The Autocross
Yes, that’s a Ford Festiva with a motor-swap.
Last Sunday was my first autocross with the Cincinnati Sports Car Club, also known as The Guys Who want to Autocross, but Can’t Follow the Rules. Basically, this is a parallel group to the Cincy Region of SCCA, but they do their own thing at the deathtrap of a site known as Scarlett Oaks.
The site’s on the northside of Cincy, just East of I-75 on I-275. There’s no way SCCA’d allow an event there: The course cuts between buildings, beside big ditches, and it’s rimmed with 3" concrete curbs. You get off-line, you kill your car. (On the bright side, LOTS of good accident stories while you’re in grid.)
Stock classes ran first, and it was the usual battle between me and Scott in his Civic. I lost, but I acquitted myself well–I kept getting better on each run. Thought I did pretty well for my first time there.
So, I ran 1st and worked the 3rd of 3 heats as the undefined ‘Spotter’ position, it was hellish: I the timing equipment was off, and nobody knew what they were doing. Then some punks with A-Modified cars from UC blew an engine, and NOBODY FLAGGED THE FRIGGIN’ CAR. I was at the end of the course, and nobody thought “Hey, he’s probably spewing oil across the track. We should tell him to stop”. Then the guy was a real ass whenever we told him to turn off the track. Frickin’ primadonna.
Here’s the kicker. There’s no oildry, the kitty-litter stuff you put on an oil spill to soak it up. How in the world do you run an event w/o OILDRY?!
We didn’t get out of there until after 6. Did get to hang-out with Scott, David, Chris, and Adam afterwards.