UMI Performance Autocross July 25 and 26

[IROCZman15]

What an AWESOME AWESOME event.

Short Version:
Scott was able to get me a spot to compete at the UMI Performance 2 day autocross event just this past weekend out at the UMI Racetrack in PA. BTK, Scott, and Joe with the Nova also were there. We had a BLAST. I street drove the car there and back (and went to a car show Sunday too), logging a total of 596 miles of seat time in 4 days. The car did very well for my power level and my street treadwear tires. Of course I finished at the bottom of the pack, but that is to be expected when you are up against well seasoned drivers in purpose built autocross cars. There were only maybe 5 imports total, an the rest of the field was vintage or modern american muscle cars. UMI fed us lunch both days and also had us over to their fabrication shop/warehouse for a tour and BBQ one night too. Parking lot party happened on multiple nights as well. It took me a few days to get the photos uploaded and videos too, but most of them are here. What an awesome experience!!

Long version (added 8/1/19):
When this event was first opened up for registration, I did not expect it to sell out right away. I signed up a bit too late though, and was put on the wait list. As the event date approached and I still had not heard anything.... I decided maybe I would go spectate for a day. I reached out to Scott and BTK to see if they were still going, and minutes later Scott was asking if I wanted to take someone's spot that was not going to be able to compete. I checked my calendar and was able to get off from work early Thursday, and the wife was going to be out of town friday/saturday/sunday so I told Scott YES! Paid the $150 to the guy who couldn't make it and a few emails later to confirm everything with Alisha at UMI and I was in. Tried booking a room at the event's host hotel, but it was all booked up, so I got one 30 seconds down the road instead. In the days leading up to the event I prepped the car, packed my gear and got all set.

Left work at 3pm on Thursday and then finally hit the road at 4:30 pm. I knew Rt 80 westbound at that time of day was going to be busy, and it was for about 20 miles of NJ. Once I got into PA and past the east stroudsburg area things opened up, and minus the one big construction merge/delay... things went pretty smooth. Had to stop or fuel twice and for a quick subway sandwich dinner. Finally got to the hotel around 8:30 and met up with everyone there. Hungout in the parking lot until about 10:30 and then finally checked into my hotel.

Work up early on Friday and headed over to the track (about 15 minute drive through foggy morning air up in the mountains). Unpacked all my tools, floorjack, jackstands, spare wheel/tire, gear etc on the outfield staging area and then drove into the track/grid to register. I was given #11 (which was the guy's # I bought the registration spot from). we were put into grid as we happened to roll up, so not in any sort of class based run group. I only had time to walk the course once, and wish I had been able to do it 2 more times, but oh well. We got through 4 runs before a 12:00 lunch (provided free by UMI). My first run I missed a cone aka "went off the course" which is understandable. The others were clean, but I was still figuring it all out and my turning in/out points. After lunch we got 3 more runs. I tagged a cone during 2 of them and on the other one.. after I was coming off of the high-banked inward 90deg turn the car stalled out and I had to quick put it in neutral, refire it, and drop it in gear to continue. the car was getting very low on fuel and the banked inward 90 turn on a non-baffled 3rd gen fuel tank probably was the cause of the stall. In the afternoon runs I started using a 2 second blast of nitrous on the one straight away just to close the gap quicker (and because I don't have big horsepower to do so).

After the 7 runs we packed up some stuff and headed back to the hotel to get showered/reset. UMI had invited all of us to come to their workshop/factory/headquarters for a free BBQ dinner and shop tour. It was about 45 mins from the track (so about 30 mins from the hotel). Got fuel again and Scott drove with me in my car. Billy The Kid and Joe with the nova, drove over with his/our buddy Curt who has a beautiful 1970 LeMans (but was not competing in UMI just spectating). The shop was super cool to see. welding stations, cnc machines, laser jet machines, shipping, powdercoating areas and the workshop. dinner was great too. Afterwards we drove the 30 mins back to the hotel and hungout in the parking lot, some of us until about 12 midnight.


Woke up early the next morning, packed up my hotel room, had hotel breakfast, and drove to the track again. topped off on fuel again during the ride. They had us stage/grid differently(diagonally), which was much better. I got 4 runs in before lunch at 12 noon, once again free lunch bbq from UMI and the local bbq place they hired to feed us. On these runs I manually kept the torque converter locked up, and still did the 2 second nitrous blast on the one straight shot between the chicago box and the banked 90 deg right hand turn. After lunch, my goal was just to break into the 54 second time zone and I was able to do it twice..with my best lap of the weekend being a 54.335. All 6 runs on Saturday were clean and cone free. During the down time I took lots of photos (see photo album link below and a few dozen I attached on here) and spent lots of time talking with better drivers about technique and driving skill. They had the awards ceremony around 4:30 or so, but prior to that I loaded up all my tools, jacks, wheel, and aired my tires back up for the long ride home. Drove rt 80 for about 2 hours and needed fuel and a sandwich. After that drove another 2ish hours home to my front door exhausted and happy. I had previously decided that if the drive home went well, maybe I would get the car prepped and ready for a Sunday car show in Mountain Lake (western NJ by Blairstown). So I unloaded the car, put all my gear away, reinstalled the trunk's sound system and cleaned up the interior. It was 11pm and a few neighbors came by to hangout in the garage so I had to wait until early morning to wash the filth off the car.

7:30am Sunday, I washed the car real good. Drove the 40 mins to the show, sat in the heat, hungout with some people I knew there, and then drove home. From the time I left on Thursday until the time I got home sunday afternoon, I put exactly 596 miles on the car!! As for damage, I was alerted that I have a single bulb out on the 5 bulb center brake light!! intense stuff! I also have had a slightly slightly warped drivers side rear rotor, and the slicing/scuffing sound it makes is annoying, but has no noticeable effect on brake performance. I think it has been this way since the June 2nd Autocross in PA. My speedometer needle has been bouncing especially at low speeds, despite a brand new (fully lubed) speedo cable in February, and a new black driven gear at the trans also in February. Lastly, I need to have my rear fenders rolled, because I hit a few dips in the roads at speed with all my tools/gear in the trunk and the tire rubs enough where a few slices of upper sidewall tread were noticed as being cut. To be competitive in this level of autocross with these cars I certainly need more horsepower (engine coming December 2019) and a better set of performance tires. Me as a driver will improve with more and more seat time. brakes and suspension are great, no changes needed. Despite finishing towards the bottom of the mid-muscle class and the bottom of the cars competing overall... I had a total blast for 4 awesome car days in a row and the car did great for what it is capable of!





link to whole photo album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/iroczm...57709997099141







some photos

[IROCZman15]

photos at the UMI fabrication shop:

[IROCZman15]

more photos:



























-washed up the car early morning and went to a car show the next day in north western nj (mountain lake)

[sweetbmxrider]

Nice ride out there, so cool that you do what you do. Would love to spectate one year. Will have to get bls to force me into it

[Blackbirdws6]

They run a top notch event and it's extremely reasonably priced for what's included. There are so many nice cars to check out too.

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

Nice ride out there, so cool that you do what you do. Would love to spectate one year. Will have to get bls to force me into it

Yes you will be forced next year.....

[PolarBear]

You used my screen grabs, lol

[IROCZman15]

Thanks guys. Yea it is top notch event indeed. for $150 you get 2 full days autocrossing on a real deal track, 3 full meals, an event T-shirt, shop tour (ours was given by Scott and it was very comical), and get to really push your car and yourself along with about 100 other drivers and friends. good times indeed

Also, they have stuff for kids too: a bouncey-house, a mini-autocross course with R.C. cars, food, i think face-painting.. and MOST IMPORTANTLY... RIDE-ALONGS in the UMI team cars. I don't remember them saying a specific age, but tons of kids were getting 5-point harness strapped into the high-horsepower, purpose built, UMI driven team cars and doing laps out onthe same course we wee running. how cool is that!

Ha yea, I did use your screenshots too! they are pretty cool. I think they are from the 10 minute video on youtube... Our cars are towards the front in the middle two columns of cars. And the blue canopy (R.I.P. broken canopy) is where we hungout when we were taking a break from the perfect weather but hot sun.



Lateral-G.net also did a nice (short) writeup of the event, along with some high-quality photos of cars on the track.
here: https://lateral-g.net/umi-autocross-challenge-2019/

Pro-Touring.com also did a writeup and there are two drone videos after the photos on this page:
https://www.pro-touring.com/content/...-2019-Results?




I just got a chance to type up my "long version" of the event. It is up in post #1 on this page if anyone was looking for it.



I'll try to get the videos put up here next

[BonzoHansen]

I give great tours. I should work there. Lol

This picture of us on the way out sets the tone perfectly.

[BTK79]

Definitely! Hooray beer ! Then autocross ....

[IROCZman15]

ok for the videos:

2 videos from pro-touringTV filmed by the drone
Saturday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFXtql32vFA
Friday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmzf3P9DXn8


My videos can be seen on my youtube upload page here, there are about 13 "short" videos https://www.youtube.com/user/IROCZma..._as=subscriber

but here are a few:
Walking through the staging area on Saturday morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uKZJ6k47IA

A lap on the track on Friday. I think I ran a 56.000 that time so I was happy, untill I realized I zipped a +1 cone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA4Ravj6qKE

The lap on the course where the car stalled out on the course from the GoPro (skip to the 2:30 min mark to start the run, and then the stall out is at the hard right hand turn just before the infield segment) I had to click from 2 up to neutral, restart the car, and then back into 3rd. still ran a 61.xx somehow?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRrr7Ta6H4Y



Me, Scott, and Joe on the track filmed by Curt. I think Scott tagged a few cones on this one!! It was one of the last runs of the day/event so we were all pushing it as hard as we could
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuUIDD6Ynqo



one of the ones I filmed with my GoPro is upside down.... is there any way you guys know of to fix this footage so it is right side up?
--also, my GoPro camera batteries (two of them) got used up so fast... they should have lasted a lot longer. thats why I only have a few dozen minutes of footage from two batteries. whats that about!?!?

[Blackbirdws6]

The GoPro software will allow you to invert the image. The setting is in there as you work through the editor.

As for the batteries, that's GoPro life. You need to keep them pretty topped off and store them full. Heat or cold will cause the batteries to drop off in charge.

[sweetbmxrider]

Or you can rig them up to run off of a constant power source. Google can show you some ideas for sure.

[IROCZman15]

cool. I'll look into it. I was disappointed because i fully charged both batties before leaving my house and got very little life out of them


here are some photos from someone's google drive album. much better quality than the photos I took

that album link:


https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...U4alZHVzVNSGxn

some photos















[

[Blackbirdws6]

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing.

[ar0ck]

I saw Scotts car on the UMI Instagram Story actually, meant to share that but must have deleted it! Looks awesome.

[IROCZman15]

UMI official recap video (only 2 mins long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu2OfjXksMs

man, it was a ton of fun. I would love to do this more often, that's for sure. car shows are becoming boring