Same, Yet Different

The autocrossing here is quite similar to what I’ve gotten used to over the past few years. Really, it’s not that much different anywhere… Bunch of people, cars of all sorts and a bunch of cones. Good times all around!

It’s different, though, because it isn’t run by the SCCA here. The rules and classes are pretty much the same, and some of the people here even go to the Nationals in the fall. But it’s run and organized by a local motorsports club. Fine by me, really. As long as I get to keep my number and class! (#37 CSPL.)

We’ve Got an “In”

Here, though, it was nice, because we went with some friends. The people we met at the races one Friday night, the ones who are fixing my 240SX, people who autocross too! Go figure, right?

It’s kind of nice, because one of the hardest things for us was leaving all our autocross friends behind. When we started going, we knew absolutely nobody. Over the few years we spent in Arkansas, we went every month like clockwork and slowly made friends. When we left, we were usual fixtures at the events and always had people to see and talk to. (And had begun being good helpers to the new people showing up, my favorite part!)

Basically, I’m super glad we have my 240SX, since we can legitimately hang out with all the Nissan people we seem to get along well with here.

Camera Workout

Naturally, my camera was in tow and due for a good workout. I’m still getting used to drag, but autocross was where I developed my love of car photography, so it feels natural to me.

Once I know where I’m set up for the day, I’ll figure out the best plan of attack for the pictures and where the cars will be coming. After that, it’s a matter of getting my settings right and knowing what I’d like to go for.

I think I will autocross here with this group at least once or twice, there’s a lot more space for the cars and the speeds seem faster. It’ll be good for the Miata to get back out there, plus me… I’ve been on an “off” time for seven/eight months now. (Mostly playing photographer, which I love too but is no real substitute for working on my skills. I know… I’m bad. )

Pictures Are Worth…

Mine aren’t worth much, LOL. While I have myself set up in case anybody asks anymore, it hasn’t gone anywhere.

Not that I was expecting it to, ha. I do get compliments yet, so that’s always good to hear… I don’t mind not being anywhere yet though, because I’m still absolutely working on my skills. (Sadly, it was just the other day that I started messing with manual lens focusing. Bad, I know, right?)

Here are some of my favorites, though, from the day:

My weakness for these cars is well known by now, isn't it?

I think nearly all, if not all, generations of MR2's were present...

Should be obvious that this IS what she does. I was told this is a Nationals car.

I had no idea these little cars existed until we came up here, and now I've seen a few. Our friends run their own NX2000 in autocross, but the day before the clutch on their car went out.

No autocross anywhere is complete without competing Miatas!

These cars were another autocrossing first for me, but they looked great out there!

The Race

Why do I say it’s the greatest race in the world?

You’d just have to watch it, but it’s brutal. Insanely brutal. It’s one thing to go out and race for a few hours. It’s another thing to even run the 12 Hours at Sebring. But it’s a whole other level to run the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

I don’t think it rained this year, did it? I didn’t watch the whole thing! But it usually does rain for part of the race, making it incredibly chaotic when it does.

It also asks a lot from the cars, as well as the teams. This year especially saw many, many cars not finish.

Audi’s Comeback

Last year was a very sad year for me — Audi didn’t win. Peugeot did.

It was then that I realized how much I actually cared about the race… I didn’t think I did so much. This year I started watching ALMS more and I very much enjoy the series. The 24 Hours is the big highlight, though.

This year I watched some of it on tv. I saw one of the Peugeots blow up live. I ended up recording the last three hours of the race, and watched it Sunday morning. By then, I already knew who won…

It was Audi, with a 1-2-3 podium sweep! Woohoo!!

It’s kinda sad how it went down — all four Peugeots running were out of the race by the end. Audi was hoping for a showdown between themselves and Peugeot, not for Peugeot to blow up. I think most people were hoping for that too.

Endurance Racing 101

Then again, I think the way it happened shows just how awesome Audi is at racing at Le Mans.

Peugeot pushed their cars too hard. Sure, they were fast, but the cars couldn’t take it for the entire race.

Audi, on the other hand, proved to be reliable. All three of their R15’s finished the race, leading Audi to win their ninth time at Le Mans.

I hope Peugeot learns from their mistakes this year and comes back next year better. I have no doubt that Audi will continue to improve.

Besides…

The Audis are so pretty, aren’t they? I think they are….

Sleek, beautiful and deadly.

How they looked at Le Mans.

And I’ve found that I really enjoy it. A lot.

ALMS

While I’m not going to be one of the crazies who stays up until 2:30 or whatever time in the morning to watch Formula One, I do enjoy watching the American Le Mans Series when it gets covered on Speed.

Of all the racing series out there, I've taken to ALMS like no other.

I’ve always been a tiny fan of the 24 hours of Le Mans, because I love cheering for Audi!

I surprised my husband last year with a text about how it was a sad, sad day… When I found out that Peugot had bested Audi at the 24 hours. He was pretty shocked that I knew that before he did! It kinda showed I was actually sorta into it.

But this year…

This year, I can’t wait for the 24 hours to come on. I want to watch it!! A lot of it!

So far, I’ve watched all the coverage Speed has given us for the AMLS races. I watched what I could of Sebring, and on a bit of a delay watched nearly all of the Grand Prix at Long Beach. Both were stunning races!

There’s the App for That…

And when I bought Lilly, my iPhone, the ALMS app was one of the first I knew I had to have.

It’s fun now because I kinda know the teams, I can recognize the cars and I’m learning the drivers’ names. I’m getting more and more into the series, and bit by bit I’m loving more and more of it!

I mean, I was totally jealous when they were talking about people getting to line up for autographs at Long Beach…. I know I have to get to an ALMS race now!!

Still Kinda Surprised…

I’m still kinda shocked that I’ve taken to it so much, honestly! I’ve never been a huge sports tv watcher, because I’d rather go and actually watch in person… Watching something on tv has always been a lame alternative to me. (Mostly sports, because I’ve been to soccer, football, hockey, baseball, basketball games, all professional, all live.)

But being able to watching this sort of racing on tv isn’t so bad, I get to watch the cars and the drivers and see what they’re doing, which may, on some level, prepare me more for track driving myself.

It has, though, strengthened my resolve to get to one of these races! The bad thing is, with the way the schedule happened to go this year, Laguna Seca is coming up and they’ll be at Road Atlanta later in the season. Backwards from the way it would’ve possibly worked out for me.

I really enjoy cheering for Flying Lizard's Porsches!

Then again, there’s always next year…. And hopefully I’ll get to pull it off.

From there, I’ve got my work cut out for me: I want to get to the 24 hours of Le Mans, someday!

Totally Affordable, I think

When I found out, well, I wanted to sign up… Badly. Seeing as how we’re moving to Washington state, though, I can’t make any definite plans about what’s going to go down yet. There’s like a million things I want to do because we’ll finally be in an area where they’re close enough to get to.

So sadly, Time Attack HPDE’s are on my waiting list, but I’m going to get out to them someday…. Because at around $200 for a day of track time, it’s an insane bargain!!

Addiction Began…

My track addiction began when I ran with a group of Miatas over at Hallett in Oklahoma, which you can read about here. I loved it. Loved. I was so incredibly sad when we left, as it felt like I had finally found what I craved to do and wouldn’t be able to go back…

Some of my favorite pictures came from Hallett, we look so professional!

But the day set me back $165, not bad at all and apparently pretty close to what other track days cost! I’m so happy to find this out, the only downside, of course, is having to plan for travel…

And if I’m driving to California for it, it’s gonna be a huge deal for me. I’ve been dying to get to California for years, literally. It’d be awesome to get out on one of the tracks to drive and hang out with some awesome car people for an entire weekend, plus watch the teams actually race. (I’m so not good enough for that yet!!)

Something to work for!

It’s definitely something for me to work on. While it wouldn’t be cheap, we do plan for trips… But it’s up to me to pay for the racing that I want to do. I’m just excited that there are ways the Miata and I can get out to a track and belt out some more laps, with me learning a lot and figuring out how to work with her better.

Aside from this, I will say that I’ve also got my sights set on drifting at Evergreen… As a participant. I haven’t built my 240SX for nothing, and while I’m not so sure drifting is the sport for me (I’m totally enamored with grip & feel somewhat decent at it) I definitely want to give my RPS13 the chance to do what so many of them do best — go sideways!

When I say something to work towards, though, that’s because I haven’t yet sorted out my employment situation… I don’t really want to go back to a job like I’ve got now, unless it was no weekend work and a decent but not overwhelming amount of work during the week. I’ll be finishing school online, I hope, but it’s exciting for me to think about possibly making some money doing what I like to do instead of what I have to do for it. We shall see!

With such awesome events for motivation, I think I’ll do alright as far as figuring that part out. I want to get back to the track!

Speed…. Shutter Speed.

At Myrtle Beach, I figured out THE secret to those awesome racing photos that portrayed the fact that we all knew, but is still wicked cool to see — that the car is in the middle of moving!

Panning shots eluded me for a bit longer than I wished they would have. I managed some, didn’t quite get what I did, and finally got back into it here as I’ve learned more about controlling the settings on my camera. Now I get how to do it.

Thankfully, I’ve got it pretty well figured out before my friend asked me to do rolling shots for him! Lucky for him, haha, because we should manage to pull off some nice pics before I leave this place.

I kinda miss the racing….

While it’s fun to watch, hang out with people and take pictures, I do miss actually racing myself. I have my reasons, though…

First, I need the picture-taking practice. If I ever want to get paid to do this, it’s practice, practice, practice for me! I want to put my equipment to good use and know how to use it to its full potential.

Second, with my pending unemployment, nearly all of my pennies have been accounted for in figuring out the final bits and pieces I’ve been able to afford…. I really don’t have the spare cash for an autocross.

Third, while I’d come up with the money if it were important enough, I’ve hit a wall with autocross. I enjoy it, yes. But I’d rather save up the money I’d spend on an autocross and go to a track day, where I get a lot more time to spend behind the wheel and work on my racing. I will probably autocross on and off my whole life, but I know my heart lies out there on the track. I’ll be patient in the hopes of getting out there later on this year sometime. (Or to Laguna Seca next year.)

At least I have the pictures!

I had a ton of fun taking the pictures, but sadly many did not turn out. I won’t have my shutter speed set so low next time, so that more of my pictures turn out here. I know I’ve always loved finding pictures of my car in action, so I hope to provide people with that at the next autocross, which will also be our last here. *Sniff* (It’s very bittersweet for me!)

Here are five of my favorite shots from the day, and of course the rest of them are posted to my Flickr page.

Easily one of my top photos from the day...

Turned out a bit blurry, but VTEC kittah had to make the cut, LOL!

Rotaries are so fun to listen to...

My favorite Porsche. She's been there every time I've gone, and the owner's pretty cool too. Been racing for a long time!

I swear my camera liked this car, I got some nice shots of it!

Myrtle Beach Speedway

Last year we had a blast at the track, this year… Honestly, not so much, I hate to say it.

The autocross sucked, in a word. The guy who manages the track put it together, and while he rubbed me the wrong way last year, it wasn’t unbearable like it was this year…

And I mean unbearable. Apparently, they open up the infield of the track and host the occasional drift event, which would have been badass had one been going on, I’m sure. It probably also provides a fair bit of income to the track — organized drifting is catching on in the States big time!

Instead of simply pointing this out, the guy went as far as to say that the kids who do it “push it too far,” so they end up crashing into the guard rails that are there. Well, okay, yeah… Drifting is about pushing it, and even professional drifters crack up their cars, no matter how long they’ve been drifting. Shit happens.

He went on to say that most of the kids who do that don’t go back, and then drive around with damaged cars and un-matching paint, and I think somewhere he found a place to fit in the word, “punks” as well.

Needless to say, I was livid. I had a fair bit of self-control, because I had just had some old guy, who ditched SCCA Formula Vee racing for nascar call a lot of my friends and much of my adopted car culture “poor punks.” (FWIW, neither my 240SX nor my Miata are all the same color, so I did take it pretty damn personally.)

I could continue that rant, but I’m sure you can understand why it got to me… Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who realized that he was full of crap (arrogant as hell, beyond being “point blank and brutally honest”) and had no clue how autocross goes. Yes, he even said he’s never autocrossed, yet here he was setting one up and running it… Ugh. I was glad I wasn’t driving, and many of us seasoned autocrossers didn’t drive or did very little of it.

The Oval

Of course, the track is really just an oval for silly driving. But the husband enjoyed taking out the S2000 and letting her wind out without having to be in fear of cops. She sounded great! I also got to practice those awesome panning shots I love to take…. Hehe.

Pictures!!

I’ll quit babbling, because nothing more really went on… But enjoy some of the snapshots from the day!

Some of the early arrivers, there were a lot more as the morning rolled on!

One of the seasoned drivers & Miata.

Charlie's bright yellow Miata made for a nice picture! x3

Last year's runner-up still didn't get her autocross champion title this year. Maybe next year??

I love the cool things like this that you only find at tracks...

A few of my panning shots of the S2k turned out, I'm still insanely proud of them!

Aside from loving this Laguna Blue's color, I loved the license plate!

Autocross #2

The second official autocross of the year was March 7th, and yes I can be kinda slow and take this long to get the pictures that have been up on my Flickr for a while up here organized into a nice blog post. I apologize if you’ve seen them all before.

Through a new lens!

Where-as I only had my kit 18mm-55mm lens for the first autocross, I got to two-day ship my 55mm-200mm lens just to get it in time for the second race of the year. And boy, was it ever worth it!

I literally came home with pictures of every car that ran that day, to the tune of 260 photographs. Yikes. I think I may end up looking into an external drive for myself just to hold my pictures…. I’ll probably use it well at this rate. Something about my dSLR makes taking a ton of pictures easy and effortless, and somewhere amongst all the snaps are some jewels waiting to be recognized. At least that’s what I always hope for!!

I will, I promise…

My new lens gave me a pretty good excuse as to why I wasn’t racing that time, thankfully! I will be getting back out there at least once before we move, though. While track racing is where my heart is, autocross will remain my roots and I’ll always find it somewhat fun.

My favorite pics

This lovely spectator caught my eye for sure, I've always loved the 4S.

I can't help but take tons of photos of this car, I absolutely love her!

Fully decked out, race-only Porsche. Always turns out scary fast times!

There were a LOT of Miatas out that day!!

Zip ties are an art form on drift cars. And yes, she's drifted.

I didn't manage to catch the whole drift, but managed this shot.... It's my favorite from the day.

Autocross #1

February 21, 2010. A cold, rainy winter day. War Memorial Stadium… The first autocross of the local SCCA chapter’s season.

Sadly, I’ve become very attached to sleeping in whenever I get the chance. And with the threat of rain, well, I wasn’t eager to go racing anyhow. (I’d rather not, it’s really not fun to me haha. I’ve done it once or twice and that was enough!)

My “Job”

It’s also fairly sad that I’ve become attached to the whole photography thing, in a way. You see, it’s pretty impossible for me to take pictures of my car racing and be the one out there racing. I really need to get myself one of the cameras for recording that stuff, and mount it to my roll bar…. But I also want a transmitter for track days. (Expensive stuff, to say the least!)

When I’m not racing, I want to take pictures. Lots of them. Especially when I have a bunch of good cars in the same spot! Perfect.

I had already decided that I wanted to try to get some panning shots. I’ve always loved the way they turn out — a clear, crisp car and a blurred background, the implication of speed.

It’s one thing to read about photography techniques, and it’s a whole other thing to go out and put them into practice. Once I found out “how” to do it, it was up to me to practice it until it turned out.

My biggest lesson learned? I desperately need a zoom lens if I want to do this often…… My pictures turned out way better than I ever expected them to, but the lack of zoom was pretty depressing.

My Success

Enough chit chat, here are my successful panning shots! Please, let me know what you think?

So happy it turned out! Haha.

I couldn't tell how the pics looked until I got home. (I'm impatient, so the wait sucks!)

The car, of course, is an AP2 S2000, owned by a friend.

I have no favorite between these really, they all turned out great, just the lack of zoom that bugs me. D:

Naturally, one day of car flogging is never enough… So despite the entire tank of gas that the drive had consumed, the Miata was filled up again and taken down to be put through her paces at the last official autocross of the season.

How was it?

First off, the weather was amazing! Beautiful, mostly clear skies and sunny, in the 70’s. Felt more spring-like than fall, but it was just warm enough to be comfortable, and not overly warm to where you didn’t feel that great. Absolutely perfect.

The turn out definitely showed how great the weather was — 75 drivers! Or maybe it was cars… I’m pretty sure it was drivers. This year overall was awesome as far as attendance went. I’ve noticed a lot of new drivers, mostly because I viewed them all as “competition.” Is it sad that I liked taking down the first-timers? They were the only ones I knew I should be able to beat no problem. (Otherwise I’d have some serious issues here…)

Well, how’d I *do*?

I didn’t do so bad myself, and it was a day I was quite proud of, actually! I don’t have many race days where I feel all good and am happy with my performance, but this was one of those days for some reason.

The course was a bit confusing at first, but I never got lost. I did get one DNF, thanks to some horrible understeer that caused me to miss a gate. Hehe, oops. Understeer sucks in a RWD car, lemme tell ya.

For the first three runs, we did two laps around the course. While the weather didn’t feel like fall, it didn’t make the daylight last any longer, so we were all cut down to one lap around the course for the second three, to make sure we finished while it was light out. My fastest time during the first half of the day was 1 minute 10 seconds, and my fastest time during the second half was 35.5 seconds.

Racing was fun, checking out the other cars was too!

I’m afraid that for me wanting to be a photographer, I don’t take as many pictures as I should. It’s hard for me to do so at autocrosses for a few reasons… One, I’m focused on racing and my runs. Two, I have to work when I’m not running. I do waiver signing, so even when it’s not my time to work, I’m still working. (It’s not a super easy job, but it sure beats chasing cones! Especially in the summer when it’s hot hot hot.) And three, many of the cars I’ve seen before! It’s almost more interesting to see what shows up to watch instead of what shows up to race.

Thanks to my Flickr account and this blog, I have a medium to share pictures and car experiences with, so I try to take a few shots and such for the blog. It’s great motivation.

That being said, I’ll conclude the writing portion and get on with the pictures!

Pictures!!

Check us out!

Just one more of us.... We're for real, haha.

License plate of a fully prepped Porsche 944. Made me giggle.

I love the look of this generation of Subie.

She was just there to watch, but I loved her. My exact favorite style of Porsche ever!

Continuing the love to this e30 M3.... Gorgeous! <3

There was this outwardly beautiful Type-X 180SX...

But inside was a stock KA and automatic tranny. Still, pretty to look at!

Talked to her owner for a bit, he ran right after I did. And yup, still a rotary!

She was just badass. And very, very quick.

One of my favorites.... SR20DET swapped 240Z. RHD, too!

This 510 also housed an SR20DET.... I loved her as well.

And this…. This was pure love. I swear, if I had a calling within racing, this is it. This is what I would love to do, day in and day out. I would forgo every other type of racing just to do this. I think. I haven’t tried enough to say that for sure yet, but I can imagine I would.

Overview of the trip

We left late Friday morning, sadly too late to make it out to the track at all on Friday. A close friend and mentor had offered to take me out in his Miata and see the layout of the track if we made it, but we kinda left a bit late. Thankfully, we made it in time to sign in, check into our room, get me to the novice introductory mandatory meeting and be around for the pizza party.

When we first pulled into the parking lot, my heart stopped. I swore I saw NSX tail lights, but I also shook it off as me being overly optimistic. Wtf would an NSX be doing here? Now, of all times? But it was, it was!! And the guy she belonged to was rather nice, if not a bit odd about the car. She was a 1991, and of course made my husband wish our S2000 was with us. (Alas, we just brought the Miata again.)

Saturday morning was killer. 4:30 am is a time I thought no longer existed, and yet here I was, crawling out of bed and forcing a danish down my throat, knowing that while I wasn’t hungry yet it was sure to beat the alternative. We then made the ~40 minute trek from the hotel to the track, mostly in the dark but getting to kinda sorta watch the sun rise. The driver’s meeting got in the way of that, sadly.

Thankfully, the horrible class room stuff was done! The first group of cars lined up and was off, and I was in my version of heaven… Only with just Miatas. I’d like heaven a lot more if I get more than just Miatas, but definitely have to have Miatas.

Saturday wore me out so bad that we went back to the hotel and went to bed…. Quite literally. We slept through the Saturday night banquet, and just woke up Sunday to make the five hour drive home, only stopping once.

But Saturday!!!

Watching the Intermediate 2 group out on the track for the first time was awesome. Listening to the cars running, sounding as giddy as kids at a carnival was just pure joy for me. After their first run, it was my group’s turn — the novices. As a novice, we each got an assigned instructor, who’d be working with us the whole day to get us used to the idea of driving on a track. It’s a lot different, that’s for sure… It’s even way different than autocrossing. (Though some bits are similar, I suppose.)

I crossed my fingers for an instructor that I knew, and had about a 30% chance in getting that wish. I was super lucky in that, not only did I get someone that I knew, but I ended up getting paired with one of the Spec Miata drivers, Chris Edens. (I think he’s around my age, but I’m not for sure on that. He doesn’t look very old to me.) He had to leave early on Sunday to get home, only to be leaving for Wisconsin and a Spec Miata race.

I was definitely in heaven, for sure. I had on my bucket list to talk to a SM driver, so I’m counting this as that. I spent most of the day talking with one.

And riding with one. And that was the crazy awesome scary cool part. As I said, us novices were taken out on the track at first by our instructors, so we could get a feel for the layout instead of just getting thrown into it. And it was the coolest thing I’ve ever gotten to do…. Ride, in my car, driven by a Spec Miata driver. It was insane. Insanely cool. It was fast, and my car did awesome. (She did awesome the entire trip, really. She loves racing.)

We were even complimented, as he said she was well balanced. From a guy who gets to drive a fully prepped race Miata, this was a huge compliment for us. And believe me, I’ve seen his Spec car before… I love getting to see her when I stop by the shop. (We’ve known his father for a while because our mechanic rents a space in his shop, and he started being there when we showed up a few months ago. We show up a lot…. Three cars keeps us busy.)

So I got driven around a bit in my first session. I started out driving the second session, but about halfway through turned it over so that I could watch and memorize a bit more. I drove for the entire third session, which showed that I had gotten the lines down, the braking down and all that good stuff. All that was left to do was go faster and get a bit more aggressive.

The forth session I was sent out solo, to see if that made me go faster. And it did! I went fast! Maybe not as fast as some people, but definitely fast for me… Sadly, I seem to have problems going fast. (I am constantly getting told to put my foot down in autocross. How many racers do you have to tell that to?!) This time, I did… And it was wonderful. I had a blast. I loved it. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to drive forever like that.

While it all seemed overwhelming at first, I felt like I was getting the hang of it by the end of the day. It was great to feel awesome after finishing my fourth session and to hang out, watching the Intermediate 1 group and then the Experienced group, where most Miatas were either turbos or supercharged.

I just love it.

I could go on talking about it forever…. It was a fantastic day, and it made me fall in love with the Miata all over again. I had been wondering about the car up until that point, but now I know that I want her with me still. She’s my little race car, and she’ll always be that way. I can’t imagine racing any other car, she’s perfect for that and she’s perfect for me. (My Silvia will just relieve her of the day-to-day duties of ordinary cars, so she can focus on being my cute little racing roadster!)

Did I mention that I loved it? I’m definitely going back next year…. A few times. It’s kinda expensive, but worth every penny of it. Plus I got the Hallett shirt I’ve been coveting ever since I first saw people with them. And I sure did earn it!

Only one low point to the whole trip — I lost one of my autocross magnets during my fourth session! Guess I went too fast and blew it off…. When, funny enough, I had joked about that earlier in the day. Will have to get it replaced now! (Or get better magnets, I guess.)

Pictures for proof!

Not that I think anyone would doubt me… But I’m sure you were all waiting to see some pictures! (And some may just skip to it, which is fine with me!)

This is no Miata....!

One of my pics that seems to sum up the day well.

Us novices stopping to get in the driver's seat during our first session.

Wheeee!!!

I thought this was a kinda cool, race day type of picture.

I was in picture heaven with all the different things to snap pics of.

Oh, and the cars! They made for awesome pics too, especially the full-time racers.

I liked the checkered print on the back of her... Made me think of a dalmatian though.

She made our paint look fantastic!

Poor Fuji Racing -- this girl's engine went bye-bye. (Damage from going off the track after the engine failed.)

I was loving every minute of my time out on the track.

I love having these pictures to show that yup, I did it!! My Miata also has a Hallett sticker that she now proudly wears. Can't wait to go back!!