SCCA Texas Region Solo #5 July 19, 2009 at TMS Bus Lot, Justin, TX.

Fun event overall.  The temps were a pretty hot, low to mid 90's and the humidity was high.  It was mostly sunny with storms to the north that didn't arrive until after the event was done.  The course was the same as the Sunday Divisional course the previous week, except the start and finish were changed according to several of the folks that ran both events.  There were a couple of tricky parts, but very fun to run.  Thanks again to Robert for the co-drive of the 'Stang, that's him in the 1st picture with the hat.  The 'Stang had an alignment that was terrible, I think either it was done incorrectly or something wasn't tightened enough and slipped.  The car had a tremendous push that made it nearly impossible to turn.  With a ton of adjustment (thanks Gerry and David, et al.) it was better by the 4th runs, but was still "way off." According to the paperwork on the alignment, the should car have a slight toe-in, but when one wheel was straight, the other had a visible toe-out!!!

There are 764 pics and they are 1300X863.  I got a few shots of the carts and a couple of cars leaving grid in heat 1. I had to work the posting board for the heat, so no more pics from heat 1.  Man, the posting board is a hectic job, but you get to talk to the folks as they run up to check their times between runs.  Didn't get many pics from the 2nd heat as the only time I had to spare was when Robert was making a couple of his runs.  Otherwise, I was making my runs, riding along on a couple of Robert's runs or trying to adjust the car.  The rest are from heat 3.  It was great shooting with real Nikon glass, made processing the pics much easier and faster.  I picked it up during the week and this was this 1st time shooting with it.  Its only AF-S DX glass, but its much better than the Tamron glass I having been using in the past.  I hope to get some even better VR glass in the future and if I'm lucky, maybe something in the 2.8 range if I can scrape up enough pennies.  The more I shoot with this D300, the more impressed I am with it, its a helluva camera!

It was fun running with the SCCA folks for a few events.  I probably won't make it out to another SCCA event this year except I might make it out for the final event in November back at the Bus Lot.