Once more into the breach! After successfully avoiding the Cult Of the Cone for something like half a decade, I’ve had two regional events in eight days courtesy of Danger Girl’s autocross enthusiasm.
Note the presence of both headlights! We’ll see how long that lasts.
There were 44 entrants for this horsepower-friendly course layout that ended with a run around Turn 3 of Kil-Kare Speedway and a blast down the straight between 3 and 2. (Yeah, running in reverse.) Charley easily won the Ladies class, for two wins in two events.
I didn’t have a clean run all morning but managed to catch up on the seventh and final run to take a narrow third of eight. As always, however, the Street (formerly Stock) classes tend to have a large percentage of the hotshoes in a region. So I was fifth overall for the event in PAX:
Note the brand-new 1LE LT1 SS in second place there. I think they are going to have to readjust that F Street PAX a bit if everybody brings a 2017 1LE to Lincoln.
I was also fifth in RAW time overall, behind the same dude in the same Superformance S1 I used to run against when I had my Superformance S1. Michael has managed to fix a lot of the car’s issues in the past fifteen years — it now runs without fenders and with massive front camber for the oversized Hoosiers — but it kept stalling out in line. Depressing to see that those cars never evolved from being complete pieces of shit.
I was the starter for the event and I decided I would wave the flag for everybody instead of just waving them forward as is typically done at autocross events. The novices liked this. The old hands were thoroughly annoyed. So that’s two reasons to keep doing it then.
Now that I’m in my forties I find the time spent working the event to be less annoying. When I started autocrossing fifteen years ago I couldn’t wait for the work assignment to be over so I could get back to driving. I don’t feel that way anymore. It’s nice to stand there and watch the various cars run. We’ll see if I still feel this way at the end of Danger Girl’s season. I have the feeling that we’ll have a lot of trophy glassware in the house by the end of the year. Speaking of: the Western Ohio Region has a neat trophy system. 5th and 4th are shot glasses, 3rd and 2nd are tumblers, and 1st was a mug. So I have a tumbler, but I’d really like to have a shot glass. Might have to tank that last run when we come back!
Hey Jack, just curious: how does the Superperformance S1 compare to a real Lotus 7?
PS guess you were mentioned in a Miata forum about said topic: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=249940
From the comments mentioned above:
“Yup, Jack is a bit of an acquired taste and takes some getting used to for some people, but he is generally an ok guy IMHO, but he does have his moments”
Ha. This is so full of win
The same way a fake Rolex compares to a real one.
Seriously — they are utter garbage.
What class would a modified C6Z06 run in? I’ve got half a dozen track days under my belt now, and I am curious about auto cross now too. I’m not sure if my moderately modified engine will put me in a class where I’m against heavily modified, purpose-built cars.
You’d be in Street Prepared, most likely. Hard for a car that doesn’t come in on a trailer to win those classes but regionally I think you’d do fine and enjoy yourself.
Thanks, I figured as much. I’ll still give it a shot, but I know me. After the initial novelty wears off and get halfway decent, I will likely want to be more competitive within the group I’m running.
“Note the presence of both headlights! We’ll see how long that lasts.”
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Duct Tape is your friend ! .
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-Nate
Huh. Good timing. I autoxed like a madman until I got into roadracing. Frankly, I haven’t missed it - no kid grows up daydreaming about driving in 2nd gear in a parking lot. But now I haven’t raced since 2014 (divorce is expensive) and was thinking about hitting a few autocrosses just to do *something.*
Well, you know what they say about divorce — it’s expensive because it’s worth it.
Hope this isn’t delaying your next mystery book though!
Jack,
You were great fun to have at the starting line! Loved the back and forth banter!
Jo
Nice job picking up your fastest time IN THE RAIN by the way!
How is it possible that the 2016 Camaro is an 1LE package, when the 1LE is only available on the 2017 Camaro, and is not yet priced/available?
Maybe it was not a 1LE, I was under the impression that it was.
maybe it had the upgraded brembo package?
It absolutely had that.
Whoa dawg….you don’t talk shit about Mike’s S1.
Mike and I bought ours at the same time. I know and despise those cars.