Garage Heroes In Training Oct 21, 2025

GHiT 0736: GHiT (finally) Goes Autocrossing/Solo

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Who hope to one day be the world's greatest driving heroes.

Created from the cosmic legends of the universe comes our team captain, The Vision, Bill Fisher.

And their soon-to-be wonder woman, Vicky Fisher.

And our captain marvel and head flight trainee, Jennifer Scriptjunk.

Their mission to fight injustice, share what is right and wrong,

to get you out of your house and come out racing with them and serve all mankind.

They are the Garage Heroes in training team.

Welcome to the Garage Heroes in training podcast. I'm going to be the host for the

spell, my name is Bill. And I'm Audra. I'm Vicky.

Yep, that's awesome. Miss Audra, it has finally happened.

We went to an autocross, not an autocross practice, not an autocross training,

a true autocross event where times were scored, classes were made, mistakes were made.

We did it. I'm so proud. I'm so proud of you.

Mistakes were made. But you had fun anyway though, right?

I did. I did. I did have a good time. Yes.

I would certainly do things differently next time.

Oh, but they could be next time.

Well, there's definitely going to be next times because they're, you know, to be all

honestly, they're just quick fixes, if you think about it, for the racing.

Just, you know, it's a day.

It's not the kilo of cocaine that endurance racing is for the weekend.

It's a shot of caffeine.

It's more like, you know, it's it's right.

Quite the same, but you can't OD. So there's that.

Yes, it is more than just a cup of coffee, though, right?

That's why I said, like, delicious cup of coffee, you know, coffee beans.

It just felt like it was a.

Flurry. No, it was.

Snowfall.

See, I want to keep saying noncommittal, but that's not the right word.

It is. It is when you go there, you don't have to take so much and you don't have to,

you know, it's it's a race weekend. It's a lot of bs-ing and.

But the car doesn't break.

Well, the car doesn't really break and you don't have to do a lot of maintenance.

You don't have to do the garage. You don't have to do the paddock.

You don't have to, you know, take all the food.

You don't have to, you know, it's just a nice, light day.

Yeah, that's what it felt.

It was a little checkbook, too, isn't it?

It was. Yeah, it was a little bit.

It was good. So, but, you know, in this instance,

so we end up going out at like homing mall, which is a closed mall,

and they used a good section of the track parking lot.

And not the parking lot.

And so the track was was pretty substantial in size for an autocross.

And of course, we, what's that?

Call it the course.

The course. Yes, the course.

So, but in this instance, that we took everybody with us.

So we had to take Zoe, our big 130-pound Bernese mountain dog.

And growing.

With us. Yeah.

And she was an absolute hit because she was a no maintenance dog.

She just sat on the sidelines and just hung out so much so

that one of the older gentlemen that was there watching everything came up

and goes, I must commend you on how well-behaved your dog is

because she was a very good girl.

In my head, I'm thinking she's well-behaved.

She's lazy.

She's very lazy.

Yes. So, yeah, she kind of went around to visit everybody and just hung out.

So she might end up being a track dog for these little events.

She she enjoyed herself too.

So that's lovely.

Well, there's always a lot of people that want to be petting the dogs at an event, right?

Yep. Yep.

So, Miss Audra, you've run many of these events.

You've participated in more of these events.

We we we did a few things not quite right.

All right. Let's let's hear the stories.

So it all started with registration.

So at the beginning,

as we open up the book,

chapter one, chapter one, things automatically go wrong.

So it wasn't all us.

So when they when they set it up in Motorsport, Reg,

they do cut and paste like event to event to event to event.

I've never been on the other side of Motorsports.

Right. I just signed in.

So when I signed up, it was saying it didn't give us a spot to put our SCCA numbers.

And it didn't give us a spot to put in what car we were in.

Really?

So I couldn't figure it out.

And I'm like, I know I have to put this in, but it wouldn't do it.

So then I was like, screw it.

We'll just do it day of.

And, you know, we will spend the extra eight dollars.

They're like, oh, we won't charge you the eight dollars.

I'm like, you have no idea how much we spend on a race weekend.

Eight dollars doesn't matter.

But thank you.

So anyway, we end up going there and then let's see.

The cool thing that they had, which was fun was

they gave out wristbands like the wristbands that lemons has

and everybody else has when you go to the track.

But on the wristband, they had a QR code.

And if you scan the QR code, it gave you the live scoring of the event.

Who knew?

I didn't find that out until like 1.30 in the afternoon when it was at 2.

So someone gave you something with a QR code and curiosity did not dictate you

to immediately take a look to see what it was.

Not only did curiosity not take over, I didn't even look at the band.

I just got a race band.

I'm like, OK, race band.

Yep.

You have one of those.

This one's yellow.

Yay.

Didn't even look.

But anyway, so we screwed that sort of with some help.

And then, let's see, it was Liam, our son, his girlfriend, Sid,

Vicki, Jennifer, and myself.

And then we got there with the dog because we were like,

all of a sudden we're like, OK, there's no one home with the dog

and we're going to be gone for the entire day.

So the night before we're like, oh, we got to bring the dog,

which isn't a terrible thing, but it's OK.

So we get there and then they're like, OK, there's a group and B group.

And I'm like, this doesn't work because if you're in the A group

and the other B group is working, then nobody's going to be watching the dog.

So I'm not going to race because I just had eye surgery.

Again.

Oh, boy.

Again.

You know what?

Here's what I've come to.

He's either very self-sacrificing or he's just not interested in racing anymore.

I would go with the former.

I would go with the latter.

Anyway.

And I'm staying the heck out of this.

Yep.

Good plan.

You can end up in the bathtub and you're not even here.

Max will be walking in tonight going, why are you in the bathtub?

Oh, it's a long story.

No, I literally had people on the side who'd be willing to keep an honor

since she wasn't going anywhere, but Bill wasn't going to.

They were going to have to do it for the entire day.

And I did not feel good about that.

No, we were going to be in and out.

We weren't going to be in and out.

We're going to be in the car or in the field.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter.

We got there.

Yeah.

Okay.

So.

So what were you going to drive?

You have five people in two cars or did you have three cars?

We had four cars.

Oh, you have.

Oh, okay.

Well, we have plenty of cars.

Yeah.

So Vicky and Jen were going to share the speckmiata, but wasn't on speck tires.

It was just on overly cooked, hand-cooked RS4s.

Ms. Vicky is in the middle of the day.

She says, how many heat cycles are on these?

And I'm like, and she's like, did you hear me?

I'm like, yeah, I'm still counting.

Hold on.

I'm like, it's over 40.

No, they're super sticky.

Yeah, super sticky.

They felt very rolly.

So I, you know, there was a lot of things I needed to do.

So I was forced to utilize our friend Jaime from the RaceFF podcast.

His way of telling when tires are worn out is when they start sparking, they're getting close.

So, so they weren't sparking yet.

So I said, just, you know, suck it up a needle.

She's like, I should change these.

I said, okay, you drive home two hours, go get the tires, bring them back two hours.

He didn't say that.

And we'll be gone in another hour.

So it's up to you.

That's all.

That was our only option.

We didn't have any, we did not have plan B.

So let's see.

So Jennifer and Miss Vicki shared the Miata.

How did, how did the, not with how you drove, how was the Miata for autocross, my dear?

The Miata was a lot of fun for autocross.

It is an autocross car.

It really is.

Good.

I think Jennifer enjoyed it.

She seemed to have fun.

And then Liam and Sid were driving his daily driver

a street tire, a Civic, I think it's a 2020 or 2023, I don't know.

SI, it's a manual.

So, so they had a good time.

Unfortunately, Sid got a little in her head and

she got spooked, worried herself and would not drive.

Oh no.

Yeah.

That's what we were saying.

But everybody was willing to take her out.

Everybody was willing to drive with her.

Everybody was willing to have her be a passenger.

She was, she was given the, if you want to, you can be the first person in line

where nobody's on the track and with an instructor and she just, she just didn't,

she wasn't feeling it.

But now afterwards she is feeling it.

So she wants to go do this.

So what was she afraid of?

Was she afraid of not finding the cause?

Was she worried?

She was worried.

She was going to be too slow.

She just has anxiety with driving a stick and car control anyway.

And I, you know, was just having this conversation with her.

I said, you know, we're afraid of what we don't know.

And the safest way of getting beyond that is going on a course where you can't hit anything

and go in and out of cones to get comfortable.

And it doesn't matter how fast you go.

Because there was an 80 year old woman out there that had to been going about 20 miles an hour.

And it was a darling.

She was in an older car, her grandson's car or her son's car.

I don't know, but she was out there with a much younger gentleman,

which I think was a family member.

And, and, you know, purple hair, you know, and she has a little badass.

And she went in there and just people were cheering

It didn't matter.

That's what we'll be doing someday, Vicki.

That's right.

Yep.

So the fastest car there did something like a 31 second lap.

And the the lady that Vicki was referring to, she was like 96 seconds.

So it was not fast.

No, no, that in walking speed, it really was not much more.

Yeah, that's okay.

You know what she was out there?

She was doing.

If she having a good time.

Awesome.

You know, and I think, you know, what that's

more than what it's about right there is just having fun.

Some people are way into it.

And there's some things I need to talk about because I don't get it.

I don't get it.

All right.

But well, why don't you do those?

And then we'll talk about our driving exploits, shall we?

Yeah.

So how about how about if we if if we discuss

besides our own exploits about.

But do you want to do the questions or exploits?

Yeah, let's do it.

Let's do the questions.

Okay.

And then we'll lead into the exploits.

I know what one of them is.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

All right.

So are you talking about what I had witnessed with all these other drivers?

Oh, okay.

I didn't understand why people had little pump bottles with spray water to spray

their tires and they were spraying their wheels.

And to me in my brain.

And their brakes.

And their brakes in my in my I don't know if they were doing the brakes because

mostly they worried on the tread or something.

But I didn't get it because they kept coming in like after every stint,

grabbing the tire, leaning up, it's hot.

And then they go over and get the water bottle and they spray the tire.

And then they set another person out.

Well, you know, to us, that's sticky tires.

Sticky tires are pretty good.

Right.

There's a line between sticky and not sticky.

Greasy.

Yeah, greasy.

So if they get too hot doing that across, because if you're,

especially if you're dual driving, they can get greasy.

So you want to keep them cool enough so they don't get that.

I mean, I don't know what your weather temperatures were.

I don't know if you're on concrete or asphalt.

Yeah.

But you know, your tires are rated for, but if they get too hot.

It was definitely asphalt.

Stop it.

Yeah, I didn't understand it only because my thought process,

because I'm coming out of the type of racing that I do, track racing,

is that you're only on there for a few seconds.

And you're not really getting to the speed say that we do on track

where it's like really pressured.

But you know, I guess that we prefer rotation more than we do,

sometimes sticky.

We value the rotation of the slide on the tire.

So I just, it was like I've never, I've been to eight autocross or seen autocross.

I never saw them pull out a water bottle and start spraying stuff.

It was only like three guys or three teams that were doing it.

And it was dual racers.

That was it also.

So maybe the cars.

They can definitely get too hot.

Max and I co-drive my M2 and especially during the warmer months,

they will get too hot and they will get greasy.

And you won't have the traction that you need.

This is a lot harder on the car and on the tires than doing track.

Like track is much more like smoother emotions.

You know what I mean?

It's not driving the car hard, but it's a different kind of hard.

And I think the tires do get hotter faster doing autocross than doing,

you know, just general track day.

Okay.

Understood.

It's more turns per second.

Yeah.

So yeah, there was that.

And I have to say when it comes to dual driving in a caged car, not ideal.

Not ideal because we had, I had the six point harness.

That was, that was a real pain.

So I think that if I had to do it again, I would not in,

I would not do it with that particular car.

Which brings us to our second fault of the day.

Which was?

We were under the impression that since it was a six point harness race car

that you had to wear Hans device.

Yep.

So we did not change the bolts in the helmet for Jennifer.

For Jennifer and Vicki to share the Hans device.

So Miss Vicki ended up giving Jennifer her helmet.

So our names were wrong for the entire first session.

Yeah.

So we, well no, yeah, only for the first, not for the first session,

but for the first run.

Okay.

Yeah.

So they were saying that we could change that after.

So it eventually got changed.

But yeah.

So we learned that Hans are not necessary for five point

when you're doing autocross.

That was something that we learned.

Six point, sorry.

Okay.

So error number two.

Yeah.

Error number two.

In between error number one, which was what?

Redistration.

Error number two was the performance of my team

during the pre-race walkthrough was abysmal.

What do you mean?

You can't miss a walkthrough.

Oh no.

Oh yes, you can.

Yes, we can.

Oh yes, you can.

So you go on to do the track walk.

I went completely off.

Like I, I, I saw the cone.

Okay.

Here's, here's what I'm thinking.

Joe Pesci and.

I know here's what I'm thinking.

Okay.

They at the drive through.

The weird thing about the autocross is that it requires

rapid processing and racing.

You don't really have to.

So even though I did the walkthrough,

I didn't exactly register where all the cones were.

I knew where they were, but when I was driving that fast,

I wasn't processing fast enough.

So I completely like towards the very end,

I wasn't even on the course.

I was on the infield and I was just going around.

Their guys are like, what the fuck?

You know, so.

So they didn't have any type of novice coach or anything?

They did.

Oh, no.

Oh, they did.

But they just saw the number on my car and figured I didn't need one.

When you are going around with the novice coach and you're kind of casually looking at

the cones and talking to everyone there, it doesn't really get you.

No, no, I did the walkthrough and I did notice everything.

It's just that I think on that, that particular infield,

I didn't know exactly where the cones were.

And Jennifer did the same thing like twice.

So I'm watching and I'm on the side.

Jennifer's first run was amazingly fast, amazingly fast.

I'm like, she's kicking my butt.

You know why?

It was like a sharp entrance right turn and then you went through a long sweeper into

a slalom.

And then it went to further on.

Jennifer turned that entire sequence into a really long sweeper.

Which must have been super fun.

Was.

And it's really fast to go through a slalom when you don't slalom.

Like if you just stay where the cones are always to your left,

she was amazingly fast.

This was error number four.

So when you get out there, I mean, when I first started out of crossing,

I hadn't done anything else.

And all I saw was like a sea of orange.

And I always had instructors with me to keep me on course because.

Nope, no instructor with.

Oh, single seater.

Oh, right, right.

So is that like, did she get out there and just see the sea of cones and.

Well, the idea of a pointing cone may have may, I'm not sure may have been

contemplated mentally, but not fully understood.

So it was more of a guideline than a rule.

So shall we go into, there were 10 rounds for the day.

And apparently in autocross land, you can get penalties for hitting cones,

which we did not do very many.

Oh, that's good.

Not many.

However, there's these things.

There's a special font they have.

It's kind of like a number.

And then it's another number.

And then there's a decimal and then there's three more numbers, right?

But the font is is weird in that there's this horizontal line right

through the middle of all those numbers.

I don't know if you know what this means, Audrey.

You may have seen it a time or two myself.

Once or twice.

Yeah.

So in an estimate of how many of these special fonts with a line through all,

out of the 10 runs, would you care to guess?

Care to guess how many each?

Perhaps two or three.

Yes.

Perhaps that would be acceptable, right?

Certainly.

How's six or seven?

Were they the six or seven before the ones that did not have the line through it?

Because then that is an acceptable scenario.

It was kind of line, line, line, good one, line,

good one, line, good one, good one, good one.

Oh, good.

So that's improvements for us today.

Oh, yeah.

Lines went down as the day went by.

Error number five for those.

That's just that's just novice stuff.

That's, you know, and honestly, I think that if, you know, I kind of went out there

way overconfident when I drove out there and I just should have taken the track and just drove

it first and in the second stint just banged it after I got comfortable.

But no, I didn't do that.

Error number six for the home game players.

Yep.

Arrogance will get you every time.

Yeah.

Well, I got humbled because the guy.

Oh, all you tracks.

The novice guy came by and was like, get in.

Okay.

I got it.

Here to guess, I've got two more that we can do really fast.

Oh, yeah.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Ms. Audra.

What are two things that are critical to your autocross and to your autocross safety?

Two things.

Two things critical?

Yes.

I'm not sure where you're going with this.

Okay.

I will, I will volunteer my answer since my question was so poor.

Ms. Vicki.

Tire maintenance.

How many times did you check the tire pressure?

I didn't.

Okay.

How many times did you check the torque on your?

I knew what the torque was, but I didn't do it.

Did you check it in a recent amount of time like perhaps that day?

No, I did before I took it out though.

So home game players were up to number eight now, right?

Yeah.

So I learned, I learned, listen, I've been humbled.

I've never been autocrossing.

I think at once.

So I got it.

It's an evil school, which is a practice.

Yeah.

I never really did it.

I got humbled.

And that's when I knew like on my very last day, I'm like, these tires feel really weird.

And that's when I realized I barely had tread on the outside of them.

So, hey, you know, it was a fun day.

I learned a couple of things.

I wasn't in there so much for the competition.

I was just there to have a good time.

Nope.

Miss Audrey?

So how did you go ahead?

I'm sorry.

It was a debacle.

We knew what we should do and we came.

We saw we did none of them.

Well, you know, also how much really, I mean, if you really think about it,

how much time did I really have in between because I had to share a car?

And that was a lot.

Yeah, that was a lot.

So, you know, if I did it all again, I would not share a car

and be able to properly do what I needed to do for a car.

I don't think sharing a car was a problem.

I think it was that it was a race harness.

A race harness was a problem.

Well, the cage.

You know, anyway.

For sharing was tough.

You did one and then she did one in the years.

Yes.

And then as soon as we were done, we had to go out.

So it's not like we had to do a whole lot of maintenance in between.

It was, you know, jump out and then kind of figure out what you had to do real quick.

But, you know, probably doing a pre-autocross podcast would have been great to kind of prep it

because there's a lot of stuff that I had forgotten that was necessary.

But, you know, when I go out and play again,

I'll know much better what I need to do the second time around.

Yeah.

So, you know, there's some learning curves for sure.

You know, the dual driving can be very busy.

So sometimes what Max and I will do is I'll take all of my runs or he'll take me.

Usually I make him take all of his runs to heat up the tires.

This is my car.

And then I'll take all of my runs.

So that actually gives us an opportunity to, like,

if you want to jump into somebody else's car and take a ride along or something like that.

So you guys don't toggle.

You just do your runs and then he does the runs.

Right.

Because, you know, we have all the seat adjustments.

So, you know, he's six foot three on five feet tall.

So that would have been freaking smart.

But no.

I'm running out of fingers to think of for the next time.

Plus, it'll give you, like, I think the important thing is for you to,

like, buy yourself some time to jump in with someone else and, you know, have a ride along.

Error number nine.

Sometimes the obvious is just so overlooked.

I'm mastering the hard stuff.

It was a sad, sad day.

Yeah.

Sounds like it was a great day.

You learned a lot.

It was a good day.

My son bailed, like, after the first sessions.

Lunchtime.

Because, yeah, around lunchtime because he had to go home and study for midterm.

He was taking a midterm.

He wasn't studying.

Oh, yeah.

He was taking the midterm.

Oh, boy.

He had to be home for that.

But he came out to enjoy our day, which was nice.

It was our anniversary, which was even nice.

Wow, that's an anniversary.

Thank you.

So we went out and we played and we invited the family.

And how was it working the course?

Okay.

So I, the course was fun because, you know, I can, I can bullshit with anybody.

So, so I had a ball just messing with the people that,

that I was with Jennifer, not so much because Jennifer ended up out in a part of the field

around for one, two, when she just got all the sun, all of the sun.

And the thing was, is that I did have umbrellas that she probably could have spent some time

over like with a group.

She probably could have shifted with her group because there was like,

there was three people per each section.

So she would have been able to get a little bit of reprieve.

And I know another guy that was near us where he just,

he had to walk off the course and had somebody come.

But she ended up getting it to where the next day she goes,

I just, I have a migraine and I'm just nauseous.

I'm just so nauseous.

I'm like, you're, you're dehydrated is what you are.

You were out in that sun because her whole face was red with just,

you know, not from sun, you know, like sunburn.

She was just having a heat situation.

So a couple of things before you go out across in the day before,

you should front load and drink as much water as you can.

And then the day of like, literally, you should have a gallon of water.

Like everything that you should be doing in between driving

is hydrate and sunscreen, sunscreen.

That's all you do all day.

Hydrate and sunscreen.

Yep.

And I don't think she was doing that.

So she ended up like not going to work the next day,

or she left early because she said she had a splitting migraine.

Like it's like a tingling migraine.

It was kind of like one of those things.

So number 10.

Yeah.

But I ended up having shade in my part, my section.

So it wasn't terrible, but it was fun.

I mean, we really enjoyed it.

I had two like younger kids with me.

And I kind of did a lot of pointing.

And I did, you know, I did have questions about,

you know, what, well, one of the guys was there who was,

you know, he had the horn and he was the one

that was radioing in in our group.

And I was like, what does CS mean?

And then he told me what CS meant.

And then I'm like, and then I saw like, yeah.

And then I was like, I saw like a GS.

And I'm like, and it kept going.

And I'm like, does this go like all the way to letter Z?

And he goes, no, it stops like around H or something.

And then it's like novice.

And then I saw one go by and it was like BS.

I said, I want to be good enough to have BS on the side of my car.

And of course, they just thought that was funny.

But Jennifer was like, I want AS on mine.

So, but that would require a lot of work.

But anyway.

Different car.

Yeah.

So I was actually learning what those symbols were because

this is a whole other field for us.

And the other thing too, because we had to share a car,

is that I had, you know, my car number is 23.

And we had to get blue tape to put,

every time I was in the car, I had to put a one after the three.

So just so they can keep track of who was who,

which we didn't do like practically the whole first stint

that we were out there.

Error number 11.

Yeah.

So, you know, things to know, things to know.

But I know now, you know, because going in there as a novice,

I went in as a true novice, but I still came out third place.

So for novice.

Good.

Yeah.

Same in that.

Nice.

Yep.

So Miss Vicki came in third.

Awesome.

Most importantly, our son came in fifth.

And he left half a day.

In a better car.

With more power.

Yep.

Better powered weight.

But you were in the same class.

Yeah.

No, I know.

But he came in.

We were all novice.

He came in fifth.

Vicki came in third.

Tell me I'm not having fun with that.

Yeah.

I'm sure you are, but I can totally justify every reason why Vicki's car should be

kicking his butt all week long.

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story, Arthur.

You know.

Well, I'm sure.

Since I can listen to the podcast, so you're safe.

Exactly.

But I do have to say it is like, you know, instead of racing on the track,

where it's like sequences of just adrenaline.

Those things are like little bullet shots of adrenaline when you're on autocross.

They are.

It's like, oh, you're chasing the adrenaline because it's so brief.

I can see why, you know, it's like a little junkie thing.

It's like little fixes are constantly having little fixes like, oh, I could do it again.

Oh, what do you mean?

I got to wait for like another hour and a half before I get back on there again.

So that's the only downside about that.

I find about the autocross is that they're so freaking quick.

And then, you know, you have to figure out what you did and then you got to wait.

And then you get back on again.

That's the only downside about the autocross because I guess you used to having that long

term adrenaline rush.

I mean, you have like a 10 minute adrenaline rush, you know, when you're on the track,

you know, before you kind of level in.

But you know what, I would say autocross is a great in between race fix,

you know, for car control.

And that's one thing I kept telling Sid, you know, about you'll feel a lot less nervous

about working a car and then working the shift and having car control.

You got to look at it like car control, not racing, but car control for you.

Right now.

And I said, you'll have way more confidence.

And you know what, you paid be there too.

And you don't have anything to prove to anyone.

See, no, because you know what?

The reality is nobody cares.

Nobody cares.

As long as you're not hitting anybody, you're fine.

More people to play with.

And I find generally that autocrossers love novices.

Like they want to help you.

They want to get you up to speed.

You know, people are super psyched when you come in and you're like really slow.

And then they see you get so much faster by the end of the day.

More people to play with, more people to play with.

And that's what it was.

But the other thing too is what really stunned me is that that parking lot was empty in 20 minutes.

I mean, there was like, I'm sitting there going, oh, okay.

You know, we're afterwards.

We're going to have like a little kumbaya at the end or something like that.

You know, no, no, like people were gone.

Like there's a cone-sucking monster out there.

And those cones are like.

Right.

Well, then a half an hour, it was like nobody was there.

It's like it never even happened.

Never happened.

I was that kind of stunned me a little bit.

Just a little bit.

The guy's like, hey, did you have a good time?

Like, hey, could you come back again?

Yeah, sure, I will.

No, I mean, no problem.

It was really great.

I learned, I learned a lot.

You know, I did, I did learn a lot.

And, and I said, but yeah, it was fun.

And, and next thing I know, it's like half the parking lot was empty.

And it was like, where did everybody go?

And they were just gone.

Which leads me to a question, Miss Audra.

If this is the style of autocrossing,

why were you so slow to get out of the paddock at your first lemon straight?

That's a very good question, Bill.

The very good question.

You know why?

It's because all the stuff kept coming and coming and coming

out of the pad, out of the garage area.

It's like, what do you mean, we got more?

But really, so the first one was New Jersey.

Yes, yes.

It was so messed up.

Yes, it was.

Right.

And then the second one was Thompson.

And we was like autocross.

Like you, you pick up at the end of the day.

But no, no, it takes a day longer at the track.

You have to, you know, in the morning.

You guys started right after the track.

First, first driver goes out.

What don't we need?

Put it away.

That's right.

So you'll, you'll note now that our garage is completely empty by noon on Sunday.

So if the car breaks afternoon, it sucks to be you.

Whatever.

Can I borrow something out of your garage?

I'm sorry.

Jeremy, put your pants back on.

I need your.

Jeremy does have a problem keeping his pants on.

It is always half naked.

Yeah.

Yeah, but it was a fun.

Jennifer did well too.

She, she, okay.

So since the beginning of the year,

and as much as we, we kind of went into a half hiatus this season,

we didn't do a lot of in between races.

We didn't.

And some of the races we didn't even make.

But that also affected Jennifer because Jennifer is attached to us in that way.

So when she got done, she was just like all fired up again.

It was like somebody had just like lit that match under her butt.

And she was just ready to go.

She, you know, she, she just kept calling like, thank you for taking,

you know, let's, you know, that was a lot of fun.

You know, I really appreciate it.

I, you know, you could tell how much she missed it, the adrenaline part.

And of course she's already had like a lot of changes in her life right now.

So that was us not racing would have been a sense of normalcy.

And we didn't have that either, but you know, us going out,

this is going to be our last race coming up at the end of the month.

And then next year, you know, I think we're going to go ahead and put a couple

autocrosses in between, you know, the races, you know, probably local.

Oh, that's great.

That's really good.

You know, you're about to, you guys have been, you know,

giving me a hard time about autocrossing all this time.

Now you're finding with the joys of autocross.

It's very social.

Yeah.

But what else did you learn like about, you know, car handling and

where you should be on the cones and things of that nature?

Well, my issue more than cones.

I don't, I mean, besides the fact that I missed the whole,

you know, infield of the end.

Only a couple of times.

Of the end of the course, twice.

No, once.

I did that once.

You had a few others then because there was a few scratches on your list too.

Yeah.

I would say that starting like punching it and getting up to speed quickly

is something that I wanted to work on.

I didn't have as much confidence in the sweeps.

Because I felt like.

What do you mean sweeps?

Well, they were just like the broader turns.

You know, like the end of the course and stuff like that.

Going in and out of the cones was not a problem for me.

Like those reactions were fine.

Coming to like the 90 degree, that was fine.

But I think it was managing the sweeps because my car was off balance

and then trying to maintain the speed and the slide at the same time.

Were they off camber?

No, no, I think my tires, I think my tires were worn and and they were probably

could have like if I had taken a couple pounds out of it,

it probably would have been better.

Now that I'm thinking about it because I didn't really have that nice edge on it.

My tires were worn and I don't think that I had that outer grip that I wanted.

So I would be very, I'm not blaming that because I'm not sure.

But I just know that my car felt a whole lot more role in the wheels.

Like not having a solid edge on my sidewall, that makes any sense.

It felt bald almost on that one part of the tire.

So I felt that.

But I'm not saying that was a reason why my car was doing what it was doing.

But I would be interested to see what it would be like if I had,

you know, proper tires and new tires on it.

So what about your approach to the cones?

Did you learn something there?

I just know that I kind, you know, when I was doing it,

probably when I was going into like the box for the hard right and coming out,

I probably could have done that better.

But I don't think my tight S's were a problem.

I thought that I was pretty tight on those.

I didn't hold anything very wide.

But.

So you were back siding the cones as you came through the psalms?

I'm not sure because I didn't see anything.

I didn't not.

I don't think I knocked anything over or if I did knock anything over,

I didn't knock much over.

But I would.

But here's the thing is that I really, I really don't know

because I don't know what that looks like.

Mm hmm.

So it would have to be somebody like videotaping it

or somebody even telling me at the end,

because honestly, when I got to the end,

I barely knew what the numbers meant.

Okay.

Because I was I wasn't.

I wasn't looking for it.

More than I was paying attention to what everything was.

Now that I know what everything is,

I know how the course works and I know what to expect

the second time around.

Everything would be way different.

But I think this is like everything was new.

And, you know, kind of going on to a course

you're not familiar with and not a whole lot to explain

because everybody kind of already knows what's going on.

So it's not like I really had a learning experience on that.

So when they didn't do any type of like novice walkthrough

or anything, they didn't walk.

They didn't walk through, but they really didn't explain

everything or where my car should be.

They didn't do the walk.

You walk the course for the for the elevation on it

or where the cones were and how much distance you have,

but not no discussion of where your car should be

or what your entry should be

or how you should approach everything.

There was really no discussions on that.

But that also could be them thinking that I was,

you know, I had a number on my car

and I probably didn't need that.

And I didn't know to ask for it.

So but now I know going back in.

Well, now I'm getting better on, you know, what questions.

And I'm sure when it came to the sweep,

I think what they did say, as they were explaining was,

you don't want your car to slide

because sliding means you're not going fast.

So try to keep all your tracks and all your wheels going forward.

You don't want to drift.

The drifting isn't helping you here.

So I do remember that conversation,

but not so much about where to put the cars,

you know, going through.

It was just, you know, go through fast.

You know, but you know, what does that look like?

So but I was trying to learn watching other cars

and how they were doing it.

But, you know, it's also Miata.

So I mean, they're small tight and they're very reactive.

So they're great autocross cars.

You know, this guy, I've heard of this guy

that has a great book on autocross techniques.

What's his name?

Ross Ross something.

Ross starts with a B.

What's a B at the end?

I think it's like a type of car.

I think it's a type of car.

His name is heard.

That book is really good.

Yeah, I might have to look.

I might have to find it.

When you think of his last name, let me know.

We'll do.

We'll do in the meantime.

I mean, you can buddy up with, you know,

some experienced autocrosses.

If one would be on the podcast at some point,

perhaps they could share a car with Miss Vicki

because about the same size.

I'm just saying.

I think someone would love to do that.

I think that would be super fun.

I think I hook up with Max.

And you hook up with Vicki and Jen.

And we can.

And you guys can have Jeremy

as long as he keeps his pants on.

Well, like we know that's not going to happen.

But he's going in Max's car.

I think, yeah, really, that's another seat.

I want a different seat.

I think we need a mass Devon's event next season.

You definitely do.

Yeah, I think I think a beautiful spring day

for autocrossing somewhere would be really lovely.

I think we need to make this happen.

Yeah, we're all in the north anyway.

So we can certainly go east.

And we can go visit Miss Mia, make a big trip.

Oh, yeah.

Her friends all want to go racing now.

She's been talking with my friends want to go racing.

We should put them in autocross cars.

Yes, you should.

We can do that.

Everybody drives cars up and put them on an autocross.

So put them in a helmet.

We have enough helmets.

Well, meet in Burlington.

Did we miss anything, Miss Audra?

Did it sound like we screwed this up enough?

Did we do our job?

11 errors?

I think that you had a great experience.

And you know, like novice mistakes were made.

But nobody died.

Nobody died.

You had a great time.

You know that you want to come back.

And now you know that you should be a little bit

less hard on me about being an autocrosser.

No, it's quite, you know, it's reflexes is what it is.

It's all reflex.

What it feels like, like really snap thinking.

Snap thinking is what it felt like.

What about my car maintenance while I'm there?

Maintaining air in and out constantly and.

Yeah, you definitely need to take a look at your tire pressures.

And what we normally recommend to people is that you get some chalk

and you chalk like you would to see where it is rolling over.

You need to chuck a little arrow things to see where they're rolling over

and you adjust from there.

When you, you know, you have the right temperature

and that's that's what you maintain.

So throughout the day, you'll probably be letting air out as they heat up.

And you want to keep an eye on that because if they come too inflated again,

you're going to get greasy.

On hot days, you definitely want to look into a water spray.

Particularly if you are dual driving because those tires will get super hot

and it's a good idea to keep them cooled down.

Yeah, that's, you know, and then the driver maintenance,

make sure that you drink a gallon of water while you're there.

Make sure that you pre-hydrate the day before.

Get sun hats, umbrellas, lots of sunscreen.

Mm-hmm.

Audra.

It was a nice try, but you know, I'm still going to make fun of you and all across.

There's no, there's no chance.

No, I'll tell you what.

You can make fun of her when you get behind the wheel.

Me, me, me, me, me, me.

Yeah, and that's a whole description I didn't hear who you were driving with.

I was, uh, somebody's got to do it.

I give up my day so everybody else could have fun.

Well, we're going to have to do something about that.

Indeed.

I have my new eyes.

I'm good.

I'm good to go.

Yeah, both are fixed now.

Yep.

The knee problem is all set.

Uh, knee is good.

Rib is good.

Eyes are good.

Well, the left baby toe is doing okay.

I'm just that.

Working on that though.

Inch by inch or pound by pound, whatever.

We're getting there.

Oh.

Piece by piece.

Next season, rocking and rolling, starting to get to feel, starting to get to feel.

Ms. Vicki's got a couple of events to end this year and then we will, uh, 2025 in the books.

Fantastic.

That was a rough one.

And you're going to go into 2026 as autocrossers.

My work here is done.

Could we, could we just run your hair?

Her hand right through her hair.

All right.

Well, uh, if that's a podcast episode, I have to tempt you, uh, very hard after the episode

and, uh, see what we can do.

Yeah, absolutely.

Once the schedules come out, we should, uh, book a date and make it so.

Three more days as a record.

Actually, when this comes out a little, the most of the, uh, organization should have their schedules out.

Yeah.

Yep.

You can start planning.

Awesome.

Any interest in, uh, ice racing with us this winter?

You know, I've never done that.

I know.

That's why it needs to happen.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm allergic to the colds.

It's the only problem.

We can get two pairs of socks, some nice shoes, and, uh, Ms. Vicki knows how to make hot chocolate.

Oh, well.

We can get this done.

There are no bad days.

Just bad clothing.

I've, I've heard that.

Yeah, a couple of times myself.

You don't want to be wearing boots.

That's a bad day.

So we'll see.

Oh yeah.

If there's an opportunity to do some ice racing, I've, I've never,

ice crossed.

I've never done it.

And that does sound super fun.

It does.

I think it needs to happen.

I need to figure this out.

We need the winter to cooperate.

I've had two straight years where I was ready and nothing.

No frozen lakes.

Is there any way we could, uh, get a hose out the Devons and just spray the whole damn thing?

So we asked them about that and, um, we are not successful in our endeavor.

Is there any way we could have a hose out there and just accidentally leave it all?

I don't, I don't think that we can make that happen.

Um, they weren't thrilled with that idea.

You know, they weren't.

No, no, it was very unfortunate.

Hate when people get in the way of a good time.

Yeah.

Well, we'll figure some military entities that are also using that facility.

So apparently it would impede their efforts for their own training.

And that matters to who?

Not me.

We're talking autocross in this ice.

Come on.

You got to practice landing in all forms of weather.

Why not?

Would just let us ice the whole thing down.

See how good you guys are.

Right.

Suck the peopansies.

Yeah, that is not how it works.

All right.

Don't do it.

Are they going to cancel the war because, oh, it's snowing?

No.

Well, you have, what do you, what is that, an abandoned mall that you're at?

Yeah.

I asked them how many, how much more dollars could we pay to,

to instead of using this one quarter of the mall parking lot,

have the autocross go all the way around?

That would be hilarious.

They said it's not us, it's the insurance company.

So what we heard, so, you know, for years we tried to get other sites.

And the thing that the people going out to do this were always told,

it went through like management and their insurance and everything.

Everybody was like, yeah, go, go, it's great.

And then it would get to the maintenance people and they were like, no way.

What's it going to do?

Well, that's what they were afraid of.

What's it going to do?

We're not, we're not driving big foot out there.

We're driving 2,000 pound cars.

All right.

Well, we'll conquer that battle.

Nice racing on the list.

All right.

Hopefully we'll have that done next season.

Thank you so much for coming on and helping us.

My pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

Our little cross training.

Time to go to next season when we get to go out and do it together.

That will be super fun.

It will be super fun.

Hopefully we'll cut our arrows down to single digits.

Yes, yes, you will.

All right, very well.

All right.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

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About this episode

The Garage Heroes team dives into their first real autocross event, sharing the highs and lows of the day. From registration hiccups and tire troubles to learning the nuances of cone navigation and car control, they reflect on the challenges and fun of autocrossing. They discuss the social atmosphere, the quick adrenaline bursts, and the importance of hydration and tire maintenance. The episode also touches on the benefits of autocross for building driving confidence and the team's plans to incorporate more events in the future.

BMW M2 Mazda MX-5 / Miata

Original notes

GHiT 0736: GHiT (finally) Goes Autocrossing/Solo

Our team showed up in force to a recent SCCA Autocross (code name Solo) event. We had four cars, five drivers and nearly a dozen errors, lol. Want to know what it was like? Want to hear all that we screwed up? Its in here. AND We had to have Audra on for this one.

Did we miss something? Please let us know at [email protected]

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/GHiTAutocrosses

We hope you enjoy this episode!

If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing:

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Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating, that we would appreciate very much. Even better, a podcast review would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would appreciate it.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Ben, Alan, Jeremy, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes in Training Podcast and Garage Heroes in Training racing team drivers

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