Autocross update.
As many of you know I like almost anything with wheels and over the years have raced all kinds of stuff from skateboards to bikes to cars. I’ve had a number of readers write and ask for me to give an update on my autocross race season.
I race autocross in my 2005 Lotus Elise in the SCCA SSP class and the main competition in my class is Corvettes. SSP (Super Street Prepared) allows the driver to modify the car a good bit and to run it on competition slicks but for the most part the car is still usable on the street. My car is still very much set up for street use and still has its radio and AC and all the normal comforts that a Lotus has (yes this is a bit tongue in cheek) and I drive it to/from events.
There are three ways to judge one’s performance on a local level and these are the placing in your class, the overall FTD (Fast Time of Day) and PAX (a performance index not unlike a handicap in golf that allows drivers with much different cars to compare themselves). At most local events I don’t have anyone else in my class so I focus on the FTD and PAX placings.
So with that background out of the way here is a mid season update and a bit of story telling —
So far this season I raced 5 times – four times with our local club and one time in Helena, MT with the club from Missoula, MT and I’ve been very happy with how things have gone. I switched tires this season (went from a Toyo R888 street tire to a Hankook Z214 competition tire) to a more aggressive race tire that gives MUCH more grip for better cornering and braking and the first few events were spent trying to figure out how to set up the car to work best with these tires, what kind of air pressure to run in them, and finally how to drive them at the limit. One is never really ‘done’ with this process but I’ve come a long way and now the car is very quick and very intuitive and easy to drive at the limit.
I’m proud to report that I’ve taken Fast Time of Day at all four of our local events so far this season and three 1st and one 3rd in PAX and I have lots of engraved beer awards glasses to show for it.
The event I did with the Missoula SCCA club in Helena was the first of a 3 event series called “The Montana State Challenge”. The three clubs in western Montana each host an event in Helena and the results of these three events determine a state champion in a given class. Because these races draw from a much larger area I end up with a few very well prepared cars (with skilled drivers!) in my SSP class. For the past few years there have been three of us racing against each other, 2 Corvettes rolling on slicks, and my Lotus running on street tires…………..and to be frank I was getting my butt kicked to varying degrees. I could come close to beating them but could never pull it off. Thankfully this first MT-C event went differently for me. Running on a real race tire and having the car sorted for them I was able to drive much harder and for the first time running against these two guys and take the win. That felt really good.
I have a little story to tell about this event. We were going to be doing 6 runs for the day (only your best one counts) and it was set up so that we would do 4 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. It was cool in the morning but forecast to get really hot in the afternoon (we ended up seeing a very windy 97°) so I knew my best time would come in the morning runs (tires get too hot when it’s that hot and they start to get greasy). For the first two runs one of the Vette guys (Don from Wyoming) and I were trading the lead and running very tight times. Knowing I had to get my best time done in the morning I went all in with my 3rd run and overcooked it, spun and lost control at about 70 mph. I slid for about 200’ and finally went off the pavement and made a very large dust could that coated me, and the car, with a hot brown silt — not fun. I got back onto the pavement and checked the car for damage and since it wasn’t spilling fluids and nothing seemed bent I drove back to the starting area.
Now even when a run goes very well your hands shake with the buzz of adrenaline after the run but when you spin it at that speed and slide that far it’s over the top. I was buzzy and hyper aware and my heart rate was through the roof. The problem was that I was trailing Don in his Vette by about .6 seconds (a BIG gap in this sport) and had only one real run left to get my shit together and win. My mind was racing and suddenly I remembered a time 30ish years ago when my BMX coach Joe saw me get squeezed off the track and hit the ground hard during an important race. He saw that I was OK but really rattled and knew I wouldn’t do well in a few minutes when I had to go back out again. So he grabbed my by my shoulders and looked me in the eye and said, “Use it! Use this energy to kick that guys ass!” I’ve not thought of this for years but it came to me again and I went into that mode and got super calm and aware. I then went out and did what might have been the best autocross run I’ve done in the 10 years I’ve been competing. I knocked a full 1 ½ seconds of my time and moved in to the lead by a healthy ¾ second. I was so wiped out after that run and felt like I could have taken a nap right there and then. My ‘post spin’ run held up to win my class and was the second fastest street-car time of the whole meet. That was super fun I must say.
This coming weekend is round two of the MT-C and I will line up against the two Vettes again and I hope things go even half as well as they did at the first meet. It’s going to be hot again so just like last time the best runs will come in the morning.
Wish me luck. If I can win this it will almost certainly sew up the series and I can breathe easyish.
Well — that’s it for now. I have another 6 or 8 events this season and I look forward to them all. I’ll give another report at the end of the season. And then it’s cyclocross season……………………
Thanks for reading,
Dave
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Autocross and Cyclocross. Both wonderful fun, but two events couldn’t be so similarly named and more different in execution. Thanks for the update!