Neat Places to Autocross

[Sebastian Rios]

The Fresno Region had an event at Lemoore NAS last weekend, after watching a couple of vids, I've decided it's one more of my growing list of cool places to autocross.

Here are some site that I want to visit but haven't yet:
Lemoore NAS, Fresno CA - Big concrete
Mineral Wells, Texas - HUGE
Coronado San Diego, CA. Maybe someday, they do have a vintage race weekend once a year.
Lincoln NE (See ya at Nats!)
Alameda, San Francisco, CA
Marina Airport, Marina, CA - Concrete and sand dunes
Crow's Landing, CA
Taylor, AZ - looks interesting

Here are some neat places I have autocrossed at:
Packwood, WA. - Autocrossing in the forest. Beautiful scenery
Castle AFB CA (the original!)- Was probably the best site on the west coast.
El Toro, CA - nuff said
Qualcomm SD, CA - Elevation change!
Nellis AFB - Grippy concrete + free real life airshow (active AFB)
Wendover - Cool scenery/History
Denver Airport - Grippy concrete


So what about you all? What are some of your favorites and why?

[Giovanni Jaramillo]

Marina Airport, Marina, CA - Concrete and sand dunes

BMWCCA - Golden Gate Chapter autocrosses there which I heard is very fast and grippy as opposed to the OTHER place they auto-x: "The Stick"!

As in Candlestick Park (home of the NFL S.F. 49ers). Talk about a gravel pit...literally on gravel and dirt so bad, that any NON-AWD might as well go home. But very big open lot. Went there one time to help instruct at one of their weekend events. Think Qualcomm Stadium minus the elevation changes but instead throw in the S.F. Bay literally at the end of the lot and wind coming off the water. Bring a windbreaker and gloves (unless it's summer).

[Randy Chase]

Interesting places I have autocrossed

Lemoore NAS. Interesting town to stay in. Military base was pretty strict. Very grippy concrete.
Lubbock Texas. College town. Interesting weather. Miles and miles of grippy concrete.
Wendover. Grippy concrete. Interesting town. Bonneville. History.
Atwater. Crap town but close enough to Merced and Yosemite. Grippy concrete.
Packwood Washington. The smell of fresh cut pine. Elk walking down a misty main street in the morning. Fresh hot coffee.
Marina. Small lot. But close to the ocean. Always a plus.
Some place in Oscoda Michigan. Grippy concrete. White fish. Near the water.
Naval Training Center. Good asphalt and on the water. Now gone.
Denver Airport. Great location. Easy to fly in and out of. Grippy concrete. Easy roll down to Topeka. Miss this place.
Lion Country Safari. Did not like the surface.
Texas Motor Speedway. Did not like the surface.
San Berdoo. Did not like the surface. Cool place though.
Soak City/Coors Ampitheater, Chula Vista. A but small but nice.
Some casino parking lot in south Oregon.
Local Airport at Lake Tahoe. Nice location.
Qualcomm. We are very lucky
El Toro. Also very lucky.
Fontana. Ahh the smell of compost...

[Mako Koiwai]

bring a windbreaker and gloves (unless it's summer).

You mean, especially if it's summer. There's a reason Mark Twain said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco!"

When the fog rolls in during those summer afternoons, the tourists in their shorts find themselves trapped at Fisherman's Wharf like if they were on Everest.

[John Stimson]

Talk about a gravel pit...literally on gravel and dirt so bad, that any NON-AWD might as well go home.

It's not that bad -- There was an A-Stock S2000 that took TToD once back in 2008, after the chip seal that screwed up the surface. It used to be a great site before that, but it was sprouting potholes. The stadium resurfaced it, apparently by using 3M post-it adhesive to stick some black sand to the surface. The problem now is that no one who uses the site has it vacuumed by a street sweeping machine, so there is a ton of loose grit hanging around.

Alameda is a great location and some nice pavement, but a little narrow.
Castle totally rocked. Great pavement, huge area, but hot and dusty and occasionally smelly (lots of cow concentration camps in the area).
Great America was my favorite new site. A 5-10 minute drive from my house, so dirt, bumps, and size were all pretty much irrelevant. I ran there on two weekends, then I moved away!

[Tom Berry]

Ok.. lets find out who the real " Old Timers" are.
How about UC Riverside in parking lot #5
Curbed planters...sloped lot... the courses went to within 4 or 5 feet of trees and curbs. Most events saw a car being towed away after hitting something. And you spent almost all day there to get your 3 runs in... but you didnt need to work. I still have hand written copies of results with some your names on them... so fess up before I start going through them a calling out your names.

[Jason Isley BS RX8]

I still have hand written copies of results with some your names on them...

You need help:

http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/index.jsp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Eric Clements]

Great America was my favorite new site. A 5-10 minute drive from my house, so dirt, jumps, and size were all pretty much irrelevant. I ran there on two weekends, then I moved away!

Fixed that for you. Did a Phase 1 & 2 there last weekend. We had Ryan take the rental car straight over some of the humps and learned it didn't take much speed to get air if the course wasn't set up to compensate for them!

Telling people that I've autocrossed in Peru and Rome is always fun. After the conversation lingers a while fill them in that it was Rome, NY and Peru, IN.

[Robert Puertas]

Riverside international raceway - my first event!
buttonwillow - wish we could go back there!
crows landing - norcal pro solo back in the late '80s / early '90s
the streets of palm springs - I was first car out and Sonny Bono who was mayor at the time waved the starter's flag!
Lion country safari - lots of great memories from this place despite the crappy surface

[John Fendel]

Turn 8 at Riverside - fast wide open course - now bankrupt shopping center
Seattle Internat Raceway - used South portion of road course
Ford plant Milpitas - 1/8 mile wide by 1/4 mile long with 5 light poles - fast open courses - now shopping center
Cambria Time Trials - undeveloped housing tract - couldn't start running till after the local church let out - now built on
Abandon air field outside Bakersfield - lots of open concrete
Sacramento Fairgrounds - competed with early corvettes, real cobras and jaguars
Pleasanton Fairgrounds - small lot, two laps per run, fierce competition
Ford Aeronutronics in Newport Beach - great asphalt parking lot
Vandenburg Air Force Base - small sports car club - great concrete
Santa Maria Airport - close to ocean
Pt Magu Naval Air Station - great concrete - fast course tear down for arrival of Air Force One
Ford dealership in Napa - tiny asphalt lot - two laps per run
Madonna Inn shopping center - small sloping asphalt lot
Duel at DeAnza College - small lot, lots of planters, big cheering crowds - still runs once per year
Hot Imports show at Dominguez Hills Bike Park - ricers didn't have a clue
Anaheim Stadium - nice lot, uptight management
Lion Country Safari - broken asphalt in places - cool in summer - close to home

[Sebastian Rios]

This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dgg_Y9T ... r_embedded looks like a cool place. Where is it, maybe Maryland?

[Jason Isley BS RX8]

I wonder how many years off my life I lost doing the event at the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. :ibrightdea:



The events outside of the Tillamook air park were cool. Slightly larger than the Tustin hangers.

[Britt Dollmeyer]

This looks like a cool place. Where is it, maybe Maryland?

Panama City, Florida.
It does look look like a great site.

[Michael Wood]

I've been fortunate to autocross at lots of great places in the five years I've been doing this stuff. When I started, my first "home track" was Castle and we had lots of two day events...the best was AAS and, seeing as Nationals was still at Forbes, we'd get lots of fast drivers from up and down the coast on a typical weekend.

Been to Blytheville (very good site), HPT and Packwood for "arrive and drives"...jumping in a strange car and running against the best is tough duty, for me.

But, probably the neatest place I've run was Maui. They have a rabid bunch of Soloists over there, enthusiastic in spite of a site that is equal parts asphalt, gravel, weeds and quickcrete at Maui Raceway Park. Here's a pic of me flogging a rental Pontiac G6 GT at MRP:

[Pilar Miranda]

Here are a few more, maybe not the best but interesting...
Santa Barbara City College - postage stamp sized lot with planters and light poles
Ventura County Fairgrounds - asphalt
Shaffer Airport Bakersfield - abandoned concrete airfield (same one John F mentioned)
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus parking lot - can you say planters, light poles and curbs?
Rio Hondo College - I think this is the one where you started out on the upper level parking lot and drove down a slight hill and went left to the next lot (~1984)

my personal favorites? Castle Airport (of course!) and Crows Landing

[Mako Koiwai]

Santa Barbara City College ... where I did my first couple of AX's in the late '70's ... Not Worthy IMO! Paddock would be in the left parking lot. Courses always featured a 360 ...

(Arg ... I posted photos of the Lancaster Fair Grounds and our courses ... where Team Blew hosted a couple of very popular Rim of the World AX's and the LA Country Drag racing parking lot ... where we held the ESX/Team Blew AX/Drag Racing double header ... but I must have hit Preview instead of Submit. Grrrr)

Took some stills yesterday but this shows the lots better)

[Ira Cruz]

I think no one has mentioned Pierce College in Woodland Hills. no curbs but trees and lamp posts.
there's also a college by Mission Viejo area.

[John Edwards]

My first autocross was in a Long Beach supermarket parking lot at night, second was in a lot across from the Rootes Group dealer in Compton in an empty lot, both local club events

Also ran at...
Riverside raceway - autocross & vintage racing
Lion Country Safari - bumpy ride
Ventura County fairgrounds - lots a tarmac that used to eat up tyres
Orange County fairgrounds - only ran there once
Santa Barbara City College - crazy layout pit on one lot race in another
Jungle Land - Thousand Oaks - bumpy and broken tarmac
Ontario Motor Speedway - down in a drainage culvert - how strange
Pomona Raceway - near the drag strip
Santa Maria airport - a North-South event
Terminal Island - autocross & vintage racing - rolled my Fiat 850 Coupe at one event - inexperience is a great teacher!

Also Electrathon electric car events at Orange Coast College, Citrus College, and Reseda Velodrome

And, still racing Fiat's...

[John Ward]

I remember a few
Dodger Stadium
Long Beach Memorial stadium
O.C.I.R.
Ontario Motor Speedway
Lion Country
Magic Mountain (It was that place next to magic mountain that we used to run at)
U.C. Riverside
Pomona Cal Poly
Cerritos Collage
Orange Coast Collage
Orange Co. Fairgrounds (my first in 68)
Fashion Island in Newport Beach
San Bernardino Airport
Santa Maria Airport
Terminal Island Long Beach
Riverside Raceway
Of course....Lone Pine

[John Ward]

Thought of one more....
Caroll Shelby`s place in Pico Rivera

[Craig Naylor]

Some of you all have been some neat places.

A few I've Ax'ed at not listed, and the borrowed car:
Silverdome: Pontiac MI (Meredith's ESP Mustang)
IRP: Indianapolis IN (Right hand Drive VW GTI)
Bremerton National Airport (Goeke's RX8)

[Greg Peng]

FedEx Field just outside of Washington DC isn't bad. Pretty open area with elevation changes. I did my first autocross there at the 2004 Mazda Rev-It-Up event.

[Theo O.]

I'm going to give wendover one more chance but as of today I don't know. It's so cold and windy, I still can't feel my face and fingers

However, the grip is awesome and the history is cool