Quick Autocross Question

I am amidpack driver with a year and a half experience. Doing fine, but would like to drop half a second or so from each run if possible.

I've found listening to music and focusing before each run, not taking riders, not riding with other people during the event(different driving styles tend to be slightly confusing) drinking plenty of water at the event, getting a good nights sleep before the event, watching tires pressures, etc. all helpful.

Working now on course walking before the event.

Looking for good ideas at being just a wee little bit faster.

Addicted to this like it was crack cocane and having the time of my life.

Chris

Don't know if you've done it, but I put my money into autocross schools. It pays off quickly, and does not go away if I sell my car. And it's ok to keep going back to the schools.

Good thought...we have one coming up in the spring.

Chris

You know what made me faster? I quit worrying about the minute details and getting uptight. The more I relaxed and ENJOYED the event, the more I picked up the pace. For me, I needed to remember that I was having fun. When I got the nitpicky silly stuff out of my head, the driving came more naturally.

• LOOK AHEAD!

• When walking the course, think about WHERE you'll be looking - pick a cone/feature, and KNOW that that's where you'll be looking. You should be able to minimize the entire course to 6 or 7 key cones/features.

• While you're walking the course, stop occasionally, close your eyes, and visualize it from the start to where you're standing. Visualize the speed. Visualize how it will look from the car, and where you'll be looking. If you can't remeber a particular section, stop, run back, and walk it from the start again. Sitting in grid before the start, you should be able visualize the entire course, and count off your 6 or 7 key cones/features.

• I like taking a "real world" approach to course-walks - i.e., "I'd like to be here. In reality, there's a good chance I'll be waaay the berkeley over here."

• Talk to the course designer and ask him/her their thoughts about the course. A lot of designers will throw stuff in there that can mess you up mentally, i.e., sections that are designed to "suck you in," or high speed sections that get the red mist going right before a slow, technical section.

• Consider "minimizing distance" vs. "traditional race line." You'll be amazed at how much time you can shave off of certain sections by focusing on minimizing distance rather than late-apexing everything.

• LOOK AHEAD!!!

Good luck!

specifically about walking the course.

Walk alone, with a good clear view in front of you. Walk as though you are in the car. That means being on top of cones on your left and about 3 feet way on your right side. Walk the course until they don't let you do it anymore.

Autocross really does reward experience. The more seat time you can get the better. Try different cars on occasion to get a better feel for what they do best. For example, if you drive a fwd car, try a rwd one. You can learn control techniques from the different cars. As mentioned up thread, a school is well worth the money.

If your club allows it take a bike around the course during the course walk. It gives you a better "feel" for how the course flows, and you can go around it 10 times in the time it would take you to walk it once.

I'm always surprised at how few people take notes on course walks. I try to draw out the course, and add notes as I go (e.g. decreasing cone spacing, off camber, loose gravel on outside, et cetera.) If I was more serious, I'd GPS it. Then do a second walk through following your intended line and try to visialize everything.

edit: I like the bicycle idea.

Quite a few clubs locally provide copies of the course, ready for any notes you may need to add.

Find a Per, or something similar, and walk with them. Somebody that's been doing this for years and years is a big help.

In the SCCA, bikes (or any mode of transport with wheels) are illegal on course. That probably means they work.

I'll second a few bits already mentioned—

Look ahead. No, further ahead.

Schools rock. They are awesome, especially if you have a good instructor. (Should be a given at a national school like Evolution or Solo Pro, Local schools are as good as local drivers, so YMMV.)

Seat time is the bottom line, though. I find that competing at more difficult events (National Tours, ProSolos, Championship events) pays greater dividends for me, but it might be just that I take them more seriously.

How hard do you push on your first run? One of my minor breakthru's occurred when I learned to really attack the course on my first run. One of the ways to do this is to run bigger events where you only get 3 runs per day.

Also, I would recommend getting someone faster/more experience to co-drive with you. You might learn some things from them, see where they are faster than you, etc... Or they might not be faster than you at all. That's a win, too, as it'll give you a big confidence boost.

I've kind of hit a slump myself... Only today did I realize that it started happening EXACTLY when I started comparing myself to the top-timers and thinking I had a shot at hanging with them.

Mind you, this is me in my almost-completely stock '98 Cobra, and the top timers include a C5 Corvette with a full Z06 suspension swap, and a Buick small-block powered "Rotus" (Japanese Lotus 7 clone kit) on slicks.

"Luckily" for me, we don't do SCCA classing, so everything with 8-cylinders (or more) on sub-140 treadwear tires is in my class. And boosted six-cylinder cars.

Look farther ahead. I haven't done this at Auto-X, but on the track, I'll sometimes put a hatch of tape on the windshield, at about nose level. It helps keep your eyes up.

I like to cross train. (Okay, I just can't limit myself to one motorsport.) But try doing some other event formats. By filling out your toolset of skills, you'll improve yourself in every type of event.

I actually thinking going out and playing at drifting occasionally has been a huge help to me. It is great practice for attitude control and not getting nervous when you upset the car.

Salanis wrote: I like to cross train. (Okay, I just can't limit myself to one motorsport.) But try doing some other event formats. By filling out your toolset of skills, you'll improve yourself in every type of event. I actually thinking going out and playing at drifting occasionally has been a huge help to me. It is great practice for attitude control and not getting nervous when you upset the car.

I've found the same effect with RallyCross. After a low traction event, my next high-grip event feels like slow motion, and the transition from grip to slide seems easier to manage.

When I was in STL I used to autox at gateway international raceway (in their drag parking lot) conveniently, if you walked up to the top of the stands for the drag strip, you got a really good aerial view of the course setup... AWESOME if you didn't have to drive/work the first heat (we usually had three heats)... but then again, I was the first car of the day probably 3 or 4 times that year too...

all in all, it helps to see it from above, then drive it and see if you drove it the way you thought you should have based on the aerial view. :)

poopshovel wrote: * LOOK AHEAD! * When walking the course, think about WHERE you'll be looking - pick a cone/feature, and KNOW that that's where you'll be looking. You should be able to minimize the entire course to 6 or 7 key cones/features. * While you're walking the course, stop occasionally, close your eyes, and visualize it from the start to where you're standing. Visualize the speed. Visualize how it will look from the car, and where you'll be looking. If you can't remeber a particular section, stop, run back, and walk it from the start again. Sitting in grid before the start, you should be able visualize the entire course, and count off your 6 or 7 key cones/features. * I like taking a "real world" approach to course-walks - i.e., "I'd like to be here. In reality, there's a good chance I'll be waaay the berkeley over here." * Talk to the course designer and ask him/her their thoughts about the course. A lot of designers will throw stuff in there that can mess you up mentally, i.e., sections that are designed to "suck you in," or high speed sections that get the red mist going right before a slow, technical section. * Consider "minimizing distance" vs. "traditional race line." You'll be amazed at how much time you can shave off of certain sections by focusing on minimizing distance rather than late-apexing everything. * LOOK AHEAD!!! Good luck!

Oh and in case no one mentioned it, LOOK AHEAD.

Alignment: if your car is not a daily driver look into an alignment.

Walking the course. Locally we have a guy that is normally FTD and FTDI. He leads a "rookie" walk of th ecourse. I go every time.

We use to have a guy that was really good at FWD, at the time I had a FWD and so I would follow him around and listen, ask questions when it was appropriate to ask a question.

With the RWD car I have now I go on the "rookie walk" and then follow the two fastest guys around, they usually have the same take on the layout. The most of my moring is spent walking. I socialize at other times, the morning is for walking.

I also help set up the course (sometimes). I get there early an offer to help, and I get a preview of the course and see how they made their decisions on cone placement.

I still run mid pack so maybe none of this helps.

EricM wrote: Alignment: if your car is not a daily driver look into an alignment. Walking the course. Locally we have a guy that is normally FTD and FTDI. He leads a "rookie" walk of th ecourse. I go every time. We use to have a guy that was really good at FWD, at the time I had a FWD and so I would follow him around and listen, ask questions when it was appropriate to ask a question.

Is this Emanual? I didn't know about this last time, I was kinda running around with my head cut off after a late start.

mtn wrote:

EricM wrote: Alignment: if your car is not a daily driver look into an alignment. Walking the course. Locally we have a guy that is normally FTD and FTDI. He leads a "rookie" walk of th ecourse. I go every time. We use to have a guy that was really good at FWD, at the time I had a FWD and so I would follow him around and listen, ask questions when it was appropriate to ask a question.

Is this Emanual? I didn't know about this last time, I was kinda running around with my head cut off after a late start.

No, it is Russ B. He has the Yellow Z06.

I also help set up the course (sometimes). I get there early an offer to help, and I get a preview of the course and see how they made their decisions on cone placement.

TROOF!!!

Tom Heath wrote: In the SCCA, bikes (or any mode of transport with wheels) are illegal on course. That probably means they work.

Of course, in the SCCA, changing your shift knob in stock class is also illegal

I always walk the course alone. Around here, everyone likes to get together in a big group and wander around en masse while talking about...well, anything. That doesn't work at all.

I always walk the course alone. Around here, everyone likes to get together in a big group and wander around en masse while talking about...well, anything. That doesn't work at all.

Doesn't work for me either. I get distracted really easily. I will sniff around the nationally competitive guys at a divisional or tour though...and by "will," I mean "used to," back when I could afford to autox every other weekend.

Yeah, sometimes I'll walk it along and then go back with someone else to discuss the course. No nationally competitive guys in the area, though