Lessons learned

Ok... long trip back Sunday night, and a busy work day today, but finally found a few minutes to check over the car after the weekend.  I was getting some funny noises from the right rear of the car, and had assumed the wheel well liner had worked its way loose again.  Bad assumption.

As it turns out, I've lunched another hub bearing.  This is my fourth hub bearing I've worn out on this car, all on the rear.  It's almost to the point of moving to a consumable that I have to start budgeting for.  Oil change, brake pads, hubs... hmm?  At least this helps explain some of the squirrelly behavior of my car's tail end on Sunday.  I've got about 5 mm of free play in the hub.  Big thanks to the Big Man upstairs for keeping my car in one piece throughout the weekend and the ride home.  The car is now out of commission until my new hub arrives.

I also took some time to check out my tires a little more closely.  I have some seriously uneven wear on the insides... Good news, really, as I had tried running a much more aggressive camber setting in the rear for this event.  It's good news, because it helps explain why my grip was low.  Combined with the knowledge of what portion of the tread I was working, it tells me that one reason I was getting greasy tires on Sunday was that my tire pressure was too low.  I'm guessing I was low by about 3 psi.  I'll have to play with that later.

I had about 8 people approach me over the course of the weekend and start explaining aerodynamics to me.  Yes, thank you, I do understand that running without a top slows the car.  :)  I just never bought a top.  Maybe it's time... 

Brandon has lots of pics on his camera, which I will upload tomorrow (15 Apr).  

Cheers!

Cade