March Autocross Report

Hey, let's go drive!

Reporting from the Winston-Salem cigarette pack, I mean, the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds, NMS is happy to report that the #777 Cayman took 1st place (out of 3 competitors) in the S03 class, as well as 8th place out of 33 Porsche drivers last Sunday. This was the first event of the season for the Carolinas Porsche Club, so NMS driver Bob Nixon takes the early season lead for his class. 

As much as I like my red car, some of these blues are nice too. 

While there had been a chance of rain predicted, it turned out to be a nice dry day, with some clouds and tons of pollen in the air. This explains why all the cars looked a little green, because there is just no way to keep all that pine pollen off your car during this time of year in the Carolinas. Driver Nixon reported his 8 runs on course in an exclusive interview. 

Waiting in line with my run group. Half the drivers are working on course, and half of us are driving. Then we all swap places. 

Run 1: I just wanted to get a feel for the course, not going slow, but just to establish a reasonable time baseline and then figure out where to gain time from there. Time: 52.1 seconds. Some drivers take it really slow on the first run, just to make sure they know their way around course, get the car warmed up, etc. Others go hard all the time. Put me down for the middle ground, or the Goldilocks "Just Right" method. I think you've got to go at least 80% up to speed to get a more realistic feel for the course and know where to keep pushing faster. If you walk the course ahead of time, you should not be concerned with getting lost out there.

Autocross events are generally open to all makes of cars. 
Here's one of the few Nissan 350Zs that NMS doesn't own. 
Ha ha! Just kidding. 

Run 2: Time 50.5, so a good gain in time. The twisty track and my first two runs reminded me that there really weren't any super hard braking spots, so I reminded myself to just tap the brakes to help the car rotate and maneuver through the sharp corners. I was running with pretty standard tire pressures around 30psi, the car stability management turned off, and the rear wing up. 

Just in case you don't read the language of license plates: 
NO FOREIGN JUNK

Run 3: With a time of 49.8, happy to get under 50, but still working on dropping time. 

Run 4: Before this run I lowered the tire pressures back down to 30 since they had started climbing after the 2nd run. It was also about 12:30pm and I was hungry, so I ate a PBJ for more energy. This extra weight kind of worked because my time dropped to 49.2 seconds but I also hit a cone in a tricky Chicago Box cone formation, so a penalty of 2 seconds means this run was really 51.2. This time told me that I could get into the 48 second range, so that was my goal for the day. 

NMS red Cayman and a silver one. 

Run 5: For the final run of the 1st session, my driving felt like it was a faster run but the clock had a different opinion of 50.0 seconds. Time to take a break and come back stronger in the 2nd driving session. 

Run 6: After working on course for the second time today, my half of the field started our final 3 runs. It was about 10 degrees warmer now, so I kept the tire pressures down to 30psi and hit the course. This run lowered my best to a 49.6. That was encouraging, and we had two more attempts to go and go for the 48s.

Not my favorite color for a car. If you have a brown car, no problem, just use a different color than black for your numbers. 

Run 7: After lowering my tire pressures even more to 28 for this run, it paid off with my best time of the day at 48.9. Another statistic I was monitoring was my speed at the finish line, trying to maximize a short all out sprint to the end. This finishing speed was also my best of the day, at 54.9mph. That's not world record fast, but on a tight autocross circuit it feels mighty quick in the drivers seat. 

Run 8: I kept the tire pressures low, had a good run, but it was 49.0 so just a tenth off my previous best. If nothing else it's kind of good to be consistent, and just maybe that was the fastest I could manage that day. 

All in all I enjoy autocrossing and spending the day trying to improve your time, figuring out where to go faster, and driving the car as close to the limit as you can, even if you're just gaining a tenth of a second at 47mph! OK, it's fun to go faster than some of the other drivers, but there's almost always people faster than me too!