Last week I was at an autocross event sponsored by the Philadelphia Region SCCA. It was the 7th event in their 2020 Summer Series, and it took place at the Warminster Community Park, near Philadelphia. As you may know, all my previous events have been with the Brandywine Motorsports Club, at the Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, MD. But some time last month Nick Kirk (aka, The Nemesis) texted me with an invitation to check out the SCCA series.

For a while before this I had been debating whether I had the time and energy to do an event outside of the BMC series. Autocross is an all-day affair at this level (higher level events can run for multiple days). You get there early, help out as needed, get set up, do your runs, do your work assignment, and usually help tear down. I decided to register because, first, trying something new is always better with a buddy; and second, I felt that a new venue would give me new opportunities to learn new stuff.

The SCCA's was a very different venue than BMC's at the Ripken Stadium's parking lot. While the BMC's work area is basically a rectangle, with the course usually weaving in complex ways through the area, Warminster Park is an old airstrip. The course was a two-leg affair, forward on the right-hand side of the runway, and back on the other side. Very long in comparison with BMC's courses, the average speed was high, with the single tight, slow speed, turn-around-and-come-back turn at the end. The gates were much further apart than what I had been used to at Ripken, which turned out to be a good thing for me.

This was a course that I felt was beginner-friendly, mostly due to the spaced-out gates, which gave me plenty of time to look ahead and be prepared for what was next. There was nothing really tricky to follow, layout-wise. It was also a fun course, due to the higher speed segments. All this allowed me to have a few breakthroughs:

  • This was the first event that I did not DNF the first run! It was a really, really slow first run, at 52.6s, a ridiculously 25% or so slower than the second run, but that's OK. This was a mental breakthrough, more than anything else: Look ahead, find the gates, don't DNF. Achievement unlocked.
  • I was steadily improving my time from run to run. This really felt great (another mental breakthrough). Gradual improvement is a good milestone for a beginner, where driving on the limit during the initial couple runs are more likely to lead to DNFs than to a decent time on the board, at least for me.

There were also some problems with the venue, in my opinion. The runway was wide enough, but it wasn't very difficult to lose control and end up on the sides, where the grass can behave like an ice-skating ring. There were indeed a couple of "runway excursions," luckily with no serious consequences.

Another problem was that it didn't feel very safe working the course, at least at my assigned station. There was so much ground to cover that I had to really hustle to get to a gate and fix the cones in time for the next runner. I actually failed at that once, and the driver aborted his run because he felt I was too close. And I think he was right.

Also, the high speed and consequently high-speed transitions led to fast loss-of-control events. As a worker you really had to be aware of the runners, and keep in mind not only where the runners were, but their likely runaway paths, should they lose it. I'm not sure how many of the workers were attentive to that.

My best run, run #4 of seven. 40.958s, good for 4th out of 4 in CS class, and PAX 47 out of, well, not sure. I believe there were 100 drivers registered, but there's always no-shows. Nick found some serious speed in this course, and did a much better 2nd in class, with a time of 39.947s. You can see his run here.

I almost had my own runway excursion moment as well. It was run five, and it was feeling really good, until it wasn't. Close to the end, where we go through a center gate before the last quick sequence of stay-right, stay-left (twice), zig-zag to finish, I lost the rear and spun. This was made a lot more interesting and exciting than it needed to be because, well, yours truly managed to briefly hit the accelerator instead of the brake. So I added a doughnut to the spin, for effect. If anyone asks, I meant to do that. By the way, yes, time does slow down when you're going off the rails. I had this whole "Well, maybe I should try the brakes now" dialog with myself, in the midst of the all the tire smoke.

Unfortunately, because that's how the universe works, there was exactly one run for which I forgot to run the cameras. And, you guessed it, it was run #5. The only evidence of this having ever happened that I am aware of is Nick's run video (which was red-flagged due to some moron doing a full spin on track).

That's me in that little cloud of smoke to the left. There's unfortunately (or fortunately) no direct video evidence of my spin. Picture courtesy of Nick Kirk (go checkout his youtube channel).
Top left: View from the paddock. This was a looong venue. Top right: More paddock. Bottom left: Nick in his #54 miata next to my #454 miata (the grid workers must love us). Bottom right: This poor Audi TT's control arms could not cope with the high-camber angles and super sticky tires, and gave up on course. The event was stopped for over 30 minutes while it was rescued from track. I hope we'll see it back on track soon, this is a mean-looking machine.

Overall this was a really good event, and I feel that I added a good deal to my mental toolbox in the end. I wouldn't say I learned a lot of new things, but I feel more confident in the things I'd already known. I did get to practice "looking ahead," where you are trying to mind the gate further down the course, instead of simply the next one. I forced myself to slow down on my first run and learn the course, which was psychologically important to me, especially given my prior event. All in all, this was a mental milestone and a way of practicing what I have learned in my prior five events.