It was partly cloudy with the temperature was about 80 degrees. It was a perfect day to be autocrossing, but even better since today’s autocross was to be held on a road race track.
The best thing is that I was very lucky to even have my car back after an electronic bug that had the dealership poking and prodding at my car for almost three solid days. I got it back in time and was ready for the event.
I did not receive the Cobb front sway bar that I had ordered until two days after the event, so I ran the event stock as I have been for a while, and have been doing well with so far.
Our group arrived at the track around 8am, which gave us plenty of time to get unpacked, set up, and get some seats for the heats where we all could sit and enjoy the other competitors.
Our group included my girlfriend, one of her friends, my cousin and two of my buddies, one of which was also racing his 06’ Mazda Speed6 in the STU class, which I look forward to racing against in the STU class in a few weeks after I get a rear sway bar and some strut tower braces on my car.
After walking the track and deciding on what would be the best line, we headed up to the back of the “Fun Mover” (also known as the timing truck) for the drivers meeting. Since this was a road race track, the safety part of the meeting was a little longer than normal, and we go to see a piece of a Corvette fender that came off at another autocross event that was held at Waterford Hills. So after the meeting we all got our run and work heat information, I was to run heat 1 and work heat 3, and I got my car to the grid and waited eagerly for the fun to begin.
My first run was very good for my class, I had a good first lap that put me into second place with a time of 75.868, I was behind first (#11 06’ STi) by 3.428, while ahead of third (#4 03’ S2000) by 2.899. I was happy with my start. Yet after my first run things at the track got interesting, and a VW in the Street Mod class lost it in the slalom in the back straight and went into the wall, so this slowed things down for a little bit.
Now when the track got cleared, things started off again. I was bumped out of second into third by a 05’ STi whom pulled ahead of me with a time of 73.185 over my 73.516, a difference of 0.332. First was still the 06’ STi with 70.605. Yet again we had some interesting action on the track. A 06’ Solstice spun out and hit the tires and a guard rail, which slowed things down again, but throughout the rest of the day the Solstice still ran two more heats and ran well.
My third run still was not enough to secure a trophy spot, yet again I was third, with a time of 72.146, a gap of 0.191 between me and a trophy position. Second was the 05’ STi with 71.955, and the 06’ STi with his second run being his best at 70.605, took first. None the less the STi’s took the top three spots in the class over the S2000 and the 93 Corvette.
