Wednesday, August 29, 2012

August 26th VMSC Autocross Race Recap

I went back to Virginia this past weekend for a friend's wedding and it happened to coincide with a VMSC autocross in Richmond. The Virginia Motor Sports Club is where I first learned to drive so I was really excited to run my first event with the club in 4+ years and see old friends.

My Dad and I co-drive his STX-class Mini Cooper JCW. This is the same car (same prep too) we ran at the Solo Nationals in 2010 which happened to be the last time I raced it so it was nice to be reacquainted with the quick and quirky Mini Cooper. We started off the day in drying conditions and I ran two low 33s lap times. With Ali riding shotgun on my 3rd run, I dropped to a 32.7s lap and slowly whittled this down to a  a 32.513s lap on my final run. The main change I made to improve the lap was add a quick downshift to 1st in the final corner so I would be in the power-band for the pull through the finish. The 32.5s lap put me in 1st place out of  7 in STX class and 2nd overall in PAX out of 69 drivers - only 0.152 behind a very nice looking CSP Miata.

My Dad had a good showing with a 33.8s fast lap which put him in P2 in STX and 12th in PAX. I had a blast racing with my old club and my family. It was fun to see old friends and I am looking forward to autocrossing with the VMSC again on future trips back home!

Here is in-car video from my fast run:

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