10/25 BMWCCA Autocross

Last Sunday I did autocross with the National Capital chapter of the BMW Car Club of America at Baysox Stadium. It had been a year since I ran with BMWCCA last, and there were certainly a few things to like compared to the PCA events at BWI.

The weather wasn't great, but I'm always happy to race in the rain and it meant that we only had about 30 racers total. This gave us a chance to do seven runs each and I was still out of there by 12:30pm. I'm sure part of that was the weather but it was also that BMWCCA does an AM and PM session instead of just taking on however-many racers happen to register and then going as late in the day as you have to go.

One of the exciting things about this event was that it was my first chance to use my new GoPro for autocross (the prior week's event being abruptly canceled before I could run). I didn't have enough time to play around with different mounting points, so I just did an interior mount from the underside of the sunroof for all of my runs. I did try playing with the different zoom levels, and it seemed like the widest angle was the best. I also tried capturing sound using an external mic mounted near the center console. It worked okay but I ended up with a lot of noise from my feet on the pedals and other things in the car creaking through sharp turns, as opposed to a great engine or exhaust note.  Next time hopefully I have time for different camera angles and a better mic mounting position.

The other fun thing I got to try this time was my new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's. This was my first autocross not using run-flats and they felt absolutely awesome. Granted this was a wet course so I couldn't feel the maximum grip level, but still the tires had tons of steering wheel feedback and responsiveness.

I'm not sure if it was the rain, the set of cars, or just a particularly good day of driving for me, but I actually came up with some pretty good times. I finished 16th overall and 8th in my heat when the track was wettest. With the PAX adjustments (accounting for car performance), I actually finished with the 5th best time and the 2nd best of my heat!! It was fun posting such a fast time and it was a great way to close out the season of autocross.

I could see doing fewer autocross events next year just because it's so much time on a weekend day for such little actual driving. But I'll definitely do at least an event or two and I'm already looking forward to getting out again. :-)