Best time participating at an auto event?

With threads that start off seemingly innocent and devolve into a bunch of bafoons throwing insults around, (I guess I just did that?) I thought we might put a thread on the GRM section about GRMing.
So, think back to the coolest thing you can think of right off the top of your head that you've experienced while competing at an event, or attending. For me, the one that pops quickly to mind was back in about 1992 or so. I was 20. I was managing an oil change shop and got two, all access passes to the Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle. I got to go almost everywhere on the island, very cool. Lunch and dinner was catered by, I think it was The Rattlesnake Club IIRC. That was amazing. Our seats were less than 20' from the fence, and we could walk to within 8' of the cars wizzing by.
When I was in the paddock I asked a team if I could have something, anything from a car to take home. He gave me a spark plug. That was kool to a 20 year old kid.
Participating? I can't think of a time that is better than the others, except maybe when I was in the miata on Belle Isle for an autocross with AlfaDriver's Alfa club. The air races were going on a few hundred, maybe a few thousand? Well, I was in line waiting my turn to show how little driving ability I have and a plane broke the sound barrier right over us. AMAZING!!

Every auto-x is a blast for me. The friendliness of my fellow competitors is always awesome.

Even a bad day racing is a good day.

Although my 2nd event this year got me my first 1st place in SM. Went on to win 8/10 events locking up the season championship.

Then you hear how the community of the Nationals compiled to get the panda 240SX repaired to finish the competition and WIN!

My first rallycross about a year and a half ago. I was quite used to my mid pack autocross finishes and was just expecting to have a fun day. I did better than that, I had a fantastic day. Absolutely on cloud 9 from the very first run. Results be damned, this was as much fun as I'd ever had in a car. I stayed for the awards which I never do because I didn't want the day to end. First place in Stock 2wd. A sticker and a Hotwheels car to bring home to my kids. I smiled for a week.

The very first ChumpCar race and the one and only 24-hour race at Portland International Raceway was also my first wheel to wheel racing event.

It was the most awesome, painful, beautiful and miserable experience in my life and I would gladly do it again in a heartbeat if given a chance. In fact I will do another Chump or LeMons race, many in fact.

A close second would be the most recent PCA autocross, just because I'd been away from racing for so long it felt damned good to do it again and in a car that I put together at the last minute.

We had a similar experience at Sebring a bit over a year ago. We were wandering around behind the pits looking behind the scenes during the race. We started chatting with one of the Flying Lizard mechanics, and he gave my wife a set of mechanics gloves that had been signed by all the drivers on the team. He'd had them signed and put them aside to give to someone. Janel's been a big Flying Lizard fan ever since!

As for competing, there was an event a few years ago where I held the track record. But two of my coworkers were showing up with cars that could/should take it. We spent all day battling, and ended up with a 0.003 split between the two fastest cars. The previous record was left in tatters. It was huge fun.

The wet skidpad at VIR is a whole lot of fun

In 1995 I was working for a NASCAR north team. We had scraped up money to run in the Busch race the day before the Daytona 500. We went down for a week if testing in January, then speed weeks in February. We met lots of big names, were treated like we were someone, and thanks to a loophole that was since closed we made the race. It was a great week right up until we popped a motor on the first lap.

We had a great time. We rented a house on New Smyrna beach and had parties every night. By the end of the week we had a bunch of people staying with us supplying good food and booze. As a 19 year old red headed fat kid it was as close to being a rock star as I would get.

I love any track time no matter if its Auto-x, Rally-X, time trials its such a mixture of amazing times and awesome people I can never imagine giving it up.

My most recent I went to Imports Vs Domestics @MIR last weekend and was expecting a total E36 M3 show but I was beyond wrong with that speculation, I will say ANY rotary person or anyone who loves fast cars needs to see these 6 sec cars (also seeing the new rotary world record run 6.27@217 was unreal!)

6.5 morning practice run

15 years old, me and 2 friends all bought mopeds (mine a yellow '78 Honda), this in 1991 or so. We lived in a neighborhood with narrow, curvy roads running along the water. We used to race all the time, semi-enduro races of 15-20 minutes ranging all over the place, doing blind corners, and avoiding cars. One other competitors had the same '78 yellow honda as I did, with big baskets for delivering newspapers. The third one had a new black Tomos Bullet with gold mag wheels. It had more than one speed. And it had kick-start, not pedal start. That guy was a cool dude. And he was fast. And one time I actually beat him in one of our epic races, which was my first best motorsport experience.

That guy's name was Chris Mitchum, who has been featured in GRM more than once in Rolex racing, UTCC, and many other things.

I autocrossed for yeas and had good times but nothing "amazing" stands out about any of that.

Then in 2006 or so, I happened to get in touch with Chris again, who I hadn't talked to since I moved overseas in 1994, even though we had been good friends for several years before that. He invited me to come crew with his team at an SCCA race at the Summit 24hr. It was a long day and night (I was doing fueling), with the RX7 we were running eventually dying due to overheating, but we stayed the whole time to see (IIRC) a Bimmerworld e46 with strobe lights in his headlights cross the finish line first.

It was a great weekend seeing an old friend and experiencing what "real motorsports" was like, after watching from the stands for many years. I think about that every time I'm doing driver's changes in Lemons/Chump now, or on the course at rallycross...

I was a medical volunteer at the Maine Forest Pro Rally a bunch of years ago. I ended up driving most of the actual course and at one point, John Buffam gave me gas money.

Got to pit crew for Dave Farmer at Mosport in 2003 or so, really cool experience being in the mix of things at such a large event

(good lord I looked young back then!)

This autocross from last year really stands out as one of the most fun that I can remember. It was a fun event and I codrove my buddies base model Mini cooper. Completely stock and we rolled 4 deep every run. I know you can't see the course, but going flat through a lane change where everyone else was lifting was really fun. And the reaction at the end was taking 2nd in the class with 4 people in the car lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgB0O1EWz2k

Attending;

I got to go crew with a midget racer for a weekend and we ran three races in three different states. Ohio, Indiana and finished up in Michigan. That was awesome.

Competing;

My first ever AutoX. '96 Impala SS. It was cold 38* and damp. The club didn't have the same sissy rules as the SCCA does. It ran through three separate parking lots, In and out of curb islands, around light poles, a mix of concrete and asphalt, around a fire house, between parked semi trailers and a water tower.

I came off of the concrete pad in front of the fire house unto the asphalt and the car jumped completely sideways, drifted it around the back of the fire house in between the semi trailer and the water tower unto a long straight and my tires were still rolling smoke at the top of second gear when I had to brake for a sharply decreasing radius right hander in which the car would downshift from second to first and kick the tail out again.

It was berkeleying AWESOME!

I covered an Event for a magazine at Road America when I was JFX The Younger...stayed at Siebkens...got drunk with the Owner, (drunk enough that he reduced the tab for our rooms the next morning) and heard a lot of great stories. Such a cool time.

Track days with the Oklahoma Z club are my favorite. Most recent was the bet as i got to ride 5 laps in an Audi R8!

Almost forgot this one, 2008 Rock N Road Hillclimb in Banner Elk, NC. Was working the course with the SCCA, there was a ridiculously powerful Shelby Cobra rep running the race and coming out of one of the corners it would pull the front wheels of the ground a tiny bit

About a year into autocrossing, I finally asked the event chair if it was ok to have kids ride along as passengers. With a "sure, as long as you sign the minor waiver", my son became my permanent autocross co-driver. Although the 80lbs (and growing) of ballast doesn't help times any, some day I'm guessing I'll wish the seat was occupied. He's 12 now and counting down the days until he gets his permit and can drive his own runs.

GRM Challenge is the highlight of my year. I am really looking forward to it.

This is meant to be fun and or enjoyable?

Wait, need to go recalibrate my brain...

I mean, seriously...who knew?

I always thought of this in much the same vein as hitting your head against the wall, when you stop, it feels good, so you have to go keep hitting your head so that you can get the good feeling when you stop.

Maybe its just me.

I've autocrossed for about 7 years but I really enjoy working hillclimb events. I always come home inspired to prep a car for 'next time'. I have a candidate picked out but no funds to pull the trigger. Fortunately the car isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I went through a bunch of motorsports events in my head but the one that kept coming to the top was the Mustang 40th anniversary in Nashville, 2004. My Dad and I were on a trip through the south and having a Mustang project made this a key stop. We had a great day and learned some for our ongoing project. Going into the event I had wanted to meet Carol Shelby as they were having an autograph session throughout the day. Investigating this, the lines were too long and we wanted to spend our day outside enjoying the event. We went to the grandstands to watch whatever event was happening on track. At this point I can't even place what it was, but likely either drag racing or hot laps. As we were sitting there an older gentleman and someone assisting him sat down behind us, Carol himself. We exchanged nods but since it seemed like he was just trying to get away from it all for a few minutes I didn't bother him for a picture or autograph. They stayed for 10 minutes or so and moved on, but that was something special to me, my Dad and I getting to watch Mustangs on track with Carol Shelby.

For actually participating, it would have to be my first time on an HPDE day driving at Limerock. I showed up with my old beater Audi on cheap all-seasons and had a blast learning the track that day and the next. The club I was with was really supportive of my farm team efforts and several people said they could always tell where I was on track from the complaining tires under a 3800 pound car. "Howling tires are happy tires," is what I was told. Every time I return there is something really special about that place to me.

Too many to pick one.

I think running in an FIA 10 hr. endurance race for starters.

Then winning ice races over younger drivers would be the latest.

Going to do an electric kart thing soon. We'll see how that comes out.

Anybody else remember Mid-America Raceway at Wentzville, MO? It looked a lot like a smaller Road America, with a right turn onto a long, main straight, up a steep, power-sucking hill to the drag strip on top and a long run to the S/F line. Late 70's running an RD 250 street bike in the 250 Production class at WERA races, an oil company had a contingency program. Buy a can, run the sticker, get paid $50 if you won your class, different class each race weekend.

When they named 250 Production, my buddy, who was a Benelli dealer, was the guy to beat on a Benelli two-stroke twin. My Yamaha had a little more power and an extra gear but he was a better rider and the Benelli handled great. He steadily pulled away in the race, a few tenths per lap. I was safely in second but determined to keep pushing as hard as I could. Just before the next-to-last corner on the last lap, we came up to lap Torello Tacchi's father, who appeared to be about 80, and was on the only line through the bumpy corner on a 125 GP bike. (The classes were combined.)

My buddy had to fall in behind and follow him while I was far enough back to blast through and pull up right behind the Benelli as we both passed the 125. We ran nose-to-tail up and over the hill and halfway down the long straight on the top, I caught 6th gear, pulled out of the draft, and beat him to the line by about a foot. I got to be proud about keeping my head down and pushing in the face of certain defeat and $50 then would be about, what, $200,000 in today's money?

And two weekends ago a guy in a Viper waved the Cobalt SS by at Hallett.