macbuddy
07-21-2009, 01:27 AM
It was a hot day for AutoX, but we all had a great time. To start things off, my friend Ron, Bap (Blake) and I met for breakfast at 6:30 at a Denny's in Stockton. Half an hour into our meal, EXWRX (Jeff) joined us. We traded stories till about 7:45, then headed out to the venue. We caravanned 3 SSM GD3s into the fairgrounds pit area. As we pull in, we spot Rich (mrFroge) getting #59 ready to compete. We pull up right next to his TW Sport. Now we have 4 Fits in a row! 10 minutes later, guess what? An MR Fit enters the gates. Wow, 5 Fits at the same event. It turns out to be Ciburri and family. Actually, Ivan's wife, Tamara and daughter, Lara are in the Fit. Ivan brought his CRX to do battle with the big boys.
Rich, Blake, Ivan and I sign up to run. Jeff decides to be a spectator. On the grid, we have Ivan in the CRX. Ooh...Blake is looking real serious. Rich is ready as always. Ron decides to ride instead of drive. He says that he will be satisfied to experience the sport as my passenger.
To document this event, I gave Ron one of my camcorders. I was curious to see what his eyes saw at the event. I used my other camcorder as a car cam. It turns out that I filled the entire card with 3 full runs, I had nothing left to take still shots. When I got home to check what Ron had taken, I found 8 blurry pictures and an exhausted battery. Ugh! My buddy must have left the camcorder powered on all day! Luckily Jeff got some nice shots.
http://picasaweb.google.com/heisssenberg/Autocross718 (picasaweb.google.com/heisssenberg/Autocross718)
As for AutoX, I didn't stick around for the results at the end of the day. I am guessing that our 3 Fits prolly ended up somewhere in the bottom 10 of approximately 150 entries. We all scored similar times within a second or so. Our cars just don't have the power that the other drivers seem to enjoy. Due to car problems, Ivan started out with times slower than the Fits, but finished the day a good 2-3 seconds faster than anything the rest of us could do. Later in the day, Ivan took Jeff out for several "fun runs." Just for fun, when he's feeling better... ask Jeff if Ivan can drive! :)
After our run (the first run group) we had to work the track for the second run group. We picked up cones for ~1.5 hours.
When we were done, Ivan and Tamara fired up the BBQ pit and we all munched on Top Sirloin Steaks and Hot Links. We stayed to watch the "Monster Machines" of run group 3. Wow, you could literally feel the "Horsepower" in the air! Those big blocks can really move!
Check this out, I witnessed one pilot's first run. Keep in mind that his tires weren't at temperature yet. I saw his V8 powered Austin Healey 3000 "fishtail" out of the starting blocks. He proceeded to spinout on the first turn. Then halfway through the course, he spun again, but this time he stalled the engine. He quickly fires it back up, gets his car pointed in the right direction, and completes the run. Dang it! When he crossed the finish line, he still beat my best time by 5 seconds!
Just to give you an idea of how fast some of these guys were, the best time that I happened to see was 51 seconds plus. My best time was only 66.088 seconds. As fast as I thought I was going, I can't imagine how anyone could do that same course 15 seconds faster! It made me think, "If I was a "passenger" in that Healey, would I even be able to "ride" that fast!"
This was such a successful meet, we should try to make this an Annual Event.
later,
-macbuddy-
Rich, Blake, Ivan and I sign up to run. Jeff decides to be a spectator. On the grid, we have Ivan in the CRX. Ooh...Blake is looking real serious. Rich is ready as always. Ron decides to ride instead of drive. He says that he will be satisfied to experience the sport as my passenger.
To document this event, I gave Ron one of my camcorders. I was curious to see what his eyes saw at the event. I used my other camcorder as a car cam. It turns out that I filled the entire card with 3 full runs, I had nothing left to take still shots. When I got home to check what Ron had taken, I found 8 blurry pictures and an exhausted battery. Ugh! My buddy must have left the camcorder powered on all day! Luckily Jeff got some nice shots.
http://picasaweb.google.com/heisssenberg/Autocross718 (picasaweb.google.com/heisssenberg/Autocross718)
As for AutoX, I didn't stick around for the results at the end of the day. I am guessing that our 3 Fits prolly ended up somewhere in the bottom 10 of approximately 150 entries. We all scored similar times within a second or so. Our cars just don't have the power that the other drivers seem to enjoy. Due to car problems, Ivan started out with times slower than the Fits, but finished the day a good 2-3 seconds faster than anything the rest of us could do. Later in the day, Ivan took Jeff out for several "fun runs." Just for fun, when he's feeling better... ask Jeff if Ivan can drive! :)
After our run (the first run group) we had to work the track for the second run group. We picked up cones for ~1.5 hours.
When we were done, Ivan and Tamara fired up the BBQ pit and we all munched on Top Sirloin Steaks and Hot Links. We stayed to watch the "Monster Machines" of run group 3. Wow, you could literally feel the "Horsepower" in the air! Those big blocks can really move!
Check this out, I witnessed one pilot's first run. Keep in mind that his tires weren't at temperature yet. I saw his V8 powered Austin Healey 3000 "fishtail" out of the starting blocks. He proceeded to spinout on the first turn. Then halfway through the course, he spun again, but this time he stalled the engine. He quickly fires it back up, gets his car pointed in the right direction, and completes the run. Dang it! When he crossed the finish line, he still beat my best time by 5 seconds!
Just to give you an idea of how fast some of these guys were, the best time that I happened to see was 51 seconds plus. My best time was only 66.088 seconds. As fast as I thought I was going, I can't imagine how anyone could do that same course 15 seconds faster! It made me think, "If I was a "passenger" in that Healey, would I even be able to "ride" that fast!"
This was such a successful meet, we should try to make this an Annual Event.
later,
-macbuddy-