Sunday was Washington DC Region SCCA's Championship Autocross Event #2, and it was wet pretty much all day. There were some breaks in the rain, but the course pretty much stayed wet all the time.
It was my co-driver Marshall's turn to go first, but when it's wet, you never know whose advantage that will work to. Marshall started off with some smooth driving (as always) and laid down a great time (70.399). I couldn't beat it on my first run (70.584). Then he turned up the pressure again (68.615), and again, I couldn't match the time (68.890).
On Marshall's third run, he put down a 67.659, which I thought would be impossible to beat. I went out and came in with a 67.198, which I was just amazed by. I was really happy with the drive.
Marshall had one more run to beat my time, but he was just off his own best. He thinks he pushed too hard and started to power-understeer in a few places, which took too long to recover from before he could get back on the power.
So I had the win, and a free fourth run just to see what the car could do. We figured a 66-second run would get us into the top-10 of the PAX index (where times are multiplied by a factor to compare different classes of cars).
I pulled off a nice aggressive drive and somehow kept it clean. I felt like I overdrove the last couple turns, but they had lots of runout and it must not have hurt me much. In fact, it may have well been a better line, since I was able to keep up my speed while still applying power.
H-Street results
With the rain letting off, the last heat of drivers are heavy in the PAX index below. But I still had to drive the car through the course, I still had to drive it well, and I still had to miss all the cones. So I'll take it. This is my first #1 in PAX... the best I've ever finished at an SCCA event before was 13th.
Thanks to Marshall for co-driving. I really think we push each other and we do better for it. That's four events this season, (practice, #1, ProSolo, and #2) and four times we've finished 1-2. I think if I had been driving alone, I wouldn't have been as proactive or as motivated to do my very best. Marshall is a great driver and instructor, and it's not a question of whether he'll beat me, it's just a matter of when. But we're definitely both better for the competition we've got going on here.
Thanks again!