Man what fun! There is nothing like getting to go mental in your car on a track. The track was in the parking lot of a Town Pump gas station in Missoula, Montana. It was my first event, and after only having my car for two months, I wasn't sure how I would do. I competed in the F-Stock class, along with two Mazda RX-7's, a Ford 5.0 Mustang, and a Toyota MR-2. Here is the layout of the track.
The course was a bit tight for a car like mine to be able to really stretch its legs. I managed to do the whole
course in first gear, and spun the rear just about any time I got on the throttle. I found out that when it starts
to come around, just backpeddle for a split second, and the rear will come back.
On my first run, I got lost toward the end of the track, missed a gate and received a DNF with a time of 57.632.
The second and third runs got better as I got used to the track and where to get on the gas. My biggest problem
was the 180 turn at the end of the course. On the first and second runs, I pushed the front real hard. On the third
pass, I tried to bring the back around on the throttle, but almost spun the car. I had to basically stop, turn
and start again. On the last run, I received some advice from some of the other, more experienced autocrossers
and made an effort to just "drive around the turn", so I did. And it helped, I dropped three seconds
from my time! Check out the score board.
Here you can see, I beat both the RX-7's by over three seconds, and the Mustang by two and a half seconds; however,
I was beaten by the MR-2. The lighter car was favored by the short, tight course. To that end, the driver of the
MR-2, Bruce Schlaebitz, has been autocrossing that particular MR-2 for three seasons. Not bad for my first time,
in my opinion.
Below are various pictures of my car in action.
