Well, I can say that the surface at HPT has improved since our first event in April. It seems that anything after heat 1 on day 1, once the dust is gone, that the surface seems to be a Medium Grip Asphalt surface. The main difference that I noticed at HPT compared to your average asphalt suface was that there is a very fine line between over-driving and under-driving. And, to achieve that line takes very precise driving. I'm not completely sure why this is, I have not experienced this at my local asphalt surface. Maybe its because the asphalt is newer and still soft.

On day 1, I ran DSP, was able to PAX 19th in DSP, but, was beaten badly by Paul Leonard(has beaten the DSP National Champ in Denver I hear) by roughly 1.2 on raw time on a 62 second course. The course was very wide open with several wider open slaloms, so, not sure if I would have been closer if the course would have been tighter or not, but, 1.2 seconds is about enough to end my DSP campaign for this season. I'm now going to mainly concentrate on STX. For day 2, I decided to run STX, instantly, we realized that the car was much much better tuned for STX. Rotation was very predictable and was easy to induce when needed. Wheelspin was a non-issue with my 17's on 235/40/17 Yoko's. I have the 225/45/15 Hankooks on the way, so, I'll report on those after the July Regional event. Anyway, in STX on day 2, I was able to PAX 3rd out of the strong 100+ car field with several National Champs, so, my hopes are a bit higher now that I have ran on the new HPT surface with a fairly tuned car. I think the Mini's have a chance in STX at the National Championship against the Subaru's and BMW's, its just going to take the perfect 2 days to get it done IMHO.

Anyone need a co-drive for the DC Prosolo?

 

Yeah, Paul is pretty darn fast and that Bimmer is very well prepared. I definitely wouldn't want to go up against him. Great report. See you in Denver. I think I will take you up on your offer to try some of your wheel/tire combos for fitment. Would love to squeeze some 235's on later in the season.

 

Sounds good, I even have one set, if they fit, that you can test out on the practice if you wish.