A Novice Guide to AutoCross

[WD40]

Introduction
Some of you may be asking yourself this, maybe you've never heard of autocrossing, or you have but don't know what it is, well hopefully this little write-up will clear all of it up for you.

What it is

"Solo II is a precision sport, much like, say, archery, riflery or golf. You must be precise and consistent, all the while driving so fast you can barely concentrate" -- Mark Sirota

Solo II events (also known as autocrosses) are an all forward motion driving skill contest. Each driver is individually timed to the thousandth of a second, over a short, miniature road course clearly defined using traffic cones. Cars compete one at a time, hence the name "Solo", in a class with similar cars. An event can be held on any flat paved surface, usually a parking lot, or airport apron or runway.

Working
At each event, if you race you will be required to work a heat. This involves standing at a station on course and getting one of three assignments. Cone person, radio person, or flagger. If you are cone person, you must watch each car that goes through your section of track carefully. If they do so much as even grace a cone you must run out and check it. Each cone has a designated box marked in chalk around it. If the cone is knocked over it's an automatic penalty, if it is still standing but touching part of the box, it is safe, no penalty, replace the cone back in the box properly, and if the cone is still standing but outside of the box it is a penalty. In all of these cases be sure to tell the radio person if it is a penalty or no penalty. As radio person, you receive commands from the trailer and radio in penalties on cars if they hit a cone. As flagger you have a red flag that you must wave in case of an emergency, i.e. a broken down car on course. It is your job to ensure the driver sees you and comes to an immediate halt.

Cone penalties:





Course of day
-Registration
Show valid driver's license, and membership card, or get buddied in, and pay the fee. Then, sign the waiver and sign up for working.

-Clear your car
Take out the spare tire, jack, and any miscellaneous items in the cabin.

-Tech Inspection (Can be done at any time before you race)
Take your car to the tech area and have an official check it out. When they are done, they will sign off on your grid card. If you brought a helmet with you have it ready. (If you race in the first heat you tech on grid)

-Course Walk
Walk the course as many times as possible before the Driver's Meeting taking it all into your head and thinking about how you're going to drive it. Try to memorize it. First-timers might also want to take a novice course walk.

-Driver's Meeting
This is mandatory for all drivers and is held about a half hour before the first race. They will go over course conditions, how many heats, etc...

-Your Runs (you might work before you run, it all depends)
SF Region Solo 2 events normally give three runs per driver. Drive your car over to the grid and pull up in any of the lanes as far as you can. Put your grid card on your windshield underneath the windshield wiper blade. Once the lane next to you starts to move get in your car and start it to get it warm.

-Your Work Assignments
Report to work as the heat before your work heat is drawing to a close. As a novice, someone will go out with you to help you get used to working.

-Fun Runs
If heats finish early and the administrators feel there is enough time they will conduct fun runs. These are not counted for points but are simply just to go through the course a few more times and get some more experience trying to bring your times down.

-Course Clean-Up
The biggest thing they like is if you stack some cones, it really helps them out in the clean-up process, and anything else they may ask.

Etiquette
Solo 2 is a social sport, and most drivers are happy to give you advice and critique your runs. Ask someone with a similar car if you may follow them through a course walk. Maybe they'll even think aloud for you (don't do too much talking yourself, or you will be making them walk again). Ask if you can ride with them on a fun run, and offer to pay the $1-$2 for the run. If you're not sure when to line up, go ahead and ask. Ask someone to look at the chalk on your tires to see whether you need more air. Ask someone to watch your run if they have time, and tell you what needs changing. They'll be glad to.

There are a few bad times to ask for advice, though. Here's a quick list:

When they are walking the course. (They're trying to memorize it.)

When they are staring into space or have their eyes closed, they're probably going over their run or plan.

When they are in grid. They are only thinking about the course.

Sometimes events will conspire to keep a good driver from competing. It may be a broken car, it may be an injury that prevents them from being able to change tires. This is your chance! Offer that driver a ride (co-drive) in your car - make it free if you can afford to. So they use up $20 worth of tires. Not a bad price for a private instructor all day! I have gone to some of the big events, Tours, Divisionals and ProSolos and sent out an ad for a co-driver. It has been an enourmous benefit to have advice from these experts all day, and be able to walk the course with them.

Try to help out. There is more work to be done than the mandatory course-work. This is an all-volunteer organization, so help is always appreciated. Luckily, this also puts you in a position to talk to other drivers, because the veterans are helping out, too. If you share the work, they'll have more time to talk to you. Likewise, showing up early will help out the registration and tech crew, and give you more time to walk the course. Read the next section on how to help, if you're looking for ideas to lend a hand.

Everyone stays to help clean up the course and pit areas. Keeping the sites is important to everyone, so leave your pit area cleaner than you found it.

Again, cannot re-inforce this enough, FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS!

SCCA Membership
While it is not required to race, it cannot always be guaranteed that there will be someone that can buddy you in.
To always guarantee yourself a spot, get a membership HERE

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And, here's a couple other sites I've found with some very good info for "newbies" to AutoCross as well.
AutoCross Basics - from Euro Tuner.
Car Setup and Troubleshooting Guide - from West Texas Region SCCA.

[Sponsor]

[W~Phoenix~{RC}]

Hrm... I see that there are a lot of tips of how to use heel-toe and all of these other things to help shift better . . . but how would someone with an auto do it? Would you just mash on the gas and hope for the best? :/ Any pointers for the ATX people? I'd also like to Auto-X or do Solo events, it could be a lot of fun

Cheers!

[WD40]

^^^Leave the OD off.^^^
A "shift-kit" would be most beneficial too.
Especially the type that allows you to put it in 1st gear any time you want.
From the factory, there's generally a set speed that when you get above that,
you can't put it into 1st when you want.
Even though, you wouldn't be over-reving it when doing so.
Some times a quick stab of the gas, while downshifting at the same time will force it into 1st gear,
but that doesn't always work, and you'd be missing cones if it didn't.

I guess you might see the point I'm getting at about the AT.
It will be better to "manually" shift it.
Especially if you get in an rpm range, that's between 2 gears.
It will constantly want to shift back and forth and be rather annoying.
You also won't have the benefit of engine braking when in a decelleration zone.

Yes, I have mucho experience with an AT in AutoCrossing, when I had my Mustang.

=============================================

Here's a couple more "tips" to add to thefrush's list:

1) I always AutoCross with a full tank of gas:
If you're at 1/2 tank, the gas will slosh around, and affect the handling.
If you're at 1/4 tank or less, you may starve the fuel pump.

2) Walking the course in the morning before you run:
Walk the course as if you were in the driver's seat!
Don't hug the cones, or walk cone to cone.
Try to feel what your car will be doing.
Think about where you need to "apex" the corners, and think about braking points.

[bigjohnnyhustle]

is there a list of classes somewhere? How could I find out what class my Focus is in?

Thanks!

[WD40]

Here's a couple more links I just found:
Solo2.org
Solo2.org-Forums

If you all don't mind, I'm going to edit out the "non info" postings, and just keep the pertinent "informational" ones.

[BlackNRed01]

um does anyone have a link to the classifications? i wanna no what i can mod and still be in the stock class ive autox'd before but my car had no mods. thanks.

[WD40]

^^^thefrush already posted a link for the classes.^^^
Now, if it's the rules you need, check this thread...>>>SCCA Solo Rules-Now Online

[navyboy604]

I have to say, I went to my first auto-x event, and had a blast! Your best bet is to go to the scca web site for info about what class your in. I only have diffrent rims and tires, and it bumped me out of the stock class. Also u might want to find an auto-x group in your area. U can find one on scca's web site. www.scca.com

[wayne newton]

the BIGGEST tips i can mention

turn your radio off and only bring your car key.

[Carrera26]

A few major things I learned at the Evolution Autocross School.

1. Real estate matters far more than you think. Here's an example, for every 1' from a cone you are in a typical slalom, add a full .10 second to your time. Just a .10 can be important, but think about just how many slalom cones are on a typical course. 5, 10, 15, or even more sometimes. That means that even on a fairly simple course, you could be adding a full second to your times simply by being 12 inches from the cone. Of course, this applies to every cone on the course, but many times your fastest line doesn't neccesarily take you an inch from the cone. When you do have an appropriate fast transition, or a long sweeping turn like in a Carousel though, be as CLOSE AS POSSIBLE.

2. There are only a handful of important cones on the course. Everything else is just confusion and misdirection. You can completely ignore 90% of the cones on the course, because if you are paying sufficient attention to the ones that DO matter, the rest won't matter. Example, a Chicago Box. (This specific kind of gate structure found on many courses)

------------------ x------xx------ x
------------------ ^-------------- ^
------------------ ^-------------- ^
------------------ ^^^^^^^^^
There may be 20 cones in a medium-sized Chicago Box, but there are only 4 here that actually matter. All this is is a 3 cone slalom, nothing more, nothing less. If the other cones in the box were gone, you would drive it in the exact same way, and if they are actually getting in your way then you are on the completely wrong line.
Example, an elbow.

--------- ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
---------- ^ --- x ^ x (The lines are the only way the forum would let me do this right)
---------- ^ --- ^
---------- ^ --- x

There are only 3 real cones here. They are the only cones that actually affect your line, and again if they were on their own, you would drive them in the exact same mannor

3. Look Ahead!!! Without question, this is the most effective technique I learned at the school. Most of us look right in front of our car, or stare directly at the next cone we are coming up to. If you are looking right at that first cone, once you get there, how are you going to be ready for the next one? You should be looking at LEAST 2 vital cones and several seconds ahead at all times. Vital cones are the ones I described above. If your eyes are flowing ahead of you from vital cone to vital cone, then nothing is going to surprise you or put you in the wrong place. And I don't mean look at the #2 cone when you get to #1, I mean flow from #2 to #3 or #4 before you have even arrived at the first one. When you do this right, you don't see cones, gates and corners, but the racing line.
You don't even need to think about your mechanics when you are looking ahead right. There's no need for it because if you see where you are going to need to be, the mechanics of what you need to do NOW become obvious. You will see where you need to turn in, brake, and everything else because you know exactly where you need to be. You should never be looking at a cone you are driving around. Honestly, you shouldn't even have looked at it for a full second or more. Honest to god, once I got this down, the entire course disappeared and all I saw was the line. When I remember it, I don't even see cones, and it became very easy and even more fun!
The mind follows the eyes, the hands follow the mind, and the car follows the hands. And since you are on a smooth line, and not on a course to the next cone, your car will be smooth and effecient. I drove around cones I hadn't even looked at for 2 or 3 seconds (a lifetime on course), and I knocked down 1 cone in 7 hard runs!
This can be very tough to do though, and what helped me out greatly was to call out what I was looking at whenever I was looking at it. Imagine that you are your own rally-style co-driver, yelling out corners that you are coming up on. "Entry cone!...Elbow cone!...Exit cone!, Slalom!..2..3..4..5... Crossover!..etc etc", always several cones ahead of where you are. For example, you should be calling "Exit cone" when you are coming past the entry cone, and "Crossover" when you are passing cone 4 of the slalom. You call where you are looking and look where you are calling.
That was a serious "lightbulb in my head" moment, and I suddenly started beating my best dry times in the middle of a rainstorm.
Try this around town or wherever before you go race and get comfortable. I'm not saying do it in traffic, but the next time you corner with nobody around you, trace ahead of where you are to where you want to be, and you will be quite shocked at the effect!

3. Control wheelspin. You may accelerate faster, when you are hooked up, in 1st gear, but more often you will have a tighter line and more efficient acceleration in a higher gear, especially on corner exit. Instructor ran the course once in 1st, only hit the limiter for about half a second on the course, and did to me a fast lap. He then short-shifted into 2nd at about 3000 RPM in the first corner and ran it all in second, which felt slower but tighter and more controlled. He dropped 1.2 seconds off his own time. I was speechless. I did improve with this technique, but just couldn't re-train my throttle foot to start pressing earlier and harder. I eventually went back to 1st, but only after I had seen how much of a difference controlling the wheelspin made. Wheelspin takes a bare moment to start, but a suprisingly long time to reign it in, re-engage the throttle again, and get going. This is even more true in the middle of a turn. Just try not to start in the first place!

4. You push your success, and mistakes, ahead of you. What you do now can determine what happens for the next 5 turns. Screw up and go wide on the entry to a slalom, for instance, and the entire slalom is down the tubes. This goes back to looking ahead, because if you are considering all the steps coming up, you will see very clearly how much damage late braking into a transition can be. For the extra .1 or .2 seconds it gives you at that moment, it can cost you 2 or 3 seconds in the next section. Sacrifice that extra 10 mph at the beginning, and you can pull a huge amount of time out of the entire section.

5. Viualize. On the 2nd day, the entire thing was mental. We got to walk the course 1 time, and then throughout the day they switched the course around 5 times, without us ever getting to walk it again. We were only allowed to watch him trace it on paper one time, close our eyes and have him lead us through it once verbally, then we jumped in the car and went to work.
Walk the course 2-3 times to memorize it. This is much easier now because you are only considering the 10-15% of the cones on course that are actually vital. Then sit in your car, close your eyes and run it through several times, feeling the G's, moving your hands, feet, and eyes. By the time I got to the next version of the course, I felt like it was my 4th run instead of my first. And we all know how crappy our first few runs are. This way, if done right, you can skip the initial "learning" laps and skip straight to the hot runs! Of course, your first run should still be about 80% or so to really get the guage of your cars grip on that course on that day, but you will feel much farther ahead. They asked us at the end of the day if we remembered that we had never stepped on the course since the first run, and every single person went, "Holy Crap! I haven't walked the last 4 courses!"
Do this over and over through the day. Make a mistake and biff a certain corner? Run it through in your head until you see exactly where you messed up and what you need to do different to do it right.
This was ingrained so well that I still, quite literally, have a problem with not seeing course when I close my eyes. I find that I am able to go back to nearly every course I have ever run and re-drive it like I should, and feel embarrased at how I actually ran it.

That's it... for now.