Well everyone,
I had my first autocross up here in the Redding area and let me begin by
saying that the events in the Sacramento and Bay area are worth the drive...
I never realized the level of organization required to put on a successful
event.
Anyway, this event was put on in a fairly small parkinglot (by SF
standards anyway). There was almost no run out, and to make that worse the
guys idea of a slalom was a quick jerk of the steering wheel. To make a
long story short, I was hitting 85mph in my 91 MR2 NON TURBO (I think I hit
65-70mph once in the last two years at Mather). Stupid me, if I am going to
show up to an event, I am going to go at 10/10ths... Well after starting to
brake at 85mph, the back end wavered a bit, so I had to back off the brakes,
regain the car, then begin braking again. I slid about 10 feet off course
and just kissed a high tension wire supporting a telephone pole. My fender
is smashed in a bit, and will require replacement. After parking the car
for the day, I learned that last year someone flipped a first-generation RX7
here...
moral of my story is trust your gut, if there isn't a lot of run -off don't
run at all. I'm looking at least $500 with me doing some of the work and
with me getting the fender at a large discount from toyota's contingency
program. And thank you Bay area and Sac organizers for making sure this
kind of thing doesn't happen at your events. It is not really appreciated
until you run where safety comes second to high speed...
jeff gore
temporarily down and out 91 mr2
ps, I did manage to get TTOTD before my wreck being 2 seconds in front of a
superstock vette, well ahead of an IT something RX7 and a few other
race-prepped cars in addition to the normal assortment of street cars.
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