To Novice or Not to Novice?

[rodhx]

I figured as much John.

[jledford]

It seems there's always one or two people each year that get that "your still a novice?" question a lot. It happened to me my first year. I was doing the same thing Charles is doing and what Sam is talking about. I was traveling to Huntsville to compete with the TAC/TVR guys, I was at all the ALSCCA events, and I was going down to the Wiregrass region in Dothan and running there. I probably had 20+ events I went to my first year with a couple of TGPR track days thrown in for good measure.

Nothing will get you up to speed like getting seat time and becoming familiar with your car.

I also agree with Clay, let others drive your car and ride with them. Watch their lines and how they make the car handle vs you. Don't get discouraged if they drive your car faster than you, use that as motivation to get better and improve. Also get others with more experience to ride with you at as many events as possible and give you pointers on how you're driving. Everyone will have different tips for you and it all adds up.

Most importantly have fun!

[jledford]

Also I believe the 3 events part is meant to be more than 3 events in the previous years. I did 2 events at the end of one season but was still allowed to be Novice the next season because I hadn't done more than 3 events prior to that season.

Like Sam said as well the Novice is an entire season with ALSCCA. So the way I see it even if someone did 4 or 5 Huntsville events then decided to come to B-ham they would still be an ALSCCA Novice as long as that was their first season of autocross. If they did 4 or 5 races elsewhere the previous year then no, no Novice for them. I could be mistaken about that but that's my interpretation.

[Vfastcaddy]

Jerry is right, but really, he was never a novice... he was too fast to be a novice!

To clairify: our novice rules in Huntsville are very similar and both clubs have always recognized the other clubs novices. No applicable experience (excepting Jr. karting) and you can be a novice for a season in Huntsville. We don't care about out of town events or whether they enter as novices out of town or not. (Not all regions even have a novice class.)

We ask any 2-time novice class winners to enter the open class after that to allow others to win two times. Each two-time winner competes in the Novice runoff at the end of the year. I expect we will have 3, possibly even 4 this year. (Last year we had 3 as I recall.) All 2-time winners are still novices all that first year. I've asked our two 2-time winners to enter as novices in the South portion, enter the open class in the North, and we will count their points as novices for NvS competition reasons.

[rodhx]

also agree with Clay, let others drive your car and ride with them. Watch their lines and how they make the car handle vs you. Don't get discouraged if they drive your car faster than you, use that as motivation to get better and improve.

Most importantly have fun!

The best thing that happened to me my first year of autocross was to pick up a more experienced codriver for half the season. Getting beat in your own car dramatically demonstrates that throwing money/mods at the car is NOT the way to get faster. That saves you money and gives you someone to learn from to see how they are getting better results with the same equipment.

[zpower86]

To clarify, this IS my first season autocrossing. I did one rallycross in Dec 2014 in a friends car, but that is all. Just been following rule #1: seat time.

[claym]

To any novice, I am not the best driver, but I will be glad to help anyone with driving suggestions or car setup questions. I am the "well seasoned " autocrosser that is glad to help (as are most other better drivers in this SCCA region). Please ask for advice, and you will be flooded with wisdom that will save you setup money and free driving instruction, was a win/win for me...

[chris381]

To clarify, this IS my first season autocrossing. I did one rallycross in Dec 2014 in a friends car, but that is all. Just been following rule #1: seat time.

Hey Charles, didn't mean to call you out or anything. I just hate losing and apparently wasn't clear on the rules. You have been getting a ton of seat time and it shows for sure, good run this weekend.

Chris

[chris381]

Thanks for all the tips and rule clarifications, greatly appreciated.

I think the main thing I need to learn is how to see the course quicker, especially for events like this weekend where all the runs count. I'm dropping 2 to 3 seconds each run in some cases. I think more seat time will help most with that.

Having someone fast drive my car would be great, but what's the best way go about that during an event? You guys are all busy driving your own cars.

Thanks,
Chris

[rodhx]

Having someone fast drive my car would be great, but what's the best way go about that during an event? You guys are all busy driving your own cars.

There are a few of us that may not be focused on a specific class battle for year end points and therefore willing to codrive. Or your car might also be legal for someone else's normal class. One great choice is our Solo co-chair Mark Kilgore who finds himself without an autocross car of his own. I have been thinking about selling my car anyway so I could be open to a codrive if you think I could help. Especially if driving yours might be advantageous for us in the next event's north vs south battle...


Btw, I think Mark may be out of town for our next event.

EDIT: while I would still be up for it, I found your codriver Chris. Casey Stallings is looking for a drive over in the North vs South registration thread. Casey would be a huge help for you. He's driven & instructed in all kinds of cars. This past weekend he drove his blue FMod formula car on Saturday and codrove John Waight's yellow CSP Miata on Sunday. He is also very familiar with BMWs, if you drive what I think you may drive.

[jbass1911]

Thanks for all the tips and rule clarifications, greatly appreciated.

I think the main thing I need to learn is how to see the course quicker, especially for events like this weekend where all the runs count. I'm dropping 2 to 3 seconds each run in some cases. I think more seat time will help most with that.

Having someone fast drive my car would be great, but what's the best way go about that during an event? You guys are all busy driving your own cars.

Thanks,
Chris

As Rod mentioned earlier, the best thing is to have someone faster to codrive for the entire event. One advantage to having the codriver for the entire event is that the driver will have time to become accustomed to your car. Sometimes the fast guys need a drive or would like to try something different.

Other than that, you could let someone drive in the rare event we get fun runs. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but if someone else drives your car for a single run during an event, you either have to sacrifice one of your runs or the other driver would need to give up one of theirs.

[chris381]

So I would have won F-street both days and overalled. Charles would have had a second and third in BS. not sure the PAX handicaps or whatever are quite right.

Whatever the rules are, seems I should move to FS if I'd be winning there.

[DelanieC]

I'm not sure what "overalled" means, but the PAX for FS is much more favorable than the BS PAX and brings you closer to him. ... I really enjoyed my year of running Novice and finishing second most of the time. It gave me something to aim for to make my driving better.

[jledford]

So I would have won F-street both days and overalled. Charles would have had a second and third in BS. not sure the PAX handicaps or whatever are quite right.

Whatever the rules are, seems I should move to FS if I'd be winning there.

The PAX numbers are a big debate, obviously not perfect but it's what we've got to work with and what the National events use. Some people say good PAX time = fast driver, good RAW time = fast car.

But because math: on Day 2, Points #4, Charles RAW timed you by 1.727 seconds. However after PAX he only won Novice by 0.362 seconds. For you to have the same PAX as Charles you would have only had to run a 0.447 seconds quicker RAW, which is still 1.28 seconds slower in RAW time than Charles. And that's the fun of PAX, his car is theoretically quicker so he has to run ~1.2 seconds faster for every 60 seconds of course to beat you via PAX.

And you're correct, looking at just RAW time you would have won FS "overall" for the SEDIV part of the event. That doesn't mean you should definitely run that though, those might have been slower drivers, less prepped cars, etc. It's always good to have someone to chase to make you try harder to improve.

Hope that helps!

[c-evoVIII]

. Some people say good PAX time = fast driver, good RAW time = fast car.
!

Really now....C