What are your best/most memorable autocross moments?

[BjoynerUTK]

I have a lot of good memories of autocrossing.


1) My very first autocross. I think it was the last event held at Adessa. I was there all by myself, didn't know anyone, and had no idea what I was doing, but I had a blast and I've been hooked ever since.

2) The first time my dad rode with me. It took me forever to get him to ride, and the first time he did it was at the Nashville event held on the speedway. He giggled like a little school girl the whole time and hasn't shut up about it since.

3) The friendly competitions between everyone. Running up to the board after someone (James, Gebbia, Dillow, Disney, Michael, Stu, Eric, etc) finishes a run to see how much needed to be cut off of the next run time... Or sitting in the timing tent waiting to see the times and trying to guess if that run was better than the last and if it was good enough to beat the FTD. Ahh those were the days.

I cant wait to get back and start autocrossing again. I love the competitiveness and being around a bunch of really good people. Just a couple more months...

[gbwrx]

I didn't think about any autocrosses with my dad. Those are always the best. I have a video from ORM where he is riding with me and I spin the car. He is completely quiet until we stop. He then starts giggling like a little girl. I am so glad I got that on tape. I always bring it up to him. Hopefully soon he will be living here and I will have plenty of time to teach him how to drive fast.

[mrsoul55]

I've had a ton of great times with you guys. That's what keeps me coming back as much as the driving. A few that really stand out in my memory:

- Working the course & seeing Tim Engle get 2 tires off the ground (both rears!) at Rockwood

Was this in my Civic? That car would routinely lift an inside rear tire but I didn't know both rears were in the air at that event until you mentioned it to me a while later.

[thrdeye]

Great thread Rife. It's good to see that a lot of the best memories with this stuff aren't really "I beat so and so real bad" (but those do make good memories). The people that we have in this region are pretty special. Some are REALLY special...like short bus special.....but that's ok too.

It would be impossible to put my memories into any particular order so here goes. I have been around a while, so you will have to excuse the quantity. I will also include pics wherever I can. None of these memories are as great as the friends that I've made through autocross, Trey especially.

--FTD in the rain at ORM a few years ago. Beat everyone that day and I was running Azenis 215's and some prodrive springs.






--"Turn it off." *pause* "What?" "Turn it off!!" *pause* "What?" "TURN IT OFF!!!!!"



--Going to my first nationals in 2006 with Trey and Mish.





--Spinning REALLY bad in Jacksonville, FL at the Subaru Challenge. VIDEO HERE - Take a look, pretty funny

--Getting a class win in STX and FTP in my WRX at the 2008 Subaru Challenge in ATL. My WRX's sorta-full-tilt STX debut, and it felt really good.


--My first divisional in Nashville. I hit like 15 cones the first day and had NO clean runs. I got REALLY TERRIBLE DRUNK that night and introduced Curt to Jager bombs. Curt did not approve of these. I could list all of the alcohol I consumed that night, but it would crash our database probably.

--Saw some boobs in ATL a couple years ago at AMS.

--Trip to Nashville for the Octoberfast in 2005 or 2006 probably. Man that was a blast. Became friends with a lot of the Nashville crowd then.

--DoubleCross 2008. I get matched up against Steve Hoelscher and I just know that I'm going to lose. We launch and make our runs, coming back across the start/finish, he is ahead by a long shot, and I come up short. But what's this? As I come back through the staging lanes, people are standing and applauding. Turns out that he red-lighted, which means I get the win.

--Ok, so I have a second favorite memory involving Hoelscher. Huntsville, 2007 probably. He has just picked up John Brown's MR2 and has a co driver at this event. Well, the co driver ends up taking the twitchy car through some grass and probably broke something. It was EPIC. Hoelscher was cussing, throwing shit all over the place, and started to blame the officials for the course design, saying it was unsafe. Karl Rickert was not having it and Hoelscher ended up cussing even more.

--Lots of great memories at Gwinnett Fairgrounds. Kegs of beer, live bands, barbecue, an awesome turn up and over a blind hill that was really cool. Robert winning DoubleCross after a rematch of the championship round.

--Rallycrossing OvenMitts swapped Impreza


--Ok, so I have a third favorite memory involving Hoelscher. "I WROTE THE RULE!!!". It involved wing surface area calculation formulas or some damn shit that was pointless. I ended up having another beer.

--Taking Abby on her first autox trip to Dixie. She did really well in the car on the way down, and we were exstatic because we had just had her a couple of months at that point. It started raining at the event and Mish had her wrapped up like a little hot dog.

--Mish's first event that she ran at ORM a few years ago. She was absolutely terrified that some of you would laugh at her for sucking.

--Getting to instruct at the school a couple of years ago was a big thrill.

--Going to ATL with Trey to get his STi tuned. 311 Tq at 3000 RPM is pretty cool.

--Beating Disney in his own car. (Sorry Dave)

--OK, if there is a best one, this has to be it. Cracks me up EVERY time I think about it. Huntsville Hooters. We tell them that it's Curt's birthday. YES. So the waitresses come over and make him put a sno-cone cup in his mouth and makes him hold a menu in each hand. He has to run around the restaraunt and flap his arms like he was a bird. The sno cone cup makes it look like he has a beak. It was awesome.

--Oh crap. I almost forgot cutting my head wide ass open on the trailer and scaring the crap out of Ted. Went on to finish chairing the evet.

[Pewter Sonoma]

1. My first event ever, not knowing anyone and only living in Knoxville a week before the event. Made the big mistake of not bringing sunscreen and got fried. I didn't know what I was doing, but really enjoyed it. The event was in Oak Ridge and I almost took out the timing light on my last run. SO GLAD I didn't.

2. 411 a few years ago and having the guy in a C5 vette behind me asking me how my truck was so fast and how I was beating him 2-3 seconds a lap. He lost a little pride when I told him a stock longblock 4.3L on street tires in the front, and drag radials in the rear.

3. Placing 10th FTD in the truck at one event at Pellissippi.
4. Showing up in a truck and ppl laughing, and then come up to me later and ask what was done.
5. Meeting some great ppl along the way
6. Autocross school with no ABS.
7. Riding in Bradley's Elise for my first time.

[John Brown]

ok,ok,ok...
I wasn't gonna mention this but since pics are allowed...(even if they have been long since burned) Robert..er I mean (Jim) and another guy I know were in Jacksonville or some warm city (it had to be warm from the lack of clothing the girls had on)

and the SCCA party just happen to be beside a few rooms beside the pool that were having some kinda "HOOTERS" get together...
(remember this is all hearsay,and the names have been changed,to protect the guilty) Well as it turned out.. I..uhh I mean (Joe) thought he could have his pick of the playmates and somehow (Jim) and (Joe) got their pics made with two really Hott women..
and we all had a good time and lived happily ever after.....
well till those pics showed up on about every site in the south and each of (Jims) and (Joes) wives found out and saw these very first examples of "PHOTO-SHOPPED" pictures ever produced.....

..(Jim) went on to be a National Champ soon afterwards.. and (Joe) went to divorce court........

Im tellin ya.... AUTO-CROSSING is a wonderful sport.

signed, Joh... (Joe)

[steverife]

Several of those are good memories for me too, Chris. The oil change, not so much.

It also reminds me of the portabello mushroom burger.

[Scuffcakes]

--OK, if there is a best one, this has to be it. Cracks me up EVERY time I think about it. Huntsville Hooters. We tell them that it's Curt's birthday. YES. So the waitresses come over and make him put a sno-cone cup in his mouth and makes him hold a menu in each hand. He has to run around the restaraunt and flap his arms like he was a bird. The sno cone cup makes it look like he has a beak. It was awesome.

Curt: "There'd better be a free beer in this."
Wiatress: "No."
Curt:

I'm still surprised there were no injuries that day.

[thrdeye]

Curt "The Bird Man" Boegemann !

[rocracing2004]

Joe those pics are still on Jim's computer at home and they were real hot girls. We did have a good time and when don't we have a good time.

Doublecross in ATL two years ago when Mark won we had a party that was like being in New Orleans this week.

Robert / Jim

[thewelder]

My first event was in 02 i think. It was WB and I was in a bone stock 240sx. Got lucky enough to win GS on street tires and got to beat the black Supra that was suposed to have 900hp.
best coarse was smokey's a few years ago when the Bmod car showed up. coarse went down the hill though the islands made a u-turn to go back up. I drove like crap but it was a fun coarse. I gave a rather pretty young girl (hot) a ride that day and told her to just be quite and enjoy the ride. She screamed like a bansee and I was all over the place. Pulled in at the end of the run pretty mad and she says it was fun. Git out to hear the wife making fun of me because of my "distraction"! " she had you pretty tore up didn't she"
running STS for years with some really good drivers.Except the guy in the saturn we had to let him win a few. I will miss running that class it was fun. Chad

[Mark McCrary]

I forgot about that part of the event! Yeah that was a fun weekend!

[Budman]

.... running STS for years with some really good drivers.Except the guy in the saturn we had to let him win a few. I will miss running that class it was fun. Chad

Those were definitely some good times! I'm definitely going to miss the comraderie and the 10+ car classes we used to have in STS...definitely some good times!

[Dentspeed]

Huntsville Hooters! Best ever!