----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeffrey Macko" <jeffrey@macko.net>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2001 9:53 AM
Subject: Novice needs general autocross advice.
> I went to my local chapter's autocross last week, not to participate, but
> just to watch and see what goes on before I get involved.
>
> OH MY GOSH THAT LOOKS LIKE A HECK OF A LOT OF FUN!
You betcha. It's addictive. Oh, I could quit any time I want, probably, but
then I've only been doing it for 37 years now. I'm not hooked, really I'm
not. Oh, damn, it's winter. Four months until the next event. I'm beginning
to feel withdrawal.
> But I've got a few questions. After doing a little research, it looks
like
> SCCA provides event insurance that covers the spectators, the property,
and
> some secondary medical insurance. But what about insurance for the car?
SCCA has kickass insurance coverage that is generally some of the best in
motorsport, but yours is a good question to know exactly what is coverded by
the SCCA. Your car specifically is not. Primarily the coverage is SCCA's
liability (from the parent club to the organizing Region and its members).
>From that, then, spectators [see note] and the property are covered. Medical
is indeed secondary to whatever coverage you have yourself, but even then it
is impressive. You are covered just as a participant, to a greater level if
you are an SCCA member, and to a greater level yet (is it $5 mil now?) if
you carry any kind of SCCA license.
SCCA a few years back came up with a clever way to make that easy too. When
you become a member you sign up for a "crew" license. It is free to members.
But it is a license. You do not need it to accomplish any function,
including to be a crew member, but it is a LICENSE and thus kicks in the
excess insurance coverage.
Note on "Spectators." MOST SCCA Solo II events are non-spectator events, so
no one there is technically a spectator. They are guests, and because they
are guests, they have to sign the event waiver. So if you are watching from
anywhere inside the event perimeter, you should be on the waiver. If you
come to an event and bring your parents or girlfriend or wife, they have to
sign the waiver. There ARE "spectator events" sometimes (typically an event
in conjunction with some festival or other public event) and the organizing
region has to designate them as such and the insurance premium is higher.
True spectators do not need to sign waivers.
> I'm guessing that hitting something would be pretty rare, and even if you
> ended up hitting something the damage would probably be pretty minimal
> (2-3K) which I could absorb out of pocket. But I'm a bit apprehensive
> taking my car out on the track without a backup plan in case the car
caught
> fire or some other crazy thing.
It is not only rare, but there is rulebook language that specifically is
intended to make it rare. There are established distances from fixed
objects, course design parameters, a top speed limitation (intentionally
vague, but the fudge factor is only about 5 mph or so). The idea is to make
it as safe as possible, a sport where you need no extra safety equipment
other than a helmet -- and where M-rated helmets (motorcycle) are acceptable
(they are not for full-bore road racing). It is also noteworthy that Solo II
had only one specialty that requires training and licensing and that is the
safety steward. It is a formal and quite successful program explicitly
designed to make sure that what we do, we do safely.
That said, your word "minimal" is quite accurate. You can never say never.
Accidents do happen. We had one at an event last weekend. In the staging
lanes. Guy in a Porsche rolling in the lane rolled too far and creased the
door of a Camaro. Of course, that could have happened in any supermarket
parking lot.
Someone mentioned fatalities. I know of three in the past decade or so, and
when you know how freaky they were, it is less scary (but no less sad or
unfortunate). One was in Florida, a father standing where he should not have
been (and had been told earlier not to be there) shooting video of his son,
his back to another car that lost control and hit him. Not a driver. Because
of that incident, all photogs must now have spotters. The other was in
California, a driver in an open roadster, with a passenger, who drove
straight off the course, went a very long distance, reached the edge of the
paved site, got launched into a stout tree limb. Killed both. The suspicion
is he had a heart attack (never confirmed to my knowledge) because of the
extreme distance traveled with no apparent attempt to stop or turn.
The "typical" worst accident is a rollover. In my 37 years in the game I've
seen one about every 2-3 years or so. And to illustrate how rare accidents
are, I've seen more rollos than I have incidents of hitting a light pole or
a curb that caused damage. The worst injury I've seen from a rollo is one
broken arm -- all the others produced either minor boo-boos or nothing.
Mostly they happen from a driver getting it wrong, the car getting away from
him so violently he digs a rim and "trips" the car. Mostly, if you do not
trip the car, it will spin but it will not go over. That also occurs, it
seems from drivers trying to "save" the run instead if just letting the car
spin and stop.
Newbies seem most susceptible because they do not know the limits or how a
car reacts yet. But I have seen experienced drivers go over too (the broken
arm is a national champion, two times now, and he did it in a Pro Solo).
Best advice in that regard is to take the time to learn the sport. There is
a lot of technique involved. Slow cars with veteran drivers beat fast cars
with newbies because the veterans know how to get through a course
efficiently. So do not expect to do anything your first few events other
than learn things. The only times that matter are your own, no one else's.
The only time you want to beat is your own previous run.
First event you run, be sure to tell the organizers it is your first event.
Most times, they will offer to put someone with you to help you out, walk
the course with you, show you how to drive a line through a corner, make
sure your tires are at good pressures, etc. If they forget to offer, ask for
someone to help you out.
If the opportunity presents itself, do a school. It may be a simple school
by your local region. It may be a formal Evolution school. Even if the
school costs a couple hundred bucks (a lot compared to entry fees of
$15-25), believe me, it is well worth it. You will get tons of seat time and
people who really know doing the teaching.
> Is this a non issue? Try to get an auto policy that permits "timed
events"?
> Anyone seen an accident at an autocross event?
It is almost, but not quite, a non-issue. The more common mishap is just
that something breaks on the car, and that seems to happen more to
Prepared/Modified cars than to Stock/Street cars. That is usually just a
cussword and load it up to haul it home (P and M cars usually come on
trailers). But yes, as they say s*** happens. As far as your insurance
policies go, talk to your insuror and see what restrictions, if any, they
put on them. Some insurors recognize autocross/solo II as a non-hazardous
sport and have no problem including it as a covered activity. Others (who
frankly are working from a base of frightened ignorance, IMHO) see any form
of automotive competition, even a road rally, as "racing" and set up all
kinds of restrictions. Not just car insurance. We once tried to buy small
life insurance policies on our teenage kids, and were told the premiums
would be doubled because of their "racing activities." Said activity was
autocross, and at the time neither had yet to drive in an event! The company
(State Farm) declared arrogantly "we know what we are talking about" when
patently they did not. We went elsewhere -- and in the process took all our
vehicle and homeowners coverage away from them.
> Question on tires. Worth getting a second set? How many runs do folks
> generally get on a set?
At the beginning, no. Run whatcha brung. Learn the techniques, and what you
and your car are capable of. You may get in less trouble on your street
tires too. Oh, it may be easier to spin, but harder to trip. Start easy and
"sneak up" on the limits. I tell people that as long as the initial learning
curve is steep, stay with the street setup. Once you begin to hit plateaus
in your development, then it is time to begin investing in "stuff." Buy a
second set of wheels, put gummy tires on them, and get the tools to make
changing at the event easy. Maybe even a tire trailer.
And then, every time you make a major change to the car, you have to learn
how to drive it all over again. Maybe it's gummy tires, maybe it is big
changes to your suspension settings, but it will be different and a quick
way to get in trouble is to assume you can drive the "new" car the same way
you drove it before. This is why, after you make a significant change, your
first runs may be slower than you were before. The car now has better stuff,
but you need to learn how to use it. Closest I ever came to a rollo was my
first run on race tires after two years of driving on street tires. I found
I had to change my technique. But by then you should have a basis to know
what to change from and what to change to.
> Thanks!
Good luck. Now get out there and do it! Have fun!
--Rocky Entriken
/// autox@autox.team.net mailing list
///
/// To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
/// with nothing in it but
///
/// unsubscribe autox
///
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
///
|