Aquarian Autocross - February 9, 2019

By Mark Meyer

While there were some sprinkles here and there, this month’s autocross was the fastest one in quite a while. For those of you who read Satakal’s email “manifesto” i.e. plea for help setting up cones, you could tell that Satakal seemed to have a little more invested in this course than usual. Why? Because he took Andrew’s previous course, made some modifications and made it into his own design. How about a course that just begs for third gear? Check! A slalom that was pretty much a slalom in name only? Check! Big long sweepers? Check! A course map that looked just a bit inappropriate if you held it up the right way? Check! (Ask Kim to explain). There was no argument from any of the drivers this month. This was a freaking fun and fast course. Thanks, Satakal.

No doubt, this month’s course was fast. But who made the most of it? As usual, Julien Brandt drew lots of attention with his super cool orange Catfish before the track went hot. But this month, his flashy car was flashy fast and took first place in his class. Congrats Julien!

Lastly a few thoughts from us mere mortals. Having an instructor ride with me during my first set of practice laps is still really valuable. In some ways, the instructor feedback is even more valuable now compared to when I first started because I understand it in a very different way. This month, Sean Thomson was cool enough to ride along with me and share his experience. By the end of the day, my times weren’t as fast as Julien’s but they were certainly faster thanks to Sean’s coaching. I also learned what RE-71R’s feel like when they are heat cycled out (even with a fair bit of tread). They certainly didn’t help my times.

Time to switch to some new rubber before 330 Autocross coming up at the end of March. See you there…