Once again this time I got to the track in time to do several walk throughs (course map). As usual, the course designers managed to pack some fast sections and nice sweeping curves into the track layout despite being limited to such a small parking lot. One minor downside of the course was that we could only run one car at a time, due to the track doubling back through itself so much. I'm sure this was another contributor to the day taking so long. On the plus side, unlike last time, it was a lot easier for the course workers to replace cones in between runs without having to worry about the next car coming through the course as quickly.
There were over fifty drivers for this event, so they broke us up into three groups. I was driving in the second group and working the track during the third, which meant I was sitting around waiting for a while during the first group. It was just as well because storms came through and those first-heat track workers got a bit wet. During the bulk of the storms, they stopped racing and everyone either waited under cover or in their cars for the storms to pass. It ended up being at least an hour delay - maybe closer to two hours.
Despite the delay, they still did five runs for everyone so it was after 11:30 before I was on track in the second group. As soon as the course was cold between groups I went out and did a quick walkthrough since it had been so long. It was a good thing I did apparently because lots of other cars ended up going off course (getting lost) during their runs.
The rain had stopped by the time we went on track, but the pavement was still wet. It made for some unimpressive times but I always have fun sliding the car around on the wet track. By the 2nd or 3rd run the track was drying out though, and my time dropped from 57.304s to 54.866s and then down to 54.638s. For my fourth run I pushed even harder and brought my time down to 53.658s, despite getting pretty loose coming out of one of the right-handers. Given that "moment," I was hopeful that I could bring my time down significantly further in my final run by keeping things a bit more tidy. Perhaps I pulled back a little too much though, because while I did drop down another two tenths (to 53.455s), it wasn't really the drop I was hoping for. Maybe my fourth run was just better than I thought it was. :-)
At the very end of my group after I was finished with my final run, one of the other cars (a Porsche 911 I believe) came into the last section of track too hot, got loose trying to go through the slalom prior to the stop gate, and then ended up spinning and backing into the concrete barriers! He didn't hit super hard, but it was enough to give the bumper and exhaust pipe on one corner a pretty good dent. I would imagine that pretty well ruined his day at the track. For as much as the autocross courses are designed to be nice and safe around all these cones in the parking lots, it's still really on the drivers to know where they can push safely to/past the limit and where they need to make sure they're in total control - any spots where you're at any risk of hitting something hard are not the spots to be getting sideways.
By the time I was working the track for the third group of drivers, the clouds had cleared and the sun was out in full force. I suppose for mid-July it could have been a lot worse, but it was still feeling like we were baking by the end of it.
When it was all said and done the autocross didn't wrap up until about 3 in the afternoon. They normally finish closer to noon or 1 and it was a real pain to have the autocross unexpectedly run so late in the afternoon. We had to cancel our other plans for the day and it made for an even busier Sunday. I guess next time I go out with PCA I'll be prepared for the possibility that it goes so late, but hopefully we'll dodge the rain and we'll be finishing at a more reasonable time again.
They haven't posted the results for the day yet, so check back at the this space to see how I did compared to the other drivers. I think the fastest times were in the 49's and low 50's. I'll be curious to see how I compare to the people who I've been close to in previous autocrosses though.
