Zoom Zoom Live Results

[volksdragon]

Saturday                                    Sunday
JEFFREY S 35.218 sec            NOA S 36.177 sec
TOM M 36.507 sec                  STAN D 36.307 sec
SYED Z 36.540 sec                  "Scirocco" 36.347 sec
JUSTIN L 36.608 sec               ROBERT L 36.581 sec
ROBERT L 36.847 sec             ED R 36.772 sec
HAYDN T 36.957 sec              BORIS B 36.992 sec
DENNIS F 36.971 sec             BRUCE R 36.993 sec
DAVID S 37.064 sec                SCOTT F 37.132 sec
LESTER S 37.093 sec              RYAN P 37.300 sec
JOSH M 37.097 sec                 ADAM P 37.326 sec


Yeah, that Scirocco was me.  Darn, I really thought I was fast enough for first for the day.  Still, 3rd for the day, and 4th fastest for the entire weekend event, yeah, I'm pleased with that!  There really WAS more time out there on the course, but I couldn't find it by the second run.  Hey, I'm happy. :)

And here's a LINK to my really big picture of my "concentration face" on my third-place run.  It's big, 600+k in size.

Comments

[solcita.livejournal.com]

Looking very sharp!

w00t!

[kiteflier98.livejournal.com]

Looking gooooood! Congratulations!

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous picture!

(and the car ain't bad either :P)

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

schnazzy!

So how did you get into this crazy sport?

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

How did I get into autocross. Lemme see if I can remember. I know I KNEW about it back in the mid 1990's. I THINK my buddy Eric mentioned it to me, as he was into fast driving like I was, although he likes to do Rally rather than Autocross. I took a Skip Barber driving course in... 1998, I think, which is a great introduction not only to automobile safety while driving, but also some of the more competitive aspects of driving, and finished first in that class. I'd always been into driving games and simulators, and you can learn a LOT of car control skills from the really good Simulators, like Gran Turismo and ones like that. (As a side note, I learned how to drive manual transmission cars from an old arcade game called Hard Drivin' that had TERRIBLE graphics, but a very realistic control system)

After that, it was just trying to find a way to afford autocross, because it's not terribly expensive, but I really had no money to be able to afford even a basic car and supplies.

In the meantime, I attended a few road races with some people I knew who raced, and paid attention to the cars and the skills needed. You can safely practice skills needed for autocross while driving every day, without endangering anyones' lives, and I'd do that as well.

Two years ago, my buddy Charlie and I saw an anime series called Initial D, which is all about teenagers in Japan who do what's known as drift-racing on the mountains around Japan. It's a fictionalized series about a real phenomenon, and it captured Charlie's attention enough to get him into autocross. He wanted to organize a team, and when I couldn't cough up a car for myself, he generously offered to let me drive his car in return for a share of some costs (which I still owe him for this year, eek.) Last year, we were novices in our class, and I ended up 2nd overall for the year, losing out first place by ONE LOUSY POINT. Yeah, I'm not bitter. :) It also got me really into the whole autocross culture, and I started learning how to RUN an autocross event, and while it's a lot of work, it can also be a lot of fun. A lot of autocross is the fun and camaraderie of your fellow competitors, and jawing it up before and after the runs, and our region has a lot of really cool people I've gotten to know and really like. It's really at the point where even if I didn't have a car to drive, I'd go just to be there and help run the events.

So, yeah, that's how I got to autocrossing.

All you really need to do is read a few pages of info, and show up with a car, or a friend willing to let you abuse their car. :)

[gala.livejournal.com]

Bummer! Neither my nor Hoo's pictures were captured. They were probably on the camera that got run over.

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

That's odd, since the pictures were all digital, AFAIK. You should email them and say, HEY, WTF, man!!!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

That is one hawt picture.

Coooool

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

Love the picture, dude. Do you have peeps taking photos during your autocross weekends?

Re: Coooool

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

We get random people that take pics of the cars, but
A: They can't get this close
B: They don't have Hi-Def digital cameras
C: I don't necessarily know them
D: I'm not usually driving such a cool car, nor doing this well. :)