For those running SCCA Autocross...

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Thanks Lance, I'll read over that later when I have a few minutes to soak it in.

So here's the big question- At all the SCCA events I've been to if you're not driving you're out on the course watching cones. If you are driving, it's go go go to get through the cars. Here they do 5 laps back to back, then watch cones, lunch, then 5 laps back to back and than watch cones.

I saw what seemed to be some good drivers while watching cones, but they have to watch cones when I drive and can't ride with me. When my gropup is driving I can't really see who are the better drivers, it's a pretty big course and I have to stay by my car so I don;t miss a turn.

Seems it would be hard to get someone more experienced to ride with you?

[SSLance]

What we do in a situation like that is make sure you run the same group as the other driver and just park about half way down the grid from them. That way they can run, get out and come straight to your car for your run...then have time to get back to his car for his run again.

We typically have 3 heats so that allow a heat off between work and run heats to help get things ready. We also only get one set of runs, usually 4 per heat.

So I show up at 7:30 am, usually work heat 0 at tech, have heat 1 off to get my car ready, warmed up, teched and in grid, run 4 runs in heat 2....then leave to go home about 2:30-3:00ish or so.

Fun huh...

[SSLance]

Originally Posted by Ben@SpeedTech

Seems it would be hard to get someone more experienced to ride with you?

I forgot to address this. Show an interest at the driver's meeting, find the chief of novices if they have one, mention that you'd like a ride along with someone experienced with a rear wheel drive car if possible. For the most part, I've found the veterans to be very helpful with newbies.

I'm at the point now where the veterans call me out and ask me to ride with or take newbies along for rides with me. They always try to match mentors up with newbies of similar cars...if possible. You just gotta speak up and ask. they'll figure out a way.

The veterans with a lot of experience know when they'll have free time during a heat, they'll figure out a way to help.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Good advice. Next race is Apr 11th, I'll try to do that.

[MattO]

I'm still very much a novice to this whole "Turning the wheel during a race" thing, but I came to grips with the fact that I'm not going to be nearly as fast as most of the pack a long time ago. Driving a truck puts me at a serious disadvantage (as an amateur anyway) so keeping my expectations realistic early on was paramount in keeping a positive outlook.

What I do instead of watching others' times, is that I watch my own and ask for instruction when possible. I'm only ever racing against myself (in my own head)


As far as adding to the ongoing conversation, once you're happy with the chassis setup on the car, explore your technique. Left foot braking, heel toe, etc. In AutoX, just the time it takes transitioning between pedals can make a big difference. I'm not that deep into it yet, but talking to a lot of veteran parking lot racers, this is the next logical step to improving my times.

[Cyclone03]

Im also new and asked the same question about PAX.
In a nut shell it's a national handicap index. From my understanding it is adjusted either at the end or sometime during the year. For us "lightly Modified" CAM-T (me) guys we are racing all the heavy hitting CAM-T's across the country so our index will never be soft. Like an NHRA stock racer having HP added to there car.

here are my results for all runs (and everybody else) CAM-T 17
https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/file...-feb15_fin.htm


and heres my PAX time,
https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/file...-feb15_pax.htm

If you register, its free, for AXWARESYSTEMS.COM you can get all the results for any weekend and see where you are against others in your class by looking at PAX times.
Sense all the courses are different you can get an idea how others are doing in your class.

[Cyclone03]

Our last event ,only my second , we got 4 laps all day over 3 sessions. I worked the first and ran in the second. went home early for the 3rd. The clubs site is noise limited so we cant start till 11a , done by 5p. Our new site for this weekend will have first car out at 10a run till dark, but most likely till 5 because shagging cones for 5 hours sucks. Running 3 sessions had us shagging cones for over 2 hours that is a long time to be standing.

To be honest I like working session 1 because you can at least compare lines on your little piece of the course before you run. We had a drivers choice slalom sections that forced a compromise of lines on both ends , sloooowwww in fast out to an open turn. OR very fast in to a very tight out to the same slow turn.

[dontlifttoshift]

The pax for CAM-t isn't exactly stiff. You essentially have to run the same times as a stock, non z06, C5 corvette in B Street.

http://home.comcast.net/~paxrtp/rtp2015.html