Josh and Erin in the Twin Cities

This past weekend was the first two events of the 2008 Minnesota Autosports Council's autocross season, and I entered both days in the TL. I have to say that aside from having massive amounts of fun, I learned a lot about the limits of the TL, you know, important things like, how fast you have to be going to get the back end to come around, how to rip through a slalom, you know, important things like that.

For those of you that don't know, Autocross is racing, but not against other cars directly. You are racing the clock and through the clock racing the other people in your class to try and win the event. The track you use is usually set up in a parking lot using cones to delineate the track dimensions. You have to get around the track without going around any of the cones, or without hitting any of them because then you get a 2 second penalty. If you go around the wrong side of the cones, you get a DNF or Did Not Finish and your time doesn't count no matter how fast it is. The tracks are pretty tight so speeds are low and if you spin out, you don't go far. You are almost always in a corner and first and second gear will keep you set for the whole lap.

So Saturday was my first day and I had to get through tech, registration, course walk, etc before the first cars went off for the day. Without the course walk it would have been just like a motorcycle race with the exception of having to pull of bodywork for tech (thank the lord!). The event was being held at a place called Valley Fair, a local amusement park similar to Six Flags that has a huge parking lot. Half was being used for the pit and parking area, and hald was being used for the track. I walked the track three times to get the lay of the land and to determine where the track was headed after each corner and to try and figure out how to string the corners together and was as ready as I could be for the event coming up.

My first run was done at about 8/10ths and gave me a time of 80 seconds to get around and see where everything went at speed. This left me about 16 seconds from the leaders and about 10 seconds in front of the next TL out there. Let me take a moment to tell you about the cars I was racing against, in first and second was a fully race-prepped BMW 325 is with two drivers sharing it, a Subaru WRX STi, me, and an '04 TL. Now just from the cars involved you can tell that I didnt really have much of a chance at leading anything, even if they were all on their first event like me, which they weren't. As the runs went on I was getting faster to the tune of 2-3 seconds each run until I got down to my goal for the day of a 75 on my next to last run. From that point I didnt think the TL had much left in her, but man was I wrong. My last run I was just going to go for it and see what happened, hoping for maybe a 74. What did I get? A 72. That's right, a 72. Meaning I was 2 seconds behind the 3rd place driver in the Subaru, but out of runs. So, I finished up in 4th for the day, but was pretty close to the 3rd place driver, which made me happy since he had been there before and was driving a much more capable car on slicks and I was on my trusty all-season tires.

Sunday morning rolls around and they have reversed the track and added in a few other bits and bobs. I walked it a few times and when it comes time to run the track I go out and immediately turn in a 72 second lap. My next lap is a 68, showing signs of improvement. For my last run of the morning I grab an instructor and head out to get some advice on the driving I am doing. I come in with a low 69 and get some good information from the instructor that will hopefully make me go faster. Well, it didn't. Or, at least my application of it didnt make me any faster. My last three runs were all in the 69 second range and the leaders had gotten down to a 62, the Subaru didnt show up Sunday so it was just the BMW, me, and Dan in his CL. Dan was getting faster every lap, but whenever he would get close to my time he would hit a cone or go around one, so I ended the day in 3rd and Dan in 4th.

This is where the real fun began. I was scheduled to work the afternoon session as a cone picker for the other drivers, and when they were complete there was still time in the day for us to do what they call 'buck runs' becuase you get a lap for $1. Erin had already headed home in the TL, and Dan wanted to see what I could do in his car, so we jumped in the CL and and gridded up. My frist run in his car was a 65.3!!! I dropped 3 seconds by just going balls-out and taking it to the edge. Dan and I were laughing so hard when we got off the track that we decided to do another lap. My next lap I decided to take it to another level and I guess I took it too far because I managed to get the back end to come around and turned in a 65.7, a little slower than my first lap but it was unbelieveably fun. We stopped after we got off the track and looked at the tires and they were absolutely shredded. I mean it looked like we had run full wets on a dry track, chunks of rubber had come off, and the ones that were still there were completely scrubbed in.

It looks like I am in dying need of some decent (at a minimum) summer tires, or some good autocross tires. If I had managed to turn in that 65 when it counted I would have only been 3 seconds off the lead and hopefully some good rubber would help that gap narrow a bit.

So, here's to me getting some new tires and possibly some wheels to put them on. Each event is only about $30 so that means that the budget can be spent getting the car competitive. I may take some of the parts off the TL so that I can get into a lower class that doesn't allow as much work to be done to the car, and hopefully it will make me more competitive, but I have to look at the results from this weekend to see where I would have fit and see what class makes the most sense to me.