"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
04/27/2014 at 20:52 • Filed to: Autocross
5
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"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
04/27/2014 at 20:52 • Filed to: Autocross | 5
| 14 |
As promised. I'm posting the afternoon session because it's the least embarassing
The day started like this. Left all the instructor commentary in there. Needless to say I had a rough start: clipped the start cone on the first few runs (nerves/looking ahead/being a terrible driver), murdered many cones (2 or 3 per run), and generally sucked.
However, like I said, it was my first autocross. I had never driven a car like this, and that's honestly one of the best things about autocross: it puts you in your place. By the second session I had learned so much about my own driving ability and my car's abilities and got significantly better. Can't wait to go again and keep improving!
YSI-what can brown do for you
> Jayhawk Jake
04/27/2014 at 20:55 |
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I started out really slow on my first autocross. So slow that I was the slowest person there. I was beaten by a 15 year old saloon! I didn't hit any cones though. . . so that's a plus.
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Jayhawk Jake
> YSI-what can brown do for you
04/27/2014 at 21:08 |
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I was the slowest person other than the Optima, but I still hit a ton of cones.
AthomSfere
> Jayhawk Jake
04/27/2014 at 21:09 |
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Looked like fun!
And there was definitely improvement there.
Brian Silvestro
> Jayhawk Jake
04/27/2014 at 21:11 |
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I'm still afraid I'm going to get lost when I do my first one in a few weeks...
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YSI-what can brown do for you
> Jayhawk Jake
04/27/2014 at 21:13 |
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I wouldn't be to worried about being slow. Autocrossing takes time to learn. You won't start getting faster until at least a few events in. Learn it right the first time!! Even if you are slow!
midengineer
> Jayhawk Jake
04/27/2014 at 21:16 |
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Ugh... I'm dying to autox! I remember my first event was an SCCA one in Salina and I had a friend of mine in the car and I spun out pretty badly! I highly doubt there are many people who are proud of their first autox performance.
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Jayhawk Jake
> Brian Silvestro
04/27/2014 at 21:17 |
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You won't.
Show up early and help set up the course. I did that and it helped immensely because I got a chance to see the course come together. Then walk it multiple times, preferably with other drivers. Work the first heat, it gives you a chance to watch other cars run through and teaches you most of the course.
We also did 2 parade laps before timed runs, so you knew the course pretty well. I still messed up, the first run in the good video I actually cut a corner.
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Brian Silvestro
> Jayhawk Jake
04/27/2014 at 21:18 |
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Good info thanks, it seems that there were only like 5 cars there altogether, must've been fun.
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Jayhawk Jake
> midengineer
04/27/2014 at 21:24 |
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I'm very happy with my afternoon runs. I was clean except for a dumb DNF in the first and one cone in the 3rd, but more importantly I consistently improved my times, and actually ended up doing my last run 2 seconds faster than the first.
I'll have to go to an SCCA one sometime to hopefully run against similar cars so I can get a better idea of how the Sonic does. Here the competition was a bunch of Boxsters, a Cayman R, an FR-S, and a WRX. Not exactly fair to a Sonic...
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midengineer
> Jayhawk Jake
04/27/2014 at 21:28 |
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You will get a little more variety with the SCCA events but definitely not as many runs. IIRC there are lots of Mini's and Miata's, with some 'vettes sprinkled in. It is fun to watch some random cars getting flogged on occasion though.
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Jayhawk Jake
> Brian Silvestro
04/27/2014 at 21:28 |
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There were 11 or 12 drivers, with 2 cars between 4 drivers in the morning. A couple people left at lunch so we had 9 drivers in the second session and did 3 heats of 3 cars.
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Brian Silvestro
> Jayhawk Jake
04/27/2014 at 21:36 |
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Must've been nice! Looks (and sounds) like you had a lot of fun.
nafsucof
> Jayhawk Jake
04/28/2014 at 18:21 |
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my wife had her first autox this weekend too and she absolutely loved it. She was out of her comfort zone and but got competitive by the 2nd run as soon as she saw her time! Lol. She wanted to beat the other girl there...she did! Too bad in the fun runs she was unofficially 2.5 seconds quicker with me in the passenger seat saying ok straight now floor it!!! That would have moved her up in yn. Can't wait til this weekend
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nafsucof
> Brian Silvestro
04/28/2014 at 18:23 |
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lol you might. And that's fine, usually a bunch of modest guys will tell you how to fix it. Novice meeting are pretty good and you'll have an instructor with you for your first lap(or three).