So I get my car finished, tested, head to the beach for a few days, and get back raring to go out and run an autocross to test my new setup. The only problem is- we're in the middle of an autocross dead zone? Looking at the schedule stickied above, I'm going to have to wait over a month to get out and autocross? It doesn't look like there's any normal run-of-the-mill events open to all comers for over a month, just as the weather is getting nice, too.

Looking at local events and excluding stuff on the east coast, Sebring, Gainesville, etc, the next event I see is BMW @ Brooksville on the 19th. But go look at their site and it's actually a teen driving event.

Then you've got the FCRC practice @ Brooksville Saturday 25th. From their site, it seems as though anybody can register for a normal event, but this event seems to be some sort of nationally sanctioned event and I have no idea what the rules are for that one. Has anybody ever run with the FCRC? Would they be cool with a dumpy little 240sx running at their event? Does anybody know if non-vette-owners can register for this particular event? To be honest I'm kind of uncomfortable butting in on a Vette event as a novice in a crummy car... it's only cool to be the odd man out when you're running fast times and driving well, not hitting every third cone and getting lost on course.

FAST is at St. Pete Nov 2 but it's a special event, some sort of "Battle-X" open to more experienced drivers only.

BMW @ Brooksville on the 9th looks like the first good option except that it's over a month from now and it's the Porsche vs. Bimmer event. Do they let "Non-BMW class" cars in for that one? I seem to remember that they don't.

That takes us to SCCA practice @ Brooksville on the 15th of November, the first assuredly open reg event on the calendar.

Please tell me I don't have to wait a month and a half to get my new setup on track . If anybody can give me a Yea or Nay on the FCRC event and the Nov 9 BMW event it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sebring should be a good event. I am considering going on Sunday.

You can drive in that, but they reserve an hour or so in the morning for "teen drivers". So you have to work for them while they run. The rest of the day is a normal event.

I haven't been there, but AFAIK, any car is welcome. Courses are high speed. No course working.

I don't think the "other" class is allowed at this one. Although I seem to recall that they let a few "others" run at the last one.

 

5 AM wakeup to make it to Sebring isn't my idea of a good time, unfortunately. Always been interested in heading out for an event there after briefly seeing them run while I was spectating at an SCCA club racing event, but the drive is killer.

Thanks for that information. I've just fired off an email to Barry Miller for information on registering since their site only links to reg for the street survival school itself.

Heh, there are probably a few things I could learn from that school myself, actually- it'd be nice to get some time on the wet skidpad to see if I could finally learn how to hold a drift and slalom practice time would be nice since I've lost the feel for slaloms I got at the FAST school. I think I'll just work on those things on my own time as it seems like the focus of the school is on teen drivers and safety more than drifting and practicing autox course elements.

 

Gainesville is a great course too. Well worth the drive IMHO.

If you drive like I do its only about an hour and a half from you, thats not far to go for a good event.

 

I've run at Gainesville in sort of an open lapping track event format. Only 20 cars, go out when you want, stay out as long as you want, did it with a couple of friends and it was awesome. I think I lapped for 45 minutes at one point which was totally unintentional- 15-20 minutes was more polite. I was totally absorbed in the driving and lost track of time.

Running it in an Auto-X format might be OK, but I've heard that the events are huge, 100+ people, and you only get three non-sequential runs. If that's true that's no good for me. I still can't fully grasp a course from a coursewalk and it usually takes me 1-2 runs just to get the feel for the course and start working on bringing down my times. I can't vouch for MSCC events but when I looked at the Buc region signup page today reg was capped at 125, so 100+ sounds pretty plausible.

On the plus side, my sister lives 15 minutes away, next to UF on the more rural side closer to the track, so I can stay there and don't have to get up at 5 am to get to the track on time. So I might give it a shot sometime.

PS An hour and a half from here to the track... I can only speculate on your driving style, but I don't even think my car's top speed is high enough for that.

 

Sorry, I was wrong about that. No autocross that day.

 

Also Kris and I will be at the Eurofest at the BMW zentrum in SC that weekend. So some one else is running the C C C. Ill miss it.

Also here our the Dates for next year. We will also have 2 events at Zeph hills with the PCA group..

 

It's ok, my engine started rod knocking on the way back from the drag strip Thursday night. So no autocross for a while anyway. Nov 15th SCCA @ Brooksville is looking a lot better.

 

time for an SR