Thanks for the compliments. Like I said, I came knowing I had an overheating problem and a brake problem. I got the overheating fixed on Saturday and probably could have sourced a master cylinder of the correct bore size from you guys too, if I had been thinking.

I am tidying up some wiring and getting set to send it up to Wegner next week for tuning. Telly will take it from there and address a couple small things paint wise. The guys from Baer are working on a solution to my MC problem and I'll be good to go.

Like I said, the compliments and support from all you guys re-energized me. Thank you very much!

Scott, do you need my address? The hard luck award was really unexpected, but much appreciated.

Thanks for the cleaning stuff and tie wraps....

I drank more of your beer than the tie wraps and spray shine were worth. :cheers:

Hi guys, Chad Higdon here. The little scrawny guy from Lanes that was hanging around all weekend. First of all, I wanted to say thanks to all the vendors who helped pull this off, and to Steve for all the behind scenes help (he did alot more than most of you know). Secondly, thank you to all of you who participated in the event. It was a awesome turn out for a first year event, and we couldn't be more happy with the results.
Lastly, for the dirt. This event was two fold. First it was to get a bunch of speed craving, car loving people together to have a great weekend (which will hopefully turn into an annual gig, I'm pulling for it!) Also, it was to help promote business not just for us, but also thru our dealer network. I urge all of you to support your local speed shops and the dealers who you see year in and year out at these events. I know clicking a mouse and shopping the big mail order guys may often be easier and cheaper, but it comes down to supporting local businesses and the guys who come play with you. Many of the guys you hung out with this past weekend and you see at RTTTH's are wholesale dealers for us and can get you any parts we offer (which is over 400 brands) just as easy as they get them for their own cars and projects. So, to sum it up... If you need anything, give me a call. I can get you in touch with a dealer in your area, a dealer who supports this forum board or I can get you what you need if the other routes don't pan out. Or just call to say hi, I'll be at my desk possibly needing relief from a street rod guy who never drives his ride. LOL

Again, thanks for the great weekend everyone.
Chad Higdon
Motor State Distributing/Lane Automotive
Senior Sales Rep.
1-800-772-2678 ext 239

Caveat 1.
I always look for the results a various events to see if it can help guide some of my decisions.

Caveat 2. I have never participated in an event like this and as an Ex drag racer will admit I dont understand some of it.

Here goes the question. Upon review of the data can one draw any conclisions?
Does the variations in tires and Horsepower make side by side comparisons Mute?

Conclusions? No. Hypotheses? Sure. Nothing wrong with a little bench racin'. I'll give it a try since I spent more time looking and analyzing as event technical director than driving as a participant. I'll try to prioritize.
If you want to be competitive:
1) Experience: Driver experience is number one. Ryan Matthews, Mark Stielow, Jake Parrott, Dave Pozzi, Matt Altamore, Randy Bell, etc. These guys all have experience. And in many cases, experience could make up for horsepower. Aside from getting it right the first time, experienced drivers know how to properly compensate for oversteer, understeer, wheel lock, etc. If necessary, borrow the wife's car and go get some experience and schooling. If she asks why her car smells like burning rubber.....:rolleyes: Never mind that .010" difference in bumpsteer between brands--learn how to drive.

2) Power: Gingerman has two 1/4 mile straights plus another 900ft straight. So horsepower definitely plays a role. If you want to be top ten 400HP plus experience will get you there. If you want to be top doggie, 600HP helps.

3) Reliability and Tune: Unfortunately, words and pictures cannot describe how hard we beat on these cars. Hoover, Mulvey's high dollar 69, looked like it had driven thru the apocalypse when we unloaded it on Tuesday. Mad Max would be proud. As hot rodders, we tend to focus on choosing the most trick parts possible. The goodies are useless unless you spend time working out the bugs.

4) Suspension: Just scanning the results, you can see that all of the top cars thru, for example, the top ten second gap 1:35-1:45 (and then some) all have some type of link or arm type rear suspension. Four link, Torque Arm, 3 link, Truck Arm. There are a coupla cars that I'm unsure of, but leaf spring cars appear to rank beyond that 10 second range. That's an OBSERVATION. Would the Pozzis be competitive if they brought their leaf spring equipped 2nd gen? Sure. That's why I listed Driver Experience as number 1.

In addition, soft street setups (i.e. 350 lb front springs and skinny stabilizer bars) do not fall within a competitive range. Soft setups are for show cars. I think we will see our hobby move towards bigger springs as well as a better understanding of stabilizer (anti-roll) bars.

5) Tires: The tire rule was min 100 treadwear. The fastest overall time on the road was posted on BFG KDW's at 300 TW. Second fastest on Michelin PS2's at 220 TW. Third fastest on 100 TW Toyo R888. Dave Pozzi and Matt Altamore also ran R888's. Then we have more PS2's and KDW's. Ditto on the Auto-X. Pozzi ran fastest overall on R888's with Kyle Tucker posting the only other sub 30 second run on 300 TW KDW's. The margin between those two runs? Two hundredths of a second. That's .02 if you're mathematically challenged. Conclusion? Hypothesis? I made the rule. I defended it all weekend. Took some heat over it also. Suffice it to say that I'm biased in favor of this rule. Someone else can form a hypothesis.

Very impressive to win on 300 compounds. I have recently realized the advantages from 220 to 100 compounds and it's night and day.

As a newbie, I feel that stickier tires are an asset. I felt much safer running around on R888's. My first impression on the R888's is that I could do no wrong. In hindsight, I now know that I could have pushed even harder.

For experienced drivers, sticky tires appear to have helped compensate for lack of power on the straights.

Aww, see? I'm drawing conclusions....

Thanks Steve. So if you were trying to Monday morniing QB how would you weigh tires (100 vs 200 vs 300 ) aginst HP say 600 agains 450?

What I mean is the top 10 numbers look really close. The top Dog had 150 or more HP then everyone else but ran on harder tires.
Thanks for the educated guess :thumbsup:

Just an aside.. there's really no difference in the rubber of a PS2 and a KDW. I've been researching this for a story, interviews, drurometer testing, and they seem to be the same softness. From what I gather the 300 rating on a KDW is marketing deal. Still they are a lot harder than my 100 treadwear tires.

So, I will add one more conclusion to Steve's list. Suspension Tuning.. DSE is ran like a race team. When they enter the pits the cars are checked, adjusted and tweaked. They really know how to tune a suspension and it shows. You can have all the fancy parts in the world and they are useless if not set up the right way for how you're driving. Knowledge is power and DSE has a lot of it.

Same with Stielow, although to a less degree. But they ran the car at Gingerman before the event and figured out they needed new rear springs (so they changed them in a monsoon.. lol).

I personally learned that if I want the car fast in BOTH the roadcourse and the autocross then the car needs to be adjusted between the two events. I need to change rear bar rate and I need to adjust my shocks. Again, tuning is very important, to the point of being critical when you are talking seconds and tenths.