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2021 solo nationals

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 8:01 am
by jcox07
ETR had a very good showing of drivers and finishing positions as we had 3 1st place finishers in XP-Randall and SSM -Eric and Cam S-Randy with Mark getting a trophy in A street and Cory getting a trophy in ES.... JY
Edit- thank you Chris ---Jed got a trophy in BSP for 4th place I think ....

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 8:49 am
by Buck05Sti
Way to represent ETR!

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 2:39 pm
by dewittpayne
Cool. I'm sure it didn't hurt that ETR now has most of its events at BMS. The only thing better would be a large concrete lot.

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 6:23 am
by MARKP
As I think Cory found out, concrete is a game changer. I was only able to make one concrete event this year and I had to work to try to figure some things out while I was out there.

Very proud of how our ETR family did.

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 8:26 am
by thrdeye
Jed trophied in BSP

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:37 pm
by steverife
Jason Collett also took 5th in XP.

And a couple of our visitors at events this year also won - Charles Krampert AS, Alex Piehl DS, and Ginette Jordan FSPL, with several others trophying.

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:08 am
by ConeEater
I didn't do well @ nationals, but had a blast as always. Like 2019, regardless of how I finished the courses were amazing and fun. It was good to see everyone from ETR out there and catch up some. While #s were 'down' a little, it was actually a GOOD thing. More space and things didn't feel like the days dragged on.
I was jumping around from region to region the whole time, so I never really sat around much.

finished 29th of 34 in a car I had never sat in until Wednesday for a couple TNT runs. STR was a blast to compete in. Super fun, fast and competitive.

Moving on to 2022 - looks like we'll have a class with Steve, Tom and myself in SSC. Hopefully, we can all run in the class and not pro and see how it all pans out.

Like others have said - if you've never been on concrete, no national courses can prepare you for it. Bristol, while a national course place, between elevation changes, real estate there and NOT concrete really doesn't help you to get your game face on for nationals itself. The closest to grip and terrain, go to Peru. Toledo is smoother and will trick you into thinking your car's ready for Lincoln.

HUGE congrats to all of the ETR people that went, regardless where you placed. Going to Lincoln itself is a win in itself.

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:51 am
by steverife
The longer that I autocross, the less certain I am about what it takes to prepare for Lincoln.

Lincoln grip is all over the place. It was wildly different from the Finale to Nats for me. And of course we ran Spring Nats in totally different conditions.

Bristol is a fantastic site and we are blessed to have it as our primary site. It prepares you for the bumps and we usually get a really fast sweeper or two, but we don't turn the car at speeds like you get at Lincoln.

Toledo is really really smooth. They have a weird on/off grain thing going on there. My car always pushes there. And it isn't big enough to see Lincoln speeds there.

IMO Peru is worthless other than competing and having fun at Peru. I seem to do relatively well there, but it is a usually a mix of pinchy tight stuff that you'd never see at Nats with a long straight where I barely turn the wheel.

I'm not sure Bristol doesn't prepare you for nats more than Peru or Toledo.

Spring Nats is a must and my favorite event of the year, but I think the big thing with Lincoln is that you either need to know how to turn knobs, adapt your driving style, or be really lucky. Probably a mix of the 3.

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:57 am
by ConeEater
ok, I can see the bumps @ Bristol being a help. I need to do spring nats sometime, but I'm really not into Pros.

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:18 am
by steverife
It is the best. You can get in a ton of practice runs (I didn't do any this year as I was trying to conserve tire, but I got 25+ in both 2017 and 2018). It is like nats, but it is a lot more laid back with 300 people instead of 1200. And school is out and you aren't dealing with 100k Nebraska football fans, so all the restaurants and whatnot aren't as crazy.

The only downside is that weather is probably even more unpredictable than in September.

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:14 pm
by ConeEater
good to know. If I don't make it into OneLap, I'll have some vacation to use.

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:33 am
by EliseAutoXr
Congratulations everyone!!

Re: 2021 solo nationals

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:16 pm
by MARKP
My .02 on prep for nats at various sites around,

Bristol isn't bad but the grip isn't there and our courses aren't anything like what you typically see out there. Our speeds are as high, if not higher at times. If you can make your car work on the bumps and Bristol, you won't have an issue with bumps at Lincoln.

Peru has the grip level (maybe even more) and I have seen some courses there in the past that were similar to some of the nationals stuff. The CAM event there had a course that was pretty similar to some of the elements at nationals this year. However, I have also been there when courses were all about horsepower and that was about it. I would consider that a hit and miss. I will say, their test and tune course, which is always the same, is pretty darn good. Peru bumps are similar to Lincoln bumps.

Toledo... Great people up there. I don't get along with that site. My car is always unpredictable there. My best finishes there have been in the rain. My best being in the monsoon that shut the event down early.

All that said, Lincoln is unique. The only place that you get the same experience is at Lincoln, on the same area that they run the national courses on. The test and tune course at Lincoln isn't the same as the course area. The cars handle different on TnT vs the competition courses. My car was neutral to pushy on the TnT and more loose than I would like on the national courses. I'm sure spring nats there is great but I just don't have the time available to travel 14+ hours for that event.