Ajhsys@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 5/18/99 7:24:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> mbelect@mindspring.com writes:
> 
>  I'm curious... how do spridgets do in the ESP/DSP class competitions?
>  How do they stack-up against the modern iron?  >>
> 
> The best thing about autocross is that it is 90% driver skill and 10% car.
Not to sound like Oscar Wilde, but that is also the *worst* thing about
autocross. :-)  At least at the beginning, when you drive the wheels off
your car and someone in the same kind of car is ten seconds faster than
you on a 40-second course.
> If you go to some driver's schools, and talk with the other, better drivers,
> you can learn a lot.  Then, when you get really good, you have a chance.
Exactly.  Even better: try to get a ride with a faster driver sometime. 
You'll see things you don't know you don't know.  In my first season, I
managed to go from dead last (as in the guy than whom all other drivers
on track that day went faster) to mid-pack by talking, reading, and
practice.  It was a long, slow, humbling experience.
After an eye-opening ride with a National-level instructor in an
autocross school put on by one of our local clubs, I started finishing
on the podium, because I saw what people who did it *right* were doing. 
It's like being a great lover: there's only so much you can learn by
practicing on your own... :-)
--Scott Fisher
 
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