2019 Nats! Registration opens ...



revvhappy

Member
First Name
Peter
Joined
Jun 28, 2019
Threads
2
Messages
26
Reaction score
12
Location
Georgia
Vehicle(s)
2019 CTR, 1985 Supra endurance race car
Country flag
Top 3 (and 5 out of the top 6) in DS are CTRs on day one. Jen W comfortably in the Top 10 (Racing maniac) - nice driving!
 

RacingManiac

Senior Member
First Name
Jen
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Threads
5
Messages
552
Reaction score
302
Location
Detroit, Michigan
Vehicle(s)
2016 VW GTI, 2018 ABM CTR R-17001
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
@apexit53 is crushing it in DS though. Mike is putting on a clinic just like he did at Peru Champ Tour...

One more day to go, hopefully not screw up too much for me...lol
 


apexit53

Senior Member
First Name
Mike
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Threads
24
Messages
362
Reaction score
219
Location
Madison WI
Vehicle(s)
23 CTR, 23 Integra aspec MT
Country flag
Ive been at. loss of words, I have gotten so many congratulations and everyone as been amazing! Im mad I forgot my camera, half way to Nebraska I realized it was sitting at my computer lol.

This had been a goal of mine when I started going to national events 9 years ago. Oddly enough my fist nats was in a 2010 cobalt turbo in D stock at the time. finished 15th I think of 32... Few different classes learning different cars and driving styles later here I am.

I have to say I didn't expect to win knowing the level of competition and drivers we had in DS this year. I felt pretty good on day one and wasn't to difficult of a course so I went out as fast as I could tying down a solid clean run knowing some fast people were running right behind me. Ended up fixing a few mistakes on my last run, none were perfect but I managed to drop a second on my last run to get down to a 66.0. Type Rs were in the top 3!

Day two, the nerve his. no matter the size of the lead you still need to be clean.. that was clearly in my head on my 1st run. Go out, be safe but fast! I had swapped my tires front to rear that morning and the OPR was bad, 1st turn bad understeer, but I knew it would happen so I planned for it. It wasn't a great run but it was clean and in the books. My nerves calmed a little after that, and felt good enough to push harder. By my last run I managed to get down to a 66.4. Day two was almost a bit of a local course for me. We lost out event site this year but Jason has been designing courses for us for years. the elements, the looks, felt very similar. I feel like that helped a bit!

Awesome job by everyone! I wish we could have got all the Type Rs together and get a photo.

Its an odd but great feeling. the monkey is off my back, but use also had a good run of being an unknown and I like that. I like being the hunter not the hunted lol.

We shall see if I stick with the type R, Emilia has been good to me this year, and its one of the 1st cars ive had where I have an invested sentimental value now.

EDIT:

for those that know me I go by Mike Leeder for autoX, hyphenated last name and easier to say than Nachtigal lol.
 

burglar

Senior Member
First Name
Matt
Joined
Oct 29, 2018
Threads
3
Messages
124
Reaction score
97
Location
Troy, Mi
Vehicle(s)
Civic
Country flag
Congrats on getting the Civic R moved to BS next year, Mike!

I kid, I kid...
 

RacingManiac

Senior Member
First Name
Jen
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Threads
5
Messages
552
Reaction score
302
Location
Detroit, Michigan
Vehicle(s)
2016 VW GTI, 2018 ABM CTR R-17001
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
Mike crushed it as expected, after Peru I was pretty sure he will shock everyone and awesome to see that he did(well not so awesome for the rest of us but we had a good time among ourselves squabbling for 2nd...)...

Didn't get to a great start on day 2 scrambling to get the VSC to turn off at the line and then promptly spinning into the corner before showcase. Not great, still pushed for the rest of the run and was able to compare data with codriver after his pretty good 1st run to see that I am not doing anything wrong after the spin. Went out and pushed for run 2 and got a good raw time but coned at a dumb spot. 3rd run had a 1-2 shift issue that spooked me and went a bit conservative for the rest. Good enough to salvage a plastic trophy in the end but nothing to write home about. Had my run 2 been clean would be able to go 2-3 with my codriver Ken Tsang....woulda, coulda, shoulda. Thats autoX. Not too disappointed for the 1st year in the car this year, took me a while to get the GTI where it was so to be competitive the first year its pretty encouraging. Yokohama didn't seem to affect this class as much so thats good also.

Too bad @Banannie didn't join our DS party as I'd bet she would be smoking fast in the car. She crushed GSL with time good enough for 2nd in GS open but you can only have 2 drivers in 1 car and Sam and Lance already are in GS. Amazing drive. Lance I think coned away a win from his smoking raw time and came up just shy. GS battle was fun to watch from the side for once.

I have pictures but will take me a few days to get through for the GS folks.
 


 


Top