New Jersey Champ Tour 2014

Photo by Perry Aidelbaum - AutoX4U Photography

This was absolutely an amazing weekend at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey! I couldn't have asked for a better time. Great competition, amazing course, good company, and the car running at 100%. This was definitely my favorite National level event I have competed in. Because of this, I'm seriously debating heading out to Wilmington to see how I do there.

New Jersey ProSolo

Photo by Perry Aidelbaum - AutoX4U

John and I's first National level event for the season! It has been two years since my last ProSolo in New Jersey, but I wasn't as nervous as I was back in 2011. I was here to meet the competitors in S2, hopefully make some new friends, and show 'em what I've got. S2 is a new thing this year, in where it is a combination of BSP and DSP classes, and you race against each other using PAX times. Guess I still get to race in BSP after all! Technically anyways...

ProSolo At The New Jersey New Meadowlands Stadium

I just got back from my first ProSolo up in New Jersey over at the New Meadowlands Stadium. The entire event was absolutely amazing, and I wish ProSolo events were held locally more often. The atmosphere, the people, the format of the race, everything. I have plenty of pictures and videos from the event, but they don't give it justice. I highly recommend experiencing this at least once, even if just as a spectator. Check out the following links for some great photos of the event, thanks to AutoX4U, Vlad and Steguis. Below are links to the days posted, and then a description of how ProSolo works.

• Friday - The Road To Jersey
• Saturday - New Meadowlands ProSolo - Day 1
• Sunday - New Meadowlands ProSolo - Day 2
• Final Results
• AutoX4U Photo Gallery
• Vlad Photo Gallery
• Steguis Photo Gallery

Basics
On day 1, you get four runs (two runs each side) in the morning and four runs in the evening. Day 2 you only get four runs in the morning, giving you a total of twelve runs (or six each side) between the two days. Your final time is a total of your fastest run on both sides between the two days. You also get to see your reaction times and 60-ft times, but it does not contribute to your score.

After the morning runs on day 2 then has three challenges at the end of the day. The Gumout Super Challenge, where they take the winners of every class and have them compete against each other. Then they have the Ladies Challenge where they take the fastest female drivers and pit them against each other. Lastly, the Bonus challenge, where eight or sixteen people's names are pulled from a hat to race against each other.


Event Specifics
There are four Heats with two groups per heat. The groups consist of various car classes, going from slowest to fastest, and have to allocate for bump class. It also takes 5 entries to make a class. For example, Heat 3 had Group 5 and Group 6. Group 5 consisted of STU, R1 and R2, and Group 6 consisted of classes BSP and F125.

You have a grid area and then a staging area just before the course. When your heat is coming up to run, you line up in grid, side by side (paired up as they call it) to another car in your class. The grid is numbered and you are given that number at the start of the event, so you know where to grid. As you progress throughout the day, your grid number will change based on your position in your class, so be sure to frequently watch the board for your results and grid position. In grid you can water the tires, check pressures, anything you need to do. Once they are ready for your car class from your group, they bring your entire car class forward to the staging area. If you were in grid on the left, you would go to the left course first, and if you were on the right, then the right course. If you get out of line and lose your pair, your car is done running. You can only take a 10 minute mechanical BEFORE you start running, so if something breaks, you have to either keep running or forfeit the rest of your runs.

In the staging area, you CANNOT get out of your car. If you have a co-driver or a partner, they can check your tire pressures, adjust shocks, turn on/off your camera, but that is it...So it can be helpful to have a partner. As the cars move up in the line, you get your helmet scanned of your name, then move up to the timing lights (known as the "Christmas Tree"). As you're moving up, you have 20 seconds to do a quick burnout to warm up the tires if you want, and then line up with the staging lights.

As you'll see in the videos, you have two lights you need to light up as you are lining up within the 20 seconds. The lights are pre-stage and stage, and are lit up based on your line-up across the beam of lights from the small metal boxes to each side of the car. The first beam is your pre-stage, followed by your stage beam, and the last beam is your starting beam. You want to make sure that you just barely have the stage light lit on the Christmas Tree, as you only have 17 inches between the stage light and the starting light. They allow you to reverse the car if you need to in order to get lined up properly. If you have small accents in front of the car, beware. The pre-stage light can become unlit since it can see past the accent piece (like my RX-8 because of the rotor accent in the front, so I had to line up at a very slight angle).

From here, the 20 seconds finishes counting down, (unless it is a manual start, where the starter will point to each driver lined up to confirm the driver is ready to race) the lights will begin to go. 3 yellows, and then a green. If you pass the starting beam before the green light is lit, you get a red light and your run does not count. The best reaction time you can get when launching is half a second (.500) as that is exactly the time between the lights illuminating. Some people like to be conservative when launching so they do not lose a run by getting a red light. Most people tend to launch right as they see the third yellow light, that way after a small wheel spin, their car will accelerate forward just as the green light comes on.

Once you go on the course and complete your run, you come off the course and go behind the staging area to crisscross over to the other side of the course. Again, you CANNOT get out of the car when you are in the staging area. Once you are done with your four runs, you pull away from the staging area to the dual driver grid area so that you can have your five minutes to switch drivers. Once he is done, or if you raced alone, you bring your car over to impound. Here, everyone opens their trunk and hood so everyone can make sure that all cars are class legal, and then wait for the class results. If there are no protests and everyone is okay with the results, you then can leave impound and head back to the paddocks.

New Meadowlands ProSolo - Day 2

B Street Prepared Evolutions are what I've been aiming to chase for awhile now with this build, and though I still believe the car has the potential to catch them, even within a second of their time, I just am still not driving to that limit. I did much better in my last four runs, but still not good enough to move up in position, taking 9th out of 10th at the end of the day. Brian secured 8th as he got a little bit faster as well as he became increasingly more and more comfortable with the car.

My fastest time on the left course today was a 31.975 and a 31.522 on the right. Big difference compared to yesterday, but again, not enough. Brian took home a 31.342 on the left, and a 31.594 on the right. Others were surprised that the car was even close to the times of the Evolutions, but unfortunately I wasn't able to overcome my road block.

Photo by Steve Steguis - Steguis Photography

All in all, I had a blast for the three days I was here in New Jersey. I learned more as a driver, was pleased about the feedback of my car, and enjoyed the ProSolo racing format. Congratulations to many people from the NER crew who got to take home a trophy with them, especially since this was a first ProSolo for many of them.

Photo by Steve Steguis - Steguis Photography

The next time I have some free time and spare money, you better believe I will be attending a ProSolo. The adrenaline rush and excitement is just unlike any other form of autocross. Seeing that my car had the ability in her, but not in myself, only motivates me to become a faster driver and learn to adapt to different venues quicker. By my next ProSolo I will have the final touches completed on my car and my skills will be polished enough to hopefully take home a trophy. Until then, time to head back home where I await my next race at Devens for this coming Saturday. Below are a few more launch videos, as well as Brian and I's fastest runs on the left, then the right course.

New Meadowlands ProSolo - Day 1

Day 1 of the ProSolo and what a Beautiful day out! It's about 80 degrees, with some hot pavement on the lot to work with, so plenty of grip. I managed to keep my very fast reaction times luckily, getting a .507 for my first run as well.
It seemed that launching in the damp was about the same as launching in the dry, slipping the clutch and giving it gas right at the third light was the key while making sure the RPM's were between 4-5. The two courses were a lot of fun with a nice mix of transitions, a hard sweeper, then the end was all mostly late apex turns.

Photo by Steve Steguis - Steguis Photography

Brian finished the day with 7th place while I took 8th right behind him. My best results for the day was a .507 reaction time on the left, .560 on the right, a 2.273 60-ft time, and a 33.410 on the left with a 32.254 on the right course. Brian bagged a .607 best reaction time on the left and a .556 on the right, with a 2.181 60-ft time, and a best time of 32.548 on the left, and a 32.021 on the right.
Brian was progressively getting faster where as I seemed to be getting worse and worse. I'm not sure if it was the pressure or something else, but my afternoon runs were so bad, they may as well have just been red lights. Hopefully tomorrow I'll pull myself out of this slump and get back on track! Below is a video of one of my launches, as well as my two fastest runs for the day, and Brian's two fastest runs for the day.