Cold, windy, and I lost.
But I had an amazing time at our little (only 54 entrants) autocross today! And the weather is so beautiful and sunny outside, I can't be sad that I lost.
Well, maybe just a little.
The morning dawned cold, cloudy and early. What with the time change last night, it felt like I'd barely slept. So, I loaded-up the car, scarfed some McD's + coffee, and arrived around 9 or so.
My class was rather full, with four entrants, two of which were serious comptetition for me:<
Basicallly, I got whipped Scott, a more experienced driver. While I slowly edged my way down during each run (first was a 39.xx, then a 35.xx), Scott was ripping off 35's then 33 second runs after that. While I did turn a 33.8 eventually (on my 4th run), I just could't keep enough heat in the tires to get any faster. On the bright side, I did have a spectacular slide on my 5th run when I was chasing Scotts class-winning 33.1 time. Right after the start, I'd spun my tires, putting heat in the fronts, but the rears were still chilly. I breezed the throttle in the first dogleg-left, expecting that to tighten my line. Instead, the rear-end stepped-out about 30 degrees in split second; I countersteered, saved it, and ended-up with a decent run: 34.58. I even got props from the announcer on the PA system :)
With only 50 or so drivers, we only had 2 heats; I ran first heat and worked second. I found myself radioman in turn 2, right by the slalom. Slaloms seems to have the most work of any of the elements, but it turned-out to be not too bad; probably 10 cones out of 150 passes in the heat total. Really enjoyed talking with one of my fellow courseworkers though: Young-to-middle-age BMW mechanic, slightly portly, but very knowledgeable about all things Porsche, BMW, and Audi.
The Best part: After the 2nd heat was over at 2:30, we got to do fun runs. I did 7 passes in my MINI, paying $1 each pass. Got my times down to 32.3. It's truly amazing how much easier it is to drive when there's no competitive aspect to it--I wasn't psyched-out trying to best someone's time, and I just did better: I looked ahead, I was smoother, the car just naturally came to me. It was a dance partner, instead of a wrestling adversary.
So, at the end of the day, I got 2nd. Fun times :)
In all fairness, it had warmed quite a bit and become sunny between the 1st heat and 2:30; the course had heat and rubber, and grip was manageable. Big lessons I take from this:
1. Mental toughness + reaction to comptetition. I kinda beat myself with memories of my failure at the previous cold autocross at this track, I had a loser's attitude, instead winning positive thoughts. And, lo and behold, I lost.
2. Relax, and look ahead. Driving tense gets you spectacular spins and slides, but not good times.
But I had an amazing time at our little (only 54 entrants) autocross today! And the weather is so beautiful and sunny outside, I can't be sad that I lost.
Well, maybe just a little.
The morning dawned cold, cloudy and early. What with the time change last night, it felt like I'd barely slept. So, I loaded-up the car, scarfed some McD's + coffee, and arrived around 9 or so.
My class was rather full, with four entrants, two of which were serious comptetition for me:<
- Scott, driving an '03 Civic EX (street tires)
- Terry, driving a Focus Sedan (street tires)
Basicallly, I got whipped Scott, a more experienced driver. While I slowly edged my way down during each run (first was a 39.xx, then a 35.xx), Scott was ripping off 35's then 33 second runs after that. While I did turn a 33.8 eventually (on my 4th run), I just could't keep enough heat in the tires to get any faster. On the bright side, I did have a spectacular slide on my 5th run when I was chasing Scotts class-winning 33.1 time. Right after the start, I'd spun my tires, putting heat in the fronts, but the rears were still chilly. I breezed the throttle in the first dogleg-left, expecting that to tighten my line. Instead, the rear-end stepped-out about 30 degrees in split second; I countersteered, saved it, and ended-up with a decent run: 34.58. I even got props from the announcer on the PA system :)
With only 50 or so drivers, we only had 2 heats; I ran first heat and worked second. I found myself radioman in turn 2, right by the slalom. Slaloms seems to have the most work of any of the elements, but it turned-out to be not too bad; probably 10 cones out of 150 passes in the heat total. Really enjoyed talking with one of my fellow courseworkers though: Young-to-middle-age BMW mechanic, slightly portly, but very knowledgeable about all things Porsche, BMW, and Audi.
The Best part: After the 2nd heat was over at 2:30, we got to do fun runs. I did 7 passes in my MINI, paying $1 each pass. Got my times down to 32.3. It's truly amazing how much easier it is to drive when there's no competitive aspect to it--I wasn't psyched-out trying to best someone's time, and I just did better: I looked ahead, I was smoother, the car just naturally came to me. It was a dance partner, instead of a wrestling adversary.
So, at the end of the day, I got 2nd. Fun times :)
In all fairness, it had warmed quite a bit and become sunny between the 1st heat and 2:30; the course had heat and rubber, and grip was manageable. Big lessons I take from this:
1. Mental toughness + reaction to comptetition. I kinda beat myself with memories of my failure at the previous cold autocross at this track, I had a loser's attitude, instead winning positive thoughts. And, lo and behold, I lost.
2. Relax, and look ahead. Driving tense gets you spectacular spins and slides, but not good times.
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