It was miserably hot. The only event I can remember that came close was
the CMC "nationals" held in Ardmore, when it was both hot and
humid. Little Rock Pro in '93 or '94 wasn't even this bad. A towel dunked
in icy cooler water took only a few moments to get up to body temp. I
spent a half hour holding my helmet in the A/C in the truck before my
first-round Challenge runs, but took it to the car too early (must have
been 6 or 7 pairs before I ran); it was hot to the touch before I put it
on to run.
Kudos to the Utah folks - I question their sanity, as they have some say in
when the event is scheduled, but they did (as always) put forth a great
effort. Wendover is a rather pathetic place, but the event is always one
of the best on the schedule.
In the late rounds of the Challenge, despite a considerable effort at
cooling them, our Hoosiers were getting really unhappy and doing more
sliding than sticking (not that anyone else was in better shape). That
turnaround was a really dirty trick - I don't think it ever felt "right"
even if one managed to drive it optimally. Good to see things like that
once in a while. These were some of the best courses I've ever seen - Pro
Solo or otherwise. I managed to drive the entire going-out part of the
right-side without lifting at all on most of my runs (lots of that on the
rev limiter - aka speed governor). Never managed it on the left (probably
just wimped it, as I don't think the courses were significantly different
except at the finish). I actually did hit at least three cones over the
weekend, including the two in the final two rounds. I hit one on my good
left-side run on Sunday morning. So I set the class dial-in a good half
second faster without seeing any benefit to it - Eric Clements drove well
Sunday morning, and really deserved to win since I didn't improve. He ran
a 42.2/42.8 to my 42.6/42.5 (yes, I was faster on the slower right
side). This was one of those unusual situations where my .6 and .5 were
really low, and his .2 and .8 were really high, so I beat him by .040 or so.
Break-outs were not a big problem in the Challenges, mostly due to the
heat. It was hot enough that we not only lost engine power, but also tire
stick. We actually considered spraying down the tires before my first run
in the Challenge, on "cold" tires!
Did I mention is was hot?
Paul and Meredith Brown
MR2: "Not the easiest car in the world to work on"
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