After 7 or so years of autcrossing, I've finally been able to make a track weekend. The local chapter of the BMWCCA ran a 2-day driver's school at Palmer Motorsports Park aka Whiskey Hill in Massachusetts in mid-October. Very unfamiliar territory for me to have the cash for the event and a car that's not broken. In preparation I put the CS brake pads on the car, fresh brake fluid, and some brake ducting. It might have been unnecessary, but there's not a lot of runoff room, and off the edge of the track is just sharp rocks for now. The track has a lot of elevation change and camber changes. The BMWCCA guys and the track put together an awesome, smooth, and safe event. My instructor was great. I had the lowest-powered car of the weekend, but had a ton of fun. The weather was cold, barely getting into the mid-40's at the mid point of both days. We even had a dusting of snow. The street-oriented/street-tired setup worked really well for me, the car was rotating a bit much, so I ended up running with a full tank of gas to settle the rear end down a little. I managed to take instruction/drive well enough to get a few point-bys, passing several BMW's and a 944 turbo routinely. My brakes never faded, my confidence only got higher, and I never lost control of the car. Going into turn 1 off of the main straight, I was just kissing 100mph at the end of the first day and into the 2nd. I had fun, learned a lot, and was a decent enough driver to not be in people's way(my main worry).
My Mazda2 and Friend/Weekend Roommate's Civic Si. He was doing really well all weekend
The wheels at the end of the event.
My instructor was teaching in two different run groups. This was his other student. Sadly there were some driveline problems (clutch and/or throwout bearing) and he was done partway through the first day. My very patient instructor was really slumming it with me in the Mazda.
As far as SCCA/Solo goes, I finished 2nd in Street Prepared for my region for the year. There were a lot of participants, but only 3-4 of us made all the events. On a relatively soft suspension and 205 section 2nd-tier street tires, I only really dominated a few runs--the monsoon rains we had for the first half of two events.
