Originally Posted by
chris@speedsyndicate
Also if something needs to be addresed you can work on you car and then go back out to test it. At an Auto-Cross you run time is more structured and you might not get enough time to fix it.
On the flip side, if you break your car on your first autocross run and it can't be fixed right away, you're only out $30-40. If you break your car on the first lap of your track session and can't fix it, you're out $300-400.
Autocross is a great "shakedown" step if you don't have great faith in your car. Nowhere near the stress of a track session... but if you can't make it through a few autocross runs, you WON'T make it through a session at the track! You can also reveal suspension and handling problems that you might otherwise only see "when you get in trouble" on the track.