The Oregon SCCA has an autocross race April 1st and 2nd at PIR. Neither my wife or I have ever raced before and have decided to give it a go. It would be fun to have another Fit out there dodging cones as well. Is there anybody in the area that cares to join? After all, these cars are fun in the corners...

Oregon SCCA Schedule:
2017 Solo Event Schedule - Oregon Region - Sports Car Club of America

 

It's my favorite hobby. You should have fun?

Here's a couple tips that might help your day go smoother for you, especially through tech.

Remove all the loose items inside your car. That means empty the contents of the glove box, center council, in back or everywhere. I usually put important stuff like insurance card, and owners manual in some tupperware beforehand. That way I can have it in the car, yet take it all out quickly at the event and keep it dry and from blowing away.

Remove your spare tire area contents Spare tire, spare tire cover, lug wrench, jack and whatever is in the spare tire area. Some clubs will let you keep the spare tire if securely held down. The other contents generally have to be removed so you might as well remove the tire also.

Reason for the above two: Even though autocross is one of the safer form of motorsports, there's still risk. If something were to happen and you rolled your car, would you want a bunch of stuff flying around inside with you? Glove boxes would probably fly open and all that junk would be in the car with you. Besides getting hit with a jack or bowling ball wouldn't be fun.

Remove your floor mats. Doesn't make a difference if you have Weather Tech custom fit or whatever brand. The concern is the floor mat getting bunched up and under the brake or accretion pedal.

Check that your battery is securely tied down. I'm told this is the number one reason cars fail tech. Not sure if batteries get changed and the parts to secure it never get reinstalled? IDK, but check it.

Gas. Have either a full tank or less than a 1/4 tank but enough for the full day racing. About the worst is 1/2 a tank. It will slosh around and that movement might be enough to make you spin when your pushing your car at its limits.

Air. Air up your tires before hand, you can always remove some air. Some clubs have air compressors, some don't.

People conveniences. Bring a cooler with water/snacks and some chairs. Allot depends on the size of the club and how it's ran and/or the run order. Larger clubs in my area routinely get 200 people. We usually race two heats, work one and have one off. It's nice to have something to sit on while watching for an hour or so.

Numbers. This is my pet peeve and you'll see what I'm talking about when you work the course. If you use tape numbers since it's your first time that's OK. The rules give minimum size requirements. You don't have to make the numbers to the size minimum. You can make them as big as you want. Please make them big with a good contrasting color. Tape numbers are very hard to read for corner workers. Here's a good example.


Lastly:

Instructor. At check in, tell them you're new and would like an instructor. They will either take note or tell you when to say something such as after the drivers meeting or give you some instructions. One club I run with tells the novices at the drivers meeting to turn on their hazard lights in grid if the want an instructor. Every club does things differently. The biggest thing is the club wants you to have a good time and come back. You won't have fun if you're running over a bunch of cones and getting lost on the course. Take advantage of it, its free and you might learn some stuff about car control

Have fun, good luck

 

The crew in Portland is relatively layed back and the venue is not physically very large, A LOT of folks (If its not raining) use the paint pens on their side windows for their numbers from what I've seen. Especially for the novice group. You can email them and ask any questions from the web page for Oregon SCCA.

Have fun...

 

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it.