with an open mind, knowing that all aspects of the automotive industry have been feeling the effects of the downward economic spiral.

The first thing JJ wanted to know was what all was entailed in a move from D-stock to E-street prepared, so I had in hand a printout of the SCCA ruleset with everything allowed, and we went through it, piece by piece. As we did so, he scribbled down notes to himself with regards to parts and vendors he could talk to. At one point, we went back out to the showroom to look at wheels, and to get some weights on the wheels, so we could compare them to the weights on the rims I have been using.

In the end, it looks like the WRX will be in ESP for 2009, though, like 2008, not right away. I'm also in talks with Vorshlag Motorsports for some AST-coilovers, while waiting to see what the final input from IAG is. Should be an interesting season, as the Camaro drivers will hopefully not realize what hit them.

And then I can spend 2010 prepping the Camaro. ;)

Semin Shot

2009-03-01T14:31:00.005-05:00

After Tuesday's terrible loss to the Flyers, caused in part by a lack of discipline by certain players resulting in a slew of bad penalties, Coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters that some penalty-prone players could be sitting in the press box come Thursday's game against Atlanta.

Evidently, Alexander Semin took Boudreau's promise (if you know anything about Boudreau, benching wasn't a threat) seriously, because not only has he been virtually penalty-free the last two games, he's suddenly rediscovered the purpose of that stick in his hands.

Thursday night's game saw Semin chosen as the top star of the game after a powerplay goal with just over four minutes gone in the first period, followed up with an assist on Laich's powerplay goal less than a minute later. A second assist on Green's third period powerplay goal put Semin at three points on the night, top star of the game, and third star for the night on NHL.com.

Saturday afternoon's game against Boston, Semin had a weak tripping penalty against Zdeno Chara that Alex Ovechkin could be seen calming his teammate down about. But he'd already had an assist on Nicklas Backstrom's powerplay goal, and he followed that up with the unlikely shot from the blueline in overtime, the one that must have caught Bruin goaltender Tim Thomas offguard, as it trickled past him with only :22 gone.

After a superb start to the season, with Semin and Ovechkin going one-two on the NHL leaderboard, then the subsequent injuries that Semin seems all-to-prone to having, it's nice to see Semin regain his scoring touch. At times, he shows why he should be considered among the NHL elite, while other times, he is obviously still an immature player, learning to control his temper. It's times like the latter that the reason the Capitals keep Sergei Fedorov around become evident. If anything Fedorov has really helped with the development of players like Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin, especially in keeping Semin's propensity towards bad stick-related penalties to a minimum.

The other change in Semin's game has been more subtle, as it hasn't really resulted in penalties, nor has it resulted in goals. However, ever since his return from the pinched nerve he suffered after a bad hit by St. Louis's David Backes, Semin hasn't just taken cheap hits by the opposing team lightly, and in fact, has been more physical in his own play. Maybe he realizes that Ovechkin can't be his enforcer, as well as the overexuberant goal-scoring maniac. Whatever the reason, Semin's been throwing his shoulder at players that try to encroach on his puck, and of course, we all remember the "bongos". While it was definitely funny as all get-out, what I remember the most about that "fight" was that Semin finally stood up for himself, and since then, he hasn't been crumbling under so many cheap shots. Whether that's because no one else wants to be humilitated as Marc Staal was, or they just realize that he's not going to fold, who knows, but it's a nice change from the old Semin-who-just-falls-to-the-ice-with-a-back-injury nonetheless.

The Capitals are just about to take to the ice against Southeast Division rival Florida. It's snowing as far south as Atlanta right now, and that's a good sign, right? Because everyone and their mother has always said it would be a cold day in Hell before the Capitals had a real chance at the Stanley Cup... and if Atlanta isn't as close to Hell on Earth as anything else, what is?