BMC Autocross II Results, Analysis
Yesterday BMC published the official results for their second event of the 2020 season. There were 84 drivers overall, with six drivers in the CS class. Yours truly placed 33rd overall (PAX), and 5th in CS.
The CS time spread was about 3s, from a 37.269s (good for 6th PAX) to a 40.228s (44th PAX). My time was 39.705s, about half a second ahead of 6th place, and 2.5s behind 1st (#123 2000 Boxster S, driven by Richard Newman, you've seen his drive here). During grid I had a short conversation with Richard, where he was genuinely trying to help me improve my time. He gave me some excellent advice, which I was a bit too eager in executing (that conversation took place between runs 5 and 6, and run 6 was my death-to-all-cones run), but the fault there lies entirely on me.
Behind me was my nemesis Nick Kirk, driver of #54 2015 MX-5. Our relative positions have been the same between the events, but our times have gotten closer (I heard through the grapevine that Nick installed a new front sway bar, so that may have helped). But with only two events we can't call it a trend yet.
So, where's my progress? After Autocross I I was thinking my tire upgrade had help me improve a lot, being 18th PAX. Now I seem to have fallen back to 33rd!
Let's get one thing out of the way: I need to get better. That's number one. There is a mental place that I need to reach that will allow me to make better use of my first run, for example. In every single one of my four events I've DNFd my first run (i.e., failed to go through all the gates). At every event, even last season, I was telling myself to use the first run to analyze the course, and help retain the course in memory; to take it easy, and focus on completing the lap. Then I get to the start box and amid the gas fumes my brain goes like "Why waste a run going slow? You just walked the track! You'll be fine, just SEND IT!!!1" And then I proceed to waste a run. Every time. This needs to be rectified.
Number two, car confidence. Watching my videos and keeping an ear to the soundtrack I can tell that I was lifting when I didn't need to. Braking has also been a mixed bag; I might need to practice hard braking, and make sure I'm engaging the ABS every time. I honestly can't remember if that happened on course, and I think I need some (safe) backroad experimentation to confirm. But I recall moments where I thought the behavior under braking felt a bit soft, so I intend to replace fluids and pads with higher performance items. This will happen before BMC III. Another improvement that may happen before BMC III, if I have the time, will probably be a more aggressive alignment. More camber will probably help. There's a side of me that wants to make sure I extract the most out of the car I have now, before trying to improve it. That would be reasonable, but I also want to be faster now. You already know which side will win.
Number three, course layout. This is a tricky one. The courses were definitely different in feel, with this one feeling faster that the one in BMC I. The faster bits felt more technical in II, and the slower bits felt more technical in I. But it's really tricky for me to tell for sure. I'd love to have a good data logger to analyze things like Gs, braking points, braking effort, etc.2 But I don't have one, so my assessment could be like that of a fish who thinks he's slow but gets there faster because he is swimming with the current. Or something (I wish I had an editor). The point here is that, some courses will suit some drivers (and cars) better.
In my conversation with Mr. Newman in grid, he asked how many events I had under my belt. I said "a few, this is my fourth one." He suppressed a laugh, shook his head a bit, and mentioned something about how he's been at it for several years, and four events is not exactly a lot. It's important to understand getting to the point of placing top 10 in an event might take some time. But it's also good to have a strategy. Here's my short-term plan for BMC III: Get over the first run DNF, add a few handling improvements, do some braking practice, and have luck. Piece of cake.
1 Sometimes, instead of a little Ricciardo devil I get a little Clarkson devil, and it goes like "Pooowaaaaaa!!!" The effects are usually the same.
2 "I thought this was seat of your pants racing, pal!" I hear you say. Well, if you consult the Clueless Racer Handbook, the definition of seat of pants is thus: "Acting even if not entirely prepared." This doesn't mean you shouldn't seek to be prepared, just that sometimes you need to take that first step even if you're not sure about how it's going to go.