Tried my hand at auto-x

[Roadhouse]

As the title implies, I went to my first auto-x event this weekend. Sooooo much different than road racing. They ran a morning heat and an afternoon heat and whatever heat your weren't running in you had to work the course. Everyone got in 8 runs. Grasping the layout of the course was difficult in that short amount of time and I never really got that comfortable with it. But overall it was pretty fun! I had 2 DNFs for not following the course and killed my fair share of cones. I placed 2nd overall in the novice class and 5th out of 7 in my real class (ESP). And actually I talked to the guy who won the novice class and he has been doing this for a year or so. How does that work?? Whatever lol... Here are a few videos:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/5-b46AmISyc[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/7UqLxJs-msA[/youtube]

 

[F.D. Sako]

I've never tried autox as well. and i'm 100% certain i'll be running into a similar problem with memorizing the course.

I say, your results aren't bad for a first timer, your road course/HPDE skills must've had something to do with it lol.

btw, enjoyed watching your vids. your exhaust sounds nice!

 

[blacksheep-1]

Sometimes they put marker dust out at the beginning of the day so you can see where you need to go, by the first few runs there's usually enough tire marks to figure it out. that's a pretty wide course, some place ( as in foreign car clubs) tighten the courses to the point where there is no "line" it's all point and shoot. The miata club down here used to do that until we pointed out that the majority of cars that showed up to run there stuff weren't miatas.
nice runs though, it's a totally different deal than a road course.

 

[Roadhouse]

My exhaust is always a conversation starter! The transitions were so much quicker too. It's hard not to upset the balance of the car and be smooth.

They did lay down some chalk and that was definitely helpful. I think there is a major disadvantage for those who had to drive first and then work. If you work first then you get to see cars run the whole course for 8 session. And there is rubber already laid down for your afternoon session. But I digress...

There were some fast miatas out there! I even got beat by a stock 90s model neon haha. Guy drove the hell out of that car.

 

[blacksheep-1]

There were some fast miatas out there! I even got beat by a stock 90s model neon haha. Guy drove the hell out of that car.

the usual "ringers" that's not uncommon, if your car is small then you can actually take a "line" through the cones, it's juts not driver ability alone. We used to race karts at autocrosses, they would always run fast time, even the non-shifter stuff. I used to run my Yamaha in with MOD1 cars before karts got their own class. A shifter kart would annihilate them. If you have kids it's a good place to start them on "driver's ed" that way they can actually see they can lose control of a car at 20mph.

 

[drano38]

... I had 2 DNFs for not following the course and killed my fair share of cones.

That sounds familiar. Last summer, I DNF'd something like 4 sessions before I finally figured out the route at the back of the course on my last session. Oh well, still had fun.