Bwahaha. I remember the car, but sorry KJ, I don't remember you.
Nov '00 at Fontana in my original Dakota (black automatic extended cab).
Jay W
KJ Christopher wrote:My first event was July 8th, 2007. Drove my 1968 Barracuda out to El Toro. Woodruff did an instructor ride along with me. Finished second to last in historic, squeezing past Glusman. Seems like yesterday. Brought the convertible M3 out to the next event, night of the living dead.
I didn't realize that Seb/Shauna and Max started JUST before me. My first local event was Dec. '03 ... pouring rain. I was signed up in the right class, SM, but somehow ran in the wrong group?! How did I get away with that?!
I think my 2nd event was a SD AX where I DNF'ed every run and then the ProSolo at Norton where I DNF'ed 5 of my first 6 runs! Since then I've had sympathy for Newbs while doing course design.
Before that, back in the late '70's I did a few events in Santa Barbara in their tiny City College lot, one with my mom's Rabbit and another in our 2002 BMW. I came across another one in a Safeway parking lot in Goleta. Just spectated and watched a Z car hit a planter curb. Drove out to do a seemingly "big" AX in Santa Maria at a runway complex and elected to not run after walking the course and somehow getting in my head that I would flip the BMW. (I did flip two VW sedans as a kid)
Toby Larsson wrote:
Was that the school we also did the SafetySteward School in the back of Bob Jardines truck?
Yup! I had no idea what a safety steward was, I thought it meant I could be a flagger at a race track. At that point, I didn't even know what autocross really was, I thought Shauna and I had to get special licenses and that I would have to wait for the men's school.
1980 - Long Beach Memorial Stadium. In fact within two months in 1980, I participated in my first autocross, went through the Solo 1 school and drove 14 hours to a hillclimb in Eureka, CA. Do you think Craig wanted to make sure I was hooked on the sport.
The Safety Steward instruction in Bob Jardine's truck, in the rain, was at Norton, not Hollywood Park.
First time autocrossing:
Summer, 2006 - CalClub Novice School at El Toro. Mike Flores was my instructor. I was driving a 2006 MX-5 and Mike's declaration after driving it was 'yup, it's definitely a Miata.' What really got me hooked onto the sport was getting the car sliding with the rear hanging out on the showcase turn on one of my last runs of the day.
First champ:
October, 2006. Won the Novice class by a scant .061ths over a stock RX-8. Got a chance to drive one of the other novice's Solstice in the fun runs - and promptly spun it on the first try.
Guess some things never change.
~Leonard Cachola
#82 CS, CSCC Solo Novice Coordinator
Renee Angel wrote:1980 - Long Beach Memorial Stadium. In fact within two months in 1980, I participated in my first autocross, went through the Solo 1 school and drove 14 hours to a hillclimb in Eureka, CA. Do you think Craig wanted to make sure I was hooked on the sport.
The Safety Steward instruction in Bob Jardine's truck, in the rain, was at Norton, not Hollywood Park.
Renee Angel wrote:1980 - Long Beach Memorial Stadium. In fact within two months in 1980, I participated in my first autocross, went through the Solo 1 school and drove 14 hours to a hillclimb in Eureka, CA. Do you think Craig wanted to make sure I was hooked on the sport.
The Safety Steward instruction in Bob Jardine's truck, in the rain, was at Norton, not Hollywood Park.
I can relate, Renee! I was so excited about my new set of Goodyear Gatorbacks on my 1st-gen RX-7 (this was back in the early 1990s) that I drove by myself all the way to Mesquite, Nevada, to do a rinky-dink 25-second course in a casino parking lot. Worth it, though.
I'm going into year 6. First event was in the fall of 2004 at Fontana, then did Hollywood Park and Norton. Same car as now, bone stock on nasty OEM run flats. What a hand full.
