July Autocross Report from Virginia: Victory!

Sitting on grid, ready to rock on the Chesapeake!

Video above, and you can find a lot more photos from today's event on my Facebook photo album at: July 26 AutoX photos   


July 26th was another fun filled day of autocross action with the Tidewater Sports Car Club, and even though the FIAT now weighs more (thanks to having doubled the number of license plates!), the mighty Abarth finished 1st in G Street against only one other driver, and a mid pack 47th total PAX time in a field of 113 drivers. This extends my points lead in GS thanks to very little competition, so as long as I can attend all the events into November I should win the class and the billion dollar prize money, free Ferrari, and trip around the world with a new beach house on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Well, maybe just a hearty handshake, there really isn't any prize money in autocross at the local level, but it's still a LOT of FUN!





A little shade goes a LONG way on a hot day!


With my first run I had a 47.802,  and felt that I could certainly go faster, mostly in one long slalom section. On the second run sure enough, I went really fast in the slalom which then made me go too fast into the next corner and wipe out a cone, which meant my run was slower at 48.694. Third run was smoother and I managed to drop almost a full second down to 46.839. On the fourth and final run I thought I could gain a few more tenths, but only managed a 47.151. For my awesomely average driving skills, dropping almost a second felt pretty good, but there is lots of room for me to improve my technique. You can check out all the results on line already, at this link:  July AutoX Results




Today was the last stage of the Tour de France too!

 
 

There are so many plain white, gray, and black cars in the world, that I always appreciate anything with four wheels that comes in colors. Hey, that makes an orange Porsche 911 just about the coolest thing you could drive!

I shot video of my 4 runs today, but with an out of town business trip starting tomorrow, will have to wait to get it on line.

 This is the timer display scoreboard that shows drivers their times at the end of their runs. Before the event started today it displayed this little message.

Is it a salute to the Beatles 2nd movie?

Does it mean "H-Emerson Lake and Palmer"?

Is the scoreboard operator in the scoring van sending a May Day Distress Signal asking for help?

One of the newest classes in autocross is called CAM, which stands for Classic American Muscle.

You can't get much more Classic, more American, or more Muscular than with a 60s Corvette that actually drives and competes!

Sure, there are plenty of Corvettes around, but it seems like many just get waxed and only driven to car shows, so it's really cool to see them being driven at autocross!

The Factory Five folks build kit car components like this wonderful orange car, and they look like a ton of fun to drive too. You can buy the kit, then add your own engine and transmission and maybe the wheels and a few other parts, and BAM you've got a modern day Cobra type car that you can build yourself!

Check out their website at Factory Five

Not quite in the Classic AMERICAN Muscle category, but if you can autocross a old Volvo like this, then you know how much fun this hobby can be!

Got a car?

Does it have wheels?

Does it run?

Then you can probably autocross it!

Classic American Muscle again.

Ford = American

Galaxie 500 = Classic

289 engine and racing number = Muscle!

In my head this photo would be zoomed in and you'd see nothing but the Chesapeake, the boat, and the car on the autocross course, with maybe a few cones and the sail boat way in the distance.

But I wasn't out in the middle of the course  holding a billion dollar fancy camera either, so you just have to use your imagination.

I call this: Cars are faster than Boats!