History Poll

[Loren]

I was reminded (because I don't remember much) at our school last month that a lot of our hardcore regulars came through the FAST novice school in years past. (we did the school annually from 2003-2012) That got me wondering just how many people fall into that category, and what everyone else's story is.

So, vote in the poll, and feel free to post in this thread to embellish and tell highly exaggerated stories of your autocross history.

[Loren]

Me?

I started autocrossing with the Wichita Region SCCA while I was living in Kansas in 1995. I don't think I've gone more than 60 days since then without attending at least one autocross. I typically do at least 14 per year.

I got roped into being the "Solo chairman" (that's SCCA-speak for "autocross program director") after a couple years of running with the SCCA and served in that role for a few years before moving back to Florida in 2002.

When I got here, the SunRiders Miata club had a pretty active autocross program running events at SPC, and I dove right in. Got suckered into running for the board of directors pretty early on, and at one of the first board meetings I went to, our autocross chairman quit. Soooo... guess who got to take over? I've passed the reigns back and forth to a couple people since then (Chad Sutton, Dan Rasp, Steve Frank...), but I've always been pretty involved.

And if you weren't aware that FAST was born of a Miata Club, you should Read This.

Other notable autocross/motorsports history:
I started autocrossing in a 1994 Saturn SC2. Sold that when I bought my first Miata in 2001, a 1996 R package. And, yes, I autocrossed a Toyota Yaris for a couple years!
Since I lived 2 hours from Topeka, I attended the SCCA Solo Nationals in 1999 and was one of the first competitors in the then "provisional" Street Touring class. (was woefully underprepared and got my ass handed to me, finished 7th out of 11, I think... but it was fun)
I've run events locally with SCCA, Gulfcoast Autocrossers and BMW, Porsche and Corvette clubs.
I've done a crapload of track events (DE, HPDE, open track, whatever you want to call them), One Lap of America twice, and about 10 races in the 24 Hours of LeMons and ChumpCar race series'.
I also enjoy a good TSD Rally, and have put together a few myself.

[twistedwankel]

I quit drag racing and motorcycling when my first daughter was born at age 27. I was stuck up north in the land of road salt so cars didn't last long.

I bought my first adult "sportscar", a used 84, 4 cyl., Fiero, for the $50/month I calculated I was saving by quitting smoking at age 43. That car had more recalls than any car I've ever heard of. 3 pages single spaced. But they were free. Traded it to my mother for her Marquis family car. She loved it and got her very first speeding ticket in it. I never raced that car but it was red and cool.

Then I got a clean 85 RX7 GS, that wouldn't start, really cheap off a local Buick Dealer. They were all cold blooded with carbs and chokes and anti freeze injection. That was a fun car. I owned about 12 of those and made alot of money putting them back on the road cheaply over a few years. I sprained my back/hip and the clutch was killing me so was looking for another auto.

Then I found "the car". No logo just "Imported by Chrysler" and it was drop dead gorgeous to me. I had to have one. An 88 Conquest Tsi. I found one used in a small town Chevy dealership. White with 10k miles, auto, spotless and stored winters. I traded my RX7 and still being short $ I also traded a 85 Ranger pickup which the farmers wanted way more than a sportscar. When I got that Conquest it was the #1 most stolen car in the country. It also had a terrible resale value due to the 87's leaking throttle body injectors causing fires. So I got a $30k Mitsubishi luxury turbo car for $9900 when it was only 3 years old.

My kids were pretty much raised and I decided I needed a hobby. The nearby dragstrip beckoned me. Started bracket racing the Conquest @ age 46. Got good at it and won some money. Travelled 3 hours to the bigger stakes strips. Life was good. BUT every time there was a sprinkle they would hand us rain checks and I'd be out a day's time and gas for nothing.

Then a local club put on an autocross in Geneva, OH in a parking lot that Oct. during a grape festival. It had a cloverleaf that I spun my tires around in happily and got thumped by a VW gti. I watched him and learned that fun and noise did not equate into fast. I was hooked. They said they did this stuff every month rain or shine. I got involved with 5 clubs but mostly the now defunct Akron Sports Car Club and the SCCA. I read everything I could on the subject. I autocrossed this car for 10 years in probably 6 different classes at all levels of competition. Including 6 Topeka Nationals. I also had a 90 AWD Talon Tsi that I raced successfully for several years at the same time until giving it to my oldest girl. I loved that car too. I also loved a barn find 82 SM Mustang GT I had for a few years. AND that bevy of first gen RX7's I owned including 2 GSLSE's I raced in CS.

After hundreds of races the only time I got on the podium at Topeka was in 2000 in a borrowed car as I had smoked 2nd gear out of my stock driveline running an extra 120HP thru it the month before:) So in the fastest car I had never driven I was able to get a 6th place trophy in Topeka in SM. It's all about the $$ and setup put into those cars. That proved it for me as a tire warmer when I beat the car owner by 2 seconds on the first run of the second day. He went on to win 1st. I overcame a bogus cone call from day one to snag the 6th and last trophy. That was nearly my last major event and my crowning achievement?

I got a transfer to CT for the last few years of my employment so sold a whole barn full of beat Conquests, RX7's and parts. Quit racing for about 5 years until showing up retired in Brooksville one day as a spectator @ SCCA. They talked me into racing my retirement project 84 Mustang 5.0 on M+S tires due to their low turn out that day. I was hooked once again. Been doing it ever since with FAST. The original Conquest was purchased by a man in Arizona who needed a white one to match the red and blue ones he all ready owned. Patriotic I guess. Do I miss it? No. I had cornered the market on parts for it and I sold them all.

Doug

[blacksheep-1]

Back at Paradyne on Ulmerton Road back in the early 80s, also the old Tampa Fairgrounds course.
Oh yeah. McDill sports car club

[Jamie]

Hmm...in spring 1982, I saw an annoucement for an autocross sponsored by the local student chapter of the SAE pinned to the bulletin board in the Mechanical Engineering Lab. I'd been doing TSD and gimmick rallies since I got my license, but hadn't ever tried autocross. Signed up and ran my rust-lightened Datsun 1200, still with snow tires on the back. I'd never pushed a car that hard around corners in my life...and still finished DFL, behind a MechE professor's wife driving a 911. I did get that summer's schedule for the Champaign (IL) County Sports Car Club, though.

Broke the Datsun in a rally shortly thereafter...bought a VW Rabbit to replace it. Autocrossed the Rabbit with CCSCC for two seasons at Chanute AFB and the University of Illinois Assembly Hall parking lot (where curbs defined the course in some places) until I graduated, and the Rabbit barbequed itself on my first move cross-country. Got to the San Francisco area, bought my first Honda Prelude, and didn't get to think much about autocrossing until another bulletin board notice in the Ames Research Center machine shop...that led me to the Northern California Council of Sports Car Clubs and SCCA San Francisco Region, running events at the Alameda County Fairgrounds and Candlestick Park. Bob Tamandli and I crossed paths then, although we didn't know it. By the time I moved again in 1986, I was doing 2-3 events a month. Reached Tennessee and found two SCCA regions and two more independent clubs doing events within an hour drive -- ran events at the old airport in Huntsville, in some really small parking lots in Coffee County TN, in the Opryland parking lot, and on the Nashville Speedway (including one using the banking). Finally broke down and started using R-compound tires around 1988.

Got married and moved again, to Texas...only did one event -- a Divisional at Mineral Wells -- that year. Then back to California. Swapped my '84 Prelude for a '92 model, and ran SCCA events at about 2 per month between deployments and exercises, mostly SF Region events at the California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento and Reno Region events at the country fairgrounds there...took the '94 D Stock Northern Pacific Division title with that car. Moved to the D.C. area in 1995, hooked up with the Metro Washington Council of Sports Car Clubs and kept running about 2 events per month at the minor league ball stadium in Frederick MD and a horse racing track just across the Potomac River in Ft Washington -- my kids were regular spectators. Somewhere in the middle of that, I did some time on the MWSCC board and was one of the core event team for SCCA Washington DC Region after they started doing events at FedEx Field.

After almost 10 years in D.C., moved again to Florida...ended up buying a house 20 minutes from the Hernando County Airport just after Central Florida Region started using it (completely coincidental...honest!). Retired the Prelude after 15 seasons and bought the Miata (but still have the 'Lude). Started running SunRiders events at SPC, and stuck with them through evolution to NASA-X FL and FAST. So now it's FAST events and whatever else I can find for a second event (most of the time).

With all that, I should be lots faster than the results show....

[garage west]

I did my first autocross in a rental car at Brooksville in Dec. 2009. I think I've attended every FAST event since. FAST Novice school Feb. 2010.

[yamaha731]

My first autocross I thought for sure the timming equipment was broke.....there was no way I would get beat by a girl driving a miata

[yamaha731]

and that was the last time john beat me

[garage west]

and that was the last time john beat me

[Dave]

I did my first autocross in a rental car at Brooksville in Dec. 2009. I think I've attended every FAST event since. FAST Novice school Feb. 2010.

I remember that day with the Mercedes.

[Native]

and that was the last time john beat me

ROFL

I learned of autox in the early 90s but was too chicken to try. Did the last Sunriders novice school in 2004 and have been hooked. Loren and Dan conned me into getting more involved during the year as NASA, and we all orchestrated the organization of FAST after that. I've done a few track days and a Lemons race, and have enjoyed that too, but it seems that once a year or two satisfies me. Though I wish I had more time for autocrossing.

I started out autocrossing my WRX and had big plans for mods, til I counted up just how expensive parts are for that car...so I got a Miata and have been happy.

[buddy bodean]

Attended the FNS in 2008. Wow, I should be a lot better than I am...

[Jeremy]

Started with SCCA at the fairgrounds in early 2001 after purchasing my first new car, a 2000 Honda Civic Si.

Shortly after that did events with all the local clubs at that time, SCCA in Orlando (VCC, no longer used), Melbourne, Gainesville, Sebring and Tampa, Sunriders at SPC, PCA and BMW at Z-Hills, and GCAC at Ft. Myers. I don't think the Corvette events were running back then, or at least I didn't know about them.

Maybe we should do a history lesson and run one FAST event like a Sunriders event from 2001.
2 classes (I think), tiny numbers on one side of your car, and the infamous whiteboard. I don't remember what timing system they used.

[Loren]

Maybe we should do a history lesson and run one FAST event like a Sunriders event from 2001.
2 classes (I think), tiny numbers on one side of your car, and the infamous whiteboard. I don't remember what timing system they used.

They had a first-generation JAC timer with red LED numeric displays. When we bought the new JAC unit in about 2003, John Carriere (Mr. JAC himself) said he didn't think any of those old units were still around, he was amazed that it still worked! It had been inherited (purchased for $50, I think) from the SCCA guys when they upgraded many years before.

I think I still have the old dinosaur on the shelf somewhere. Doesn't work. Isn't worth fixing!

But, yeah, those were the days. No timer display, no computer, just a timer. Couple people in the trailer writing times on each driver's time sheet and announcing the time so that someone could write the time on the whiteboard.

Of course, we only had 25-30 entries at our events back then, too. Very casual.

[BigBlue]

FAST Novice school Feb. 2010.

I am a graduate of the same FNS as John.

[Jamie]

No timer display, no computer, just a timer.

Some of the early events I ran, the timers were three guys holding stopwatches. Throw out high and low times, record the middle.

[jev61]

FAST Novice school Feb. 2010.

I am a graduate of the same FNS as John.

I remember Ron, Eva and Doug (James) from the same school. My youngest son, wife, and myself attended; we almost lost our cars to an out of control red Neon (name withheld). BJ got the most improved at the school that day, he has since moved away to college. Had Bob Tamandli not taken the time to coach me, I don't think I would have stuck with autocross. I was so frustrated that first year as I had no idea what to do right and what I was doing wrong.

Still don't!

[yamaha731]

FAST Novice school Feb. 2010.

I am a graduate of the same FNS as John.

2010 was a good year I'm just sayin cause I also came from that class

[4nmbr6]

FAST Novice school Feb. 2010.

I am a graduate of the same FNS as John.

I remember Ron, Eva and Doug (James) from the same school. My youngest son, wife, and myself attended; we almost lost our cars to an out of control red Neon (name withheld). BJ got the most improved at the school that day, he has since moved away to college. Had Bob Tamandli not taken the time to coach me, I don't think I would have stuck with autocross. I was so frustrated that first year as I had no idea what to do right and what I was doing wrong.

Still don't!

Hey, I wasn't out of controll. The car just didn't want to stop right away.
Besides I ended up parking it right between every ones car, with an "O" shit look on my face. Yep 2010 was a good FAST class. I still remember everything Jamie taught us, applying it while driving the car is another thing.

[Gerry]

I wanted a Miata ever since I learned about them in high school, back in 2006. Then I drove one, briefly, in 2008. Ever since then, I wanted one quite badly. After finishing my undergrad, I got a pretty sweet deal/grant/scholarship for grad school and had enough money to make a bad decision and finally got my Miata!

I went to a couple TampaBayMiatas meets at Tilted Kilt, where Joe Baker and Loren convinced me to try autocrossing. I was skeptical, so I asked if they'd be willing to let me ride along at September's event in 2011. My first ride, ever, was with Joe. Man, that was AWESOME! I was cursing myself for not signing up and doing it for that event. I made sure to sign up for the October events: gymkhana and autocross. I had a ton of fun and I'm now forever hooked. I've only missed one FAST event since then (December) and have been to a couple other events here and there.

The activity has made me aware of so much car stuff including driving and mechanical concerns, since sometimes they go hand in hand. A year ago, I couldn't even change my own oil... but now I (sorta) understand how to dial in and balance out my Miata's suspension, and continue to tinker when I have time and money available. I don't think I would have had the inspiration to do so if it weren't for autocross.

I must say that FAST definitely does it right. I don't think I would enjoy the activity so much if I wasn't introduced to it the FAST way. It's a fun, educational, and safe atmosphere that really works.