This weekend was a blast! I participated in a two-day autocross with TSSCC (Tri-State Sports Car Council) at Lake County Fairgrounds. Both days had amazing weather, and both had great course layouts (though I, and I believe quite a few others, preferred Sunday’s design.) I also got to meet some pretty cool people. First, there was a guy who was gridded next to me, that I spent a good half hour talking to about his gorgeous, red Camaro you see below. This guy is ~50 years old or so, and apparently only ever was into restoring old muscle cars and showing them off at car meets and shows and such. Some of his friends talked him into trying an autocross only two or three years ago, and apparently he was hooked. Just a few short years later, and he’s got this specially-prepped Camaro. I wish I had that kind of money! This thing is way faster, and way more composed than it has any right to be!
I also managed to snag a ride-along in a track-prepped 240. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and the experience was mind-numbing. As we were preparing to make our run, the driver/owner remarked that the experience was more akin to “controlled chaos” than anything else, and I truly don’t think a more accurate description of anything has ever been made. The car doesn’t necessarily look THAT much faster when you watch it from the outside, but from inside, it feels about 72x faster. It also really opened my eyes to the wonders of proper racing tires. My stock tires either grip, or slip. These tires allow you to do some pretty aggressive slides, while still somehow managing to stick to the ground. After riding in this thing, I am definitely getting dedicated track tires next year.
I was also finally the subject of some of the photographers on site this weekend, which means I’ve finally got some pretty schweet panning shots of my car going through the cones! Hooray!
Lastly, here are the videos of both days this weekend. The first video here is from Saturday the 26th. I was very pleased with how the day turned out considering I’m still running on OEM Michelin Primacys. Out of the 9 C-Street class competitors, I managed to place fourth. That put me ahead of every other BRZ or FR-S at the event (including two of them in STX). Pretty good considering that just about everyone was running proper tires, I’m happy with it! Here’s my fastest lap:
Sunday’s event was a much better layout. This time, Dylan wasn’t going to let me win. It’s always great fun to have someone running similar times to you, because it makes for an exciting battle. In this case, Dylan was beating me by 0.05 seconds when it came time for my final run. I couldn’t quite beat my best time, though, so he was the victor this time ’round. The video below is actually that last lap. Wasn’t my fastest, but it was a more interesting video to post. I actually had a much better, tighter, cleaner line through most of the course, but I got a bit too aggressive in the slalom, and that’s where I lost time. Also a quick cameo from Dylan at the end of the video 😛
