The Road to Topeka - Chike's official 2008 Autocross Blog Thread (B-stock Mazda RX-8)

[SSSVX]

Originally Posted by Chiketkd

Thanks guys. Much appreciated!!!

Best of luck, chike.

[Chiketkd]

Thanks for the well-wishes everyone. My first trip to the Pro Finale & Solo Nats was rough.

The entire Finale was rainy (3" fell on the first day alone). This was a pic I took on my camera phone of my car in grid:



I'm horrible at driving in the wet, so it was a give-away event for me (finished 10th of 10 in class).

At solo nats, I spun on my first run - my confidence in the grip of the "sandy" surface plummeted and I drove too conservatively from there on out. My co-driver felt he drove *okay* out there and finished 18th out of 35 drivers. I was back in 34th place. I've been driving within 2-3 tenths of him in the months leading up to Nats - it definitely was dissapointing.

Here's a pic of me in action @ Nats:



And the man himself, Mr. Isley:



Over the winter I'll switch to the Mazdaspeed FSB and get a new alignment in the spring - hopefully the car will perform a little better in slaloms and fast transitions. Otherwise, she did great out there and it would be nice if my driving could have matched.

I'll be back next year with a little more experience under my belt...and hopefully a little more speed as well.

Complete results for Nationals can be viewed here: http://sccaforums.com/forums/storage...nedResults.pdf

[svxfiles]

Nobody lost an eye.
You learned, and hopefully had some fun.
T

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by svxfiles

Nobody lost an eye.
You learned, and hopefully had some fun.
T

Very true Tom. Thanks bud.
The experience was second-to-none and I'll definitely be back!

[Chiketkd]

I competed in the WDCR event #7 this past weekend. We had over 240 pre-registered, but the number dropped to 190 due to rain in the forecast. The rain came on and off throughout the day and was a factor in almost all heats.

The course was designed by Greg O. and cars took 90 seconds on average to complete. To say it was LONG would be an undertstatement!



However, slaloms are the weakest part of my driving, and I was stoked at the opportunity to drive such a long and demanding course.

Summary:
2nd out of 6 in class
35th out of 190 in PAX

'B Stock'
Pos. # Driver Car Run1 Run2 Run3 Run4 Total Diff
1T 88 Wade, Dave 2004 Mazda Rx-8 Gray 86.949+1 86.634 85.206+1 87.271 86.634 0
2T 70 Dellimore, Chike 2006 Mazda Rx-8 Galaxy Grey 90.007 88.224+1 86.760 86.468+3 86.760 0.126
3T 99 Weichold, Frank 2005 Mazda Rx8 Grey 91.390+DNF 88.933+1 88.302 87.346+1 88.302 1.542
4 98 Barber, Steve 2004 Mazda Rx-8 Green 102.233+2 90.775 89.606+1 87.248+1 89.248 0.946
5 11 Correa, Aaron 2003 Nissan 350Z Silver 98.212 96.737 93.379 94.012+3 93.379 4.131
6 111 Correa, Mike 2003 Nissan 350Z Silver 102.151 97.959 98.085 95.586 95.586 2.207

I'm not aware of any pics that were taken at this event...

P.S. Next up will be the BRR Event #8 in Verona, VA this coming Sunday. I'm the event chairman, and designed a course with a number of slaloms to again work on the weakest aspect of my driving. Hope to be much faster next season!

My course design for this Sunday's event is below:

[Chiketkd]

Wow, what an event. I went from some of my worse driving ever @ Nats in September, to some of my best driving ever less than 1 month later!

The B-stock season championship was on the line and Chad (blue RX-8 owner) and I came into this event with equal points. Chad has actually beaten me the two previous times we ran at Verona (both events were in the Spring) so I knew I had to step up my driving. We also had a third person (Brian) wo was in an E36 BMW M3.

By the time the third heat rolled around, the current "fast time" for a street car was a 41.6 by an SM Celica Alltrac driven by my buddy Marteen (won SM at this year's DC Pro Solo). To compete with Marteen PAX-wise, I knew I needed to be in the upper 42 second range.

Chad went out first and ran a clean 46.3 but with a few mistakes and some sideways action. Brian ran a clean 48.0 in the M3. I came in with a clean 43.7. Chad lowered his time to a 44.9+1 by his third run, while I had passengers on runs 2 & 3 and my time had only improved 0.1 seconds to a clean 43.6. 4th runs began and Brian came in with a clean 45.7, while Chad finished up with a clean 44.8. I had won the class championship, but still had my final run to make.

I decided to push the envelope, and hopefully run clean by focusing on looking ahead. The run was going as planned until I got to the 2nd-to-last-slalom where I tipped a cone with my rear passenger-side wheel. I went into the tight turn-around and had to pass through the slalom again and noticed the cone was still standing! I realized the run was still clean - everything else was drama-free when I crossed the finish line. I couldn't see my time but many people were giving me a thumbs-up. I was handed my timeslip and saw a 42.8! Which moved me into the current FTP position.

With one run group to go, I knew only one driver could take that FTP away from me and it was Roger Garrett who's a top driver that drives a C6 ASP Z06. Roger got within 2/10ths of my PAX time by his third run, but on his 4th and final run he improved and edged me out of FTP by 12/1000ths of a second.

What a drive to watch and it was cool to have a conversation with him later!

Summary:
1st of 3 in class
2nd of 61 in PAX

BS - B Stock Pax: 0.832
1t CHIKE DELLIMORE 06 MAZDA RX-8 GREY 42.895 35.689 0.012
2 CHAD HENRY 05 MAZDA RX-8 BLUE 44.899 2.004 37.356 1.679
3 BRIAN RIPLEY 99 BMW M3 45.784 2.889 38.092 2.415
http://www.brr-scca.org/10052008.htm


Top 10 in PAX
Results by Pax Time

Class: Place: Driver Car Best Delta Pax Delta
ASP 1 ROGER GARRETT 06 CORVETTE Z06 41.389 1.838 FTP 35.677 0.000
BS 2 CHIKE DELLIMORE 06 MAZDA RX-8 GREY 42.895 3.344 35.689 0.012
SM 3 MARTIN VALENT TOYOTA CELICA ALLTRAC 41.671 2.120 35.837 0.160
DSP 4 ANTHONY HODGES 95 PLYMOUTH NEON WHITE 42.621 3.070 35.930 0.253
ES 5 TIM RUSSELL 97 MAZDA MIATA GREEN 44.611 5.060 36.447 0.770
STU 6 MARTIN KRIZ 06 SUBARU WRX STI GREY 43.946 4.395 36.475 0.798
CS 7 MICK SEAL 02 MAZDA MIATA GREEN 43.896 4.345 36.478 0.801
BSP 8 GARY KIRCHBAUM 95 BMW M3 42.805 3.254 36.727 1.050
DSPL 9 SUZANNE HODGES 95 PLYMOUTH NEON WHITE 43.658 4.107 36.804 1.127
CS 10 TIM WINDLE 02 MAZDA MIATA GREEN 44.302 4.751 36.815 1.138

Some pics from B-stock:

Brian's M3




Chad's RX-8






Chike's RX-8

[Chiketkd]

A-Mod


Super Stock Elise


Garrett's ASP Z06


Marteen's SM Celica Alltrac


S/C SM2 Elise

[Chiketkd]

Garrett's ASP Z06:


Rest in the borrowed SS Lotus Elise:


SS C6 vette:


Yours truly:




P.S. My '08 season is winding down but the next event will be a big one - the 2008 Virginia Autocross Championships in Norfolk, VA on October 18th & 19th.

[Chiketkd]

This past weekend I competed in the 2 day VAC held at the Littlecreek Amphibious Base in Norfolk, VA. The race surface was decent grip concrete and the courses were medium speed that included several sweepers and some slower turns thrown into the mix. I was the only person registered in B-stock, so my main goal was to PAX as high as possible among the very competitive field.

Saturday
The forecast called for a 90% chance of rain, 30 mph gusts of wind and a high in the upper 50's. The course was very slick in a few areas, and I ended up spinning on 2 of my 4 runs. Never got a solid run in, and my best was a 46.7 (left over 1.5 seconds out there). The RX-8 seemed prone to spinning-like-a-top with on-throttle and lift-throttle. Finished 20th in PAX on Saturday out of ~75 drivers.

Sunday
The forecast caleld for sunny skies, but with wind gusts up to 50mph. Due to the high gusts overnight, and the fact that the concrete pad goes right into the ocean, the tide had come up to cover a 1/3 of the course in water. Spun on 2 of my 4 runs again, and my best was a 44.1 (easily left another 2 seconds on the table). Finished 18th in PAX this day.

Summary (2-day combined)
1st of 1 in class
20th of 73 in PAX

2-Day Class Results

2-Day PAX Results


Some pics:

Goofing off with my buddy Jay in the high winds


Driving through the surf






SS Elise


STX BMW

[Chiketkd]

Two photo-series of my car in action:

[SSSVX]

looks like you guys're autoxing on the beach

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by SSSVX

looks like you guys're autoxing on the beach

After all the surf, sand and wind this past weekend it definitely felt that way.

[Chiketkd]

I competed in the annual BRR vs VMSC challenge at the Richmond International Raceway on Sunday. The course was the tightest I have ever run the RX-8 on with over 50% being done in 1st gear.

There were two other competitors in my class.

Summary:
1st of 3 in class
8th of 50 in PAX

'B Stock' Total Entries: 3
1T 170 170 Chike Dellimore 06 Mazda Rx-8 45.553 - -
2 92 92 Chad Henry 05 Mazda Rx-8 46.509 0.956 0.956
3 87 87 Chris Berry 87 Porsche 951 DNF*
*Porsche driver went off course on all of his runs

Some pics of the BRR drivers-

Chad


Dan


Martin


Ray


Myself



Other pics-

[SVXRide]

Chike,
Have you lowered your car?
-Bill

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by SVXRide

Chike,
Have you lowered your car?
-Bill

Bill,

Yes and no. The RX-8 comes with high pressure gas shocks from the factory. Switching to low-pressure konis casues the ride height to be reduced by ~1/2" iirc.

So no I haven't lowered my car (I'm still on factory springs), but yes the ride height is lower due to the koni shock installation.