Season opener recaps: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Treadwear

Off to CAMT for now ... or ... forever?

The Camaro is not for sale. Well, everything is for sale to a certain extent. But after only getting interest from three people -- and then all of them ghosting me without even making an offer -- I decided to keep the car. If "keep" is the right word. 

(And as I typed the first draft, I received a Facebook message asking if it has a clean title -- I guess I didn't end the ad on marketplace.)

I had some offseason plans, but those plans got ghosted, too. The car is exactly as it was after finishing the last WDCR autocross in October.

Well, sort of the same. 

The SCCA has decided to replace the canceled New Jersey Pro Solo with one at FedEx Field. I mean, Northwest Stadium. Because Buckwheat says Northwest is O-tay! (That's a callback to Bob Wiltfong doing Top 10 lists at pep rallies at Creighton Prep so absolutely nobody reading this understands the joke.)

With that in mind, I decided to save my Hoosiers and slap on the Yokohama A052s for the first WDCR autocross on March 30 in Waldorf. I signed up in C-Prepared but found out "Big" Mike Snyder decided to bail on the class and convert his Mustang to CAM specs. And Polish Oborski ... who knows what his plans are?

With Phil Knowles the only driver entered in CAM-T with his fourthgen Camaro SS, I pinged him asking if he wouldn't mind me switching over to CAM-T. I don't have carpet or any interior plastic other than the dashboard, but I reasoned that shouldn't make a difference since I have a four-point rollbar and 50 pounds of lead to offset the weight of the missing interior pieces. The minimum weight for CAM-T is 3,180 with the driver, and I'm easily over that.

So off to CAM for the first time! Luckily, back when I had numbers and CP graphics made by AutoX Graphics, I had CAMT magnetics made, too!

Mike was going to be co-driving with Sam Strano in CAM-C, and I was anxious to see how I would stack up with them and Phil. 

At this point, I should note that Mike owned my car at one point, and Sam won his first Solo National Championship in it. There's history there!

I under-drove on my first run, hit cones on my second and third runs, went in too hot in a section on my fourth run, and then hit a cone on my last run. So I had to stand on my first run which was slow because it was my only clean run. Which has never happened before. At least not this year!

Here's my last, albeit dirty, run:

Looking at raw times, though, it appears the Camaro may not be a bad choice for CAM-T:

Sam: 39.5
Me: 40.0
Mike: 40.1

Phil: 40.4

Keep in mind, CAM-C is a "faster" class with a slightly harder PAX than CAM-T. Mike's Mustang was having power issues (speculating leftover E85 from last year) but that probably meant we were making the same power. Ha ha!

Since it now appears there won't be any local competition in CP, I might as well join the skreet tire crowd and move to CAM. I'll still run CP at the DC Pro Solo and probably the rest of the year to kill the Hoosiers (not much market for used 315 Hoosiers for 17-inch rimz nowadays) but then will add the interior bits back in the car and move on to CAM-T.

Another offseason idea I had was to drive the Camaro in hill climbs. Since the car just needs a four-point rollbar -- which is already in the car -- and a fire extinguisher, and I would need a HANS and driver suit, it wouldn't be a stretch to compete there. However, the closest hill climbs are more than three hours away. And they are Saturday-Sunday events.

Get Fast Events has been holding "trackcrosses" at some of the small tracks at Summit Point. Basically driving portions of the tracks without any cones to hit. They aren't "track days" as there aren't multiple cars on the track for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. It's like a time trial with a handful of timed runs.

Looking at Motorsportsreg, there was going to be one with Out Motorsports on the Shenandoah Circuit April 5 and 6, so I signed up for that. Classing was simple -- the Camaro was in the modified class for cars with 300+ horsepower. That's it. About six classes total.

I haven't driven on track in more than 10 years (on the Shenandoah with the Lightning!) and the Camaro has never been on track, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Granted it was only going to be about half the track, but I was still concerned about brakes (fourthgen F-Body calipers and rotors) and engine heat.

On Saturday morning, I was in the first group, and we did two parade laps to get familiar with the course. No course walks!

I took it easy on my first run. On my second run, I spun in the first right-hander after the start. Uphill, off camber when making the turn. And didn't put the clutch in, so the car stalled. Then took about a minute (maybe more!) before it re-started.

I was having an issue shifting into fourth gear before going through the finish. Then I finally started getting that, and then couldn't upshift to third after down-shifting to second in a couple sections. Finally, I decided to leave the car in third gear after the start -- it has enough torque down low that it shouldn't make a huge difference. 

For the afternoon session, we ran the course in the opposite direction, which is actually the normal direction when driving the entire track. Looking at a track map, the courses were between S12 and S22, starting in that pit lane that connects the two. I think I drove better in the afternoon -- didn't worry about up/down shifts between second and third, and I had driven that direction before. Albeit 10+ years ago. In a pickup truck!

On Sunday, we moved to the Washington Circuit, aka, the kart pad where most of the autocrosses are held. I've had the Camaro here twice but never completed any event. The first time was when the first fuel pump started dying, and I didn't make a run. Then I did one run before the skies dumped rain, and everybody in CP decided to bail because of the standing water on the course.

Mother Nature decided to rain on Sunday, but it wasn't nearly as bad as that last event I mentioned. There were also about 30 cones on course -- with maybe three meaningful -- so it was kind of a "choose your own adventure." Like the day before, we ran the course in one configuration in the morning and ran it the opposite configuration in the afternoon.

We had about 20 runs over the weekend, and the Camaro made it through unscathed despite trying to rip the muffler off on every run. If we had to run a configuration on the Shenandoah with The Carousel, I'm not sure if the exhaust would have made it!

Not sure how I ended up in the overall results because it appears they don't post them, but I think I was top five in raw time on each course. Well if they don't post results, I can just say I had FTD on every course! Yeah, FTD on every course!

Here's a video compilation of my fast runs from each course plus some ... extras:

Next up is another WDCR autocross on May 4 -- looking to drive in CP on the Yokohamas unless there's some CAM competition. Then it's the Pro Solo May 17 and 18. It will be my first Pro Solo since 2014 when Adam George won ESP with me in second and Karen in third with 0.038 seconds separating the three of us! Mustang-Camaro-WRX.