986 Autocrossing Racing Strategies

[GatorLapis]

I have an autocross tomorrow. My goal is to improve to first on my class. I am under P5 even though my only mods are a lightweight battery and 5 mm front spacers. I got thirs at daytona 2 weeks ago .3 seconds from an 06 987 and a 14 981 S. They are gonna be at the event as well. I was2.1 seconds away from first and .3 from 2nd.

[j.fro]

For me, the course walk is probably the most important part of race day. This is where I make decisions bout how I am going to drive the course and where I want the car to be at certain spots on the course. I always walk the course at least three times. The first is just to see the course and make sure I know how to stay on course. I try not to stop walking unless I'm not clear about where the course goes. Sometimes I'll help chalk cones on this walk. On the second walk I'll stop at each technical area to figure it out. I'm looking at braking zones, apexes, slalom set ups, and how the different sections link together. I'll talk to the other drivers to see what their opinions are. This is the longest, most social, most fun walk. By the end I've made my decisions and I know how I'm driving the course. For the last walk I try to get away from everyone else, walking the course start to finish with no interruptions. This is the memorization part where I set my mental picture.

[stephen wilson]

I did several course walks, but I had 2 problems:

The Pocono course was long, so I was unable to memorize it. In hindsight I should have brought a tablet to take notes and make a map.

The other is inexperience, the gates looked wide while walking, but ended up quite tight when driving !

[GatorLapis]

I got 7th place (47.1 seconds). I had one of the instructors drive my car and on his first run he got a 46.3. He told me he had been watching my line and the only difference between his and I was that he drove with a wider line as I was scrubbing too much speed on the deep turns.

Porsche, GT3; 2005
45.792

Toyota, MR2; 1986
46.066

Porsche, 997 S; 2006
46.209

Mazda, Miata; 1994
46.850

Porsche, Cayman S; 2014
46.904

Mazda, Miata; 1997
47.105

Porsche, Boxster; 2002
47.114

[steved0x]

If/when only *1* Miata is ahead of me I will be happy. I am a way away from that...

At my last track I was talking with an instructor with a 991 C4S, and we were talking miatas and some folks come to a PCA HPDE and become aggravated when being passed by miatas. He had some some sage wisdom: "If you don't like being passed by Miatas you are in the wrong place "