My First Away Game

This past weekend was my first two day event with Team Grab & Go. Well, part of the team anyway. David was unable to get away this time. It was so exciting to finally run at the much heard of "Black Lake" Michelin Proving Grounds in South Carolina. Ever since I was offered the opportunity to co-drive with Jim Feinberg and David Spratte I've had a renewed interest and excitement for autocross. That's saying a lot, because everyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy this sport.


I must say, right up front, that Bernie has been my staunchest supporter, reminding me that this is my sport and I should take advantage of this clearly once in my lifetime opportunity to drive with two of the top drivers in the country. It's so strange how things happen in life. Never, ever would I have even dreamed of having such an opportunity presented to me. When Jim first asked me if I'd like to give it a try all I could say was "wow".


Anyway, off I went. The weather forecast was for rain on Saturday, but drying out for a beautiful Sunday, which was just about on target. Saturday morning brought showers off and on as we wandered through the country to reach the site. I was thankful to be able to follow Jim, for believe me when I say that Black Lake is in the middle of nowhere. Being one of the first cars to arrive we got a good pit spot and were immediately off to walk the course. It was just dawn and the rains had stopped, at least for awhile. Waffling back and forth about the wet conditions, we decided to leave the street tires on the car. Several more showers reinforced our decision. We watched the first heat with rain and rooster tails flying, but the second runs for that group seemed to be drying the course, so off we ran to change to R comps. Yep, this is a good decision, we're sure. Don't be mistaken, Jim was doing the heavy lifting, I'm just the tire and lug nut placer and wheel torquer. All fluff stuff, really. Then they're calling for heat two. That's our heat. Off we go. Being a two driver car we're on the front row. We'll be off and running in a few minutes. What's this? Rain? It can't be. We just put race rubber on the car. One glance at each other, "yeah, we can do it", and we're off to the pit to change to street tires before the grid worker gets to our slot. Back in time and Jim's out first. It was still pretty wet so probably a good decision to have made the change. The tires actually had a little grip, well, until brakes were applied. Still, it was wet. They had to be better than R comps. Now, I must mention, these weren't the "golden autocross streets". These were the 440 tread ware get down here from Sunny Fuquay street tires. We each had two runs. The conditions were changing, the rain had stopped, it was windy as all get out, and the track was drying. While I made my second run Jim headed back to the pit and got the R comps out again. When I finished my second run I drove straight back to the pit and we once again changed tires and were back in grid for our third runs. We each got our third runs in and realized that the right front was starting to cord and the tires were just cooked. Do we really want to go back and take the 225s we've planned to run on Sunday out for one run. Hell no. We took our forth runs with what we had left and were done for the day. So how many tire changes was that? I lost count, but decided I was getting the hang of this Jewish Fire Drill stuff. Oh yeah, there was one more tire change to get ready for Sunday. All this and I didn't even mention how many shock adjustments Jim made that morning. Every run was a new learning experience, which, after all, is why I was there. I had switched my entry to Pro to be assured of running at the same time as Jim for the ride-alongs. Besides, bumping up to Pro took all concerns about placing well in the class out of the mix. As it turned out, while I was well down the list....not at the bottom, mind you....of Pro, I would have placed second had I stayed in D Stock. So, for my first time out at a bigish event in the Integra Type R, I was pretty happy. Jim placed well considering the crappy tires. We knew most of the other Pros were on new stuff, so it wasn't so bad.


I learned so much on Saturday. I still have the same tendencies to brake too hard and over steer, and though my brain wants to ease onto the gas, my foot sometimes works like a light switch. A discussion about that on Saturday night while watching videos of our runs, helped to determine that I'm not looking far enough ahead, and perhaps not at the right things, exactly. That changed a bit for the better on Sunday. At least I gave it my best effort. I also learned a lot about gas points. So much is made of braking points, I think maybe gas points are more important, and braking should be done with them in mind.


One of the sidebars to co-driving with Jim is getting an early start in the morning. Sunday morning we met at 5:45 AM and were again on site by dawn. What a beautiful day. The course was reversed, I got in all the walks I needed with Jim and alone. Jim's a great guy to walk the course with, and has lots of cool little tricks to help remember the important stuff. However, I'm more the "you tell me what to do and I'll try to do it girl" and he actually wants me to think things through and understand what I'm doing. Damn coaching! But I'll get there. Then there's always the test...." what are you looking at now?" sort of thing. He says there's going to be more of that, so I'd better get used to it.


The main reason for going to Black Lake was to learn how to do National style sweepers. Something that we just don't see around here due to the size and shape of our sites. Sunday was the perfect day for that. Dry, warm and sunny. How could you not just be as happy as a clam? I worked on good entry, not over steering, controlling more speed in the sweepers while staying right on the cones, and not braking at all where a breathe or small lift would do. I actually found the rev limiter too. That was way cool. By our third runs the 225s were shot and I was amazed that my last run was .5 faster than my third. Of course I was still several seconds, three to four, I think, as final times have not been posted as I write this, behind Jim, but I'm working on it. 


At Black Lake, once you're there you can't leave unless there's a break in the event. We worked forth heat but were ready to go and bugged out ASAP after the last car finished. Four hours later I was home, tired but happy, and Bernie had dinner waiting. The perfect end to a great weekend.


We've got a Tour coming up in three weeks, and perhaps a Pro event either before that or in June. I am so excited about this year with some really great opportunities to autocross with the best drivers in the country. What's not to love. Thanks to all.