3/20 PCA Autocross

Last week I did my first motorsports event in my Alfa Romeo Giulia, doing an autocross "test and tune" with the Chesapeake chapter of the Porsche Club of America. It was fun playing around with the handling limits of the car, but it reminded me why I haven't done autocross in a few years.

My first thought out of the gate on my first run was how quick my car felt under acceleration. The course layout was fast and I got all the way up to third gear in some of the straights. I'm sure that's all down to gear ratios, but it was a pleasant surprise. I was also surprised how easy it was to play with the car when it was sliding around. There's no way to turn off the traction and stability control in the Alfa, so I was able to throw the car around without really having to worry about spinning out or getting too out of shape. However, the actual amount of grip prior to losing adhesion was much less than it was on my BMW, and the lightness of the steering made it very hard to feel where that limit was. The end result was that it was hard to carry very much speed through tight corners or the slalom section. Maybe the weight of the car and the lack of overall grip are normally hidden by peppy acceleration and a light steering feel, but finally fully reveal themselves on an autocross track.

As far as the course layout, I did like the fast sections and fast turns, but there were two very long wide turns that felt more like going on a roundabout on public roads than going through a track corner with any kind of apex. The course reminded me more of doing a car control clinic on a skid pad. Even beyond the day's specific track layout, the feeling of navigating through all these cones reminded me why I prefer driving on a real race track. There's just a fundamental difference between a track's edges and turns all being defined by walls or curbs or grass vs. a few cones on a wide open expanse of pavement with nothing but your imagination to decide where you should put your car.

My last autocross event prior to this one was in August of 2016 in my BMW. Shortly after that I took the BMW for an actual track day at Summit Point. One factor behind the gap in autocross events was the wear and tear on my daily driver, which was significant at the track day but is still non-zero even in an autocross event. A bigger part of the blame though was that driving on a real track is just so much better. The PCA autocross this week, while certainly fun, reminded me that the track is really where my heart lies. Hopefully there are more track days (in other people's cars) in my future.

8/14 BMWCCA Autocross

This past Sunday I went out in the blistering heat and raced in another autocross with the National Capital Chapter of the BMWCCA. It was my first (and probably only) autocross this year though, so it was certainly fun to get out and drive.

My first couple runs on track were pretty slow as I was trying to figure out the layout. I was also overly cautious I think about overcooking it and plowing into a bunch of cones through some of the really tight corners. But, I did manage to improve each run, from 55.388s on my first lap all the way down to 49.672s on my fourth and final run of the day. It was exciting to come across the line at the end and see the I had broken below 50 seconds.

This was only my second time using the GoPro for autocross, so I tried a new mounting location just behind the b-pillar at the top of the window. I also tried mounting the external mic to the rear bumper to maximize the exhaust note. I'm pretty happy with the overall result. The camera angle shows a lot of the track ahead while still catching my hands at work on the steering wheel. The audio definitely got some awesome exhaust sound but was surprisingly quiet when I wasn't at full throttle. This made for a little bit of a weird on/off effect on the audio but still worked out okay.

The worst thing about the day by far was the heat. Even though I was in the AM session, the sun and heat in that wide open parking lot was just brutal. I drove the course with the windows down and air conditioner off, but between runs I put the windows back up and blasted the a/c to try and keep cool. When I was working the flag station after driving, the cars through the slalom kept knocking over cones that I had to sprint over and replace. About halfway through that session I finally had to stop and find some shade and a Gatorade to recover.

I finished up 74th out of 93 racers on the day (30 of 93 with the PAX time adjustments). In retrospect, I wish I had pushed a lot harder in my first couple runs and I think I could have found a better time out there. It's been a while since I've had so few runs in an event, and I think I just wasn't used to how quickly you need to find pace when you only have four attempts to work with.

Despite the heat and wishing I had driven faster, it was still a fun day. They did a great job of getting people through quickly and I was out of there by 11:30. Up next is my first High Performance Driving Event where I'll get to drive my own car on an actual road course! Stay tuned!

10/25 BMWCCA Autocross

Last Sunday I did autocross with the National Capital chapter of the BMW Car Club of America at Baysox Stadium. It had been a year since I ran with BMWCCA last, and there were certainly a few things to like compared to the PCA events at BWI.

The weather wasn't great, but I'm always happy to race in the rain and it meant that we only had about 30 racers total. This gave us a chance to do seven runs each and I was still out of there by 12:30pm. I'm sure part of that was the weather but it was also that BMWCCA does an AM and PM session instead of just taking on however-many racers happen to register and then going as late in the day as you have to go.

One of the exciting things about this event was that it was my first chance to use my new GoPro for autocross (the prior week's event being abruptly canceled before I could run). I didn't have enough time to play around with different mounting points, so I just did an interior mount from the underside of the sunroof for all of my runs. I did try playing with the different zoom levels, and it seemed like the widest angle was the best. I also tried capturing sound using an external mic mounted near the center console. It worked okay but I ended up with a lot of noise from my feet on the pedals and other things in the car creaking through sharp turns, as opposed to a great engine or exhaust note.  Next time hopefully I have time for different camera angles and a better mic mounting position.

The other fun thing I got to try this time was my new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's. This was my first autocross not using run-flats and they felt absolutely awesome. Granted this was a wet course so I couldn't feel the maximum grip level, but still the tires had tons of steering wheel feedback and responsiveness.

I'm not sure if it was the rain, the set of cars, or just a particularly good day of driving for me, but I actually came up with some pretty good times. I finished 16th overall and 8th in my heat when the track was wettest. With the PAX adjustments (accounting for car performance), I actually finished with the 5th best time and the 2nd best of my heat!! It was fun posting such a fast time and it was a great way to close out the season of autocross.

I could see doing fewer autocross events next year just because it's so much time on a weekend day for such little actual driving. But I'll definitely do at least an event or two and I'm already looking forward to getting out again. :-)

10/17 PCA Autocross

The last Chesapeake Porsche Club autocross of the year ended up being a very memorable one - but for very much the wrong reason.

The day started off well, with a big crowd of 60 drivers and a nice collection of cars - a Lotus Elise, two Vipers, an NSX, and of course all the Porsches. With so many drivers, we split up into three groups, with me working the track during the first heat and driving during the third heat. Working the flag station was pretty uneventful. I was able to pick up on where the drivers were having trouble with the track which I figured would help when it was my turn to drive.

During the second heat I was getting my GoPro ready for my turn in the third heat when I heard a crunch out on track. I looked up to see a Porsche Cayman stopped out at the corner of the lot. My immediate thought was that he hit the curb out there, but there were car parts strewn around him and it was obvious that he had hit the concrete base of the light post. I didn't see it happen, but apparently he started fishtailing and, instead of jumping on the brakes to stop the car, continued to try to correct the spin as he careened into the light pole. The whole side of his car was wrecked and three airbags deployed.

It was clearly an expensive wreck, but it was really fortunate that nobody was hurt. Not only was the driver in danger (a couple feet to the left and he would have slammed into the concrete head-on), but that pole was also the flag station for the course workers so there were two people standing right there when it happened. In fact, that was the very pole that I was standing next to while working the course myself during the first heat.

Once the autocross chairs saw the extent of the damage, they called an end to the event for the day. The had to call a tow truck to remove the car, plus I think they had to take some measurements and pictures to document that the track setup itself wasn't a contributing factor to the accident.

The whole thing was a big reminder to everyone of what the risks are for something even as relatively controlled and safe as autocross is supposed to be. You have to be aware of where the dangerous obstacles are and make sure you aren't pushing the car in any kind of risky way when there's a danger of breaking the car or getting yourself or others hurt. It was disappointing to spend so much of the day on the event and never get to drive, but the important thing was that nobody was hurt. Hopefully the whole thing gets resolved as well as possible for the driver and the club.

8/22 PCA Autocross

This past weekend I ran autocross once again with the Porsche Club of America. Honestly, waking up at 6am to prep my car, and with all the delays last time making it such a long day the last time I went, I wasn't all that enthusiastic about going. The weather was gorgeous though and once I was at the track doing my walk-throughs, I was getting more exciting.

I've always enjoyed the track layouts the Chesapeake PCA puts together at this location, but this one was particularly great. Despite being a relatively small space to run, the course was filled with smooth sweeping curves and a pretty fast straight. The longer turns were much better for feeling the car's limit and managing the balance through the curve. Even the long-time autocross veterans were talking about how much they enjoyed the layout.

I was the 12th car to run and it seemed like a lot of people ahead of me were going off-course (going the wrong way through the cones). I felt like I had pretty good knowledge of the course from my walk-throughs, but still my first run I was concentrating extra hard to make sure I didn't get a DNF. I didn't push the car all that hard, but I stayed on course so I was happy with my 61.694s time.

The next runs I pushed harder as I got a better idea of which turns I could take faster and which turns I needed to take slower. My 2nd run dropped over two seconds down to a 59.312s. Then my 3rd run was a four-tenths improvement down to 58.910s. I figured the time improvements were going to be harder to come by, but I tried to concentrate hard in my 4th run on braking early, keeping it tidy through the turns, and late apexing so that I could roll onto the gas earlier and carry more speed into the straight fast sections. I was shocked to see a 1.3s improvement down to a 57.593s! Of course, the 5th run I was back to pushing too hard and braking too late, and set a 58.549s for my final run of the day.

One of the downsides of running with PCA in my BMW is that I don't have many other similar cars to compare my times to. The fastest cars were running between 49s and 52s, so it makes my 57s seem pretty slow. There are a handful of drivers that seem to be consistently around my times though, so I'll be curious when the full results get posted to see how I fared against them. Regardless of how my times compare to other drivers though, I had a great time pushing my car around the track and a fun day overall.

7/18 PCA Autocross

Last weekend I ran autocross with the Chesapeake Porsche Club of America again. The driving was fun but weather delays and a large group of drivers made for a pretty long day.

Once again this time I got to the track in time to do several walk throughs (course map). As usual, the course designers managed to pack some fast sections and nice sweeping curves into the track layout despite being limited to such a small parking lot. One minor downside of the course was that we could only run one car at a time, due to the track doubling back through itself so much. I'm sure this was another contributor to the day taking so long. On the plus side, unlike last time, it was a lot easier for the course workers to replace cones in between runs without having to worry about the next car coming through the course as quickly.

There were over fifty drivers for this event, so they broke us up into three groups. I was driving in the second group and working the track during the third, which meant I was sitting around waiting for a while during the first group. It was just as well because storms came through and those first-heat track workers got a bit wet. During the bulk of the storms, they stopped racing and everyone either waited under cover or in their cars for the storms to pass. It ended up being at least an hour delay - maybe closer to two hours.

Despite the delay, they still did five runs for everyone so it was after 11:30 before I was on track in the second group. As soon as the course was cold between groups I went out and did a quick walkthrough since it had been so long. It was a good thing I did apparently because lots of other cars ended up going off course (getting lost) during their runs.

The rain had stopped by the time we went on track, but the pavement was still wet. It made for some unimpressive times but I always have fun sliding the car around on the wet track. By the 2nd or 3rd run the track was drying out though, and my time dropped from 57.304s to 54.866s and then down to 54.638s. For my fourth run I pushed even harder and brought my time down to 53.658s, despite getting pretty loose coming out of one of the right-handers. Given that "moment," I was hopeful that I could bring my time down significantly further in my final run by keeping things a bit more tidy. Perhaps I pulled back a little too much though, because while I did drop down another two tenths (to 53.455s), it wasn't really the drop I was hoping for. Maybe my fourth run was just better than I thought it was. :-)

At the very end of my group after I was finished with my final run, one of the other cars (a Porsche 911 I believe) came into the last section of track too hot, got loose trying to go through the slalom prior to the stop gate, and then ended up spinning and backing into the concrete barriers! He didn't hit super hard, but it was enough to give the bumper and exhaust pipe on one corner a pretty good dent. I would imagine that pretty well ruined his day at the track. For as much as the autocross courses are designed to be nice and safe around all these cones in the parking lots, it's still really on the drivers to know where they can push safely to/past the limit and where they need to make sure they're in total control - any spots where you're at any risk of hitting something hard are not the spots to be getting sideways.

By the time I was working the track for the third group of drivers, the clouds had cleared and the sun was out in full force. I suppose for mid-July it could have been a lot worse, but it was still feeling like we were baking by the end of it.

When it was all said and done the autocross didn't wrap up until about 3 in the afternoon. They normally finish closer to noon or 1 and it was a real pain to have the autocross unexpectedly run so late in the afternoon. We had to cancel our other plans for the day and it made for an even busier Sunday. I guess next time I go out with PCA I'll be prepared for the possibility that it goes so late, but hopefully we'll dodge the rain and we'll be finishing at a more reasonable time again.

They haven't posted the results for the day yet, so check back at the this space to see how I did compared to the other drivers. I think the fastest times were in the 49's and low 50's. I'll be curious to see how I compare to the people who I've been close to in previous autocrosses though.

5/16 PCA Autocross

Last Saturday I ran autocross with the Chesapeake chapter of the Porsche Club of America for the second time. The course was great, everyone was laid back, and it was a gorgeous day to be outside racing. This was also my first autocross since buying my new helmet, and it was nice not having to worry about finding a loaner helmet that fit.

Unlike my last PCA autocross, I actually got to the lot in plenty of time to do tech and a couple course walk-throughs this time, so that made it a lot more relaxing right off the bat. I also ran in the 2nd group this time, which I've almost never done, so I got a chance to see the other cars go through the course for a while first and see where they seemed to be having problems.

Finally at about 10:45, it was my turn to go out. It's amazing how much tighter the course is when you're driving compared to walking. The first run is always a lot of feeling out of the course, and it's always a bit of a surprise to see which parts of the course are slower and tighter than expected. My first run came in at 60.599s. The next run I attacked the course a lot harder, but that also meant coming in too hot on a lot of corners and wasting time getting the car collected and rotated rather than shooting off towards the next turn. Still, at 56.851s I was happy with the improvement.

The next three runs saw continual improvement - 56.020s, 55.534s, 55.263s - as I got a better handle on where I could really maximize speed and where I needed to get the car slowed down early to help get around tight turns quickly and back on the gas. I finished 24th overall out of 34 drivers, and given that the vast majority of those other drivers were in Porsche 911's, boxters, and caymans, I feel like that's not a bad result.

One thing I really noticed this time was how much nicer a better set of tires would be for autocross. I'm still running my normal daily run-flats for autocross and they just have so little feel at the edge of adhesion. It seems like you just have to use your butt and feel the car rotate to even tell when the car is breaking loose. I think with a more grippy set of tires, I'd be able to feel the grip and the limit through the steering wheel a lot better. That should make it a lot easier to feel what the car is doing and keep the car at the limit more consistently. Once I eventually get my garage fixed up and have space to store a spare set of wheels and tires, I'll be bumping up a set of racing tires to the top of my wish list.

This trip confirmed all the things I liked about the PCA-CHS autocross the last time out. Everyone seems really laid back. And, like last time, the course had some nice sweeping turns that really allowed you to get up some speed. The only downside of the course was that, since there were some sections where the cars passed through twice, it was hard for the course workers to run out and fix a cone and run back to their station safely. At one point during the 2nd group of racing they had to actually stop the racing to remind the workers to make sure they're paying 100% attention to where the cars are on track when they run out to fix knocked-down cones. Other than that though it was great day. The other nice thing about the PCA autocross is that the location is only about 10 minutes from home, so my wife and daughter came out again to root me on, which is always fun.

My next autocross is just a little over a month away with BMWCCA. It's my first time at FedEx field which I've heard is great for autocross, so I'm looking forward to it!

10/11 BMW CCA Autocross

Last weekend I participated in my third autocross event and my second with BMW CCA. It was a rainy day but that just made the driving that much more fun.

Greg came again this time, but instead of running his miata he drove my car. This time I got there early enough to walk the track a couple times. Having been to the Porsche event with it's wide sweeping curves, the BMW CCA course seemed extra tight and narrow, although still more open than the last BMW event I was at. On the plus side, all the cones made it a lot easier to keep track of where the course was and avoid DNFs.

Since Greg and I were sharing a car, we were in separate groups so I ran first and worked second, and he worked the course first and drove second. There weren't a ton of people there, so we got to do five runs each instead of this group's usual four runs.

My first run I just used to feel out the track and the wet conditions and finished with a 52.7s. My second run I felt the limit a lot more through the curves which was fun, and resulted in a 48.7s. For my third run, a 48.8s lap, I concentrated on getting harder on the gas through some of the straighter sections, but in a couple spots that took me too deep into turns or left the car too unsettled when braking that hard just before the corner.

In the fourth run I concentrated on smoothing everything out a bit more - going as fast as possible through the straight-ish sections but still making sure I was slowed down enough for the tight turns. I shaved nearly a second off my time, coming down to a 47.9s. My fifth run was more of the same, plus I think by then the rain had stopped and the rivers across the track were starting to go away. I still overcooked it coming out of the last turn and got all squirrely though, which I'm sure cost me a little bit. Even with that though, my time dropped to a 47.5s.

Greg's runs during the second part of the morning were 51.7s, 51.3s, 49.6s, 50.0s, and 47.4s. He just barely pipped me on his very last run of the day! Actually, his last run almost didn't count because of some kind of timing issue. Greg had to check with the time keepers to see why his time didn't get posted, and they had to go back to the raw timing data to get his time.

Given all of the racing we've done together, we know just how well-matched we are with each other and it was no surprise that we'd finish the day less than a tenth apart. It's great having someone to run with where we're so closely matched.

Overall I finished 59th out of 87 for the day in raw times, but 17th overall in the performance-adjusted index, which I'm pretty happy with.

It looks like this event will be my last autocross of the year. I had a lot of fun getting into autocross this year for the first time. It's not exactly the same as racing on a full-sized race course with more traditional brake-turn in-apex-track out corners. But it's still a blast to hustle a car around the cones and feel the limits of what the car can do. I'm looking forward to getting out for more events next year!

9/21 PCA Autocross

Last Saturday I participated in my 2nd autocross event (3rd if you count the school). This time it was in a lot near BWI with the Chesapeake chapter of the Porsche Club of America. My buddy Greg came and ran his Miata, and my wife and daughter came to cheer me on.

I got there late and only had a chance for one walk-through on the course. The map looked simple enough, but when you get out there it feels like there's just a ton of open space with not a whole lot of cones indicating the route. I think this was my biggest complaint of the day. With two different spots on the course that you go through twice and so much distance between turns, it would have been really nice to have more cones to make it clearer what the course was.

For my first run, I had an instructor ride along since I was pretty nervous about staying on course, having only had the one walk-through. It was a fine first run, and I stayed on course which was the real goal.

My second run (as with all of the rest of them) I didn't have an instructor with me. I stayed on course and pushed a lot harder. The course had a lot of sweeping turns and a nice fast straight section, and it was a lot of fun to play with the car right at the limit. Lots of squealing tires and sliding around. :-)

The next run felt even faster, but then when I went and checked my time I had a DNF. The worst part was that nobody could tell me where I went off course. With no feedback on my mistake, I went out and did the same thing again in the 4th run too. Finally after that run, Greg was able to tell me where I went off course so I could correct it.

My 5th run was relatively quick, considering I was worried so much about going off course again. This time, instead of playing with the car at the limit all the way through and out of the turns, I tried keeping the car a little more collected through the turns and getting on the gas quicker. Not quite as fun as feeling the car on the ragged edge in the turns, but probably faster overall.

A week later and the Chesapeake PCA still hasn't posted the official results, so I'm not sure if that's normal for them or what the hold-up is. I thought Greg got me by about half a second on his last run, but he says he hit a cone and lost a second for it, which would give me the win and our little office trophy. Still waiting on the official results to collect though. :-)

Overall I liked the autocross setup. They seemed well organized and got everyone through their five runs pretty quickly. The lot seemed like a nice enough place to run and the course was pretty fast and flowing for an autocross course, unlike the stop-and-go tight course of the BMW event I went to. It was also nice that the lot was less than 15 minutes from my house. Plus, compared to watching BMWs run around the track, seeing these beautiful Porsches from many different generations was a nice little bonus of the PCA event. I could definitely see myself doing more events with them in the future.

4/26 BMW CCA Autocross

Yesterday I participated in my first real autocross event. The weather was perfect and it was fun doing timed runs for the first time, as well as running in the dry for the first time. Prior to this year, I had never done autocross of any kind. The BMW CCA novice autocross school gave me a taste of what autocross was like, but we weren't using timing that day and it rained the entire day.

I got down to the Baysox stadium at about noon and immediately got registered, prepped my car, and went through tech. That gave me enough time to walk the course twice on my own and once as part of the guided "novice course walk." I think walking the course that many times helped me a lot. There seemed to be a lot of other people having "off course" runs (where they miss a gate/cone and get no time for their run), and that never happened to me. After the course walks, we had a driver's meeting and then split into two groups. My group was racing first, so I jumped in my car and got in line in the grid.

I don't know how many people participated in the afternoon session, but even half of the group felt like a lot of cars. I was lined up in the grid at about 1:30 and we didn't finish running until at least 2:30. That means each of my 4 runs was spread apart by 15+ minute breaks. That aspect of it kind of sucked, since it was hard to stay in any kind of rhythm and hard to remember what you needed to change from run to run.

In my first run, I got a pretty bad start off the line, got slightly confused by the double-cone pass-through gate, and sort of forgot to keep looking ahead on the course. I also went diving into one of the turns and had so much understeer that my steering wheel was turned way to the side even though I was barely turning. Oops! The end result was a 45.277. On the bright side, I didn't hit any cones and didn't go off course. Plus since it was my first run, I was still getting used to how tight certain turns were and where I could get on the gas more.

My second run I got a better launch and did a much better job of looking further ahead on the course. Seeing more of the course ahead of you makes a huge difference with placing the car and getting through the turns smoothly. It was fun jumping on the gas and brakes a lot harder that run and feeling the car slide slightly as I approached the limit through the turns. That run was a 42.704, which was a nice improvement over my first run.

My third run was essentially more of the same. Slight improvements got my time down to 42.630 which ended up being my fast time of the day. The fourth run felt pretty similar too but was slightly slower at 42.764.

One of the weird things about the format was that it was hard to follow who was in what class and where I stood at any given time against the people with similar cars. So I would sit and watch cars come in with anywhere from 39s times to 45s times and have know idea how I was really doing.

After my half of the drivers were finished, I worked one of the flag stations as a runner for fixing cones that were knocked over. The weather was great and it was fun watching some really nice looking cars weave through the cones, so I was surprised that working the track actually wasn't so bad. Plus I got a little exercise running around picking up cones. One thing I wish I had done was wear sunblock! I'm a bit red today, working on an awesome farmers tan.

Once all the drivers were done, we had a little awards ceremony where they announced the top three in each class. I finished second in my class and got a little foam cone as a "trophy!" Turns out there were only four people in the S2 class, but it's still fun to see that I was faster that at least somebody. :-) Actually, looking over the results, I was faster than three out of the five drivers in the S1 class and the one driver in the S3 class, so that's not too bad. Overall I finished 62nd out of 102 drivers, which I'm pretty happy with considering it was my first autocross and I'm running a bone-stock 335i.

It was fun getting out for a real autocross event. It's something I wish I had gotten into a long time ago, although until now I never really had the car for it. Plus, talking to some of the other guys, it sounds like the National Capital Chapter of BMW CCA does a great job of putting on events that are nice and relaxed, since after all it's really just for fun. So I'm glad my first autocross experiences have been with the NCC BMW CCA.

Most of the rest of the NCC BMW CCA autocross season is down in Waldorf, about an hour from my house. As fun as autocross is, it's still kind of crazy to think about prep time, leaving home at 11:30, and getting back at 4:30 all for less than three minutes of actual driving time. Adding an extra 40 minutes of commute time in each direction would make that even worse. But, I'll see how I feel as the summer goes on. I'm sure I'll try to make it to the only other event at the Baysox stadium in October. Plus, in mid-June I'll be doing autocross in a Ferrari with Gotham Dream Cars! I'm hoping my little bit of autocross experience I now have makes that day even more fun.

BMW CCA Novice Autocross School

Saturday I attended the BMW Car Club of America National Capital Chapter's novice autocross school at the Bowie Baysox stadium. It was my first time doing autocross and I had a ton of fun, even though it was raining.

We started off the morning split into two groups in the two halves of the parking lot. My group did the slalom first, which was just a standing start and then weaving through about eight cones. Even just that little exercise was a lot of fun. It was only in 2nd gear, but it was still fast enough to feel the car reach the edge of adhesion if you pushed too hard. It was also amazing how much it helped to keep your eyes further down the road, positioning the car for the next slalom instead of just looking at the cone right in front of you.

After the groups swapped places, we did a little mini-autocross course that was kind of half of a figure 8 - two rights, a diagonal straightaway, and then two lefts. The first few runs I accidentally left the traction control on, so once I figured that out it was a lot more fun to push the limit as I got on the gas coming out of the second turn and onto the straightaway. At one point I got it pretty sideways and saved it, and I could see people standing there watching and cheering.

In the afternoon they had the whole thing set up more like a regular autocross session. They started off after lunch with a driver's meeting and track walk. During the track walk it seemed like there was so much room for a racing line, but when you get out there in a car you realize just how little space there is in some of the turns.

Before we actually drove our own cars, we got a chance to ride with instructors, which was fun. Even in the rain, the 4-wheel-drive WRX I rode in had tons of grip and would really throw you into the seats under acceleration and turning. It was also interesting see how hard the instructor would get on the gas and brakes.

Finally around 2pm in the afternoon I got to drive the full autocross course in my own car. Oh man it was fun! It was great pushing my car to the limit around all these turns. I think the wet actually made it more fun, since the car was so much more willing to slide around. It was amazing how quickly a lap on the course went. It just felt like a quick blur of corner after corner and then poof!, it's all over. Another thing I noticed out there was that autocross seems to be all about positioning you car for that next turn. It took me a little bit to adjust my thinking away from the road course mindset of maximizing exit speed so that you carry a lot of speed onto a straightaway, and instead focus on where you want the car positioned for the two or three turns ahead.

After I drove the course five times, I worked one of the flag stations while the other half of the group was on course. It was kind of fun watching the other cars go through the turns and seeing their racing line. There were times in the session it was raining pretty good though, and by the end of it I was soaked to the bone.

Despite the weather, I had an absolute blast. It was just so great to push the car hard in an environment that's safe and legal. Everyone there seemed to have a great attitude and was equally enthusiastic about the whole thing, which also helped make it a lot of fun. I'm going to try to make a real autocross event at the same location later this month. I can't wait to get back out there!