First run: The tires still had all sorts of marbles stuck to them from the track day at Sears Point and stuck accordingly. From the start line there was 20 feet of straight till the first corner. I reved the engine to about 2k and launched. Instead I lit the tires up and had to grab 2nd before the corner. It continued to roast the tires through the corner and about 3/4 of the way down the first short straight where I had to get on the brakes. Into a short slalom, the car was all over the place but continued to go in more or less the correct direction. Exited out onto a top of 2nd gear straight (sideways), on the brakes to setup for a hairpin left that dumped out into a top of 3rd gear straight. On the brakes for a hard right hander, downshift to 2nd, (I might have been able to pull 3rd through the corner, it might have been faster.) Roll into the throttle (car gets sideways with power application but straightens out). Grab 3rd again. On the brakes, for another hairpin. Grab 2nd and roll into the gas....... and the back end steps out and doesn't want to come back. Around I go. I got it pointed back in the right direction and took off. Made the hard right hander and ripped through another slalom into a bottle neck right hander. Got the car set, into a hard narrow left hander and through another short slalom. I crossed the timing light only slightly sideways. After posting an embarrassingly slow time I rolled back to grid. Checked tire pressure. Adjusted accordingly.
Run 2: kept it going in the right direction, timing light error. Rerun.
Rerun: took 10 seconds off my first time, tires started to show some heat in them.
Run 3: clean felt smooth, gained 1 second.
Run 4: knowing the whole shooting match was on the line I went for it. Tires had some heat in them but not much. They stuck far better than the first run, but I still suffered from too much power and not enough grip. (Ambient air temp was colder than it was when I got there.)
I ran a 58.124, It might have been good for 2nd. The class winner was out on track tires (rather than autoX tires.) and apparently having his wife do her runs before him was the hot setup as he ran a 56 something on warm tires.
After that it was time to pack up and go looking for sun. I didn't find any till I got to San Jose. Normally cold doesn't bother me, but I was cold this time.
The new seats were nice, the weight loss was noticeable, I think I pulled 30lbs out of the car. Driving possition was different but fine. I liked not sliding out of the seat or having the shoulder harnesses slip off. The car wasn't down on power, but due to the temperature I couldn't really harness the power it was making. At least the freak no grip situation that I had last time was gone. (It was pushing and oversteering all at once.) I just had power induced oversteer today.
Will