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.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Company Party at Autobahn
Tonight my company rented the Le Mans track at Autobahn for three hours for our 7th Anniversary Party. I ended up doing a total of eight races. I had some pretty stiff competition, and it was a lot of fun. I'm pretty sore from racing so much though. Hopefully I can still move when I wake up tomorrow morning.
One of the fun things about going to Autobahn with (non-racer) buddies/co-workers is getting to expose so many new people to racing and going fast. I'm guessing we had about 25 people there tonight. It seemed like everyone was having a great time trying it out. Some of the races (coincidentally, the ones with the company owner) involved a ton of bumping and black flags, which was fun to watch. The downside of all the newbies is having to navigate the slow traffic out there on track. It can get pretty crowded, and finding clean laps to post good times can be a challenge. But, it's worth it to be able to share the fun of karting with that many more people.
The big surprise of the night was that another guy at the company did have some experience at Autobahn and was every bit as fast as I was (which is to say, faster than I was). I was feeling pretty good about myself after my first heat, being a full second faster than the next guy in my group. Then I see Jacob post a lap time six tenths faster in the next heat! I spent the rest of the night trying (mostly failing) to catch up to Jacob's lap times.
Between heats, I talked to Jacob about how he was taking certain turns on the track. I also caught a couple brief glimpses of how he was taking certain turns, before he sped off into the distance. I gradually brought the gap down from one second to 3 tenths, then finally with the aide of traffic and kart luck I managed to beat Jacob in a heat.
Then as the evening was winding down, we got out there with a fast group, I had a great kart, and we got tons of green-flag racing with very little traffic issues. I managed to post the 6th fastest time of the week, besting Jacob's fast time of the day by seven thousandths of a second!
It was a great evening of racing, even though I'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow. It was fun karting with so many friends from work. It was fun meeting new people in the company. It was fun having some other fast people there to race with. And it was great digging deep, putting some fast laps together, and somehow miraculously coming out with the fast lap of the day.
One of the fun things about going to Autobahn with (non-racer) buddies/co-workers is getting to expose so many new people to racing and going fast. I'm guessing we had about 25 people there tonight. It seemed like everyone was having a great time trying it out. Some of the races (coincidentally, the ones with the company owner) involved a ton of bumping and black flags, which was fun to watch. The downside of all the newbies is having to navigate the slow traffic out there on track. It can get pretty crowded, and finding clean laps to post good times can be a challenge. But, it's worth it to be able to share the fun of karting with that many more people.
The big surprise of the night was that another guy at the company did have some experience at Autobahn and was every bit as fast as I was (which is to say, faster than I was). I was feeling pretty good about myself after my first heat, being a full second faster than the next guy in my group. Then I see Jacob post a lap time six tenths faster in the next heat! I spent the rest of the night trying (mostly failing) to catch up to Jacob's lap times.
Between heats, I talked to Jacob about how he was taking certain turns on the track. I also caught a couple brief glimpses of how he was taking certain turns, before he sped off into the distance. I gradually brought the gap down from one second to 3 tenths, then finally with the aide of traffic and kart luck I managed to beat Jacob in a heat.
Then as the evening was winding down, we got out there with a fast group, I had a great kart, and we got tons of green-flag racing with very little traffic issues. I managed to post the 6th fastest time of the week, besting Jacob's fast time of the day by seven thousandths of a second!
It was a great evening of racing, even though I'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow. It was fun karting with so many friends from work. It was fun meeting new people in the company. It was fun having some other fast people there to race with. And it was great digging deep, putting some fast laps together, and somehow miraculously coming out with the fast lap of the day.
Gotham Dream Car Sprint
This past Sunday, I got to do something I've dreamt about since I was a little kid: Drive a Ferrari! And boy did I drive it. And a Lamborghini too! And it was even better than I imagined.
For Valentine's Day, my wife got me a groupon for $125 for the "Dream Car Sprint" from Gotham Dream Cars. From their website, it's described as an "autocross event" where you can "open [the car] up for the thrill of a lifetime." Sounds totally awesome, and I was excited, but part of me was worried that "open it up" would really translate to "no wait don't go too fast" when it came to the reality of the event. I also had no idea what cars would be there, or what the track would be like. Luckily I had done a little bit of autocross this year (just for this reason!) so I at least knew a little bit about driving around cones. Otherwise though, I really wasn't sure what to expect.
My appointment was at 10am, and when I got there I saw a beautiful gray Ferrari 430 and an even more gorgeous bright orange Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. Only one problem - they were going so slow! Whoever was driving them was really crawling around the track. This was not a good sign.
I got registered, which was super smooth and easy. The guy said my groupon included 4 laps in the car of my choice. Or, I could add another 4 laps, in either car, for $75 extra. Well that's a no-brainer! I'm already taking the time out of my busy schedule to get all the way up to Aberdeen, and you're telling me I can drive both cars for an extra $75? Sold.
I was essentially in the Ferrari and Lamborghini line at the same time (you get little cards with numbers on them), and the Ferrari came up first. My wife and 2-year old daughter told me to have fun and go fast, and I hopped in the drivers seat. As we waited for the Lamborghini to finish on track, the instructor and I got to talking about similar experiences, and I said I had done a little bit of autocross and some Skip Barber Racing School back in the day. I told him I would go as fast as he'd let me. Luckily, he had the perfect response - as long as I'm in control, I can go as fast as I want.
As the Lamborghini exited the track, the instructor gave me the green light. On the gas, and I'm actually driving a Ferrari!!! Oh man it sounded wonderful. Up through 1st, to 2nd, to turn 1, hard on the brakes, tires squealing with great brake feel. A long right-hander follows. I'm still getting used to the car, but as I give it more and more speed, the handling just feels wonderful. The right hand turn tightens up, and switches quickly to a tightish left-hander, but then it's a little bit of a straightaway, then hard on the brakes again and into a long right hander leading back on to the main straight.
After getting used to the car that first lap, I really cranked it up for the rest of the four laps. I was getting it up to third gear by the end of the straight before jamming the brakes and getting back into second. And through the turns, I was getting the car right up to the limit of adhesion. It felt so light and nimble, and so responsive to the steering and throttle inputs. Just amazing.
On the last lap in the Ferrari, I went a little wide through turn one and ran over a few cones. The instructor didn't seem too upset about it, which was good. When I got back to the pit, it became clear that I took the cones with me, and the people had to spend a few minutes fishing cones out of the front of the car. :-) Oops.
Next up was the Lamborghini. Just sitting there waiting, blipping the throttle and hearing that growl, was super cool on its own. On track, I started pushing earlier in the Lamborghini session since I already knew the track. It was pretty nimble too, and was certainly great, but compared to the Ferrari it had a little bit less steering feel. On the exit of one of the corners, as I got onto the gas, the back end got out a little bit. It was a pretty small moment - just a quick steering correction and everything was back in line. When we pulled back into the pits though, the instructor said it was the first time all day that he had a little heart attack. :-)
My wife said you could see the two of us with huge grins on our faces, as we brought the car back in at the end of the run. I'm sure it was pretty funny to the spectators too, hearing the car squealing all over the track after seeing most of the people just poke around the track slowly.
The whole experience was amazing. The only downside was that I didn't do much "soaking in" of the fact that I was actually driving these awesome cars. I was just spending all my time concentrating on going fast. I don't really mind it, because pushing the cards that hard was awesome. It was great that they let me go that fast. Both cars, particularly the Ferrari, were just so outstanding at the limit. So much better than I expected, which is actually kind of funny because what else would you want out of a supercar? It opened my eyes to what makes these cars so great though. I'm hoping I'm now on some kind of e-mail list for deals from Gotham Dream Cars, cause I'd love to do it again in the future.
For Valentine's Day, my wife got me a groupon for $125 for the "Dream Car Sprint" from Gotham Dream Cars. From their website, it's described as an "autocross event" where you can "open [the car] up for the thrill of a lifetime." Sounds totally awesome, and I was excited, but part of me was worried that "open it up" would really translate to "no wait don't go too fast" when it came to the reality of the event. I also had no idea what cars would be there, or what the track would be like. Luckily I had done a little bit of autocross this year (just for this reason!) so I at least knew a little bit about driving around cones. Otherwise though, I really wasn't sure what to expect.
My appointment was at 10am, and when I got there I saw a beautiful gray Ferrari 430 and an even more gorgeous bright orange Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. Only one problem - they were going so slow! Whoever was driving them was really crawling around the track. This was not a good sign.
I got registered, which was super smooth and easy. The guy said my groupon included 4 laps in the car of my choice. Or, I could add another 4 laps, in either car, for $75 extra. Well that's a no-brainer! I'm already taking the time out of my busy schedule to get all the way up to Aberdeen, and you're telling me I can drive both cars for an extra $75? Sold.
I was essentially in the Ferrari and Lamborghini line at the same time (you get little cards with numbers on them), and the Ferrari came up first. My wife and 2-year old daughter told me to have fun and go fast, and I hopped in the drivers seat. As we waited for the Lamborghini to finish on track, the instructor and I got to talking about similar experiences, and I said I had done a little bit of autocross and some Skip Barber Racing School back in the day. I told him I would go as fast as he'd let me. Luckily, he had the perfect response - as long as I'm in control, I can go as fast as I want.
As the Lamborghini exited the track, the instructor gave me the green light. On the gas, and I'm actually driving a Ferrari!!! Oh man it sounded wonderful. Up through 1st, to 2nd, to turn 1, hard on the brakes, tires squealing with great brake feel. A long right-hander follows. I'm still getting used to the car, but as I give it more and more speed, the handling just feels wonderful. The right hand turn tightens up, and switches quickly to a tightish left-hander, but then it's a little bit of a straightaway, then hard on the brakes again and into a long right hander leading back on to the main straight.
After getting used to the car that first lap, I really cranked it up for the rest of the four laps. I was getting it up to third gear by the end of the straight before jamming the brakes and getting back into second. And through the turns, I was getting the car right up to the limit of adhesion. It felt so light and nimble, and so responsive to the steering and throttle inputs. Just amazing.
On the last lap in the Ferrari, I went a little wide through turn one and ran over a few cones. The instructor didn't seem too upset about it, which was good. When I got back to the pit, it became clear that I took the cones with me, and the people had to spend a few minutes fishing cones out of the front of the car. :-) Oops.
Next up was the Lamborghini. Just sitting there waiting, blipping the throttle and hearing that growl, was super cool on its own. On track, I started pushing earlier in the Lamborghini session since I already knew the track. It was pretty nimble too, and was certainly great, but compared to the Ferrari it had a little bit less steering feel. On the exit of one of the corners, as I got onto the gas, the back end got out a little bit. It was a pretty small moment - just a quick steering correction and everything was back in line. When we pulled back into the pits though, the instructor said it was the first time all day that he had a little heart attack. :-)
My wife said you could see the two of us with huge grins on our faces, as we brought the car back in at the end of the run. I'm sure it was pretty funny to the spectators too, hearing the car squealing all over the track after seeing most of the people just poke around the track slowly.
The whole experience was amazing. The only downside was that I didn't do much "soaking in" of the fact that I was actually driving these awesome cars. I was just spending all my time concentrating on going fast. I don't really mind it, because pushing the cards that hard was awesome. It was great that they let me go that fast. Both cars, particularly the Ferrari, were just so outstanding at the limit. So much better than I expected, which is actually kind of funny because what else would you want out of a supercar? It opened my eyes to what makes these cars so great though. I'm hoping I'm now on some kind of e-mail list for deals from Gotham Dream Cars, cause I'd love to do it again in the future.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
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.
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.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
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!
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!
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