It’s that time of year again.  Grab your R-compounds, dial in the negative camber, and prepare to go cone hunting.  Yup, Autocross season is upon us once again.  3:Zero has big plans for this season and things got off to a promising start with the first event.  The short story:  It rained…a lot, I won B-Stock class uncontested, and got to meet a racing legend. 

 

For the sake of efficiency and clarity, I’m going to proceed with the detailed version by way of a chronological outline of the day.  Don’t worry; I won’t hesitate to elaborate when necessary.

 

2/17/2008

 

7:30am:  After looking at a weather forecast, I decide to leave the race tires at the house.  My reasoning involves both logic and sloth:  With virtually no tread, my Kumho V-710s have very limited effectiveness on anything worse than simply damp pavement (the forecast calls for a deluge), and secondly, I really don’t feeling like changing tires in the rain.  Yes, it’s the lazy decision, but hindsight vindicates all.

 

 8:00am:  I arrive to help the event chairman set up the course.  This proves entertaining, but I’ll not digress too much into that today.  After arranging all the cones to the course designer’s spec, thus completing my work obligation for the event, I walk back to finish prepping the MR2.  I packed light so as to avoid leaving anything out in the weather, but at this point, total precipitation amounts to exactly 0.00in.  After checking lug nut torque and chucking the floor mat in the trunk, I slide over to the grid and go through the requisite tech inspection before parking it again.

 

9:00am:  After shooting the bull for a few minutes with a couple of fellows running a Fiero, I walk over to the now up-and-running timing & scoring tent to register; Still no rain.  I’m beginning to worry that I should have thrown the race tires in the car.

 

9:30am:  Time to walk the course a few times now that the safety stewards have approved the layout.  This one looks similar to the last course from last season.  Starts uphill, figure-eights through the upper lot and transitions onto the lower lot with a long off-camber slalom before turning back up the hill into a hairpin finish.  This looks fun.

 

10:30am:  Still no rain, although the breeze has picked up quite a bit.  After walking the course a fourth time, I have to chase a couple of boxes that made a bit for freedom in the wind.  I caught one of the two.  The guy who grabbed the second box looks familiar for some reason.

 

10:45am:  I check with the registration table and find that I am running uncontested in B-Stock.  I don’t like running with no direct competition, but I can understand the limited turnout in light of the forecast. 

11:00am:  The familiar looking fellow turns out to be none other than Randy Pobst, 2007 Speed GT series champion.  After talking with him for a few minutes, I can report that he seems to be a pretty stand-up guy.  Nothing gains my respect quicker than a humble champion.  He will be running a friend’s Mazdaspeed 6 in the event and helping coach a couple of first time drivers.

 

11:30am:  Still no rain.

 

12:15pm:  Drivers meeting, still no rain.

 

12:20pm:  I run in the first group, and while walking back to my car to pull it to grid, I feel the first raindrops.  I stop feeling retarded for leaving the race tires at the house.

 

12:30pm:  As the first car leaves the start line, it has begun to drizzle fairly steadily.  The ground is not completely covered yet, but it won’t be long.  The first several cars essentially still have a dry course.  A fellow MR2 driver sets the winning pro time and fastest time of the day on his first run out.  He gambled and left dry race tires on the car, hence the time that was measurably quicker than nearly anyone else. 

 

12:40pm:  I attempt to feel out the course on my first run, testing the level of grip on both surfaces (new asphalt sealer covers half the lot).  The darker pavement has much less grip than the lighter colored stuff.  The camber adjustments I had done make a huge difference, the front end bites harder at turn-in, and only starts to wash out in a downhill, off camber turn on the lower grip surface. 

 

12:55pm:  My second run ends up as my quickest.  The rain is getting harder at this point so grip wanes a bit.  Coming into the uphill turn at the end of the course the car slips into a four wheel drift, but I manage to catch it and keep on the throttle before it gets too out of shape.  I was even trying to be conservative in that corner after watching five or six other cars completely lose it at the same place.  Still, I manage to post a time 14^th quickest out of 63 entrants.  For comparison to last season; had I run in the same “novice” class, I would have won by more than 2 seconds in PAX adjusted time, and more than 6 seconds in actual time. 

 

1:30pm:  The rain became much harder and grip simply disappeared with my last two runs.  It got so bad that the workers were having trouble finding where the cones should go because the rain had washed away the chalk marking their proper locations.  One was out of place on my final run, but there was no point in a rerun, so I just took it to the house. 

 

As much as it sucked at the time, I really appreciate the fact that every driving school I have attended involved at least one day on a track in pouring rain.  I felt that I had a good feel for how my car would behave in these conditions.  Also the camber adjustments, as performed by LNS Motorsports, certainly made the car more neutral at the limit.  Wet driving is much more fun without heinous understeer.  I had been really curious to see how a wet autocross might go.  Well, now I know.  It was entertaining, but I don’t think I want this type of weather to become a trend through the season.

 

One down, eleven to go.

 

‘Til next round

 

-Wheelman