first time on new autocross course. Walking tips etc?
 

I'm a complete autocross newbie so give me everything ya got.

When I was walking the course at Rotary Revolution I tried to pay careful attention to the key cones and not so much exactly where every corner is but more like "how the course goes". So I figured this way I wouldn't get completely lost on my first run because I tried to remember to much and then scramble it when the adrenaline starts pumping.

First run comes and what do you think I did? Screwed it up! So what advice do you have for the autox n00bs about course walking or running the course the first couple of times in general?

Walk the course a few different times. Try to remember stuff like "for this slalom, start on the right". Walk pretty quickly, and don't forget to look ahead. I walked course alongside a talented autocrosser once (2nd in BSPL last year), and at one point she said "oh, there's a cone down up there." I looked ahead to where it was, and it was about 10-20 yards further down the course than I had originally been looking.


Ask for a novice instructor, if possible, get one who drives a car similar to yours, there are lots of Corvette guys in my region. If you're a trusting person, ask them if they'll drive your car one lap for you, in my region they call it an 'instructional ride' or something like that. This will help you see the course another time, which to me is the toughest thing about autocross: going full out on a course you're not very familiar with.

Brake earlier than you think you need to. Remember it's easier to accelerate midcorner than to scrub off too much speed.


Focus on smoothness, and speed will come eventually. If you don't own a harness, I find them helpful because they keep you planted in your seat and allow you to hold the wheel with a lighter grip for more smoothness and better feedback.

And most of all, have fun and bring sunscreen so you don't get burned.
-scott-

What Scott Said!

Also.. whenever walking the course.. dont get in a pack of people BSing about the tires they have etc..
Stick with the old school people.
Walk the track like you would be in it in the drivers seat.
That way as you go through the course you will be in the same position (Hopefully) that you were when you walked it.
I would always walk through several corners.. then stop and look back, and then look from the start to where I am.. and follow the course in my head.. then go further.. then re-trace to the new spot.
Always try to get there so you have a good hour BEFORE the drivers meeting. Make sure that you are signed in and the car teched and you have a hour to waste. THAT is when you walk the course.. dont do it once.. do it 2 or 3 times. Always re-tracking your steps.. get real familiar with it.
Try to picture what gear you would be in through the course.. 2nd? 3rd? 1st!!! See where the turns are.. look for changes in pavement.. Like from COncrete to blacktop.. some airport tracks have changes.. those you know the two different areas.

When it is time to drive.. Just remember walking the track. Then drive it.. DONT RACE IT.. you should have 3+ runs to get the track right. GO around the track trying to keep track of the course so you get a time under your belt. Then on the second lap.. go faster.. Third laap.. go fast as is prudent without sliding. If you mess up.. you should already have at least One decent time.. so dont sweat it.

When I first started autocrossing.. the first couple I went to were in Palm Bay.. and Orlando.. and damn they were a bitch. They had convoluted double circuit tracks.. where you go around the track, then come to a gate.. 1st time in you go left and back around the track.. 2nd time you go right and to the finish line. MANY novices went left twice.. and almost ran into the other car that was on the track already.. LOL
Just concentrate on completing the course, and having fun. YOu will continually go faster and faster and will surprise yourself at how much of an improvement your 2nd and 3rd runs will get each successive autocross.

Remember Autocrossing is a FUN entry level sport. Some people take it WAYYYYY Seriously. NO PROBLEM.. I am cool with that.. but dont get bothered as some seem to think it is the pinnacle of motorsports.. and they can be real negative if you are autocrossing for fun. Dont let em get to ya.. remember to have fun using your car for what its made for..

What Spin said works.

On the first lap, drive like you are late for work. You're not running lights or stops signs, just moving briskly. Autox isn't supposed to be about course memorization. Go slow and gradually pick up the pace. Even with one time (the rest DNF's) you'll beat most noobies. They usually try too hard and DNF every lap.

Don't worry about missing a gate, drive the rest of the course at speed. Find out which gate you missed from the workers BEFORE going out again.

I have 4 autocrosses under my belt, and have a long way to go.

The first one I drove a friend's car, and did very well IMO. Finished mid pack in a stock car, other than an air filter, all season tires and so on. The next too were at the rotary revo, and i just slid around, trieng to do the whole course in power oversteer. The last one, I tried to do well, and did horrible. I was way over driving my car, pushing through most turns, and so on.

what does your car look like? My first autocross was at RRev too and I thought I did alright considering i've never done it before.

I have a couple bad pics of it online, nothing worth posting. It's a red t2 w/n1 single, s5 front bumper, and s5 t2 wheels. At the revo I was running a set of black gxl wheels

all right, I think i remember your car. It had the black S4 molding right? Didn't realize you were from michigan. I would've said Hi ;)

btw, I was driving the black TII with the busted front bumper...

One of the best tips I ever got was to stop at certain portins of the course, and squat down to about the eye level you would be at sitting in your car. Standing up, you have a different perspective than at driving height. When standing, you can see a lot further down, but sitting you can see what some corners that you think might give you trouble, squat down and you will get a better idea of what it will look like when you are driving on course. Another point I learned when I first atarted, move all mirrors so you can't see them. I had a problem of wanting to look behind me and see if I hit that last cone, then plow three more for seeing something that I couldn't change. Just another $.02.

Travis

I'll add my .02.

1. Walk the course alone. It's not the time to chat.

2. Walk the course at least 3 times.

3. Evaluate the course in terms of important corners. I use a 1 - 2 - 3 system. 1-corners are the most important which are usually before longer straights where speed is important or very slow corners (you can't make time, but can lose a lot by over shooting.) 2 corners are usually slaloms etc.

4. Walk your line as if you are in the car. I know my car is 3 step wide. I make sure I get a visual orientation to what I will be looking at on the course.

5. Look for traction. At times, I will change my approach to a course, if I am in the 4th run group based on where the rubber is at, even if it might not be my 1st choice of line. You need to stay where the tracktion is at.

6. Make note of where undulations occur in the course surfaces. Undulations will upset the balance of the car and could significantly effect braking and acceleration.

7. Remember to always look ahead. I practice it when I walk the course. I look for exit point, at the entrance of corners etc. Your hands will follow your eyes. Visualize your exit points and drive to them.

8. If you work before you run, pick to work the most important corner(s) of the course, so you can see a reference of how other driver are attacking the course.

9. If the club offers fun runs, ride with as many different drivers with as much experience as you can find. Finding a national champion to ride with, or to evaluate your driving is the quickest way to reduce your learning curb.

10. Never drive down the middle the course. Use the whole course.

11. Slow in….Fast out. You should be rolling on to the throttle as you pass the apex. If you are braking, you are way too late, and probably way too fast.

12. Before each run, visualize running the course. Try and be a detailed as possible. It takes practice, but you will improve with time. I always get at least 16-25 runs per event. :)

13. Don’t pinch corners. Allow the car to drift out to the outer edge on the exit of corners.

If you can get a bunch of runs in as a passenger and work the course before you run do so. This will help you tremendously.

The goal of your first run should be to get through briskly but most importantly cleanly.

Once you are very comfortable with the car and walking courses (as in you've done this for a long time) a tactic worth trying is to make you're all out balls to the wall banzai run your very first run. The idea is that it's much easier to make yourself slow down rather then speed up. If you banzai right away you may suprise yourself in a couple spots and find that the car will stick where you didn't expect. On your next run you just dial back a little in the trouble spots and continue hauling ass and refining your line everywhere else. I try this on occasion with big fast courses and it works for me sometimes.

What they said!

I would emphasize, if you want to get good at this, walk the course alone and memorize it. You should be able to close your eyes and visualize where you will be, what cones to watch for, when you will be accelerating, when you'll be braking, what gear you'll be in, where you'll need to shift, etc, etc

As said above, there are times to BS and times to concentrate. When you're walking the course try and figure out the trickiest part of the course and sign up for the nearest station. Use the opportunity to watch how the good drivers are driving it and add that to your visualization.

Tomas

I'm an auto-x newbie too, so here's a couple questions:

1) Could I show up to the event not intending to run--willing to work--and be able to get some rides with some of the more experienced drivers? I think it would help me tremendously when the time comes for my first run if I had already had an idea of what to expect from the passenger seat. Would I still have to pay the entrance/registration fees?

2) I won't be able to auto-x my FC til next summer, and I don't feel comfortable auto-xing my Probe (FWD sucks, and my CV joints are just starting to go bad anyway.) From what I've studied anyway, the Probe would put me in GS, and my RX-7 (with mods) will probably land in ASP--huge difference--but if this is all for fun (which it is for me!) than that shouldn't make too much of a difference, right?

3) Here's a strange idea: if it's completely idiotic then so be it--would using a bicycle be at all effective on the walk-through? Would it even be allowed? I would of course also walk the course and study it with greater detail too, but sitting on a bike, I'd be at an approximately similar perspective as I would sitting in my car, and I could get an idea of what the course/turns are like WITH g's. Is that just a stupid n00b question or is it valid?

4) How badly do cones scuff up paint? I KNOW I'm going to be bangin a few cones and/ or spinning out (maybe) in my first runs as a novice. I have a decent (not great though) paintjob on the FC right now and I'd kind of like to keep it looking decent. I don't mind battle scars too much--they just show that it's being used for what it was designed for--but I'd rather not scuff it up exorbitantly. Are there any effective ways of protecting said paint? Would a leather-bra do the trick, or are those even allowed in the rules? I couldn't find anything in the SCCA rulebooks about them, but that's a lot of verbose reading and I admittedly didn't muck through all of it.

i've never had my paint get damaged by hitting cones and I've wacked a few. Never thought of the bicycle thing. Doesn't seem like it would be any better than just crouching down to see the course. Feeling it with G's isn't going to help.

That's what I was thinking--especially after giving it more thought. I wanted to remove it from the post but the forum wouldn't let me edit it out. :shrug: Thinking about it more; after having some experience, I should be able to correlate walking it through and crouching down for perspective with driving the course just fine. If that's what everybody else does, there's a reason why everyone else does it--it works.

Not sure if anyone has said this buy "Have fun", safely ofcourse. I mean if your going to win a medal or w/e but if your a complete newbie then just go have fun, learn to see how your car reacts to certain inputs and stuff and LEARN THE COURSE, unlike me who loves to go Out of Course. *sigh* lol

1) I don't see why not. I KNOW you can walk the course, regardless of whether you're driving. As for the working part- beats me. I don't see why not, I just have never known anyone to work and not run. Usually it's the other way around. I hate it when people bail on their worker assignments. :banghead:

2) Unless you're afraid the Probe will fail tech or DIE on course, by all means race it. Sure, there will be different techniques, but a LOT of the stuff is universal. You'll learn how to read a course, how to look ahead, how to CONTROL the car, etc. Car type is immaterial for those things.

3) You are not allowed to use a bike. You may, however, run the course (actually VERY helpful for getting an idea "at speed"). Additionally, a bike will give you a MUCH higher persepctive than sitting in your car. Most people sit lower than they walk, so you'll often see people sitting or squatting on course to get an idea of how it'lll look from the driver's seat.

4) I've hit a few hundred cones with my pristine Corvette, and only a small percentage have left any marks. Most cones I've hit are "glancing" blows that strafe the side of the car (I tend to hit them around the passenger door). They leave a rubbery type scuff mark not unlike the black marks a pair of shoes leaves on a tile floor. They are easily removable with your fingers or a towel without leaving any marks. The ones that have left marks: I had a few that I hit while sliding sideways (don't ask) which left scuff marks under the rocker panels. You can't see it, but they're there.
The one that really made me mad- a sweeping 180 degree corner with one cone that stuck out further than the rest. I was looking at the corner exit cones and DRILLED the errant cone right under the driver's headlight at at least 50 MPH.
That left a few scratches and scuffs. I've managed to get most of them polished out, but they're there. Ironically, that's the one time I raced without a bra... I don't make that mistake again. :banghead:

2) Will a torn CV boot make me fail tech? That's really the only part of the car that needs attention, other than piston rings or valve stem seals which make me spit blue smoke after compression-deceleration (oil blowby). The CV boot is not bad--YET-- but I am afraid that the rigorous driving an autox entails would seal it's fate. The axle will already need replacement anyway...

3) I already weighed out that a bike wouldn't be effective anyway. However the running part sounds like a good idea. I'll keep that in mind (along with all the other 314159 things to keep in mind for my first day! lol...)

4) So bras ARE allowed on course? Looks like I'll be wearing a bra. C-cup...erm, wait... no that's the RX-7 that'll be wearing the bra, and nevermind the whole C-cup part. :D

They'll never notice the torn CV boot in tech, but that's not to say it SHOULD pass tech. A CJ boot holds a lot of grease inside. When it tears, teh grease goes all over teh course and teh cars slide into teh crowd. :D

Duct Tape. :D

Nah, seriously I think I'm going to hold off on my first run until either my Probe is in good 'nuf shape to run, or my FC is running and I can go run with that. :D

OR MAYBE... I've been thinking about selling the Probe and buying a N/A FC as the daily beater--but snow and RWD sucks and I don't know if I could afford the upkeep of TWO FCs...lol :D