It’s been a long time coming. Competing in autocross is something that I have been wanting to do for about 10 years. Competing in any form of motorsport is something I have wanted to do since I was putting home made Dunlop and Shell stickers on my orange Stackhat and pretending to be Dick Johnson. Finally, I’ve actually made it to an event.

The event on the weekend consisted of a motorkhana and khanacross on the Saturday and an autocross on the Sunday. All these photos are from the autocross, which is handy because it is clearly the most spectacular…

I’m not sure that you’re actually meant to get sideways as much or as often as I did, but it was fun.

The track is very smooth which helps my coilover-equipped car plenty. There are a couple of ruts though. This corner was covered in mud – this shot was on my practice run and I’m just about to find out how slippery it is.

While we’re on the topic of me stuffing up, no, I didn’t manage to hold this angle.

Despite how it looks here there is actually a track, and I was on it.

Deep in conversation with Rob. We were probably talking about how I have the best fitment in the club.

This is probably my favourite shot. Thanks to Flecknology Racing.

The 86 Mafia. I think there’s going to be some healthy competition between us. We were very close across the weekend – he was a few seconds quicker than me though. Give me time… I actually had him covered on Sunday morning!

Dirt doesn’t look as cool as smoke, I must admit.

Despite the compromised setup the car actually felt pretty good. With some decent rear tyres (the ones I had got killed by the motorkhana and were bald for the rest of the weekend)  I think it should be pretty quick.

I love this shot Timmy took. Thanks dude!

Here I am demonstrating how to gracefully remove your helmet.

 

There’s plenty to be said for just jumping in and having a crack.

Back home after a completely successful weekend.

Although results are meaningless to me while I learn what I’m doing, I did end up in 4th out of 6 in RWD class which I was happy with. I will only get quicker from here on in. The car went great, only breaking an exhaust hanger across the weekend. (I will replace that coathanger Timmy – promise!!). It needs a new fan and probably a bigger radiator, so I’ll work on that before the next event.

I want to thank the people who made getting to the track possible. Dave and Nathan at Autoparts Professionals are awesome and helped out more than I could ever expect. Dave actually put finishing touches on the car Friday night, without which I wouldn’t have made it.  Stew at 3P Auto is constantly going above and beyond for me and has done so again with this car. And also a big thanks to everyone who came out and had a look on the weekend, took photos for me and generally hung out. I’ll return the favour at Winton in 2 weeks guys!