I went autocrossing this weekend this weekend for the first time since
May. Champaign County Sports Car Club, at Vermillion County Airport,
Danville, Illinois, Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday's event: 17 drivers. It's been a long layoff, feeling rather
lazy, leave the street tires on, no oil in the front shocks. One casual
run, one aggressive run, and one "really gotta try it" run. 65.5 seconds
of slipping and sliding, and the grand addiction comes back with a
vengeance. GOT TO GET THE STICKIES. Jack it up and put on the race
tires, and put oil in the shocks. Very fast track on the concrete
runways, half of it in third gear. Fourth run is 60.375 seconds. Missed
a minute by a whisker. Missed the index trophy by 1/10 second. Lost it
to a (shudder) Firebird T/A. (Yuck!) Should have caught the addiction
earlier. Fast time of day went to a supercharged Miata 1800 with slick
stickies running in Modified class, but ninth on index.
Sunday's event: Stayed nearby overnight. Didn't bother to take the
stickies off. 23 drivers. Today the track is even faster, 80% of it in
third gear, figure it to be a power track, never ran an autocross track
that fast before, not much hope. Top off the shocks again. Five runs,
each one better than the last. When the smoke cleared, 58 seconds and a
bit was enough to take the index trophy with a few tenths to spare.
Second on index was a Street Prepared VW Rabbit GTI. Fast time of day
was a Formula 440 at 52+ seconds. Others to fall victim today were two
more 440s, a 911, an MR2 (2 drivers), a Grand Am Quad 4, a Celica Supra,
a Neon, a Saturn SC2 (2 drivers), a Merkure XR4TI, a Mustang V8, a Miata
1600, and the super charged Miata 1800.
Two more T-shirts. It sure is nice to be home again after that Alaska
thing.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
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