Sunday, September 14, 2008

Hillclimb: Ascutney II, VT



Friday night, my long lost friend Steve joined me from NYC for a trip up to VT. It was a shitty rainy night and the going was slow, but it was a good drive after we met up with Alex of DSG with his 1JZGTE powered Dodge Raider. That's the twin turbo motor from a toyota Supra. His latest project car used to tow his race car ( EVO II GSR ). A totally awesome setup.

We conked out immediately when we got to the hotel at 1am.



The next morning the event began and the course was still pretty wet from the previous nights' rain. I wasn't too worried because FWD in the wet isn't treacherous. Just a guess, but this guy will probably do pretty well:



I could make a "hot chicks with douchebags" reference here, but I won't.

Here's some video Alex got of the GTR launching:



Anyway -- we had a full day of runs and it was fantastic. I was really scared at the beginning of the day -- the surface and quality of the road made the mini VERY sketchy, and the wet pavement made the car feel like it was sliding all over the place and a little out of control. I went slow. But the road dried up bit by bit as the day wore on, and the last run of the day was almost dry, so I had a lot more confidence. Also, by my fourth run I was starting to learn the course a bit.



Who is this jackass?



I think I absorbed the details of this course slower than I would have normally; the first two runs of the day I was paying attention to nothing but keeping the car on the road. Wait; actually I was paying a great deal of attention to the details of the course, the crowns, the camber, the wet spots, the different edges of the asphalt, but I was not learning the overall layout of the course at all. Kinda dumb. I need to learn to just relax and pay attention.

Here's my best run of the day:



Saturday night we went to an awesome restaurant for dinner in stabbyville. Shep left his number for the waitress. He never got a call.

Sunday we awoke to pouring rain with thunderstorms. BOOOOO. So Sunday's runs were cancelled and Steve and I went to breakfast at a seriously ass kicking Diner in Stab Vegas. Doesn't Alex look pumped?