Cal Club Autocross Forums

Usually good stories to be had....

My first was Art Rinner..Quote of the run " wow cool the car is AWD"..."shuffle your hands, like THIS"

Second was Sebastian Rios "man the car feels so light compared to my wrx"

Third was Bill Hogan "man thats much different then my civic"

and later on when Ken drove my car "what tires do you have? (me:hankooks), you should try the 40 or 45 series, the side wall seems squishy, you must have the 50 series ones (which i did)...NOTE: all before we got out of the car...wow amazing i thought as we walked away in his orange turtleneck in the 100 degree weather

Grant Byers, 1990. I think his quote was "This car is a real piece of #@$%, but that's no excuse for your bad driving..."

Tom Kotzian, back in 1993 in Oregon. The crazy part was he had been autocrossing for over 20 years.

June 2000 Tom McKeown

Tom moved to FL I think. Cool guy with the Blue Meanie 240Z. Co-drove with Rock Brown.

Scared the crap out of me on that first instructor lap.

Somewhere in that first year I got an instructor lap by Tom Berry in the Dakota. I was certain we were going to die. I figured that recalled flimsy balljoint would separate, we'd dig in and roll a dozen times. But it was okay. Rollercoaster rides where universally lame now. Best comment from Tom Berry afterwards.... "Hey, that didn't suck." Thanks, Tom. People thought I drove the truck pretty well til then. Oh yeah... Tom's time in my throughly uncompetitive FS club cab Dakota on 420 treadwear M&S rated all seasons, would have crushed SK1 that day by like 1.8 seconds.

In 2000, Rene Angel took me out on my very first run at Hollywood Park.

She kept screaming at me to go faster and to keep my foot off the brake. When I came back to the pre-grid my wife and daughters were laughing at me. They were video taping and at one point on the tape you could actualy see Rene screaming at me.

Nic

Renee Angel was my first instructor too. I got screamed at also. And I thought after all these years it was only me.

Thanks Renee,

Steve A.

Marilyn Carroll in probably 1973 at a Lotus West school at Lion Country Safari (Irvine Meadows). Don't remember any quotes, but she had never driven a 240Z (usually drove a Honda). I'd been autorcrossing for a little while and thought I was OK at it. After a few laps she asks if she can drive it. Beats my best time by 10 or 15 seconds. Never had a clue you could break soooo late . Approaching every turn I was sure we wouldn't make it. I learned more about late braking and late apexing on that one run....

I think Bev was my first instructor. All I remember was going in waaaaay too hot for a really tight turn and not being able to figure out why the car wouldn't turn when I have the wheel fully cranked, and then having a huge spin in some offsets that I was waay late for. I was so embarrased I don't really remember what she said.

It was back when we had like three CA Speedway lots. I seem to remember paddocking on one side and then crossing (near the foot bridge) the access lane to the tunnel to get to the small course on the lot where the kart track is now. Or going around to the big course on lot 12. I also entered from where the recyclers are. I think it was early 2003.

Steve Abbott wrote:Renee Angel was my first instructor too.

Same here, and her one piece of advice that she gave me, that STILL holds true today is "Slow in...FAST out"

Thanks Renee.

I don't remember who I took as an instructor the first time, really all I can remember was them commeting on how I didn't down shift to 1st in the slowest corner on the course and how well the car still pulled out of it. 210lbft at the front wheels at 3000rpm was nice.

Art Rinner. "You just straight-lined the slalom." x3 and I helped set up the course.

I see a trend.

Mary Rice; I was driving my '64 Elan, 145sr13 Perelli tires on 4.5 rims. The motor had been built with SE cams and the half shafts ran without the rubber glibos. After our first run her onyl comment was: Is'nt trailing throttle over-stear fun!

This was in 1985.

Today, if you can get Brian Moon in your car he will help. Not long ago at a BMW event, after three consecutive runs, my brakes were smoking, his comment; dosent that smell great!

David Barrish wrote:Today, if you can get Brian Moon in your car he will help. Not long ago at a BMW event, after three consecutive runs, my brakes were smoking, his comment; dosent that smell great!

That's Brian Moon for ya! Helluva instructor (and his instructed me many times at BMWCCA events)

Tom Berry drove my car at the May event. My best time to that point had been an 80.0 and he got a 71.6. My next run after that was a 75.3. Needless to say Tom opened my eyes a bit.

Most memorable comment: "Wow, that was actually really fun. I thought it was going to suck." (bear in mind that he was driving my 3800 lb, 4-door, white whale.

Mike Flores at the '06 CalClub Novice School.

Driving my 2006 MX-5 for the first time - "Yup, it feels like a Miata!"

Leonard Cachola wrote:Mike Flores at the '06 CalClub Novice School.

Driving my 2006 MX-5 for the first time - "Yup, it feels like a Miata!"

And Mike would know.

Renee.

She didn't scream, but she slapped my hands every time I tried to take them off the wheel.

It totally helped!

Michael Butler at a Lotus West School in 1994 but my first real autocross education was earlier. I was at maybe my third or fourth event in 1993 running my old 87 integra in CSP. Katie Endicott suggested I ride along on a fun run with Bob and it really opened my eyes. One of the alltime highlights of my autocross career was the first time I beat Bob when we both ran ITR's.

Ashley Armstrong wrote:Renee.

She didn't scream, but she slapped my hands every time I tried to take them off the wheel.

It totally helped!

so you drove the whole thing in first gear?

Not my first but most recent and best so far. Tom Berry.

I told him how my car was setup and what tires I had and could tell he had some angst.

He went out and the first pass won SS class by almost 2 seconds. He hooted hey this thing handles nice.

He told me some good advice, same as I always hear but seem to have trouble doing, slow in and fast out.

See this video of the way it is supposed to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlGXxCo_ZCE

My first AutoX instructor was some old man with a M-Edition Green NA Miata.
He hasn't come out since then.
This was at my very first autocross-- the last CSCC school event on July 29 2006.

When he took the first sweeper I remember him shouting "WOW THIS CAR HAS ALOT OF POWER."
I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing back then.

The other student in my group had an orange Dodge SRT-4. Older Asian American man. He brought his wife and her leaning Lexus ES 300 to last year's ladies' school. Haven't seen him since.

There was also another kid in my group. He had a green NB Miata. He was very fast. Came out to a few autocrosses after the school, then stopped coming.

Patty thinks our first instructor's name was Kieth?

I haven't seen the man since the school.
I've been looking for him.

Mid '99 at Norton AFB, Tom Berry was my instructor. After my first run he told me to "Get closer to the cones".
2 weeks ago at the last event, after riding with me, Tom said... "Get closer to the cones".


Actually that's what he told Max, I have some other things to work on.

Rick

I remember a lot of people helping me from the beginning, but I'm pretty sure Renee was the first to ride with me as an "official" instructor. I got yelled at about my hands which were slapped several times. I drove the NSX back then and no one seemed to be able to drive it, including me. My only saving grace was having enough seat time in it to have learned all the work-a-rounds to get the car to do anything. It drove like I had bicycle tires on the front. Bev called it the "spin machine" and everyone that drove it looped it on their first run. Fun times, fun times.

Mike-

I wonder if you had Keith Lyon. He was Stacey's first instructor back in 2000.

Steve Ekstrand wrote:Mike-

I wonder if you had Keith Lyon. He was Stacey's first instructor back in 2000.

Maybe.

I'd like to race him.