Autocross Results In Depth

Below is a chart of the some of the results from the 84 drivers at the first autocross of the season. This list is just the "Street" categories, all lumped together with their modified PAX times.

The first column is easy enough to read, it's the placings from 1st to 28th place based on PAX time, so you can see the best driving time of each driver ranged from 29.115 seconds to 37.933.  The letter "T" on places 1-6 tells you that if a class has 28 competitors, then normally there will be a trophy awarded down to 6th place. If there had only been 3 drivers, then only 1 person gets a trophy.  Imagine that, like real life, not everyone always gets a trophy!

The second column is just the shorthand version of class of car, rated from A thru H (fastest to slowest), and they all end in "S" for "Street" category.  You can see Brian in 2nd place is in the ES class, and Bob is way down in 5th place in GS.

The third column is car number, and each driver can pick whatever two digit number they want. If you see a three digit car, like the #112 Scion, that tells you that it's a car with two different drivers.  One driver is #12, and the other driver adds a 1 in front of the #12.   Just like last year Brian is #86 and Bob is #77.  For what it's worth, Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas has also picked number 77 this year, so I'm sure he's jumping on the Nixon Motor Sports Bandwagon too!

Next up you can see the driver name, and then the make and model of car.  Lots of Miatas in autocross!

Third column from the end we get the driver's fastest time on the day (out of 6 runs we did last Sunday), and these times here have already been PAX modified.  

The next to last column gives time behind the place just ahead of you, so you can see that Brian in 2nd was just over 1 second down on 1st place, and 0.097 ahead of 3rd place.  Brian also wants you to know that he was 0.442 seconds ahead of Bob, and fastest NMS driver and fastest ES driver on the day. Remember, if you can back it up, it's not bragging!

Last column is total time behind the class winner.

So what does all this mean?  It might mean that the order gives a general idea of how good each car is!  Or it might be a general idea of which driver is faster too! My thoughts are that it's a combination of the two, with the driver part counting for more of the equation. On the other hand, seeing two Focus STs and two Miatas in the top 4 here might also be a good clue that if you are interested in autocross, that these models of car might be a good ride to be in if you want to be competitive.

Of course there are a few other variables, like what tires were used, condition of the car, what modifications allowed in STREET might be on each car, what the driver had for breakfast, what kind of gas was in the car, how hot the day was, and a lot of other variables.

That's what makes this so much fun and keeps you coming back for more: trying to tweak all those variables and hit the perfect autocross run!

'Street Pax' Total Entries: 28
1T	gs	26		Justin Pobinett	Ford Focus ST	29.115	[-]1.077	-
2T	es	86		Brian Nixon	2004 Mazda MS Miata	30.192	+1.077	+1.077
3T	es	26		Tyson Bevirt	1995 Mazda Miata	30.289	+0.097	+1.174
4T	gs	17		Michael Arnold	2014 Ford Focus ST	30.297	+0.008	+1.182
5T	gs	77		Robert Nixon	2013 Fiat 500 Abarth	30.634	+0.337	+1.519
6T	es	89		Kyle Ray-Smith	2001 Mazda Miata	30.746	+0.112	+1.631
7	ds	47		Chris Skidmore	2012 Chevrolet Camaro	31.005	+0.259	+1.890
8	es	93		Schuyler Hidde	2000 Mazda Miata	31.050	+0.045	+1.935
9	hs	12		Kelly Mezzapelle	2007 Scion tC	31.066	+0.016	+1.951
10	ds	24		Nate Lehmann	chevy camaro	31.078	+0.012	+1.963
11	cs	77		Bret Lucarelli	2003 Nissan 350Z	31.120	+0.042	+2.005
12	es	11		Randall Smith	Toyota MR2	31.182	+0.062	+2.067
13	cs	27		Garick Black	2013 Toyota GT-86	31.198	+0.016	+2.083
14	fs	11		James Flesher	Dodge Challenger	31.620	+0.422	+2.505
15	es	17		Zachary Smith	Mazda Rx7	31.772	+0.152	+2.657
16	es	126		Andrea Harris	miata	31.842	+0.070	+2.727
17	gs	7		Terry McClure	Volks Scirocco	31.845	+0.003	+2.730
18	ds	12		Cody Carter	Camaro	32.037	+0.192	+2.922
19	hs	112		Thom Mezzapelle	2007 Scion tC	32.521	+0.484	+3.406
20	cs	18		Michael Adams	Scion FRS	32.637	+0.116	+3.522
21	bs	35		Regina Ward	2007 BMW Z4	32.758	+0.121	+3.643
22	fs	13		Derrike Black	2007 Ford Mustang GT	33.199	+0.441	+4.084
23	cs	17		Christopher Knight	Scion FRS	34.745	+1.546	+5.630
24	fs	21		Jerry Chrstopher	Olds Holiday 88	35.320	+0.575	+6.205
25	str	27		Dan Christopher	Mazda MX5	35.641	+0.321	+6.526
26	gs	46		Robbie Solesbee	2004 Ford Mustang	36.214	+0.573	+7.099
27	hs	69		Robert Smeby	Mitsubishi Mirage	36.579	+0.365	+7.464
28	bs	4		Clara Knight	Honda S2000	37.933	+1.354	+8.818

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Autocross #1 for 2014

Yesterday we drove in the first autocross event of the season, so ya-hoooo!  This event was a non-points event, meaning it doesn't count for the season long South Carolina Region standings.  With that in mind, it was a great day to get back in the swing of things behind the wheel, maybe try some different approaches on the course, and not worry about any competition.  We had really great weather, which ranged from chilly and needing a sweatshirt at registration time (8am-ish), t-shirt warm before lunch, and believe it or not back to the extra layer when it got a bit chilly and cloudy running til around 5pm.

Brian and I were both in the first of three driving groups, so while we lost the opportunity to watch other drivers and steal all their secrets or at least see how others drove the course first, we got right into driving!  It was a fun and small course, with basically most of the course done twice, which included a big long sweeping turn with lots of room to get on the gas before braking hard and trying to carry speed thru a corner. This one spot is probably where I could have done way better, and later in the day once I watched a lot of other drivers nail it a bit differently than me, I was slapping my head and thinking I'd really missed a chance to gain more time there. But learning by doing, observing others, and getting better for the next go round are what it's all about.

Thanks to the electronic timing and quick posting of results from our region, let's take a look at how we did, and once again thank the South Carolina Region of the Sports Car Club of America for putting on a well organized safe event.

Big picture wise, there were 84 drivers that recorded times, and each driver got six runs around the course, so that was very nice to get in that much practice. Some events we've seen as little as 3 or 4 runs, so 6 was great.  Without looking at classes of cars (horsepower and other factors), Brian out-drove me and placed 23rd out of the 84 drivers, while I was in 36th.  That put both of us in the top half, so depending on your outlook, that's either not winning, or, not bad for being second year drivers.

Once we factor in the adjusted time, the "PAX" time that helps those of us in stock classes, we did even better. With the PAX times, Brian was overall 10th out of 84, and that is just outstanding!  My time was 19th, so I'm happy about that, although Brian is still faster than me somehow no matter how you add it up!

Now let's get down to what class we are both in, which in our region this year includes all flavors of Street. Going from fastest cars to slowest, the Street PAX class that we will be competing in includes 7 classes from A Street (AS) thru H Street (HS), with Brian in E Street (ES) and me in G Street (GS). In other words, my GS car is rated slower than Brian's ES car, so he should beat my regular or raw time, but once we multiply by the appropriate PAX index number, then we are competing on equal footing, so...

...out of 28 Street drivers, Brian finished with the 2nd best time, and I was 5th.  In the top six places our competitors included two of the new Ford Focus STs and two other Miatas. Rounding out the other 22 cars in Street were a couple of Camaros, two Scion tc, a Nissan 350Z, a Toyota MR2, a few Subaru FRS, a Dodge Challenger, a Mazda RX-7, an older VW Scirocco, a BMW Z4, two Ford Mustangs, a Mitsubishi Mirage, a Honda S2000, and an Oldsmobile 88.  Quite a range of cars, and again, with the PAX system we can compare our times.

Those are the highlights, and more than anything we had fun.  Probably the most common car model at autocross events is the Miata, but as you can see from the small list above, just about any kind of car can enter, and we encourage anyone interested to check it out and join the rest of the car folks.

You won't regret it!