The Start of the Addiction

[Ando]

I've connected with my local AutoX club and spectated a practice/just for fun event this weekend. So far it is a really friendly and welcoming group of people. User Mr.Bob on this forum used to race with them but I don't think he does anymore, everyone I talked to was excited to see a FIAT.

The space they use most often is a closed road course used for police training, it has a couple different types of pavement to keep you on your toes and a tiny bit of elevation. It looked like a total blast.

So... what advice would you give a total newb going into AutoX for the first time with an Abarth? Here's the list in my head:

1.) Focus on the nut behind the wheel
2.) Learn good habits, speed will follow
3.) Maybe invest in better tires
4.) Get on the course, practice, practice, practice

Not sure what class I'll be in once out of Novice, I believe piggyback + chassis bracing kicks me out of stock. That's a long ways away regardless.

[Robert Nixon]

Congrats on checking out autocross, you won't regret it!

For the first time you have a great list, although you don't need better tires right away, but they do help!

For the first time driving I think the best thing to do is to have an experienced person ride along to both help you stay on course and pick up some driving tips. Also very helpful, ask if you can ride along when someone else drives, because then you will see live and in person how the better drivers operate. For me that was a big light bulb moment at my first autocross, one of the other guys drove my Abarth and I had no idea that the car could maneuver and brake so quickly. What a blast!

The other things to do are to walk the course, typically most clubs will have a Novice course walk, and that's another way to get tips on how to approach your driving, but mostly to get the course in your head so you stay on course while driving. It looks super easy when you walk it several times, but while driving it comes much quicker, so walk the course.

Make sure you are dressed to be outside all day, so sunscreen, water, food, hat, all go a long way to making it more comfortable, and rain gear if it's going to be wet since autocross goes rain or shine.

I can't wait to hear how you do and!

[Ando]

Thanks for your response Mr Nixon.

My first event was 4/29 and I was soooo slow! Plenty of the novice class had issues with getting lost so I was at least happy to record times. I dropped 9 seconds in my first set of runs but still wasn't pushing hard enough (lifting where people with 400HP cars were flat) and giving the cones waaaay too much respect.

HERE is a video of the fastest time from the day if you want to see the course. I thought it was a lot of fun. This pavement constantly breaks up and is completely covered in tiny gravel pieces, which is a great equalizer. One driver was even running all-seasons on front and winters on the rear (bizarre).

I had a ton of fun though I wish my first event hadn't been a competitive event. I took instructors along for 5 of my 6 runs (there were none available for the first run of the afternoon) and got major kudos for wanting a ride-along on my last run of a session. I wish I had done some ride-alongs myself but didn't want to push my luck with the Minnesota Nice.

I walked the course twice on my own and once with the guided novice tour, but my memory just doesn't work like that and next event I will be sure to sketch out the course on a notepad to study.

Coming up is a practice event where you can take as many runs as possible within a time slot. I've already got a number of people lined up who have volunteered to have me ride-along and a couple who might be interested in driving my car. This is shaping up to be some really great learning. Beyond that I am also signed up for a Novice school where we go through a classroom day, learn about car prep and tuning, and are promised 20ish runs with instructors on the second day! I'm trying to convince my wife to come play with us in her Cooper S.

So that's it... I'm obscenely slow right now, but plenty of opportunity to put the hammer down and get faster coming up in the next month.