Due to budgetary cutbacks, school closures and layoffs, and since my seniority from Burnaby was not transferable to the Central Okanagan School District, I got bumped from my position at Kelowna Secondary School. As people were moved around, and positions filled and vacated, I was able to take a position at george Elliot Secondary School in Winfield, 15 minutes north of Kelowna.
George Elliot Secondary School is a community school located in the heart of Lake Country. It has approximately 890 students, with three very well equipped shops.
This year I am teaching all Metalwork classes, all Metal Art classes, and one General Technology course. This school is semestered, so I have only four blocks for each half of the year. This year we will be making Midget Karts in Senior Metal.
General course outlines are available in their respective areas, and will be updated over time
I made some minor changes to the Sentra. By using crash bolts, I adjusted the front camber to -3.25° and the rear camber
to -2.25° and set the front toe to 1/8" out. These changes dramatically improved cornering, but would surely
destroy the tires if left like this. So now I change the settings before and after each event. A royal pain, but I guess
that's racing.
July 14 I took 2nd place at the CACC Regional #4. Missed by quite a large margin - 9/10ths of a second! I did not take the smoothest approach to two crossovers, and was unable to apply full throttle soon enough. A very good course, however!
July 21 I attended the Velocity Car Development School, where I was able to run the Sentra on a skid pad, take tire temperatures (which led me to adjust my camber as above), and run about 20 laps to really get a good feel of the car. This time was very beneficial. I had two very well respected drivers drive the Sentra and give me feedback about it's handling. Both drivers siad the car was very well balanced and predictable, but needed more dampening - a hunch I had had for a while. This inspired me to order a set of KYB AGX adjustable struts for the car, which should be in soon.
Speaking of struts, rebound dampening is argueably a more desireable trait in a performance strut. Only Koni makes struts with decent rebound dampening, but the Koni's for the Sentra are internally-adjustable only, which means that I would have to disassemble each assembled strut to change the setting. Not a big deal if I were still living at the coast, but there are "real" winters up here in the Okanagan, and stiff springs/shocks make for a white-knuckled driving experience. Being able to quickly de-tune the suspension is high on my list of priorities.
August 03/04 was the BC Autoslalom Championship,
hosted by the Burnaby Coquitlam Motorsport Association. I took 1st for the event
and for the CACC Regional #5. Competition was feirce, and it didn't help that my clutch really started to go south on me.
I babied the car on day two to a win by 3/100ths, and had a new clutch in my hand by Tuesday (A special thank you to Guido
for letting me sleep on his floor and work in his driveway!).
August 07,10 was the Velocity Stage II Driving School, where I was able to tune some more of my driving skills. I would have preferred to have 1 on 1 instruction, but this is a volunteer sport, and you can only do so much. I was able to run the fastest time of the day (FTD), though.
August 04 I attended the VCMC Closed Club #6, where I took 1st place, 9th fastest raw time, and 3rd overall.
August 29 i ran an Okanagan British Car Club event, super tight course, and was able to pull in FTD!
September 08 I took 1st place in CACC Regional #6, with my closest competitor co-driving the Sentra as his Corolla had been stolen a few weeks before (Honest! It wasn't me!).
September 11 I ran another Okanagan British Car Club event, but took third in a battle within 3/10ths of first.
September 15 I ran a Kelowna Corvette Club event, but I did not receive the final standings. I kept coning runs on the super tight course, but couldn't get clean. I was probably upper-mid pack with the cones, but would have been 3rd or 4th overall if I could have gotten a clean run in. Oh well.
One event remained for the Championship, and F/SS could be won or lost by 6/10ths of a point!!
The battle to win the championship was fierce. Todd and I had been neck and neck all season. Sometimes I was leading, Sometimes he was leading, and always by about half a point. Going into the last event, who knew who would win the championship!
The first run, I ran a 44.6 but hit a cone. Todd ran a 46.0 clean - Todd was leading!
The second run I ran a 44.6 clean, but Todd pulled in a 44.5! I had to go faster!
The third run I snuck in a 44.3 clean by trying to stay on the throttle as much as possible, Todd didn't do so well, and pulled in a 45 second run. I was leading!
The fourth and final run, I got it all together and snagged a 43.8, (placing me 3rd overall, indexed) while Todd hit a cone early on and took 46 seconds to the gate. Very good, close competition!
A special thank you to all the people who helped this year become a success:
- God
- Pam
- Guido and Sandra
- Brad
- Thomas and Roberta
- Ron and Jen
- Todd
- Joe
- Cliff
- Richard
- Cavell Tire