For those running SCCA Autocross...

[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

[Cyclone03]

Originally Posted by 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

LOL Thats all , guess the driver needs work............I do.

My comment about not being soft is in regard to the VERY talented drivers running heavily modified cars with 275-315 section front tires. That group of cars and drivers will push the PAX index down (?) closer to 1.00.

Now if the index is derived from an average of all cars in the class then increasing OUR car count will help our PAX index . Now yes, I want to be fastest overall of course and with only me in the class here I'm a "winner" but 10sec off fast time is not where I want to be.

[indydave]

Regions vary but for the most part, all one needs to do to get help is walk up to someone and ask for help. In most cases, help comes out of the woodwork! Please, don't be afraid to ask.

On PAX, right now ignore it. PAX is a tool but a very imprecise one. PAX is calculated using several different data points but is also subjective because there's an amount of educated guess involved. In the case of CAM, the PAX multipliers are mostly a blind guess. At the local level, most Regions use it to score novice classes and such. Right now, just concentrate on your driving and going faster. Trying to actually use PAX to determine how you rank against "the best" is just an exercise in frustration.

Go, do your best, ask for help, have fun! Having fun is the most important thing.