Kudos! Challenge autocross crew!

I would just like to say that this years Autocross layout was by far the best in the history of the challenge (minus the road course, of course). This was more about the car and less about drivers memory of the course design and learning the technical turns. It was also friggen fast through a couple of the corners, wayyy fast. I stay away from autocrosses due to the boring speeds, but this was a blast! Granted, if you're a wimp and you have a "pro" drive your car, this would mean nothing to you.

I hope you guys keep with this format, maybe some of the ladies will decide to drive their own car since they won't need a map. Plus when they see how much fun it is, they might decide to do it again and actually learn how to drive the car they built.

Kudo's autocross organizers!

I'll second that, it was a doozy of a course, particularly the wide on-throttle sweeper at the finish that encouraged more than a few, ahem, dramatic finales.

One of the few times I've been in third gear around the cones, in a variety of vehicles. Does third gear in a twin-engined Scirocco count as sixth?

This makes me want to build a $2011 car.

Agreed...it was awesome.

Maybe if you applied a little more left-foot brake in Uranus you might not have fallen off the boost so bad ;)

Oh and not everyone has the opportunity to have a bunch of kids service Uranus, like you do ;)

Some are just better at building than driving, lol.

I do both, just badly

Thanks guys! Although we have to give credit to the pro drivers for the course. Alan McCrispin, Ian Stewart, and Danny Shields did most of the layout (I think). They design the course every year and we do the rest.

I do agree it was a blast though. My favorite part was the right hand sweeper in the back corner that led onto the mini-straight away. It was a pretty quick corner and the pavement change there made it slightly hairy. I found that out the hard way when I looped my E46 there trying to carry too much entry speed.

Jason (Martin Sports Car Club)

BTW, what driver got FTD?

And anyone know the fastest non-pro driver?

(enquiring minds want to know)

Totally not official but I think Alan McCrispin drove the 1st and 2nd fastest cars (Wreck Racing Miata & Condor Speed Shop E30)

I'm really not sure who the fastest non-pro driver was but the Vorshag E30 driver had to be pretty close (7th in the autocross).

So not a repeat of 2004, then....

And IIRC, the first year for the "pros" was 2003.

For someone's ego, just want to keep track of the non-pro's who set FTD.

Real fun course. Got to lay down the power but wasn't just a drag race.

I think I got 17th or so in the autocross driving it myself. (5.0 Miata) Alan finally got me on his third exhibition run by .2 seconds. He and I agreed we were losing about .5 a second having to start the car in gear. He thought he left another .5 second on the course.

I think we gave up alot in tires as well. The fastest guys were on good tires. We were on fresh but skinny 205 width 13 inch A048's. Vorshlag was running 275 Hoosier I believe.

The main advantage the Pro's had was knowing the course. My first two runs were just feeling it out. The third I came across too hot and coned it. The fourth was just trying to keep it clean and my fastest. (35.5)

I think with proper tires (275 Hoosiers) and a functioning gearbox the car has top ten potential. Some cleaning and Nitrous on the drags and it might have top ten overall.

If I'm not mistaken, Alan got the top 3 times. I believe he has done that in previous years. I also think he designed this course.

Very fun course, but I did hear one person say that the Drags should be where you show off your Horse power, and the Autocross should be where you show off your handling. I see his point, but I dont know if I agree.

We had Danny Shields autocross our car (Hello Kitty Mustang) at 2 events before the Challenge. I don't call it wimpy to have a Pro driver, I call it being smarter than your average clown. :)

Soma007 wrote: Totally not official but I think Alan McCrispin drove the 1st and 2nd fastest cars (Wreck Racing Miata & Condor Speed Shop E30) I'm really not sure who the fastest non-pro driver was but the Vorshag E30 driver had to be pretty close (7th in the autocross).

Barry Miles drove our car...9th in the autox with a 34.2.

Pat wrote:

Soma007 wrote: Totally not official but I think Alan McCrispin drove the 1st and 2nd fastest cars (Wreck Racing Miata & Condor Speed Shop E30) I'm really not sure who the fastest non-pro driver was but the Vorshag E30 driver had to be pretty close (7th in the autocross).

Barry Miles drove our car...9th in the autox with a 34.2.

Did something change? I thought I was 9th with a 34.1? Off to check the results again!

"I call it being smarter than your average clown. :) " You finished right under Uranus, how smart/wimpy is that?

If I'm not mistaken, Alan got the top 3 times

You are not mistaken!

MrJoshua wrote:

Pat wrote:

Soma007 wrote: Totally not official but I think Alan McCrispin drove the 1st and 2nd fastest cars (Wreck Racing Miata & Condor Speed Shop E30) I'm really not sure who the fastest non-pro driver was but the Vorshag E30 driver had to be pretty close (7th in the autocross).

Barry Miles drove our car...9th in the autox with a 34.2.

Did something change? I thought I was 9th with a 34.1? Off to check the results again!

You were 8th with a 34.1! But you drove a Miata...that's cheating.

In reply to Pat:

Just to make it challenging for Ian it's tune was so bad it coughed an spit its way around the course spontaneously varying the power +/- 50%.

I know we finished directly behind Uranus. I've instructed my team members not to say it exactly like that to people outside the GRM community. :)

You clearly have a much faster car, no debating that. But giving our pro driver a lot of seat time had us nipping at your toes with a much slower car. Smart?

In fairness my co-owner, Tod, is a top local autocrosser that often gives Danny a run for his money at local events. We did consider having Tod drive our car, but we wanted that extra 100th of a second what ever it took. We chose #5, Danny's regular number, hoping it would give us an extra 1,000th

My hat is off to the guys who drove thier own cars. Danny felt like a team member, having helped us with so much testing, so maybe we did drive our own car. Hmmm.

spin_out wrote: In fairness my co-owner, Tod, is a top local autocrosser that often gives Danny a run for his money at local events. We did consider having Tod drive our car, but we wanted that extra 100th of a second what ever it took. We chose #5, Danny's regular number, hoping it would give us an extra 1,000th My hat is off to the guys who drove thier own cars. Danny felt like a team member, having helped us with so much testing, so maybe we did drive our own car. Hmmm.

Should have let Tod drive.

Nothing against Danny. But it would not have been the first time a team driver beat a pro. Should have given him the chance.

And once he drove your car, he probably would have been asked to drive others.

"You clearly have a much faster car, no debating that. But giving our pro driver a lot of seat time had us nipping at your toes with a much slower car." Wow I could have won with a pro driver, damn.... I beat a "pro" driver last year, I didn't want to embarrass any more of them this year. I just wish I could get 50 laps in....

Greg Voth wrote: ...The main advantage the Pro's had was knowing the course...

I think the main advantage the pro's have is amazing, astonishing, incredible talent. To ride along with the likes of Alan, Ian, or Danny is quite the experience. The way they can hit the perfect late apex line on every corner, nail the brake points with perfect precision, even in an unfamiliar car, and position the tires just inches from the cones every time is almost beyond belief.

fastclown wrote: "You clearly have a much faster car, no debating that. But giving our pro driver a lot of seat time had us nipping at your toes with a much slower car." Wow I could have won with a pro driver, damn.... I beat a "pro" driver last year, I didn't want to embarrass any more of them this year. I just wish I could get 50 laps in....

Stop sand baggin'

You WERE a pro driver if I'm not mistaken.

"You WERE a pro driver if I'm not mistaken." Not in autocross. Going fast in a parking lot scares me. Remember, I'm just a clown.....

Mike's right. My own experience of going from road racing to autoX was like going from a marathon run to a knife fight. I've got a lot of respect for those guys who can just get in and immediately click the brain to "DRIVE, FOOL!" mode. Especially when the racetrack changes every weekend.