AutoX on the 28th

[airwhirlybird]

Anyone in the central california area, there is an AutoX in atwater.

working on getting the details if anyone is interested.

I know suprawes does it, any suggestions/hints?

[CJSREDPRA]

PM Don Lew (DonL). He has AutoX'd @ Atwater several times. He is also in the Bay Area.

Right now, it just depends on how busy he is.

[SupraWes]

Register in the Novice class if they have it, otherwise you are going to be in Street Mod and get seriously owned, but dont worry too much about it since you are a beginner, autocrossing is alot more about how good of a driver you are vs how good your car is.

Get there early, you will need more time before the event than you think to get prepared, registered, leaning the course, etc, plus you can avoid some of the crowds.

Bring plenty of drinks, snacks, sunscreen, umbrella(good for sun or rain!), chair, etc.....

Make sure your car will pass tech, your battery needs to be bolted down, make sure there are no leaks bad enough where fluids are dripping, brakes are not mushy, no cords showing on the tires, etc...

Walk the course by yourself and go on the novice walk through if you can, dont worry about the lines too much or particulars, just try to remember where the course goes, it can be very hard to figure out at speed from inside the car, it just looks like a sea of cones.

slow down if you are sliding all over the place, drifting is not the fast way, try to go at a lower speed and get as close to the cones as you can, then work on going faster while staying near the cones.

Dont try to avoid your work duties, it sucks to have to stand out in the sun and chase cones, but there is alot that you can learn by being right out on course and watching experienced drivers, and you will definately piss off the officials if they find out, you could be thrown out and asked not to come back.

Try to ride along with some experienced drivers if you have the chance, if not ask for an instructor driver to drive your car for you or ride along with you. I reccomned at least one ride in your own car or another car so you can get a feel for the speed, and control of what it should feel like.

Try to be freindly, have fun, and ask qestions, autocross is the most grassroots of all motorsport and you will make lots of new friends and there will be lots of people ther willing to give you help and pointers whenever you need them. Its only a silly plastic trophy you are racing for, so it makes for a fun and inviting atmosphere, and you rarely run into bad apples at an autocross.

I hope some of this will help you. It is getting a bit long so I will end for now. I am working on getting some of this info on my website in the hopes that others will find the sport and fall in love like me. Let me know if there are any other questions you have before the event and I can try to answer them.

[CJSREDPRA]

Whoops, forgot about making sure you enter in the correct class.

Most of what you listed in your sig would be more or less okay for D-Street Prepared. The item that put you in Street Mod was the 6M. Coilovers was a close 2nd, but I believe you would have been fine in DSP. Everything else would have made you legal for DSP, but not G-Stock.

[Don L.]

That's a Fresno SCCA region event. Nice small club. Good site, smooth concrete.
I might try to attend that event. Autocross schedule got pretty hacked up for me this year. The Supra after many tries finally passed smog, and I haven't had the time to "unsmog" it, so I might run a different car if I attend the event. I'll look around for other Supras. From the San Francisco area, there are two other guys running autox. One has a 5mge, the other a 7mgte transplant. Both run the Street-mod or OSP classes.

Don L.

[SupraWes]

Whoops, forgot about making sure you enter in the correct class.

Most of what you listed in your sig would be more or less okay for D-Street Prepared. The item that put you in Street Mod was the 6M. Coilovers was a close 2nd, but I believe you would have been fine in DSP. Everything else would have made you legal for DSP, but not G-Stock.


Coilovers are prefectly legal in SP classes, 6M's however are not.

[Suprajayaz]

Check out this web site: www.azsolo2.com.
This is our Arizona web page and click on the link for Novice info - good info on how the event works and what to prepare for.

I've been AutoX'ing since '02 (albeit a Subaru) and one can get hooked on it (I certainly am). We run a 1 mile road course for our summer series. Many AZ folks head to Atwater during the year - I heard it is a fun place.

Look ahead, brake early, accelerate out of turns and have fun - that's your main goal. Report back on your experience. Jay B in Az

[joefoe]

Yes after dreaming about it since I got my licences, but always too buisy racing mt bikes and working I started auto x'ing this year. Holy crap is it ever fun! I'm hooked I just love it! Wes put down some real good info, (thanks Wes) The one thing you have to remember is it's about the driver not the car. I learned that when I was racing a 90 mustang 5.0 lx on street tires I have crappy tires too so I thought it was a good match car to car. Plus it was our first season for both of us. Well I was quite a bit faster then him and was pretty happy with my self, but then in the fun runs the fatsest guy there (runs a turbo 510 Dmod) hopped in the mustang and spanked my time and came very close to his fastest time in the 510! So after that I was like wow I need to practice!