The 86 is still around! It's taken a bit of a back seat this year due to how focused we've been on Sundae Cup, but I've been making sure to keep it in rotation. Driving different cars is extremely helpful for building out a full set of skills as a driver, adaptability is key!

This is only the second time I've had a chance to run a full day of GingerMan backwards, the last time being over two years ago (seen here: https://youtu.be/d8h2UHQ553E). While I really enjoyed that event, I was never satisfied with the time I put down. I was a bit frustrated that I hadn't been able to learn the track more efficiently and knew that I had left a huge amount of time on the table. This time I feel as though I did a much better job of taking an analytical approach, reviewing my notes between sessions, isolating specific points to act on, and more effectively identifying where the opportunities were. This was the lap where things really came together for me, and seeing that time flash on the Solo really had me feeling good. I'm still a little frustrated that I wasn't able to hit this pace sooner and with more consistently, but part of being driven to keep improving is never being satisfied. At the end of the day this is a lap I feel good about, and I feel like the difference between this event and the previous one (2 full seconds on comparable tires!) says a lot about my development as a driver.

Due to scheduling conflicts with Gridlife this season, I had only been planning to compete with this car at the SCCA Time Trials National Tour at GingerMan. I've been working on beating the Tuner 4 track record for the past couple of years, and a friend and I both came within hundredths of doing so at last years event (as seen here: https://youtu.be/DvFQrZKVVrY). Unfortunately, the event was cancelled this year due to staffing issues, which has landed the 86 in the role of my more relaxed driver development car for this season. I opted for a set of Continental ExtremeContact Force tires this season. Since I don't have any serious competitions to worry about I'll be better served by their consistency and longevity, practicing what I preach whenever I'm asked about tire choices. The "cheater" time attack oriented 200TW tires are always enticing to new drivers (RE71, A052, RT660 etc), but while they have a significantly quicker ultimate pace they also cost more, don't last nearly as long, and behave much less consistently even over the course of a single session. They simply are not good tires to learn on and it always frustrates me seeing newer drivers jump straight to them and proceed to drive them significantly slower than the pace they could be getting out of something like an ECF, V730 or RS4. You'll improve much faster if you run the slower tire!

Huge thank you as always to my supporters. May have been driving the 86 this time, but this sort of work makes me faster in the Fit as well!

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