9/10 Autocross @ Xerox (Rochester)

This autocross (my third this season / ever) was with the Finger Lakes SCCA club, at a parking lot at a Xerox (yes, the photocopying company) compound in Rochester, NY. This group puts on, dare I say, a very polished and well-run event, at least compared to Mo-Hud. I was able to pre-register online weeks before the event, they have a program in place to help novice drivers (including their own class), and everyone got five runs in, despite there being more than 120 cars. I pulled out of Rochester at 4pm. Tight.

Halfway through, someone even hit one of the timing sensors at the finish line. They were able to replace the sensor and get the event back up and running in fifteen or twenty minutes.

As for how I did? Well, like the last two, I feel mixed. My runs were clean for the most part, I ran good lines mostly, and my times steadily improved. I placed #13 in novice class, PAX-adjusted, out of a field of 23. (If I had stuck with G-Stock, I would have placed 2nd out of four…)

Times:
51.843
51.371
50.22
49.9
48.623

The fastest time of the day (FTD) was 40.398. Overall, in raw time, I was #82 out of 124 drivers. The general impression I got this time around, is that I just need to push my car harder. I need to brake much later into the turns, and I need to get on the gas more progressively and sooner. I wasn’t running any of the slaloms as fast as I could, and there were two corners that got me probably three out of five runs. Still, there was improvement, and by the time the day was over, I was content with that 48.6.

Another neat thing about this SCCA chapter, is that they have a dedicated guy taking pictures of every car. Of course, they don’t focus on people who aren’t regulars (and who aren’t likely to even know about this perk), but they got the MINI going around one corner. I re-uploaded the photos onto my flickr:

Notice a few things. First, that astonishing amount of body roll on my MINI. I was totally overcooking this corner, and ploughed pretty bad in this shot (although my line was OK), but jeez. Secondly, the instructor riding shotgun. Finger Lakes SCCA requires those in the novice class to have an instructor riding shotgun for at least the first two runs. He was sort of helpful, with a few tips, but also obstructed my view of the upcoming course around some of the curves. Plus just unnecessary weight.

Anyways, it was fun regardless, and I think I might go to another event this weekend. There’s no such thing as too much seat time.