Off the straight and narrow

[losinit@usa.net (Cathy Boyko)]

Well, I left the strip and entered the world of cone crushing yesterday!
Actually I didn't totally kill any, but this was my first try at autocros=
s and
it was a blast. It was a small club event, and mainly VWs (bunnies) in
attendance for whatever reason, and I was the only one in my class (the o=
nly
one honest enough to admit to modifying the car...)

Anyway, I did a lot of classic first time stuff, too fast entering the cu=
rves,
forgot to shift till I hit the rev limit, missed gates totally (got lost)=
 and
that sort of thing. I'm realizing my tire pressure was also way wrong, no=
t
that it would have made any differrence at all. I guess I could claim to =
have
won my class, but there was only me, and I was pathetically slower than t=
he
winning time in the other classes. But I got better every run, (shaved of=
f 20
seconds from the first run) and one guy told me later I did fine in the c=
urves
but could have been faster off the line!!! (Off the line is kind of my no=
rmal
mode...) =


Anyway, it was fun, a good relaxed event, so it was a nice way to try it =
out.
I'll do it again. It's amazing how a bunch of cones on a flat chunk of
ashphalt can make you drive like a complete maniac. And surprising how fa=
st
you have to do everything, yet it looks so easy from the sidelines, this =
was a
tight course, and just getting the wheel back around on some curves was a=

challenge for slow old me. If I had a better memory for the course, that =
would
have helped, I'm sure that comes with experience. But I wanted to try it =
out,
and I'll do it again. It was a blast, too bad it's getting near the end o=
f the
season here, that was this club's last one for the year. Off to the strip=
 next
weekend, poor abused car, but it seems to thrive on it.

Cathy, having another total VW weekend, and enjoying every minute of it!