Lane's SCA - 2003 SPC Rally (7)

It was now time for bracket eliminations. Unlike all of our test and tune runs, this was where we would now actually be competing against each other. Rather than just slamming the gas pedal to the floor, bracket racing requires a bit more driver skill. If you're not familiar with how bracket racing works, check out this site for an explanation.

The field started out with around 20 cars, and ended with a showdown between two skilled (and semi-lucky) drivers. Stay tuned for a list of the bracket winners and awards.

Eric tuning

Eric was able plug in and see how his supercharged SC2 was performing on the dragstrip.

He and Christena would participate in a grudge match - one run where they ran heads-up to see which car was faster.

Both cars were surprisingly fast, and they finished within two hundredths of a second of each other. Christena was victorious with her nitrous-powered '96 SL2. But since the cars were so closely matched, I wouldn't have been surprised if the tables would have turned had they run again.

Christena chose not to participate in bracket eliminations since she'd likely have an unfair advantage compared to the rest of us due to all of her practice. Eric did participate, but lost a round and was eliminated along the way.

Click the link below for some video of Christena & Eric running down the track earlier in the day during test & tune.

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Lots of timeslips

Just like everyone else, Anthony and Jayson were able to make an amazing number of runs during the test and tune period. Here they are showing off all their timeslips.

While we were all packing up the cars, there was time for a few fun runs...

Dirk, Alex, me, and a few others (there were 5 of us in Dirk's car) lined up against Howard for a final run. It was hilarious, especially since there was no backseat in Dirk's car at the time. Click the link below for some video.

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During the course of the day, one of the SRW motor mounts that Jeff C had installed on his Blue '98 SL2 broke. In the process, it destroyed the CV boot, which flung grease all over the place. Jeff and Arlene were down for the count. Fortunately, Christena's dolly gave the group a way to get the car back to the hotel (her race car is semi-street-legal, and was driven back to the hotel).

Later, Jeff was able to get in touch with local Saturn racer Mike Kramer, who had an axle he could lend to the cause. By the end of the day, and through the hard work of Jeff, Arlene, Mike, Tapp, Matt, and others, the car was brought back to perfect health. After all, it would need to be so that Jeff and Arlene could participate in tomorrow's autocross!