Have you autocrossed on a race track before?

In reply to theruleslawyer :

Without the cones, that's not an autocross, that's just a time trial, isn't it?

When I ran with the Akron Sports Car Club back in the 90s we had an AutoX at Barberton Speedway in the rain. I had  my 1996 Mustang GT running with the stock Goodyear tires. That was the only time I ever won F Stock. 

There's something to be said for track trials. 

For those of us with the open wheel disease, it gives us something between autocross and drivers school for wheel to wheel. It's very difficult to find track time for formula cars that isn't club racing. 

Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association has two events a year at Summit Point, Jefferson circuit in the spring and Shenandoah in the fall. I did the Jefferson event with my F500 about a month ago and had an absolute blast. It was club race level safety (full speed on the track against the clock), so the car has to have a logbook and pass tech. 

Format was one run per heat, each run had 3/4 lap out lap, two times flying laps and 1/4 lap cooldown into pits. All in there were about a dozen times laps for the weekend. 

Here's video from my fastest run. 

The sticky part is, the track keeps charging more and more each year to rent. The sponsoring club struggles to not lose money and has to pass on expense to the participants. The fall Shenandoah event has an early bird registration cost of $325. They were very vocal that if they didn't have enough entries signed up by mid July l, they would be cancelling.  

That all said, the group is a ton of fun to run with. I'm signed up for Shenandoah and really hope it isn't cancelled. 

It's worked very well for my goal, which was to see what the F500 was like on the track before dealing with traffic. 

This is a friend driving my G35 at Roebling Road in Savannah. 

Sorta related but our local SCCA ran on the Daytona kart track this weekend, but unfortunately I was out of town. Love that event. 

Jesse Ransom said:

In reply to theruleslawyer :

Without the cones, that's not an autocross, that's just a time trial, isn't it?

I wouldn't call it a time trial either. Even with a couple cones for chicanes I wouldn't exactly call it autocross. Its really its own event type.

Our "time trials on a kart track" were considered autocrosses from an insurance standpoin for a long time despite the fact that they didn't have cones. The top speed was about the same and the course was broadly similar in nature. If we'd lined the course with cones, it would have looked just like an autox other than the unpaved off-course opportunities :) Safety requirements and car prep requirements were all autox. And K&K knew exactly what we were doing, we had to submit photos and drawings of the facilities and course.

We did run a warmup lap, 3 timed laps and a cooldown lap, so it was a little different than a typical autox - not that anything is preventing you from setting up an autox that way if you want. We called it an "endurocross" as each session lasted about 5 minutes instead of 60 seconds, which brings brake and engine heat management into play.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

That sounds fun–like something between an autocross and a track event. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Everyone has a great time. You get enough track time that the usual "six hours of shagging cones for three runs" complaints are missing, but it's very low risk. In the past 20 years, I can think of only 2-3 instances of vehicle damage - and one of those was from the driver basically driving up a ramp and putting a Mk1 Golf on its side at about 10 mph. Another was a supercharged Mustang completly missing the braking for turn 1 (when we were running the track backwards) and he went through a chainlink fence. Paint damage, mostly on the roof. We run the cars with 10-15s of separation so car-car interaction is simply off the table.

We run them about once every six weeks during the summer these days. And of course, you're welcome to make the pilgrimage to FM Summer Camp and see the track completely overrun with Miatas :)

The insurance situation has changed, alas, which is why my previous post was written in the past tense. We have insurance again, but it's no longer autox-based and is thus more expensive.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

It's called trackcross

Autocross at the Firm

Track sprint at the Firm. Running the civic, Miata can't compete due to lacking a roll bar. 
 

camopaint0707 said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

It's called trackcross

Yeah, I know Trackcross. I’m just thinking more FIRM/kart track than Daytona. 

Spokes ran events at the Driveway back before it became a bicycle only track.

It was a lot of fun and we ran the the short track. It's been a few years but it did spur me to do a lot of go-kart racing there. 

Many years ago when I was in high school, my local club ran a few autocrosses at the local circle track. It was a 5/8 mile kind of tri-oval with lots of banking at one end. Basically we had a medium speed slaloms on the straight and gates on the turns situated where if you had a small narrow car (probably slow) you could got flat-out through them, but if you had a larger car (probably faster) you had to slow quite a bit so the speeds stayed sane. 

It was pretty fun, and the banked turn really was unique sensation.

Haven’t autocrosses been run at Orlando Speed World way, way back in the day? JG might remember. It’s a 3/8-mile oval with an X in the middle. 

No one has mentioned UMI either.  The old asphalt oval track that hosts some truly legendary autocross events now.

Many years ago we used to run them at the Myrtle Beach Speedway. They weren't run on the track though. A large portion of the infield was paved so we set the course up there. 

I've done "autocross" on kart tracks and think it's great fun. Especially in a Miata; I could see it being frustrating in a Vette or Mustang. 
 

I've also done autocross with cones added to a full size track and thought it was super sketchy. Adding a slalom (for example) put you at the limit in sections of the track that were not designed for it. Felt much more dangerous than a track day or time trial at that same track with all of the downsides of autocross (limited seat time, cone duty, etc.) 

Get Fast Events runs Trackcross events at Summit Point and Dominion all year long. They are basically an autocross w/o cones on a track from point A to B which is usually 3/4 of the track length.

The Midwestern Council has been doing HSAX - high speed autocross at tracks around the midwest for as long as I can remember.  It's a standing start single lap around the track and through timing lights.  No cones.  Their home track is Blackhawk Farms, but I've run with them at Autobahn, the Milwaukee Mile, Road America, etc...

CrashDummy said:

I've done "autocross" on kart tracks and think it's great fun. Especially in a Miata; I could see it being frustrating in a Vette or Mustang. 

Depends on the track, of course. The Vettes and Mustangs do pretty well at our kart track. The V8 Miata feels a little hemmed in, you don't get full throttle for more than a half second at a time. Great for developing throttle sensitivity, though :)

Track record (for cars) is held by a Model 3 Performance.

kevinatfms said:

Get Fast Events runs Trackcross events at Summit Point and Dominion all year long. They are basically an autocross w/o cones on a track from point A to B which is usually 3/4 of the track length.

 

These and some other one at VIR are the ones that you need a roll bar for in all convertibles. At $200 an event I'll save a bit and spent more on a full NASA weekend or same amount on track night in America.

We use Kil-Kare Raceway in Xenia OH, it's a racetrack but in a smaller sense.  They do drift events, circle track cars, even school buses.  We use the stuff in the center and at least part of the outside, at least start and/or finish.  The walls loom large at speed, and we warn people to not be a hero.  Since 2011 the only accidents I've seen have been stupid things like stopping, then letting off the brakes and rolling backwards into the wall somehow.

In reply to Jerry :

That looks fun.