FIRST AUTOCROSS

If you have a sports car, and you haven't done an autocross yet, DO IT!!!

This past Saturday (Jan 14) was supposed to be the day my roll bar got installed. But one of my helpers remembered he had a SpeedVentures autocross event to work, so he wouldn't be able to come. He did say, however, that I ought to go and do the autocross event. It was in an infield parking lot at the Fontana Autoclub Speedway. I had been meaning to do an autocross event at some point but wasn't real familiar with what goes on - but since my friend was going to be working it, this looked like a good opportunity.

The day before the event, I cleaned the solenoid again, hoping to rid my car of the aforementioned high idle. Starting the car afterward I found a check engine light. A little investigation showed that I had knocked the other end of one of the little hoses loose, so I fixed that up. Didn't really cure the high idle though. I cleared the CEL, but it came back on later.

Anyway, I caravaned with two Miata friends for the 50-minute drive to Fontana: the guy who's gonna help with the roll bar (very skilled driver/racer, owns a heavily modified, one-of-a-kind Mazdaspeed Miata; and the other owns a nice looking NB, and writes on the web for Motor Trend).

Fifty to sixty cars showed up for the SpeedVentures event: Miatas, S2000s, Camaros, Mustangs, a Lotus, an old Datsun Z car, BMWs (including a sedan), a '69 Camaro, a Hyundai hatchback, etc.

My friend working the event walked me around the course before it all started, showing me the lines I should use, and also let me ride with him for a run in the first session; great help! The fastest drivers were running the course in the 39-second range (including my friend who was working the event), and I think I saw a 38 or so at some point in the day. My first few runs were in the 45s, and then I had a long string of 44s. Occasionally I would have a really sloppy run, but otherwise I was consistently improving, by a tenth of a second or two, each run. About the time I had gotten under 44.1, my said friend rode with me for a couple of runs. The first was more or less in line with what I had been doing, a low 44. He pointed out a couple things for me to do differently, and we headed out again. Coming to the timing sign this time, he pointed to the time without words, and I looked to read it as well. I mainly saw the .4 at the end, and as I had held no anticipation of getting that deep in the 43s, I was thinking it wasn't a good run; that I was back up in the mid-section of the 44s. So my response to him was pretty was underwhelming.....until I finally realized it was forty-THREE point four. It's pretty obvious in the video when I finally realized, hahaha. Here's that run:



Pretty excited to have finally smashed the 44.0 barrier and gotten so far into the 43s. Went out on the next run by myself, attacked the slalom much better, and got a 42.8! I was ecstatic! Unfortunately I had to leave the event early at that point, as I had other obligations that day. But I am SO looking forward to another autocross event!