400HP930 -VS- The Clock (and other auto-xers too)

[0HP930]

My hopes started high today for my first official auto-x with my new wheels (especially since some earlier activities indicated I should be 2-3 seconds faster on the typical 1 minute course).

My group ran last after suffering through a 2 - 3 hour haul as course workers. Suffering is always more bearable when you know there is a good reward awaiting you, correct?

I perused the earlier results and guestimatd that I should be able to break into the upper 40s if all went well. Time to shine.

I ran my first run in my usual concervative fashion and was expecting low 50s but when I passed the timer display I saw 57.399.

I'm like WTF? That SUCKED big time. Every second is an eternity in auto-x and to be over 7 seconds behind the good cars and drivers was VERY DISCOURAGING.

I thought I must have been doing something very wrong to have been so slow so the second time I pushed MUCH harder, resulting in a complete 180 degree spinout on the back stretch in a slalom which FUBARed that run.

I also pushed hard on the third and got a 51.005 and in the process tipped a cone in the end but I was happy that it was still much better than the 57.399.

I screwed my 4th run up bad and got 57 seconds again. Blah . . . :P
If not for the 51 and a cone I thought this was going to be my worse auto-x ever.

Where things got strange is when all was done I'm looking at the results list and out of the 3 people in ASP I'm number 1 (yeah, my first first in ASP ever). Then I look at the winning run and see that the first time that I thought sucked at 57 seconds was my best clean run at 51 seconds and I'm like WTF, I know I saw 57. I am then told that the time display has a glitch that is displaying ones as sevens.

I was so disappointed since that bogus time made me doubt my normal driving habbits and do a lot of things I would not have done if I knew how good the first run was. I guess its just proof positive that confindence is critical to good performance.

In the end though I am robbed of my first place finish since for some sexist reason the SCCA splits some of the crazy classes like ASP into a mens and womens class, and there was a talented lady in a boxter s running in the ladies ASP class that was bumped into my class. 2nd place don't give you jack squat in a 4 person class and this is not the first time this has happened to me in ASP.

This time around out of 106 competitors I am 31st fastest so I am happy to be in the top 30%.

During my one fun run after realizing I did do pretty well I took the course confidently and aggesively and got a 47.1XX (but barely snagged a few cones in the process) so I know I could have done better if I had not been second guessing myself.

To end a long story all I have to say is that I hope I can utilize all my potential at the next event.

[SaturnTypeR]

DUDE I HAD A FUCKIN BLAST!!! Thanks! Esp to Porshe Guy, Fish, and damn it i can remember the other people that helped me out to day, i will rememeber your names when my sunburn stops stinging. well all in all had a blast wish i could see my scores! anyone know where i can get them!???

OH YEA i have a shit load of pics they should be on here Tomarrow night!! :twisted:

[Dimitry]

hehe i was out there watching people go, seemed like fun, will run when i get a job :D


Saturn you were taking it leasurly :D

[Alan]

It was fun. Didn't do as well as I had hoped. Not afraid to admit that my driving skills need some improvement so I can be at least somewhat competitive in SM.

[fastforward]

I walked the course several times, and felt like I had a good view of it. I got out there in my lowly Altima and tried my best. I felt really dialed in, the car was quick, I felt confident my times would be good. What a dissapointment....I suck. My times blew chunks. I think my best time was 54.6 something. I couldn't figure out what was making me so slow! I tried taking it easy, and I tried pushing it hard.....no matter what I did, my times barely changed.
I've autocrossed several times (close to a dozen at least) I'm starting to think I have just outgrown my car and its limits and need something with more potential. Maybe I'm just making excuses. Hahaha! Oh well, I manged to place 4th in HS...(*cough...out of 4 cars....*cough)
Nevertheless....I had a good time. As always.

Anyone ever learn what happened to that convertible BMW's rear wheel in the first run group? That was freakin' weird how it almost fell off the car!

[138MustangGT]

I hate all of you.

[0HP930]

Originally posted by "fastforward"

I walked the course several times, and felt like I had a good view of it. I got out there in my lowly Altima and tried my best. I felt really dialed in, the car was quick, I felt confident my times would be good. What a dissapointment....I suck. My times blew chunks. I think my best time was 54.6 something. I couldn't figure out what was making me so slow! I tried taking it easy, and I tried pushing it hard.....no matter what I did, my times barely changed.
I've autocrossed several times (close to a dozen at least) I'm starting to think I have just outgrown my car and its limits and need something with more potential. Maybe I'm just making excuses. Hahaha! Oh well, I manged to place 4th in HS...(*cough...out of 4 cars....*cough)
Nevertheless....I had a good time. As always.

Anyone ever learn what happened to that convertible BMW's rear wheel in the first run group? That was freakin' weird how it almost fell off the car!

The beemer literally broke its lower control arm. I took a peek and it appears that the lower arm may have suffered some earlier trauma at one point or another long before it ever came to the auto-x.

And about your times, a 54 aint that bad. There were a lot of things about that course today that really penalized some cars more than others.

And my advice to Shawn, . . . get yourself an automobile and get to en event some time soon.

I keep thinking I'm going to meet you in person and you keep on snubbing us so you can attend to your 'family obligation' stuff. Blah . . .

[Bill]

The course was pretty well layed out and I loved it...until the end. The damned gates and offsets at the end were just ridiculously tight. Oh well, my times were respectable but I kept pushing a little too hard and the cluster fuck before the timing box enabled me to take out at least one cone per run. :oops:
It was good to see a lot of people out there running for the first time even though we had a bunch of you walk off without working the course. :x

[marksaccord95]

i was too busy schoolin people at the track with their own cars, hehe, not like my car is working anyway.

anyone got a diagram of the track for the day? ill be at the season ender for sure.

[sloaccord]

Originally posted by "SaturnTypeR"

DUDE I HAD A FUCKIN BLAST!!! Thanks! Esp to Porshe Guy, Fish, and damn it i can remember the other people that helped me out to day, i will rememeber your names when my sunburn stops stinging. well all in all had a blast wish i could see my scores! anyone know where i can get them!???OH YEA i have a shit load of pics they should be on here Tomarrow night!! :twisted:

dude me and tony were looking for you to give you a ridealong, but failed to find you. we wanted you to see what the course looks like when you're passing cones fast enough you dont have time to reach out your window and pick them up. but hey you were out there, and you had fun- thats what it's all about.

hey tony- i placed 14th of 106! wow. . . . imagine if a good driver were driving my car. i wonder what danny could do in it?

[_Charles_]

I did shitty. It was clearly my worst day. I did get to spin out though!!! I really don't like the Integra Type-R on stock springs, too tail happy (this was my first time racing with stock springs). Oh well. I'll be racing the R in Stock until my Sol is ready for the track, or Nov 1st (2003 season), whichever comes first. I can't wait to try the Sol....it's gonna be sweet!

Charles

[Leonard]

All in all, it was a pretty good day. There were some definite problems with the course though. You KNOW it is too tight when Miata's and MR2's can take a cone penalty at the finish and pick up MORE than the penalty costs. Heck, I picked up ~2 seconds by trying to blow through the finish (but managed to take three cones with me and trigger the finish behind me with one of them :) ).
We had some major issues with the timing system. It was working fine when I set it up in the morning, but sometime during the drivers meeting, it decided to have issues reading the signal from the start. I've got it with me now and will be putting NEW connectors onto the cables rather than redoing the old connections.
Tony, the top piece of the 2nd digit of the display has been like that as long as I've been autoxing. It may be a future project to take it apart, find the defective relay and replace it. It's a delicate process however, as the display costs several thousand dollars. !!! eek!!!
We also had some serious with people from Heat 1 (work group 3 ) having abandoned us. I'm certain they know who they are and I hope that they realized we do track it. My personal comment to our worker cheif is that next time they should be in the third run group and be required to work 1 and 2 at the front gate. It's very uncool and caused some problems with course staffing which generated ALOT of reruns because course workers were unable to reset the course before the next car came around. (yes, I'm pretty ticked about the whole thing as I had some really good runs get red flagged before my tires overheated, but those are the breaks).

Oh yeah, props to Taylor Norton for winning SM. (and he though he'd never see a trophy again!!!!)


Shawn, we missed you man!!!!

[0HP930]

Yeah, Taylor has been kicking ass at each auto-x I have seen him at.

I'm skeptical that Danny could do better in his accord since for those kinds of numbers and watching him run he certainly knows what he is doing. And with disabled power steering none the less !

[Leonard]

Originally posted by "400HP930"


In the end though I am robbed of my first place finish since for some sexist reason the SCCA splits some of the crazy classes like ASP into a mens and womens class, and there was a talented lady in a boxter s running in the ladies ASP class that was bumped into my class. 2nd place don't give you jack squat in a 4 person class and this is not the first time this has happened to me in ASP.


Stop crying. I agree that the whole existence of Ladies classes is annoying (as I think gender has NOTHING to do with driving ability -- unlike most other sports), however I'm sure it's done to attract more women to the sport. But she beat you none the less, so stop crying....

Oh yeah, and look at the last name of the person who beat you. It should explain alot. Her husband runs in the Expert class....

[VideoNasty]

Originally posted by "MinGreyCobra"



Stop crying. I agree that the whole existence of Ladies classes is annoying (as I think gender has NOTHING to do with driving ability -- unlike most other sports), however I'm sure it's done to attract more women to the sport. But she beat you none the less, so stop crying....

Oh yeah, and look at the last name of the person who beat you. It should explain alot. Her husband runs in the Expert class....


I started out running Ladies classes, because I figured I could get an easy win and points for year end, I still used the open class as a reference for my times. I ran Ladies for a year then got sick of being the only one(I also saw alot of women kicking ass in Open classes :D ) so I started running Open too)

Ladies classes are nice for the girls who are new and don't think they can compete with the boys. It helps to attract people.

[Leonard]

Bah!!! There's no earthly reason the girls can't compete with the boys in racing.

[BIG_Truck_Driver]

Bah!!! I think a woman with the love for it could out drive most guys on an autox course. The fastest way around is the smoothest course, and I think women have an advantage at being graceful.

[BIG_Truck_Driver]

as a side note to that there was a very unladylike female there who thoroughly embarassed me in front of my mother. Thankfully my mom realized the truth, that she was making a fool of herself just to try an impress some of the guys around, and totally failing at it.

[Leonard]

Was that your mom riding with you????

[BIG_Truck_Driver]

Originally posted by "MinGreyCobra"

Was that your mom riding with you????

No, took my sister for a ride on my second run.
Figured it might be a bit too much for my mom.

[Leonard]

That was your sister???!? Man... we know who got all the non-silent bob genes.... :lol

[BIG_Truck_Driver]

she got more of my mothers looks and build, I got my dads side of the family.

[0HP930]

Shit Walter, I had no idea yo momma was out there watchin ya.

I must admit that I was happy with my 2nd place finish since I do know who Mrs Shields is and did not mind losing to her. The boxter s is also a great auto-x car (and got the best auto-x time that day) though it is a pricey way to get about the course.

My only complaints were the discouragement I got from thinking my first run stunk and the fact that I would have liked a trophy for my troubles to keep the others on my little trophy shelf at the back of my garage company.

Even when you count all the other miseries we had to deal with that day, I'm pretty sure we all are glad we were there having fun despite it all.

:D

[99TL]

when is the next local auto-x? i want to come out and give it a run.

[VideoNasty]

www.eec.com/racing

thats the SCCA CFR Solo2 website the flyers are on there in PDF format!

[sloaccord]

thanks for the nice comments guys. . . . . i really dont know how it is i'm doing that well out there. i still feel really crappy on the course.

and i agree with leonard (look, a pig flying past my window, and it's snowing outside) with the comment about THE STINKING POO-HEADS THAT LEFT EARLY.

[Alan]

Congrats on the trophy in SM. Hopefully I'll be up there next time, pending my tire situation. :D

[138MustangGT]

As far as people not staying for their work assignments, they will be dealt with brutally.

We actually took care of some people at the SEDiv event! Two guys actually, one who skipped out at Gville and one from FSF. They worked double work assignments both days in order to be allowed to run. i MEAN DOUBLE work assignments.

Katie keeps track of that shit and beware, she is vengeful. Especially beware if Cary Quick is there to deal the punishment, Darth Quick will PWN JU!!!

I will be there eventually, and most likely not driving my own car.. still. I just got a LOT of shit going on right now.

[Leonard]

Originally posted by "138MustangGT"


I will be there eventually, and most likely not driving my own car.. still. I just got a LOT of shit going on right now.


Darth diaper pwns you!!!!!!