Anatomy of an Autocross

Let's just take a look at our last autocross results from May 10th at Darlington. Here's the run times from all six runs in the E Street, F Street, and G Street categories.  All drivers get the same number of runs, but only the fastest one counts.  Kind of like how I golf: it takes me over 100 strokes to play a round, but as long as ONE of them is good, then I'm a happy camper and want to go back and do it all again!

ES – ‘E Street’ Entries: 7 Trophies: 3									Times 1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Diff.
1T			Tyson Bevirt			1995 Mazda Miata			38.185 +1	38.517	37.311	39.532 +dnf	38.771 +2	38.860	37.311	-0.389
2T			Kyle Ray-Smith			2001 Mazda Miata			38.465	37.841	38.218 +2	37.093 +1	37.273 +dnf	37.700	37.700	+0.389
3T			Brian Nixon			2004 Mazda MS Miata			46.034 +dnf	39.694	39.108 +2	38.901 +1	39.735	39.408	39.408	+1.708
4			Kyle DeGennaro			2002 Mazda Miata LS			41.025 +1	41.267	41.417 +2	52.410 +2	40.046 +1	40.438	40.438	+1.030
5			Andrea Harris			95 miata			43.604 +dnf	42.279	44.187	42.919 +1	41.017	40.840 +1	41.017	+0.579
6			Zachary Smith			1988 Mazda RX7			48.739	43.329	43.388	42.455	42.118	42.115	42.115	+1.098
7			Josh Cooper			1997 Mazda Miata			51.213	47.520	44.479	43.725	44.113	43.573	43.573	+1.458
FS – ‘F Street’ – Total Entries: 1									Times 1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Diff.
1		13		Derrike Black			2007 Ford Mustang GT		39.529+dnf	42.799	54.084+dnf	41.487	42.445	41.087+1	41.487	-
GS – ‘G Street’ – Total Entries: 4 Trophies: 2									Times 1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Diff.
1T			Michael Arnold		2014 Ford Focus ST				40.546 +1	40.032 +1	39.698 +1	40.287	38.698	38.621	38.621	-2.122
2T			Robert Nixon		2013 Fiat  Abarth				40.575 +dnf	41.689 +2	42.513	42.363	40.809	40.743	40.743	+2.122
3			Jonathan Clark		1999 Lexus GS300				45.733 +dnf	44.221 +1	42.868	43.446 +2	43.117 +2	43.903	42.868	+2.125
4			Robbie Solesbee		2004 Ford Mustang				43.138 +3	45.087 +dnf	42.957 +1	45.103 +2	43.966	44.259 +1	43.966	+1.098

Brian started with a DNF (did not finish), then on run 2 posted a 39.694, and by the final drive on run 6 nailed his fastest time of the day at 39.408.  He ended up 1.7 out of 2nd place, and over a second ahead of 4th place.

Getting faster thru progressive drives always makes my day, since besides the times getting faster it shows that the driver is maintaining or increasing the concentration needed to keep going fast. In other words, I think if I learn from each run on where I can pick up speed, and pay attention, then I'm way more likely to keep going faster the more I drive the same course. 

One other note on Brian's 3rd place is that since his class had 7 drivers, then the top three take a trophy, so it's always good to be up there near the top, whether it's in Victory Lane at the Indy500 or on the podium at Monaco in Formula 1.  Or in this case, in the top three!

I included the one driver in F Street, just so you could see his best time compared to the faster ES cars and the slower GS cars.  

OK, down in G Street, Robert ends up in 2nd place, and without complaining I will point out that I was the very first driver on the course in the morning, so if I WAS going to use any excuses for a DNF right off the bat, I'd point out that the course was still a little slippery from sand and debris that would later get pushed out of the way by hundreds of runs.  Anyway...first two runs not so good with a DNF and hitting two cones (+2) on run two, so run three was clean at 42.513.  Well off of Brian's pace in the Miata, and about a second behind the Focus in my class. After that I kept dropping time and ended with a best time of 40.743, so depending on what you compare that with it's either slow, OK, or not bad!  For GS on this day it was good for 2nd out of 4 drivers, but two full seconds out of first, so not so good. On the other hand, two full seconds ahead of 3rd place, but also about 1.3 behind Brian, so he's beaten me again!  My time was faster than the one FS car, and a few of the ES cars also, so maybe overall not too bad. For me, mostly I felt good to improve even in the last run!