Hey there, autocrossers! Aren’t you tired of explaining to that stacked little “administrative assistant” down the hall that you race on a parking lot, not a racetrack? Would you like to change that in a way that preserves your car and your own scaly hide? Would you like to face off against TTAC’s only most feared racers? Of course you would.
This has to be one of the better ideas the SCCA’s had in a while. It’s called the Road Course Tour and it’s a National-Solo-style event held on the reopened Gateway Road Course smack-dab in the middle of the Midwest. Price is a modest $102. As with every SCCA Solo event, safety will be paramount; this is probably an order of magnitude less dangerous than the average HPDE 1 event — which, itself, is probably as safe as the drive you take to get there.
This is the second year for the Road Course Tour. Last year’s event, held in Nashville, was a total success, and this year should be the same. Top speeds won’t be high enough to cause serious concern, so anybody who isn’t a complete moron should be able to safely enter their street car the same way they would at a normal Solo event.
Your humble author, along with his brother in autocross combat “Bark M”, will be entering, so feel free to show up and give us a thrashing. In fact, we’ll probably bring along some sort of minor gift for any TTACer who enters in any class. What are we driving? Possibly Bark’s Boss 302, possibly the BSP Honda S2000 that he drives with Changed Mon Motorsports, possibly my Boxster S on my last set of A3S05 sticker tires from the Ketel-One-Fueled Online Sixteen-Comp-Tire-Purchase-Binge Of 2007. Who knows? Come on out and compete. It’s what separates the men from the women. Actually, that’s not true. There are women in SCCA Solo who are competing while you sit on your ass in Mom’s basement watching Top Gear and telling the Vortex Car Lounge you can’t wait to pay cash for a diesel stick-shift wagon. Let’s do this!
This is Nov. 10-11 in East St. Louis, IL, correct? I’m hoping I can make it. If I do, the issue would be to take a Honda Fit or a Dodge Caravan…
Minivans are verbotten in SCCA Solo events, so it would have to be the Fit
Not only are there women that compete, but there are many that would outdrive most, if not all, of the TTAC Staff and B&B, including myself and Baruth.
To bad it is so far away from the Northeast, I would love to see how I stack up against Jack in autocross.
Lynne Rothney-Kozlak hammered me pretty good at Topeka a few years ago :)
Lynn runs in our Region
She’s been hammering all of us pretty well for the past 25 or so years.
NASA has run circuitcrosses at VIR for a few years now. I’ve never been, as I have no interest in kowtowing to the rollbar nazis.
Jack, love the quote: “telling the Vortex Car Lounge you can’t wait to pay cash for a diesel stick-shift wagon”.
I’ll look for any excuse to come out and drive fast, but it’s almost 900 miles away. Geez, Road Atlanta is closer. Have fun, though.
What are the rules for convertibles? Thats the main thing keeping me from a HPDE – putting a rollbar in the RX7 convertible would either keep me from using the top, or would require that I remove my head.
This is run under the SCCA’s National Solo (autocross) rules. No roll bar required, but stock seat belts must be used in a convertible, no harnesses allowed.
This will be run at a slower speed than an HPDE – there will probably be autoross (slaloms and lane change) elements on the straights to keep the speeds down.
I’d love to do this but it would take me 6 hours each way according to google maps (I’m on the IL/WI border). Need something closer like I dont know…elkhart lake?
The other issue is that if I enter, it would have to be the DD which I’m afraid to break. It’s a 7 year old WRX STi (stock)
I’m in the sort of in the same boat as Robstar. 550 mi/9.5 hrs from Minneapolis. Close enough to be tempting. My fun car is no longer my DD, so I do have other options if/when something breaks. But on the other hand, I just bought new tires and brakes, and would hate to use them up in a couple of laps of hard driving. Decisions, decisions.
The speeds should be such that brake wear will not be an issue, you will put a little wear on the tires, but not enough to really worry about. You won’t be using either up.
That is a good point. I suppose it could be likened to a spirited back-road drive. I do those quite frequently with no negative mechanical consequences.
I will definitely have to put this on my calender and see if I can make it happen.
So possibly not an R8?
Damn. This is the same weekend as Texas Mile.
If that doesn’t happen, I’m there. I even have the time off scheduled already.
I watch Top Gear and paid cash for a stick-shift diesel wagon!