Evo School Day 1

Today I completed phase 1 of the Evolution Performance Driving School. This school is hosted at sites around the country and co-sponsored by the local SCCA chapters. The school is taught by former autocross champions on the national level and is designed to teach performance driving using the context of autocross. 

Since we started our adventures in this sport/hobby, I've heard a lot of great feedback about the school and it just happened to line up that I could participate this year (a big thanks to mom and dad for giving me some funding for it for my birthday a few weeks ago!).

Unlike a typical autocross event, these schools really focus on getting you lots of seat time under the expert guidance of their instructors. This has made all the difference in identifying and correcting some of the problems I've had for the last few events. 

For anyone interested in either learning a ton about car control or who wants to improve at autocross, I would HIGHLY recommend the school. In one day I think I learned more than I could have all season otherwise.

Today's extra challenge was my first time in wet conditions, but in the end it only helped to better learn the techniques. At the beginning of the day, before instruction, I drove a 37.1 second lap. By the end of the day I put in a solid (no cones hit) 35.9.  

Good progress, a  LOT learned, and a whole second day to come!

Weekend Plans?

Well let's see, it's Friday, so what is going on this weekend?

NASCAR is up the road in Martinsville VA, so that will be an interesting race. The half mile track there is mighty small compared to other big tracks, and with no banking I don't know how those drivers can stand it!  Brian and I drove a few laps for charity up there a few years ago, and that was fun, but no where near the high speed of the banking like at Charlotte.

Here in Columbia SC the monthly Cars and Coffee folks have shifted from Saturday to Sunday due to rain in the forecast, so head out to the Village at Sandhill shopping center Sunday morning for a huge pack of cars to look at and chit chat. Since they have a Starbucks and a Panera there for coffee, all you have to supply is the car.

Brian will be driving in Charlotte in a two day EVO driving school, so I'm sure he will be telling us all about that in the near future.  After that he should have no excuses on the autocross schedule the rest of the year!

If none of those are close by, here's a list of the car related shows on NBC Sports Channel this weekend, highlighted by the second race of Formula 1 in Malaysia. If 4am is too early on Sunday to get up and watch it live, you can see the repeat airing at 2:30pm.  The weather in Malaysia is hot, humid, and with a good chance of rain every afternoon, the qualifying and race should be very unpredictable. I'll still pick the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers to be in the thick of it, and I'll just predict two of the three drivers on the podium at the end will be from those two teams!

If you are looking for information on car shows on TV on all channels, check out the website TV RACER

These times are all Eastern.


Fri., March 28
Mecum Auctions: Kissimmee (Encore) – Midnight, NBCSN
Malaysian Grand Prix Practice – 2 a.m., NBCSN
Road To Ferrari – 4 p.m., NBCSN
F1 Countdown – 5 p.m., NBCSN

Sat., March 29
Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying – 4 a.m., NBCSN

Sun., March 30
Malaysian Grand Prix – 3:30 a.m., NBCSN
F1 Extra – 6 a.m., NBCSN
Malaysian Grand Prix (Encore) – 2:30 p.m., NBCSN
F1 Extra (Encore) – 5:30 p.m., NBCSN
Sebastian Vettel: On Road and On Track – 6 p.m., NBCSN

THREE

Three days to the next autocross, and I'm sure by now the media, TV networks, and all motor sport journalists are packing up and heading for Darlington, home of the NASCAR race on the track that is "TOO TOUGH TO TAME"!  More specifically, they are heading to the parking lot behind the main grandstand for the autocross event on Sunday, in the "PARKING LOT TOO TOUGH TO TAME"!

Meanwhile in the real world, drivers from around SC and even parts of NC will be in Darlington, without any media coverage, where they will have a fun day of driving, trash talking, and comparing notes on their cars and driving techniques.  Everyone that drives also spends part of the day in a work assignment, whether it's registration, timing, picking up all the cones I knock down, or another one of the many jobs it takes to have a smooth running event.  The payoff for the work assignment is driving, and judging from the 84 folks that showed up in Charleston last month, it works out to be a good deal!

Exciting news (if you drive a Fiat), is that right now we have 3 Abarths entered for Sunday, so I'm happy to see more Italians entered, especially the two other guys that will be out there Sunday since I've met them at other autocross events.  They have a few more mods on their cars than I do, so even though they will be in STC class, the interesting thing will be to see how we compare on raw time, as well as comparing our PAX adjusted times.  Since I'm in a slower class (G Street), I might be close to them on PAX, but it still comes down to driver performance for the most part. One bit of trivia in this case, I know that all three of us will be driving on the same model  Dunlop Direzza ZII tires, so while that may not really mean anything, at least in that part of performance we're on the same foot, so to speak!