Had a great time Sunday - Good to meet you. I listened to your tips and hey...knocked a few seconds off my time. Watch for me in your rear view mirror...I am coming! Thanks again - had a great time. Great to meet you and all the other subie pilots!
Thanks Peter, she's dirty and has battle scars from my 1st run with Brandon as co-pilot where some cones decided life wasn't worth living. Don't worry John, everyone does bad their 1st time (at least that's what the other guys told me to tell you). It's actually nothing like other styles of racing, even people great on a track have to adapt to navigating precisely through a sea of cones. Thanks on the driving, I've worked hard and this is only my 2nd full season of driving, so it's cool to be 1st overall for STU. I actually got 11th place overall (PAX Time - times adjusted for class and car) at the event before last and I think I did even better this time. It's a challanging sport, but that's what makes it so much fun.
I almost came out my self. I had a wedding I had to attend to on Saturday, and on Sunday I woke up around 7pm lol. lets just say that there was a open bar.
Well at least you had a good excuse to not make it. You'll have to come out to the next event. It'd be great to get an even bigger showing. Thanks Jason, I know you hated to see it go, but man does it look good on my car. I decided to just paint the trunk and keep the wing original since it looks black. I'd love to see what that sick machine of yours would do on one of our courses sometime.
I've been very interested in doing this. How do I get started? What kind of costs are there? Helmet? Restrictions on mods? etc
Am I still able to register, or do you have to register before the season starts? I'll try and make it to the one in August. Mind giving me some pointers?
Sure can...rp1 will post on here once registration is open for any event Two hands on the wheel and look ahead...:rofl:
My bad Rick, I was trying to reply to multiple people and mixed up the names for a sec. Yeah, I was talking about your insane machine, it looked like it was percise enough to dodge some cones.
As for suggestions, I'll paste a post I made about a year ago on SoloAtlanta.com, but is still relevant now. I'll include the link since it includes some good tips from other poeple. I'd also check out the stickies at the beginning of this section since they have some good tips. http://forum.soloatlanta.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1941 "I have to say I really admire how much you've dedicated to going faster. We started the same event last year as novices and I've seen you out there working hard, going to events and posting in forums (even while getting beaten up) non-stop. You've come a long way from the guy who showed up that day, good job. I just want to echo some of the points made on here and make a few more since I certainly can’t call myself a pro or experienced by any means, but think I've also come a long way since that day we were crazy excited about going out on course for the first time. These are just a few of the main thnigs that have helped me so far. - Everything that is being said about driving the same car on the same settings (besides tire pressure) is so true. I ran last year with the same setup, changed setups before the season and have kept it the same since. By having the same platform that will always do the same thing, I can test peoples suggestions one at a time and see if those suggestions are what's helping. It helps to have different people ride with you to give you different advise. I learned a lot from Tim Smith, but learned different things from people like Jay. - Roberto reached out to me and has been that great voice of reason since the beginning giving me amazing advise. One of the best things he told me to do was find the best driver in my class / platform (which he said was Jay) and get them to ride along, coach and mentor you. By having Jay (and AJ) ride with me, coach me and drive my car (I never knew it could drift like that till AJ) I have learned my car and my personal potential and what I need to work on. I have been 1st in STU for 2 events now and was one of only a few non-pro people to break the 40's this last event. - One of the biggest things I had to realize and learn is how much this is a mental game. It wasn't until I decided that I'm not trying to win, but have fun and focus on learning, that I started really improving. I think one thing you need to do is tell yourself this is only a learning season, co-drive different types of cars or something to get out of the mindset that your goal is winning your class. At a Porsche Club Autocross training (my friend and his father run the program) they told me to take the stress out of competing and focus on 1-2 things you need to improve on each event like looking ahead, hand and feet placement, setting breaking / apex cones, etc... I would tell myself "this is only practice and this run (or today for harder things) I'm going to keep my hands at 3 & 9 on the wheel". It may take longer, but I believe it’s completely changed my driving. - I’ve also been focused on finding out what the best do. I’ve read forums, articles, books (I recommend Speed Secrets Autocross Techniques), Sportscar magazine and anything I can get my hands on to give me a look at possible ways to improve. I’m making a checklist sheet of things to work on this season to review before events (like calm down before runs, drive the course in my head in grid, name each section and focus on key areas of each for your mind to break down while driving, etc…). - Ok, last thing since again, I’m no expert and feel like I’m teaching a class. I kept seeing in most articles and books that many said the biggest thing was course planning. I used to just walk a couple times and go out there with a general idea of what I wanted to do. I read that the best drivers can walk and plan the course where they know every inch. They say that they can take a stopwatch and some of the best are only 10ths of a second off from racing in their head and racing on course. I now walk the course with an expert in my car / class before the race. I learned more from Brian Bell this last event about how to handle and manipulate my car through braking, shifting weight and how and where to throttle than I may have learned with all my seat time. I now draw out a map of the course and mark my racing line, points to focus, where to brake and where to hit the throttle and notes about what to do. Here is an example of the one I drew for the last event (all from memory while sitting in my car). The notes were made both before and during runs as I figured out and adapted my course strategy. Hope any of this helps you on your journey to driving perfection. Keep giving your all and pushing yourself to do better. Best of luck and if I can help in anyway let me know."
Also forgot to mention that Atlanta Region SCCA (ARSCCA) has just made a few videos our our Youtube site that everyone should watch. I'll post another seperate post in the main forum section for everyone, but thought I'd add them here first. ARSCCA Novice Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmEAbOiDnRU&feature=related ARSCCA "Just the Tip" Video Series - Pro Tips with Paul Barros (some may recognize that name since Chris and Eric Barros (brother and cousin to Paul) race an STi in STU class) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqkMmRPqC9k I'm also including my favorite AutoX video that does an amazing job of explaining what AutoX is by the San Diago Region. http://www.vimeo.com/12067348 Enjoy!