Autocrossing at Night: The Scariest Thing Ever

"Brian Silvestro" (BrianSilvestro)
09/21/2014 at 19:49 • Filed to: autox

Yesterday at Cherry Valley Motorsports Park, the Central New York region SCCA held a two-event Autocross day, one event started in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and one started after the sun set. I go to Autocross all the time, but nothing prepared me for autocrossing like this. It was simply insane. Looking ahead, while extremely beneficial in normal conditions, is completely useless here. Just watch the video, it'll explain everything. Yes, I smack that apex way too early and go way into the grass at 2:34. Deal with it.

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Parking lights only in the paddock!

The guy driving this gave no fucks, threw it around blind corners at 50+mph. The sparks at 3:15 in the video show how hard he was going.

Overall it was an ultra fun day. I still can't beat the goddamn Focus.

DISCUSSION (100)

TheBaron2112 > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 19:54

That looks absolutely terrifying.

I wanna do it.

Brian Silvestro > TheBaron2112
09/21/2014 at 19:56

Literally though. Most fun AutoX day ever.

vorspringing > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:00

We had a night event a few weeks ago. Best thing ever - I can't wait for the next one.

Brian Silvestro > vorspringing
09/21/2014 at 20:01

It's just a bunch of fun.

The Transporter > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:05

I really wish there was a go-kart course suitable for autocrossing where I live. That would look fun even in the daytime.

Brian Silvestro > The Transporter
09/21/2014 at 20:06

I'm uploading the video from the day event right now. It was awesome.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:09

This looks like so much fun! Was it the same price as a regular autocross?

mcseanerson > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:09

This is one of my local autocross spots. It's a banked oval.

Brian Silvestro > YSI-what can brown do for you
09/21/2014 at 20:10

$50 for the day and night events together. Deal of the century.

Brian Silvestro > mcseanerson
09/21/2014 at 20:11

Ummm yes.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:12

That is a really good deal. You are basically doing a mini track day without paying like 3190843 dollars!

mcseanerson > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:13

I've been in the daytime and absolutely love it but the Miata has been running too rough and I've been too broke to do anything about it this year. A lot of guys refuse to autocross here because they're nervous of putting their car in the wall but I love the banked parts.

Brian Silvestro > YSI-what can brown do for you
09/21/2014 at 20:14

LITERALLY THOUGH

It was two laps per run too, which is awesome. I must've done at least 20 laps total.

Brian Silvestro > mcseanerson
09/21/2014 at 20:14

And it looks like the most confusing course ever.

CIRCLES

mcseanerson > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:17

It also has a figure eight type configuration which has given me an oh shit moment when someone got lost and circled back and someone else was heading straight for them and the guy who was holding the red flag was new and I started yelling "WAVE THE DAMN FLAG!" Because he didn't catch on the first two times I told him.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:18

You went to both night and day events? Did you have to work?

Brian Silvestro > mcseanerson
09/21/2014 at 20:20

Well that's insane. Sounds like fun!

Jayhawk Jake > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:21

I take back what I said about wanting to do this, it looks terrifying.

Wait, I take back what I said about taking back what I said about wanting to do this. I WANT TO DO THIS THAT LOOKS FUCKING AWESOME

Brian Silvestro > YSI-what can brown do for you
09/21/2014 at 20:21

UMMM YES! Woke up at 5am, went to bed at 3am. (then woke up today at 7am and did ANOTHER event)

No one really had to work because their wasn't any cones. But I did starter on the last heat, just because.

mcseanerson > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:22

It is awesome.

Brian Silvestro > Jayhawk Jake
09/21/2014 at 20:23

I honestly thought I destroyed my wheel when I hit that apex and went off. It rocked me hard.

Whatever, FUCK IT

-slogan of that event

YSI-what can brown do for you > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:23

That sounds like my weekend double autocross. . . the one I still have to post pictures from. I got 3 hours of sleep both nights. Totally worth it!

Brian Silvestro > YSI-what can brown do for you
09/21/2014 at 20:26

I have TWO more videos coming, along with some pics. Give it about 10 more minutes and I'll have the day event up, so you can actually see what the track looks like.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:28

You are quick with the videos! I am not

Man I have to stop being lazy. Those pictures won't post themselves. . . or maybe they will. I still have to post the video of the Benetton at Road America that was throwing sparks down the straights. IT WAS EPIC!

Jayhawk Jake > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:29

When I spun and stalled my car hesitated to start. I freaked out. Also, I have nasty cone rash on my fender. Should be fine, but battle wound...

Did you use your foglights, or just the normal headlights/highbeams?

Brian Silvestro > YSI-what can brown do for you
09/21/2014 at 20:35

DID YOU SEE THE Z4 SPARKS IN THE VIDEO ABOVE

He was hitting 78 through the finish line.

Brian Silvestro > Jayhawk Jake
09/21/2014 at 20:36

I put EVERYTHING on, but it didn't help. The only way lighting would help if you had fogs facing 45 degrees each way.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:40

I did see them, but it looked painful. If that makes sense?

Seriously though, it was basically down the entire straight and it was beautiful. I am gonna make it right now!

Brian Silvestro > YSI-what can brown do for you
09/21/2014 at 20:43

DO IT

YSI-what can brown do for you > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 20:45

This is the only clip I uploaded like 7 weeks ago, but you can see them. Although you need 1080p and full screen to do it.

Brian Silvestro > YSI-what can brown do for you
09/21/2014 at 20:46

THE NOISE

Here's the day video: http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/autocross-at-c…

Dusty Ventures > Brian Silvestro
09/21/2014 at 23:11

Now add roll cage and do this

Brian Silvestro > Dusty Ventures
09/22/2014 at 07:13

Yeah that's not insane or anything

Eezep > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 09:35

Definitely. Did this once with the local BMWCCA. Holy shit.

Brian Silvestro > Eezep
09/22/2014 at 09:36

"Holy shit" sums up everything about this event.

RyanFrew > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 09:38

Ha, I did my first night autoX two weeks ago...in the pouring rain. What a blast. There was one straight where people were completely blind because the grid was set up at the end and headlights were shining in the drivers' eyes. No idea how I placed. I spent the whole night laughing my ass off and oversteering through everything.

RyanFrew > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 09:38

Are you racing against a FoST? What class? Just GS?

Brian Silvestro > RyanFrew
09/22/2014 at 09:39

AutoX in the rain is just absurd fun. Glad you had a good time.

Brian Silvestro > RyanFrew
09/22/2014 at 09:40

Yeah, GS. Most people I talk to are in agreement that the FoST should be taken out of GS because it's too fast. A FoST has won most events I've gone to so far.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 09:41

If you really want terrifying, try doing it during a downpour of biblical proportions. I couldn't see the next cone half of the time last time I was out and had no traction to boot. It was tons of fun though. I don't think that there was any point after the lights went green where all four of my wheels had traction.

Brian Silvestro > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
09/22/2014 at 09:42

Last year they held this same event in the pouring rain, and I was told it was insane.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > RyanFrew
09/22/2014 at 09:42

Is it just me, or does GS seem wildly inappropriate for the FoST?

RyanFrew > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 09:45

Amen. It has literally no business there. I don't even think it'd have too hard of a time in DS. Fastest DS guy ran a 37.xxx at my race yesterday, fastest FoST ran a 34.xxx and easily took overall PAX. It wasn't even close.

Brian Silvestro > RyanFrew
09/22/2014 at 09:46

Yeah, it's pretty dominant. I've been told there's already a proposal in place to do something, so we'll see what happens.

RyanFrew > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
09/22/2014 at 09:47

Nope Brian just mentioned it too. It shouldn't be there. Isn't the FiST HS? That seems inappropriate too. They both need pushed up one class.

jayjaya29 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 09:48

Hah, didn't expect to see this up on Jalopy. I have the green E36M3. Peter aka "I shoot sparks" was wicked fast, but I managed to beat him by about half a second during the night event. I got a ride with Peter and hes pretty nuts, the Z4 is a great handling car stock.

Brian Silvestro > jayjaya29
09/22/2014 at 09:49

Yes! You were doing very well. Did you end up beating the Corvair?

jayjaya29 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 09:51

No, he got me by 0.026 seconds.

Brian Silvestro > jayjaya29
09/22/2014 at 09:52

Well that sounds frustrating.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 09:55

Awesome! There's a night autocross happening at the end of October near me.

Brian Silvestro > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
09/22/2014 at 09:57

DO IT

jayjaya29 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:00

I don't mind being 0.026 behind a car thats running slicks (I run street tires) and has double the horsepower I do. I know Dave, the driver, very well, so its fun to be super competitive with friends, even if you are in way different classes.

Brian Silvestro > jayjaya29
09/22/2014 at 10:02

Yeah I was out working the course with him during the day, he's had that car for 40+ years(!)

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:04

I'm definitely doing it. I need some halloween decorations for my car

babydick > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:15

is there a way to get in on a newsletter or something to hear more about events like this in this area? I am local to where this was happening and I am a member of the finger lakes region SCCA and try to do as many of their auto-x events as I can but heard NOTHING about this and would have been there 100% if I had just known it was happening!

Eli's Got 2 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:17

Whoa.

Scootin159 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:20

It was... especially since only a half dozen people braved the weather to try it. We ended up getting 7 daytime runs (x2 laps each) + 11 nighttime runs (x2 laps each), plus a ton of fun runs (pretty much open track from 4pm to 8pm). I would be willing to bet I ended up getting almost 60 laps of the track done by the end of the night.

Was especially intense since there was several season-long championship battles coming to a T at that event, and with the rain slowly fading away as it got darker and darker, times kept dropping despite less visibility. So no taking it easy just because it's darker and you know FTD is already set. The championship battles largely came down to who got on track last (despite the championship contenders running nose to tail).

Scootin159 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:22

Yup he converted it to mid-engine when he was in high school, and has kept it in show car condition ever since, despite holding nothing back at the track.

Scootin159 > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua
09/22/2014 at 10:23

We used to have guys dress their cars head to toe in various forms of glow sticks - was great fun. We're now getting lazy in our old age I guess...

Brian Silvestro > babydick
09/22/2014 at 10:23

Damn, this was a great event too! I just go to the CNY SCCA region website and put their schedule in my calendar.

Brian Silvestro > Eli's Got 2
09/22/2014 at 10:23

More like WEEEE

Brian Silvestro > Scootin159
09/22/2014 at 10:25

Wow that's amazing. That track is awesome.

Brian Silvestro > Scootin159
09/22/2014 at 10:26

Perfect example of someone who has their priorities straight.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > Scootin159
09/22/2014 at 10:27

I think if I just do the outline of my FR-S in red glow sticks, it will look awesome

Eli's Got 2 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:27

WEEEEEE Looks like fun, and totally safe!

How were you not saying Fuuuuuuck at every turn? Lol You're such a pro bro.

Scootin159 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:31

A few years ago I tried driving an FMod around there in the dark with a lightbar to help:

Kinja'd!!!

It almost worked (provided plenty of light), but trouble is the car bounced so much it was like trying to drive under strobe lights (NOT GOOD). By the end of the night I noticed I could make out the track limits pretty well with just moonlight, so I tried driving with the lightbar off.... and it worked: I actually went faster with no headlights than I did with headlights.

The following year I figured I'd skip the drag and weight of the lights, and would just do the same thing (run w/o lights, by moonlight only).

I did check the calendar, and it was a full moon, so I figured I'd be good. Trouble is... it was overcast. The video explains the results:

You had fordboy357 at "meat tornado" > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:33

Bitch please, that's all my local club does is night events (Highlands Sports Car Club - Western NC)

Trunk Impaired 318 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:36

The guy with the Z4 (Peter) competes in my region pretty often as does the guy with the E36 M3 (Jason) both are usually pretty fast and are good guys!

Trunk Impaired 318 > mcseanerson
09/22/2014 at 10:43

they have legitimate fears, as evidenced by me

Trunk Impaired 318 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:46

I run GS in a '99 BMW 318ti and even last year we tried to see about the STs being moved out of GS as they are stupidly unfair compared to the rest of the cars in the class but the SCCA did a whole lot of testing and are adamant that they are in the right class….ummmm right…..

True > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 10:50

Oh, it was on a kart track. That makes it doable. Can you imagine trying to do this with a cone course in a stadium parking lot? That would be madness.

burdickjp > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 11:03

That looks stupid in a dangerous way.

JordanPBurleigh > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 11:13

<<< Start working at home with Google! It's by-far the best job I've had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link, go to tech tab for work detail

> www.jobs700.com

raitchison > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 11:16

In SoCal we used to run a night autocross event every year called "Night of the living dead", I was only able to go once but it was a lot of fun.

AndreaPBaker > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 11:33

Start working at home with Google! It's by-far the best job I've had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link, go to tech tab for work detail

> www.jobs700.com

JordanPBurleigh > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 11:33

> www.jobs700.com

Little Black Coupe Turned Silver > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 11:40

Ohhhh nopenopenope.

I have issues trying to dodge cones in the day light. And I see there aren't many cones on this course, but still.

Nope.

Brian Silvestro > Little Black Coupe Turned Silver
09/22/2014 at 11:43

Instead of cones, we had fences and tire walls. Here look, this guy over corrected into the fence:

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/this-guy-destr…

Brian Silvestro > burdickjp
09/22/2014 at 11:46

That's because it was. One FRS and one Mustang spun out into a tire wall, and another FRS overcorrected into a fence.

Brian Silvestro > True
09/22/2014 at 11:46

Jesus that would be insane.

Brian Silvestro > Trunk Impaired 318
09/22/2014 at 11:47

Yeah that makes no sense. I get pretty frustrated when one shows up, because there go my chances of winning.

Brian Silvestro > Trunk Impaired 318
09/22/2014 at 11:48

Yeah they were great drivers. Glad they showed up.

Brian Silvestro > You had fordboy357 at "meat tornado"
09/22/2014 at 11:48

At least you have Parking lot lights on!

But that still looks insane.

Brian Silvestro > Eli's Got 2
09/22/2014 at 11:49

NOT SAFE AT ALL

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/this-guy-destr…

Brian Silvestro > Scootin159
09/22/2014 at 11:51

Hehe, we didn't get ANY moon on saturday, and some people didn't like that. It was pitch black. That video explains everything.

Eli's Got 2 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 12:05

I knoooooow. It was sarcasm. You are insane in the membrane.

Brian Silvestro > Eli's Got 2
09/22/2014 at 12:08

There's one corner that you have to commit to at about 50mph and hope you don't go into the grass and die. A LOT of people went off there. You can see it at around 2:26 in the video.

You had fordboy357 at "meat tornado" > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 12:11

Half of them don't work.

Brian Silvestro > You had fordboy357 at "meat tornado"
09/22/2014 at 12:13

But half of them do work. Which means you get light!

Eli's Got 2 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 12:14

Such turn. Many scare. This is why I tell you to be careful. lol I know, I know. "No"

Brian Silvestro > Eli's Got 2
09/22/2014 at 12:15

And did you see at 2:34 where I smack the apex and go into the grass!?! I thought I broke my car, it rocked the cabin so hard.

Oran J Sands III > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 12:19

My club did this back in the 80's. We ran 2 laps in daytime to get familiar with the course, then played volleyball and had BBQ. Then we ran in the dark. Headlights were ok, one gent even taped spot lights to the uprights on his Formula Vee. It had started raining so we decided to go for it anyway. Incredible fun. Scary part was all of our run times were faster than our daytime runs. But hey! That's what racers do.

Brian Silvestro > Oran J Sands III
09/22/2014 at 12:21

Commit to it! The best part about racing. Sounds like a blast.

Eli's Got 2 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 12:22

YES. Damn it. I saw it. I was like OMG. Glad you and your baby are ok. :D

Brian Silvestro > Eli's Got 2
09/22/2014 at 12:27

I'M NOT IMPORTANT

I was much more concerned about my car than myself.

Eli's Got 2 > Brian Silvestro
09/22/2014 at 12:31

Mmmmmmhmmmm

Of course you were.

Brian Silvestro > Eli's Got 2
09/22/2014 at 12:34

Cars > everything