Another Weekend of Autocrossing

Wow. Okay, so another weekend of car racing in the books, and Mom managed to get only a few more pictures of us this weekend than she did last weekend. But I'll forgive her. She was too busy making her (borrowed) car go around in circles that she was probably too dizzy to get many pictures of us.

Heehee.

But I'll get to that in a few. We went back out to Wendover on Thursday because Dad and Uncle Charlie were setting the course for the weekend, and wanted to get it done before it got dark. Because we had left the House With Wheels out at Wendover, and Uncle Charlie had done the same with his, we all piled into the Jeep; Dad and Uncle Charlie in the front, and me, Abby and Mom in the back seat. Whether it was because she was in the back seat with dogs (Abby, not me!) sitting on her, or she was just getting sickie-poo, Mom didn't feel very good when we got to Wendover, so while Dad and Uncle Charlie were setting the course, Mom was snoozling, so she didn't get any picture of the two 'boys' working away.

However, Mom was feeling better by the next afternoon, and attended a driving school. And lemme tell ya', Mom totally needs driving school! Heehee! Um. Apparently this was a school that was specifically designed for this event. This weekend's race was a 'ProSolo' which is kind of like a regular autocross, but the start is like a drag strip start complete with 'Christmas tree' drag start, and a 200 ft. straight-away.

The other big difference is that rather than one big course, there are two mirror courses, so as soon as you run one course, you come around and run the other course.

Mom, being Mom, decided that since she has only done this once before in her life (and it was about a month after she got her driver's license and was all focused on the fact that it was the first race in her life where she couldn't have a passenger helping her) and because she was driving a Mini Cooper (a borrowed one - and, ironically, the same sort of car she drove at her other ProSolo, except this car was quite a bit different from the one she drove then) she'd do the driver's school thing. Mom was a little nervous about the whole 'drag start' thingy and thought that if she had someone other than Dad or Uncle Charlie sitting in the car next to her, they might not frown as much. Heehee!

Here's Mom trying to look like she knows what the instructor is talking about (and the car owner looking at Mom to make sure that she knows how NOT to burn up his clutch...):

After the talking part, Mom took a bunch of 'practice starts'.

Note the look of utter concern on the instructor's face! Heehee!


Anyway, Mom managed not to blow up the car, and seemed to think she was 'ready' to race the next day.


After the school, Mom and Dad "walked the course"; you aren't allowed to see the course at speed until you race it, but you can walk it as much as you want. Which is a good thing, because Abby was being a Giant Pest again, and so Mom took her on course walks to see if she (Mom) could wear her (Abby) out.

It didn't work, BTW!

Mom was not the only one who was out trying to wear out highly-energized doggies, however. There was one lady who seemed to be dragged around the course by her Vizslas.

Apparently, Vizslas are warm weather doggies (like Dennis, who is from the mythical city of Sandy Eggo, where doggies need only wear fedoras) and are not used to the colder climates of us more Northern Lands. These girls got cold in the mornings, and had to wear coats! BTW, Dennis, these girls were pretty cute. I got their phone numbers if you are interested!

I guess it was actually pretty cold (I still am wearing my home-grown winter coat, so I didn't get bothered by cold weather), because there was another doggie who had her own coat. It included her own personal porter, too!

While it was cold and windy, it didn't rain this weekend, which made Dad quite happy, as he was driving the Franken-Miata.

Saturday rolled around, and since this was a National event, Mom and Dad were racing along with 160 other people.

The event was set up so everyone took 4 runs in the morning (2 on each course) and 4 in the afternoon, and then 4 more Sunday morning before they did the "challenges" (which I'd explain, but since neither Mom, nor Dad nor Uncle Charlie made it into any of them, it doesn't really matter).

Anyhoo, on the runs in the morning, Mom spun the car once (I should note that the owner of the car was not at all concerned), and hit a few cones, but managed to get times on 3 runs, so at least she was 'in the books'. (With the drag strip start, if you start before the light goes green you 'red light' and don't get a time - even if you are within thousandths of a second before the light goes green.) Dad ran some fast times in the morning, but red lighted 3 times, so both Mom and Dad were under a little pressure to get things cleaned up in the afternoon.

However... In the afternoon Mom spun the car two more times (she says it was because she was on cold street tires. I say it was because, well... Maybe Mom should have spent more time in the driver's school! Heehee!) and didn't get any faster. Dad cleaned it up and got times.

Dad doing human zoomies!

Abby and I looked out the door and watched the cars go by.

And there were LOTS of cool cars to watch.

Here are two very fast cars at the start.

Uncle Charlie and another 'D prepared' car heading off in mirror opposite directions.

This green thing was REALLY fast!

Yes, this is a truck. And it was surprisingly fast!

Here's Mom's co-driver (and the car owner).

Dad and Uncle Charlie were in an 'indexed' class (I don't totally understand it, but they use some formula to make all the prepared and modified cars "equal" - it really doesn't, but that's the theory), and so they didn't make the run-offs. Mom and her co-driver were in the 'Street Touring Extreme' class, and while they had fun, the Mini is not competitive in the class, and so they were battling each other for last place - Mom won the battle and was DFL in the class! But she had fun (and got to see the class from the 360-degree perspective!). And she did have her best run of the competition on her very last run of the event, so she was happy.

Computer problems in the afternoon on Sunday made the challenges start late, and since the Utah region was hosting the event, Mom and Dad had to stay and work the challenges, so we didn't leave Wendover until late, and got home very late last night. Mom and Dad are both worn out from two big weekends of racing, and so while I'm being all mellow and good, Abby is being her usual, PITA self. Which is why Dad has been forced to stick a Dingo bell on her nose.

Heehee.

*ahem*

In other excitement, Flat Brutus has made it to our house!!!! He didn't make it in time to go out to Wendover, but we have a local race next weekend, so Flat Brutus will get the chance to be an autocross doggie! Mom says that if he's really lucky, he may even get to ride along in one of the cars! Of course, we will be documenting Flat Brutus' adventures!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Pest