Alright, Autocross

Sunday rolled in early for us. We were up early to make the 8am requested arrival. Unload the car, register, meeting, a little socializing, then walk the course twice. The course is in the parking lot the Turfway Race course... horse race course. :) This particular parking lot is on the side of a hill, with the evidence of several years of 'weathering'. Tarmac transitions are everywhere, and there's a nice big oil spot in the middle of a downhill 180. Fun. Other than that, the course (from a lowly Fit driver's perspective) was that it was big & fast for an autocross. The Nissan GTR & Crown Vic, I think, had a different opinion(s).

The real 'scare' of the morning was that our original 'grid' (i.e. the order we were going to run) was told to us as '2', i.e. the seconds ones out. Huh? Maybe they're running it in inverse order? Nope, at the drivers meeting we find out the Autocross guys weren't told the order and had come up w/ their own. No worries, Brocker sorts us out.

Its a good while before my run. Greer sets tire pressures and I try to run through the course in my mind. Then faster than I expect I'm up. So, I don't have video. It was a 48.5 something. Which had the announcer excited. Greer seemed ok with it. The civic si ran a 46.5. 20 minutes pass, and I talk with those around me in the grid. While I do so, I review in my head my run... and about 8mins afterwards it finally hits me how *quick* that all went. I did, eh, 30 turns? In 48seconds. Most of the tracks we'll be at, and that I've been on are 2minutes and theres only 15 turns. Yeah. I line up for the second run and remember to turn on video. Unfortunately I overdrive the run, and end up 0.1 slower. It's encouraging since I know I overdrove it, but I still was a similar time. I realize how hard it is to get the car to hook up our of downhill 180, which turns into an uphill acceleration zone. FWD w/ an open differential? Yeah, that driveline isn't so happy with accelerating uphill out of a corner. Third run, and think I take the first right hander better, but still not as fast as the car can do it. I'm happier with the top. But I get a little out of shape at the end of the course and try to use secound around the last pivot. I had been downshifting, so I was trying to carry enough speed to keep it in second... yeah, nope... should have downshifted. I realize this late enough that the only real option is to ride it out. The result? 47.993. So, better.. but I should have shaved another second off of that. Then again, I've never done this before. All in all, it was a good experience, and I'll have to look into it more when I get back home.

Note: No cones were damaged by me in the course of the events portrayed here.
;)