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!

New Helmet and Autobahn Arrive and Drive

A couple weeks ago I went down to OG Racing in VA to buy my first helmet. Amy got me a gift card for Christmas and with autocross season fast approaching, it was time to get down there and buy. I was a little hesitant to buy an SA2010 with the SA2015s coming out next Winter, but Amy convinced me to go ahead and buy one now. Since it's my first helmet, I'm sure I'll learn a thing or two about what I need in a helmet and what things I might do differently for my next helmet purchase.

I ended up getting a white Bell M4 SA2010 in medium. The M4, compared to some other more karting-focused helmets I looked at, had a nice large eyeport that should be better for looking at gauges and things when racing in my car. The size was the biggest question mark and I'm still not 100% positive that medium was best choice. The helmet is pretty snug. It's hard to get my ears into the thing without them folding up in the helmet, and I really have to jam the helmet down on my head to feel like it's far enough down around my chin. But, supposedly as I use it more the cushioning is supposed to compress a little and the helmet will loosen up a little. I don't think it's quite tight enough to be painful, but boy it's close.

Tonight I got to try the helmet out for the first time at Autobahn with a couple friends from work. The place was super busy and it took forever to actually get on the track. And then on track, some of the traffic was really slow and others were spinning out so frequently that they'd have to slow all the cars down to get people pointed in the right direction. I need to stick with weeknights and mid-day trips to avoid the big crowds in the future.

Still despite the crowds, some of the racing was definitely fun. I managed to get some clean laps here and there and post the 31st best time of the week on one track and the 37th best time of the week on the other. Not stellar, but okay for having been away from the track for so long. I also finished with the best time in all three of my races, so that's always fun. My friends from work were also faster than most of the rest of the random drivers we were with, so that was fun too.

It was great using my new helmet for the first time. No loaner helmet or mandatory head sock. The helmet still feels just a little on the tight side. I never noticed it on track, but by the end of the afternoon, as we were sitting on the grid waiting to race, I was starting to feel the pressure of the helmet around my head. If it turns out the helmet is too tight and doesn't break in, then I'll be shopping for an SA2015 next winter. :-)

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.