The Autocross school was a lot of fun yesterday!! It was tough to get up at 5 in the morning on a Saturday but it was totally worth it in the end.
I didn't get time to take any pictures but Fraz33r was nice enough to show up and click a lot of photos. I am guessing it will take him some time to filter through them. He gathered quite a bit of fan following too at the track
So, here is how the event went:
7:20AM I reached the New Hampshire Motor Speedway main gate and signed their waiver.
7:40AM I managed to figure out where the SCCCNH (that's Sports Car Club of New Hampshire) trailer was and signed another waiver form over there. Got a key chain and a small plaque for registering.
By 8 almost everyone was there. I was surrounded by a sea of Miatas and other hatchbacks!
I was hoping for the Camry to show up and give me some company but sadly it didn't show up. Anyway, went for tech inspection and they asked me to fill the air to 40 PSI and when I told them it is already at 40, they were somewhat surprised at how heavy the car is!
8 - 9:30 we listened to a lecture about autocrossing. Most of the stuff was from the novice handbook so nothing new there. We were 27 drivers, and were divided into groups of 3 each, with an instructor per group. My instructor had 2 drivers in one car, which was his to start with, since one of the drivers was his nephew or something.
And then started a few exercises. First was about braking hard in straight line before taking a tight turn, second was a figure 8 which i totally wrecked first time out, and last was the slalom which was super fun!!
Some time during second exercise, I spot Fraz33r clicking away. We exchange greetings and he gets back to clicking and i get back to avoiding cones.
Exercises done, we break for lunch.
Post lunch, another hour long session while they set up the course. The most important part of autocross is walking the course. If you don't have the course memorized and your attack planned, you are going to keep getting surprised by the course and will never get a good result. Why this is important? So that you know where to look when you have already set yourself up for the next corner.
If you hit a cone, you are penalized 2 seconds. If you go off course, you are penalized 20 seconds! If you do any of these things, put it behind you and look forward. We got 2 runs on the course, and my first time, I hit the cone right at the start line
Second time out was much better because i got a better understanding of where I could push the car and where i needed to brake hard. The car did quite well for its size and left the trainer a bit surprised too. I managed to do a best of 55.389 on my second run which I am told is quite respectable for a full size sedan. The Miatas and STs etc were of course in the mid 40s.
I think I have definitely caught the bug. Next one is on June 7th. Need to start laying the groundwork at home for that now. Hehehe