Autocross and Road Course Racing - First autocross

Hey guys, I'm going to my first autocross april 22nd. I don't know if yall have heard of spokes, but its a texas autocrossing group and they're coming to a stadium parking lot like 5 min. from where I live on the22nd. Best part is, the price for a non member is only 25 bucks. I'm so pumped:D. Anyways, give any advice if you have it! later guys.

awesome. is this a private club event? i highly suggest having an instructor ride along with u every run...maybe even let him/her drive ur car just to show u how fast it really is. make sure battery tie down is tight, lug nuts are on tight, tire pressure is good, any loose items out of the car are out, all the fluids are at correct level, and floor mats are out...

Thanks for all the tips...i think i may have my dad run with me, cuz he does racing with scca in a spec racer ford and his been top of a few autocross classes back when he had a corvette z51and other cars in the late 80's.

that's a good price. have fun!!

also check your throttle cable, make sure it is nice and snug....check tire pressure too, exp if you are on poopy street tires....

and dude, when you actually get out on the track, if you arent hearing tire squeling then you arent going fast enough....lol

ORIGINAL: civicexracer

awesome. is this a private club event? i highly suggest having an instructor ride along with u every run...maybe even let him/her drive ur car just to show u how fast it really is. make sure battery tie down is tight, lug nuts are on tight, tire pressure is good, any loose items out of the car are out, all the fluids are at correct level, and floor mats are out...


how come floor mats?

part of tech inspection, you need to have all loose items out of the car.

i was gonna ask the same thing about floor mats. good luck though man!i wanna get into this as well...

yeah its a good thing they make you take the matts out.....i dont think you would want them wadded up underneath your brake pedle...

ORIGINAL: BurryTheSpeedo

yeah its a good thing they make you take the matts out.....i dont think you would want them wadded up underneath your brake pedle...


thats why...i kno some come with little clips or w/e but others dont and they will not make exceptions. saftey is the first thing when it comes to events, thats why tech inspection is stressed so much and we have drivers meetings where everyone thats on the event grounds must attend so they know the rules and all the saftey precautions.

the very first thing they always say at our drivers meetings is, "no drifting, this isnt a drift course"....lol

sweet, two of my buddies are coming along as well now. One of them has a modified 87 3series, and the other has an ep3.

im goin to my first autocross event on april 15th in joliet (part of the chicagoland scca circuit) 35 bux for me. im soooooo stoked. let us know how you do mybrokenblinker. bring someone with a video camera n post a video. = D

by the way. does anybody know.. when you go to an autocross event, do they let you run the course before you actuallygo? and do you only get one run or is it like a best time of 2 or 3 kinda thing?

ORIGINAL: badb0ybilly

im goin to my first autocross event on april 15th in joliet (part of the chicagoland scca circuit) 35 bux for me. im soooooo stoked. let us know how you do mybrokenblinker. bring someone with a video camera n post a video. = D

by the way. does anybody know.. when you go to an autocross event, do they let you run the course before you actuallygo? and do you only get one run or is it like a best time of 2 or 3 kinda thing?


everyone walks thru the course before the heats. i highly suggest doing a novice walk thru where they have an instructor(s) walk u thru and tell u where u need to be careful and everything. when walking thru, pay attention, if u dont and this is ur first time out, chances are u'll get lost. i think most regions do atleast 4 runs per person. they'll post up all ur times and they take ur best time out of the 4 when ranking.

i didnt do a novice walk-thru my first time....instead i walked up to an experienced guy and was like, "so what does all of this mean?"

I think what ill do is just basicaly throw out my first run... if you think that ill get 4 runs. Ill take it slow and learn the course real well then. Then push it on the following runs.

The only thing I'm worried about is not spinning out trying to take a corner too fast.. But rolling over. How easy do you guys think it would be to roll a 4 gen gti with stock suspension?? Should I be really careful around the sharp turns or do you think I would just spin out?

One more thing. I'm in the chicago area.. So if anybody races around there we should meet up at one of the scca events. But are helmets required for racing? If they are required.. Is there a chance that I'd be able to rent one at the event? If I couldn't rent.. Where do you think I could find a good inexpensive helmet?

(Sorry for the thread jack and the noob questions. Haha)

give ur first run to an instructor. let them drive ur car and u ride passenger so u can see what he/she does and learn the course better. the instructor run will not count agenst ur 4 runs. u wont roll over, fastest u might get up to on a straight is about 60mph, but u wont be taking a turn that fast...i've seen heavier and a lil more top heavy cars run completely fine. u'll just spin out here and there lol. helmets are required and most regions(atleast around me) offer free loaner helmets. just pick one up before ur run and drop it off after ur run...

I have a helmet so that's cool. I'm so excited, and now it seems Ben might come down and go too which would be even sweeter.

ORIGINAL: civicexracer

give ur first run to an instructor. let them drive ur car



this might not fly in your region, I know it wouldn't here. Our instructors are always competing too, that would be extra runs for them...

but you may be able to get someone else to drive your car at a school, or if you do "fun runs" at the end of the day.

id rather drive it anyway. instead of havin someone else do it. i just dont wanna go out and look like a total fool lol spinnin out on every corner. i think im just gunna pray that i have a late heat so i can watch everyone else n see how they do it. i really wanna take it seriously tho. because as fun as it is.. its somethin i want to get real good at. anybody in the chicagoland area that wants to take me under their wing? haha

WOOHOO my first autox is next weekend.

My first autocross is tomorrow WOOT!

ORIGINAL: mybrokenblinker

My first autocross is tomorrow WOOT!


im racin tomorrow too. gena be a perfect day, weather is gena be great. cant wait to use my camera mount and finally have a nice dry and warmrace lol.

good luck! let us kno how u do.

Will do, good luck to you to, I'm excited for your camera vids as they should be pretty informative to me as a newb.

A pic of the maphttp://www.axwaresystems.com/axorm/files/SPOKES/burger_04_22.jpg

so, how many times you got lost?

Actually none, I ran off once though. It was really wet and I was getting major oversteer in a lot of the wider turns. I have some vids from outside the car that I'll try to get up. There were a few wicked CRX's there and a gsr swapped ek hatch. It was so much fun I can't even describe it. PLUS, I did better than my two friends that came (2 seconds faster than my bud's ep3)

that course looks so..blan i guess, and hardly any cones lol. i got back a lil while ago from my race. dead tired and have literally prolly the worst sunburn i've ever had. ill get my vids up ina lil while, they came out pretty good.

sweet man, I need a camera mount. Trust me the course was not...bland. It was around 70-80 seconds long. It got up to about sixty and down to about 5 or 10 in some tighter areas. And the wet made it a challenge placing the car where you wanted and still being fast.

ORIGINAL: badb0ybilly

The only thing I'm worried about is not spinning out trying to take a corner too fast.. But rolling over. How easy do you guys think it would be to roll a 4 gen gti with stock suspension??



Last time i went to an event, an m3's side wheels did got off the ground but it was no way near of rolling over.

they wont let u race if u car can roll over, in the scca rule book. they wont let u race if the wheelbase is to short and/or the cars center of gravity is to high.