First things first, here's the course layout for this month:
The change to red is where the last half of the course begins, and shows how you run through the latter part of the course twice before turning off for the finish gate.
The beginning slalom provided an optional route, and I chose to put the first cone on my left for all but one of my runs. The map is a bit misleading on this, as the last cone is considerably closer than it shows here, making you have to tap the brakes to give the front tires some grip for what ends up being a sharper turn than what's shown. I chose the right because I figured it would help me avoid having to navigate the last cone of the slalom, but its actual placement proved that this was not really the case. I still preferred it to the left hand approach, since I had done it so many times, and I was simply used to it.
Where the line changes from blue to red is the 180 turn I mentioned before. It seems rather wide in the picture, but it turns out to be rather tight, or at least seems that way if you end up swinging way out to take it due to braking too late. We had a good number of people powersliding through this part, and most times they were able to hold it and head straight for the next turn. Some folks even ended up downshifting into first so they could really take off at the exit.
I didn't take a picture of last month's map, and I'm wishing I had, so I could compare this one to the last one. I found this track to be more fun, and it was definitely faster to get through.
One other thing I have to mention that I did differently from last month was set the front tire pressures to 36psi to match the rears. This could have been part of why I did as well as I did this time around. I've noticed how much more responsive the car is when set up this way and how the front doesn't lose grip quite as early, even if it does make the front end bump steer and communicate the cracks and bumps in the road more harshly.
Pics of cars will be next, some parked shots and some track shots, and videos will be up as soon as I know they're uploaded.