I was there 2 or 3 years ago and they had no cones on the Gainesville track. You took one lap as a warm up lap and then you had a running start at the starting line. They timed you for 2 laps after that.

I didn't think it was worth the money, but we had the event cut short due to serious rain.

If you go make sure you have fresh brake fluid. If you haven't attended an auto-x at Gainesville, I would probably do that first just to learn some of the curves and how the surface feels.