My second autocross wasn’t exactly the best day out for me, I had a hard time trying to be fast and just didn’t make it happen.

June, however, was great to me! I somehow became competitive and was running times up there with people, not at the back of the pack the entire time… I was even excited to be beating people. (I was faster than a stock Mini Cooper! Don’t judge, those things can be wicked autocrossing…)

My Results

Once again, going without my support system (the husband) isn’t fun, but it’s also extra motivation to do really well and make him proud of me.

At the end of the day, I even made myself proud — I came home with a 3rd Place trophy!!

My awesome little 3rd Place Trophy!

And I wasn’t 3/3 either, I was 3/4! That means there was actually somebody who was slower than me. Really, that hardly ever happens…

Definitely a proud and surreal day for me. July’s autocross is coming up quick, and I’m wondering if I can’t pull it off again.

The Videos

Once again, I’m either waiting in line for my turn at the course or chasing cones, so I don’t really have time to play photographer if I want to play racer too.

It’s quite alright with my GoPro, though! I might put it on photo mode one of these days and see how that goes, but for now I’m enjoying the video I end up with.

I had nine runs on this particular day, and managed to only screw up the recording of one… So there are eight videos to share.

If you want to see my fastest run of the day, that’s the fourth video down. (My fifth run, I botched the video on the third run.)

While it definitely wasn’t for my birthday (which is today, btw ), it was extremely nice of Audi to make me proud and bring home yet another win this year at Le Mans.

Audi’s Stunning Victory

First off, last weekend was the 79th running of the 24 Heures du Mans, or the 24 Hours of Le Mans for us English-speakers. It was an intense race through and through, and typical of Le Mans, only half of the cars that started the race finished.

Included in the retired cars were both of Aston Martin’s own cars, numbers 009 and 007, who were both retired in under five hours. (It turns out that the safety cars did more laps of the circuit than they did, sad!) Most notable, however, was probably the fact that Audi lost their number one and three cars, both to horrific crashes.

The best news is that both Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller are okay and actually both got out and walked away from the crashes. It was an amazing testament to the safety of the R18 that both of them were alright. Of course, here’s the videos for anyone who missed them:

There really isn’t any good video on Rockenfeller’s crash, but needless to say the R18 disintegrated upon impact of the wall, and it happened right after the Mulsanne straight. He did walk away from it and was sent to the hospital to be observed, but has been released and is at home recovering.

I do hope for a speedy recovery for both McNish and Rockenfeller, and it is truly amazing that they are both alright. Safety in racing has come a long way.

Despite losing two of their three cars, though, Audi’s number two R18 managed to pull off a victory!!! Three Peugeots could not catch one Audi, and it was definitely a good way to end an otherwise grueling twenty-four hours for the team. I’m very happy for Audi!!!

The No. 2 Audi that managed an amazing victory, a great end to the day that took its comrades away. (Photo Credit: AutoBlog)

As for the GT classes, Corvette Racing did quite well, snagging the GTE Pro win, eeking out their Ferrari 458 competition. I’m very proud of Flying Lizard’s efforts, and while only one of their cars finished (6th) I still think they did fantastic! As I said before, literally half of the cars that started the race did not finish.

More Than a Race

More than any other year, this year I kept up with the race as much as I could. I had to work, but I had an audio feed of the race for as long as I could, keeping up with what was going on. I was also obsessively following the twitter feed of the action, both from the official Le Mans twitter and from a few of the teams.

What I ended up realizing is that this is the most I have ever followed the race and really been into it. While I’ve been cheering on Audi for years, it was really only left at that. I never really followed them on their journey to victory during the race.

It seems that I get more and more into it with each passing year. I feel like it’s indicative of my dedication to cars as a whole — Each year I’m more and more into it, no matter how much I thought I was into it before.

One of Flying Lizard's two very beautiful Porsche 911 RSR's. (They're one of my favorite teams.) Photo Credit: AutoBlog

While I didn’t get to actually watch a ton of the race, I still followed along. It dominated my thoughts for an entire day. I was seriously on cloud nine after learning that Audi pulled off the win.

In a way, it’s become a way to track my progress as I learn more about cars and racing…

And really, I wouldn’t have it any other way. GO AUDI!!!

There are good race days, and then there are bad race days. Sadly, this particular day fell into the latter category for me… It just wasn’t my day.

Regardless of having a very slow day, it was a ton of fun! It was great to get out and autocross at Spokane County Raceway. Definitely different than any other course I’ve ever run — It was cones set up on the track itself!

It was probably nice for the novices — There was really no way to get lost. Though for anyone who’s first day was out there, I think it’ll be way intimidating when we go back to Deer Park next time and you’re staring at a sea of cones.

Since my amazing sidekick and adorable husband of mine is deployed, I ended up going to the event solo… Which meant that I had no time to bother with taking photos. My poor Nikon had to stay home. (I decided to leave it at home rather than worry about someone walking off with it.)

Instead…

Since I knew I would be hard-pressed for any photos, and I definitely can’t take photos of myself racing, I made sure I got a GoPro camera.

While I will always love photography, I’m finding my venture into the world of video to be an interesting one… Hey, it’s fun because I can do both video AND drive, at the same time!

Naturally, I forgot to turn the camera on for what ended up being my fastest run of the day… *Sigh* Hopefully next time I won’t forget to do that!

Overall, it wasn’t a very good day for me, but I think everyone has bad days where it just doesn’t come together. That’s how this day was for me, definitely! Anytime I would try to do something it just wasn’t working.

Next time, I’m going to figure out how to better read my tires to see what’s going on… I have a feeling that’s to the point where it’s making a difference to me big time and I need to get on it.

Here’s my video results from the day!!

This was my first time out to the Friday night drag races by myself. It was a bit lonely, but it also let me focus a bit more on my photography.

With the track getting busier, the benefits of having a nice dSLR are starting to come into play. On this particular night, I was allowed to position myself in places that other people weren’t allowed. (Basically, on the side of the wall closest to the cars, while other people had to stand behind the wall.)

I’m trying to figure out what sort of lens would be best for shooting these cars… I’m thinking I’d love the 85mm prime, since I really enjoy shooting prime and it would get me closer to the cars without actually being closer… As long as there’s an aperture that would be low like my 50mm so it would work the longest with the fading light.

Who knows, we’ll see. Not all that many photos that I really liked from this particular day anyhow.

The Photos

The nice surprise of the night was spotting this gorgeous silver R8 when I retrieved my hoodie from my car.

I love the paint scheme on this bike.

I thought it was pretty cool to see a girl out there. Always gonna give props to female racers of any kind for actually getting out there and racing.

I liked how the light played on the smoke in this photo.

Another of the Cougar. He always did really great burnouts! I wish I took some of the room in the front of the car and moved it to the back.... I was closer, so it was harder to frame it well.

As long as my work schedule permits, you can find me out at the drag strip on Friday nights. The 13th was a little special to me since it was the last Friday I got to spend with my husband before he left for four months.

I’ll be doing all of these posts in the same format — Very little words and mostly just the photos. I am always welcoming critiques, as I go out to these to work on my automotive photography! (It’s nice to not want to race for once at an event, haha.)

The Photos

My 240SX! Had to get in a few snaps of her, since I've been in desperate need of up-to-date photos of her. I really like how the light turned out.

One of my favorite things to take pictures of... My 240SX's Bride seat. So comfy!!

Another sunny photo, once again I really like how it came out.... Car: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR.

There were some great burnouts this night... This was one of them.

This was easily my favorite burnout photo that I took... And it was sad, because the car broke its driveshaft on launch. Really odd watching a car hop and a driveshaft just fall out.....

The license plate on this Camaro is 9SECZ28 -- It's the fastest street legal Camaro in this area, if not the whole NW... She ran a 9.118!!! Crazy. (No forced induction either, all engine!)

Yup! I have finally entered the world of video… I got myself a GoPro camera for an early birthday present.

My own GoPro wasn’t my first experience with the camera, though. Some friends of ours got two of them over the winter to use autocrossing, and they let us record some of our own autocross laps with them!

It was crazy cool to watch my husband drive the S2000 around and awesome for me to see how close I can get the Miata to cones.

My First Autocross Videos

Since I love sharing, here are my first autocross videos! These weren’t my super fast laps by any means, but you can see the course (I never got lost, yay!) and in the one view I found it really cool to watch my suspension during the run.

Of course, after watching these I knew I had to get one. I was already planning on it someday, but it definitely expedited the process. The fact that my husband was deploying (he’s now deployed) helped it along too — it would be awesome to share video of my autocrossing with him while he’s gone. (Since I won’t be able to take any photos of myself, lol.)

The Karting Test

Surprisingly, my own GoPro showed up a couple of days before my husband left. After outfitting it with a 16GB memory card, I wanted to test it out. We set it up mounted to my helmet and decided to see how it did recording a go karting session.

We headed over to the local indoor karting place and proceeded to beat ourselves up for 15 minutes of fun. (The soreness lasted a few days, the price of fun. Ouch.)

The camera did fantastic! But don’t just take my word for it, view it yourself:

This isn’t the true HD setting, either. I plan on testing out the 1080 setting at my next autocross, and maybe a couple of other settings just to see what works best.

At any rate, I’ll be sharing plenty of video in the coming months. Feel free to check out my YouTube channel for all of my videos and to catch them as I post them! (I won’t be posting ALL of them here, just like I don’t post ALL of my photos here.)

Or just like my Facebook page, where just about everything is posted as soon as I get it up.

After surviving such a dull winter, I was very much so looking forward to the track opening up again… Lucky for me, I wasn’t working on the night of the 6th so I could go out and work on my automotive photography.

The Photos

Don’t have too much to say, other than I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give me! I know I have a long ways to go, but I’d like to work on getting better. (And it’s hard for me to tell what’s really good and what isn’t.)

As far as these photos go, I was focusing on working with the Rule of Thirds in particular.

There were a few STi's that showed up, including this hatch we know. I had to get it in a photo with our own red sedan.

Shot of another (older) STi sedan, which was the real start of me practicing the Rule of Thirds.

An SRT-4 getting some drag radials put on.

MKIV Supra that was there and raced.

Not only does this bike look awesome, but it was pretty fast too.

We weren't the only 2011 STi sedan that showed up. This was my first look at a modified one.

Definitely liked the white SSR wheels on the dark gray.

Some very nice old classics racing, including this Z28 Camaro.

I really liked this orange Chevy Nova.

This pink DSM was pretty fast, it was running in the 11's with the female driver taking it easy. It was pretty funny watching her give a turbo Civic a huge head start and still beat it.... (Her husband was running a 9-second black DSM, until he broke his transmission. :/)

I liked this Cougar too. The license plate reads, "KWIK CAT"

The racing lasted longer than the daylight did. This was the last photo I was able to take, and I was pretty surprised that it turned out... I really like it. (No tripod here either.)

One thing I missed terribly was racing. While I’ve never been fantastic at it, I also know I have potential… And I want to develop this potential. It’s important enough to me to work on it.

Plus autocrossing isn’t terribly expensive, so I can easily afford to do it. (Especially with my job.) As long as I can get the days off for it, I’m going to be there!

First Autocross of 2011

My last autocross was in 2009, which was also the year I did all of my racing… I think my first autocross was in December of 2008 and I ran the entire season in 2009. (Save for one autocross event I missed when I was doing my first track day.)

In 2010, I didn’t do anything because of our moving. It was also hard for me to afford it without a job…. So here I am, finally ready, willing and able to get back into it in 2011.

My Miata and I out on the course!

I had a blast racing, that’s for sure. It was a great day out for it, clear, mostly sunny and dry! The Miata handled great and I finally got to enjoy my Kumho Ecsta XS’s racing! It’s only what I got them for after all…

Results

My personal results were both good and bad.

I say good, because I nearly shaved off 12 seconds from my first run to my last run. That’s pretty good. I improved and my final time of a 52.9 was completely unexpected.

I also say bad, because I didn’t quite do well enough to place. I have no idea where I ended up… It’s kinda sad for me. I really like competing and winning, haha. I strive for that. But I’m at a huge disadvantage going up against people who have been doing this for so much longer than I have. The competitive times were nearly all ten seconds faster than my fastest time. Ouch.

Then again, I wasn’t the slowest person out there either! And that’s always a plus in my book.

And some photos!

I even managed to have some time to take some photos of the cars. My awesome husband worked for me on the first shift so I could play with my camera too. That was nice.

Three wheel cornering!

This is a car I never knew of until we got up here, a Nissan NX2000.

One of the new STi sedans doing what ours will be doing this fall.

I had a limited space of the field to shoot with, so I tried a few different things. Not sure if this is working or not, but I really like the mountains in the background.

The background mountains also look good here, though I kind of wish I had a slower shutter speed so the WRX didn't look like it was sitting still.

I kind of like the framing of the cones... (Not our S2000, but very similar!)

Of course, the autocross coverage will never stop for me. I may not always be racing at the events, but I still love to go out, see the cars, support friends and take lots of pictures! Autocross is a great place to find like-minded car people — those who realize that if you really want to race, there’s definitely a way to get out there and do it.

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!

June is an exciting month, because what I consider to be the greatest race in the world takes place then (oh, plus my birthday… hehe) — the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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.