Disclaimer: before you read this. I am by no means a journalist and make
no claims to be. After reading this story I am sure that you will agree
with me. Pat, please feel free to edit if you decide to publish my little
story. Make me sound intelligent please.
Hi, this is Dave; I am a slow cone smashing 10 thumbed newbie auto-crosser
with concrete shock syndrome. (Smile) I never had so much fun getting my
butt kicked in an autocross. As a newbie I was not expecting too much. I
guess I had the crazy thought in the back of my head, like many others do,
that I could get crazy Mojo and storm the trophies in ES. That is as far as
that thought went. It was squashed as soon as I got behind the wheel.
I usually drive an ITR at local events and have done okay so far. I
desperately wanted to go to Nationals this year but this is my busy season
for work so I cannot take a lot of time off. With that in mind, I decided
to co-drive with a local friend from the Susquehanna Region named Mike
Snyder; the one from PA. Mike had told me earlier in the year that if I
wanted a co-drive with him, the car was available to me. Mike is a great
local competitor and he owns Pat Salerno's National winning ES MR2. I drove
the car at the NE Divisional event and did well on the first day and sucked
on the second. Since I "thought" I had a decent handle on the MR2 I figured
it would be a good car to drive at Nationals for a first timer. This is not
the first nor the last time I have or will be wrong.
I arrived on site with Mike and Carrie Snyder on Wednesday in time to watch
DSL run the North Course. By the way, Mike and Carrie are quite the host
couple for a newbie to nationals. If you don't know them, do yourself a
favor and spend some time with them, they are good people. Let's get back
to the story now. I helped put Alan Pozner's rain tires on Roseanne
Freeburger's Type R and watched DSL and STX for a while. I was just in awe
at the number of auto-crossers at the site. I had to opportunity to watch
Kevin Roche and Jeff Craig drive. I also got to see DS run as well. Alan
had a few great runs out there and it was good to see a friend so excited
about his runs. I couldn't help but be happy for him and share in his
celebration. John Rudy gave me some wisdom on driving at the National level
events. I just wanted to go and experience Nationals and see what this
sport is all about. You know, just take in the experience with no
expectations to ruin it for me. What did I learn? I learned that we have a
fantastic bunch of local auto-crossers and that there are many great people
involved in this sport. Going to Topeka is part of the process of becoming
part of the family of top shelf auto-crossers.
Thursday was our first day of competition in ES. I was surprised that I did
not have any jitters about driving at the event. I usually get myself so
worked up that I can't see straight until my 4th run at a local event. The
Snyder's and I arrived at the event site early enough to walk the course a
few more times and get the car into grid and prepped to run. Alan Pozner
rode over with us to the event site since he is reporting to Sports Car on
the runs and results. Alan gave me a few pointers and was very supportive
as a good friend would be. My first run was abysmal. I pummeled 4 cones on
my first run. The turn in on concrete is incredible. I came back with a
time of 51.154 and 4 cones. I needed to go faster to counteract the turn in
response. My second run was a 50.760 and 2 cones. Faster but not fast
enough. The third run had to count here. I ran a 50.595 and 2 cones jumped
out in front of me again. Grrrrr. In retrospect I should have been down to
a 50.1 or a 49 and some change; then I would have had enough velocity to get
around the cones properly. But I didn't and that is that. As the saying
goes; hindsight is 20/20.
Friday was the BIG course set by a fellow Susquehanna Region auto-crosser
Lee Piccone. I will say that Lee is one of the coolest auto-crossers I have
ever met and a kick-ass course designer. (Come to the PA States in October
and you can see Lee's course design skills first hand, info will be
published soon.) Mike, Carries and I walked the South Course several times
on Thursday night and studied the course maps and pictures that Carrie took.
It looked to be a very fast course. Again we arrived with Alan Pozner on
Friday morning. Mike took the car to out air in the tires and Carrie and I
went to walk the course. We walked it 3 more times on Friday morning. This
course had a flow like Gershwin's Symphony in Blue as compared to the North
course (In my humble and slow driver opinion.) The course started with a 90
left to a sinuous offset; then into a 90 right that could be taken with no
brakes. Next was slalom of three cones that led into a 90 degree right hand
turn. After that there was an open Chicago box followed by a gate offset to
the left to separate it from the next identical Chicago box. Next was a
slow 90 right into a small straight that led into a sweeping right hand turn
that opened you up to the 5 cone slalom. The key was to not lift at all
through the slalom in the MR2. A sweeping left hander was the next thing to
meet you on course which next led you to a straight with a wiggle in the
middle. The last segment of the course was a very well designed 170 deg
turn that you had to REALLY late apex on and then wait for the opening to a
skittish right hander to the finish straight. If you were too early there
was a cone ready to greet you if you drove the wrong line. I will say that
this particular course was the best I have driven on to date. THANKS LEE!
That said I think my times were once again slow since I am not used to fast
courses. My first run was a 54.457 and one cone. Second was faster with a
53.733 and my third run was a 53.108. Even though I dropped a lot of time;
I actually left a LOT of time out there. The big improvements in time on
each run only revealed that I was not attacking hard enough and early enough
in the event.
The level of competition was INCREDIBLE. Talk about fast; there were some
cars going through the course so fast it was nearly unbelievable. Virtually
every name you have ever heard of being the "fast guy" in any of your
respective classes was there. Just competing at Nationals makes you a
better driver because it magnifies everything that you are doing wrong
because you see so many people doing it right. I used to think I was a
relatively smooth driver until I got on a higher speed concrete course. You
learn quickly out there. Press on the brakes, don't mash them, and feed the
throttle in progressively, no balls to the wall foot through the floor
techniques work. Don't get me wrong, you don't tip toe through but you have
to do things 100% correct 100% of the time to win. I have a new found
respect for a Nationals trophy winner or even an upper mid-pack driver.
These guys and gals are good.
The competition was great and the people I met were better. I had to
opportunity to experience a gas engine powered blender that made tasty adult
beverages. I saw golf carts do things that you only see at D1 events and
NHRA competition. I will not say who, when or where it all happened to
protect the innocent and the guilty. After all, why would you tattle on
your extended family? I can now understand the conversations that revolve
around a place that has the initials BD.
Going to Nationals not only put this sport into perspective for me it also
reinforced my affection for my friends and extended family in the Solo II
world. I will extend a great big THANK YOU to everyone that I met at
Nationals. You all have given a part of your lives to me and I am better
person for that. I only hope that I can contribute to someone else's
enjoyment of this sport in the same way so many of you have for me.
If you are considering going to Nationals next year you MUST GO. It will be
a great experience for you.
Dave MacDougall (not a newbie anymore)
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