My Introduction to Autocross was great!

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678) 07/20/2015 at 08:16 • Filed to: None

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This weekend I had my first experience with Autocross/Solo. I went to a 2-day event hosted by the Philadelphia SCCA region at Warminster Park. The course there is laid out on an abandoned aircraft runway and features different variations of slaloms for the most part. Being only an hour and fifteen minutes from home, I was able to just go back home in between the two days. The whole weekend was exhausting and hot but it was totally worth it for the 8 minutes of driving that I got in.

I have read lots about Autocross on Jalopnik and Oppo. That is mostly why I wanted to check it out. I am very glad that I did listen to all of the articles clamoring “YOU HAVE TO GO TO AUTOCROSS” because it was so much fun. I could never hope to be as competitive as some of the people there but I surely can have just as much fun. There were a TON of Miatas there so my car felt right at home. They ranged from the bone stock like mine, to lightly modified, and to the batshit crazy bonkers ones with superchargers and race slicks. I still plan to keep mine stock as can be since the best modification I can make is to improve the driver.

There was some crazy stuff that happened during this particular event as well. During the first day while I was working the course, there was a Subaru WRX wagon that went off into the grass. A bunch of other cars had spun that day as well but they all stayed on the track. On the second day, a Saturn wagon lost a wheel! That shut things down for a good while but it was entertaining to see the car with a dolly instead of one of its rear wheels, driving under its own power back to the paddock. Not sure how that happened but it was nuts.

Overall it was a great weekend and now I look forward to doing more. My only downside was the limited amount of seat time. I really felt like I could have just kept driving the course over and over until the sun went away. I would have been perfectly content doing that. I was recommended by a guy from Miata.net who was there to check out an autocross next weekend up in the NEPA region. It’s 3 hours from home but I will just camp out the weekend and it will be great. They do two driving heats per day so you get in 6-8 runs instead of just 4 in the day. Right now there are only 15 people signed up so its much better than the 130+ from this weekend. Anyways, here are some pictures!

We had a whole row of Miatas! There was mine, the two NA, and then an NC behind them. The NC I had actually found at a gas station on the way to the event on Sunday. Funny to see the other Miata and we immediately both ask if we are going out to PA.

Sweet GT3!

This BMW was killing it, really enjoyed the look of it as well.

The paddock was stocked full of cars!

Even more Miatas.

The Porsche row.

And my friend that brought his totally stock Hyundai Accent hatchback (automatic). He had a blast though so it was great. He showed up with tires that had the cord sticking out so he had to run to walmart to replace them. Made it on time for the heat though so it was fun!

Looking forward to the next one for sure!!!

Vimto > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 07/20/2015 at 09:01

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This is the best part! I love it when people bring cars clearly not intended and still have a good time

CaptDale - is secretly British > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 07/20/2015 at 17:32

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Hnngg

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > CaptDale - is secretly British 07/21/2015 at 07:52

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Properly loud too! If I remember correctly that guy (the silver one on the right) had a nice spin on the turnaround down at the end of the runway.

DocWalt > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 07/21/2015 at 22:03

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Hey, my GTI :D

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > DocWalt 07/22/2015 at 06:40

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Yeah, I was watching your YouTube videos. You uploaded like every run lol

DocWalt > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 07/22/2015 at 08:53

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Yeah, lol. Easy for me to share with friends and family and see what I was screwing up.

I was working station 2 during your run group on Sunday, both of you guys looked a lot more comfortable and faster at the end of your runs. :)

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > DocWalt 07/22/2015 at 10:22

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Yup, being smooth and looking ahead are two things I need to focus on to get faster. Saturday I was pretty much lost every time I went on the course but somehow never went off course. Sunday actually felt like I knew what was going on which was nice. I am sure that I can get much faster times the more I keep at this stuff. My friend needs a better car though haha.

DocWalt > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 07/22/2015 at 11:10

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Yeah, I still struggle with looking far enough ahead and I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now. Smooth comes with practice. Did you get any video of your runs?

He seemed to do well too considering the limitations of the car, lol

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > DocWalt 07/22/2015 at 13:18

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I don’t have an adequate mount for my camera. I have a Kodak ZX3 which takes some nice action video, but I gotta figure out how to mount it in the car so that it doesn’t become a projectile. Yeah, he does pizza delivery so apparently that is some pretty normal driving for him and the instructor in his car was saying he would do really well in a better car. I definitely think cars like that make autocross the best though. People in full-on track-only race cars driving right next to someone in their daily driver econobox.

DocWalt > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 07/22/2015 at 14:08

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Yeah, projectile cameras are bad, haha. I’m glad you had fun! Do you think you’ll make any more events at Warminster this year?

Yeah, it’s been a ton of fun racing my GTI against Evos with huge aero packages and massive slicks, heh

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > DocWalt 07/22/2015 at 14:12

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Warminster is very close to home so I will probably make it out to the next one if I am available. Is August 15th the next one? Ill be up at the NEPA region event this weekend and most likely the SJR event the next. I signed up for an SCCA membership so now these events all look much more affordable to me lol.

DocWalt > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 07/22/2015 at 14:46

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SCCA membership makes it a LOT more affordable, haha. I’m debating doing the NEPA event, or maybe Brandywine’s event in DE this weekend. Not much motivation to pull the oil pan on the GTI to check things out though (that’s a story all its own, haha). I’ll definitely be at the next Warminster event on the 15th. Feel free to stop by and say hi, and I’ll say hi if I see you!