September 17th Auto-X in Eastlake, OH

[lildisco]

It was another fun day. The course was fast during the first stretch, but quite slow and tricky in the back stretch. I'll have some more pics posted up as i know others will share there's as well. I'd also like to thank Marlon and Lauri from Cleveland6Club.com for comming out and supporting us, their car cousins, and vice versa. We have a great group in this area

Clicky Clicky

[Sponsor]

[tiresmoker]

awww, no pics of me lighting them up in 1st coming out of the turn

The best spot for pics was up on that bridge, I hope I took enough for you Thank god you had a large memory card in that camera, cuz I was just snapping away.

Also we need to find a way to put up that video of my "off course" in there. Although the language is a little NWS rated

[CrazyMatt]

Sweet pics!

[lildisco]

I'm going to upload some more today, but i did send some to your yahoo! account

[lildisco]

Here's some of Tiresmoker, living up to his name. (I won't show pics showing you living up to the numerous other names we gave you that day )








AND THE INFAMOUS #!*% OFF COURSE!!!! SHOT!

[Carrera26]

Whoa.... Somebody needs to say "Slow is Fast" 100 times while they are waiting in line for their next run!

[OrangeSVTguy]

before anyone else says it.... Devon!

this is when i popped my shifter linkage... LOL

[tiresmoker]

Originally posted by Carrera26
Whoa.... Somebody needs to say "Slow is Fast" 100 times while they are waiting in line for their next run!

Yeah, that one turn was just sneaking up on me. While I was in grid I kept telling myself that, over and over and over But every time I'd come out of that slalom and into that corner I'd always go in too hot. I was having an off day You can see in the one shot though I finally did get it right

Devon, I think you snapped that pick of me going off course right as I was cursing and smacking my wheel I knew it too as soon as I missed the gate Alot of people missed that gate when I was working the course.

[Carrera26]

^^^It's all about keeping your eyes up, man. If you are looking ahead like you should, then no corner has the ability to surprise you. Have faith in your peripheral vision and your body's ability to execute turns while you aren't looking right at them. If you have set yourself up correctly by the time you get to the turn, then you'll naturally do the right thing withought having to devote much thought to it.

It really is the hardest lesson to learn in racing, but by far the most effective.

Start training yourself in street driving. You already do it more than you realize, but are so much more comfortable on the street that you don't notice. But make a concious effort in the days before the next event to keep your eyes up, looking through and not at the turns you make.
This is especially easy to start on on-ramps, where you can know for sure that there aren't any surprises. Try to pick out the changes in surface, curve, and camber in the road far enough ahead that you can easily adjust yourself to best exploit them. Wherever you can, try to take the best racing, SIFO line. You can definitely do this AND be a safe/legal driver.

I certainly don't just show up at the AutoX and bust out a treasure chest of skillz (I know, just HAD to do the z there) and start driving totally differently. I drive on the street just like I do at the event, only with a much more conservative safety margin and (usually) a fair bit slower. But that doesn't make consiously picking my lines and looking ahead the least bit different. In fact, it actually makes me a safer driver as I have easily avoided a few things that could have been much more serious had I not identified them early and adjusted to compensate (deer a couple times...)

[lildisco]

I know that i was going a little hot in some of those turns, but it's a great way to vent some frustration from a bad week. In our little 'group' that we have, it's not about competition, it's just how well we can control our cars. And of course braggin rights. Like when i beat Brian like a red headed step-child HAHA!