The third autocross of the year for the Alabama Region SCCA, my second go round and really the last chance to knock off any lingering rust before heading off to One Lap of America 2025.
The best way to describe my performance was “consistent”. I wasn’t slow, but I also wasn’t fast. It was a mid-pack effort on a beautiful Saturday. The track was fast and flowing with one tricky tight section that I don’t ever feel I got quite right. Those are really the best courses, the ones you work at all day and still want another shot at when the event is over. I think another bit of my pace being what it was is down to the tires (race car driver excuse incoming). The 2023 Falkens with a One Lap, and about a season of Autocross on them were all out of heat cycles to give.
At the end of their life the RT-660s were hugely impressive. They may not be the ultimate in terms of raw grip and performance, but they handled everything I threw at them. I never really felt a massive drop off in performance, and quite frankly, they lasted a lot longer than I expected (granted this was a set of 5 tires, so the abused 4th tire was discarded at the end of One Lap).
My usual pattern at autocross events is to generally improve each run until I get to the point where I’m pushing too hard and end up losing time in the last run or two. That wasn’t the case today. I started at a 45 second run, then a 43, and then a 42. I was pretty pleased with that progress and knowing the temps would rise in the afternoon I thought a 41 was on the table. The day ended up with a bunch of 43 second runs. My best run in the afternoon was probably a 42… maybe a 41… but I screwed in up in the last sweeper. I came on the power too early and too hard and instead of the car pulling out of the corner to the finish, I just plowed straight ahead. Had to got off throttle and collect the car and then drive around a set of cones that I barely acknowledged prior to that run, ended up with a 45 second time.
At lunch break I was actually in a fairly decent position in class and overall. I believe I was 19th overall in raw time. Not making any improvements in the afternoon hurt my overall finishing position. The rest of the field improved and I tumbled down to 39th overall and 9th in class. Ugh.
Driver excuses and tires aside, it was another great event put on by the ALSCCA. They always do a fantastic job and Barber Motorsports Proving Ground is a great facility. At the end of the day, I had a great time and feel slightly better going into One Lap of America 2025.