[darkpuppet]

Well, today was officially my first outting to an auto cross event. Today's event was the Push it to the Limit event held at the Hershey Center (Hurontario just south of the 401). I woke up and dragged my sorry ass out of bed at 6 in the morning, the promise being if it was too crappy to do a full day's worth of mountainbiking, that I would go to the event.

Well, it was crappy outside... so up I woke, slogging through my morning ritual semi unconscious, ending off with a cold glass of orange juice to give me a bit of energy to continue on with my day. Little did I know the 1st test of my willpower would meet me at the elevator.

When the doors opened, what looked like a murder scene, but smelled like a cheap winery awaited me. Sometimes it can take forever just hoping the union-paced elevators will arrive at your floor, never mind the grotesque contents of an underfed booze hag's stomach. So in came one last breath of air as I hit the parking button, and prayed there would be no stops along the way.

Needless to say I made it downstairs, filled the car up with some premium priced gas, and made the trek to the Hershey Center.

And i didn't even get lost.

A few minutes after I arrived, a pickup truck pulling a trailer pulled into the parking lot and began the task of unloading a race-prepped Merkur. Ah, a friendly face, and the official helmet sponsor for darkpuppet racing.

with the merkur off the trailer there was plenty of looking over other people's cars, chatting with folks I've already met, and some folks that I didn't know.

Anyways, fastforward through the lineups, the slight delays, the course walkthrough, and we were on our way... the Merkur was assigned the ominous #13, while the TV whore focus gained the #14 spot. That meant if the pavement should be wet, there would be a good chance of the focus' hood of being blessed by wet tire residue as the merkur left the starting box.

So it's time for the 1st run. Navigating through the cones with the wet pavement proved to be a task for the focus. An early shift, an early apex on the course's majority late apex turns resulted in pushing, poor weight transfer, and a very mediocre time of 55.7 seconds. Without timeslips being available until after the 1st complete heat, I would not know this time until after my second run of the day.

After the 1st run, it was time to marshall, where anyone will get the best view of the racing action. Knowing what I did wrong on the course, watching better drivers navigate the course, and adjusting my game plan would come into play on the 2nd run of the day. While marshalling, there were some cars that impressed amazingly, and some newer folks that were just getting their ears wet for the 1st time. It was great to know that i wasn't the only noob there, and there would be shoulders to cry on if I should find myself totally lacking.

Onto the 2nd run of the day. This run proved to be my 3rd best run of the day. While not quite shifting properly, I settled down from using the gas pedal as the sole control of the car, cleaned up my lines, and drove relatively cleanly to bring my time down to 47.7 seconds... I'm obviously picking something up here... This was good to know as it proved that I was cleaning up my lines a LOT.

Onto the 3rd run... I was smokingly fast. .. found the shifting sweet spot coming off the 1st turn, hit all my lines clean, and then it happened. There was a cone I had planned to take super wide to set up a late apex on the hairpin leading into a mild right and a straightaway. However, on this pass, I went so wide of the cone, it left my peripheral view (peripheral in the tunnel-vision sense), and I was entering the hairpin. With the cone leaving my peripheral vision, I double-guessed my move on the hairpin, and slowed too much until I spotted the cone again. Sometimes it doesn't pay to double guess yourself. However, in this case, I picked it back up, finished the lap back up to pace, and finished with a 47.9. If it wasn't for the one major oversight, it would have easily have been my best run of the day.

Oh well.. 4th run, my best run... shifting was good, the lines were near perfect in my opinion, and I only overextended the car going into one turn. The time was brought down to 45.022 seconds. not too shabby!

Things wouldn't go so well for the 5th run of the day, with the merkur subcoming to it's #13 designation and popping a fuel line fitting, I was going to push the 1st stretch the hardest I would for the day.... unfortunately this resulted in hitting a directional cone, and instead of turning in the direction of the cone I just smoked (and can't see), I get all flustered, go of course, and lose my time for this run. A total noob lack of concentration as the run still could have been slavaged.

After the 5th run, and turn at marshalling, I ran into one of the soloII instructors, and took it upon myself to ask for a ride in his honda insight for his #5 run. With an extra 275lbs in his 1900lb car, a couple of corners were blown in total understeer, but he finished the run in 45.7. Hmm...could be that the focus needs a better driver... The insight finished with a top time of 42 seconds on the day.

After the ride with the instructor, I asked him to join me on my 6th and final drive to give me a bit more feedback on my driving skills. This gave me some time to sort stuff out myself, but get feedback for things I can work on the next time. I cleaned the course for the most part, except for one unlucky cone I would take from the halfway point straightaway to the finish line with me. This would cost me 2 seconds and leave me with a 47.9 time. The instructor thought the run was good, but that I should brake later and may want to look into sticker tires. He might have a point.

So the day is now over, and I take a look at how I stand with comparable cars. The class I was racing in was the Class C Modified. The white, supercharged miata that took 1st overall on the day was in my class and scored a 35 second elapsed time, but the cars ran the gammut to the cooper S just above me at 44.8 seconds... I don't think I'll complain about my progression this weekend, as I improved overall, with some areas with room for touchup... the adrenaline is starting to distract me less, and I can only improve as my mind adapts to the adhoc thinking of Solo II autocross.

This week, the car will get a proper tune, I will now take steps to get a stickier tire, and I'm totally stoked for the next event.

For $30, I had a day of racing.. watching racing, hanging around outdoors, with an included lunch from Lick's. I couldn't imagine a better deal for a full day's event.

note to self: pick up some sunscreen for the next one.