You aren't going to beat Danny Shields (or his wife for that matter), so I wouldn't waste your time

 

I crushed both of them!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok not really, because they were absent LOL.

Although I'm not sure why you would just assume that I have no driver skill? I think its a pretty safe bet to always bet on danny but I had some insider knowledge and knew he would not be there, other wise I would have just planned on taking my 911 and shooting for a class win.

I have raced with Danny once before. I can't say enough nice things about him. Other than being blistering fast he is willing to help others learn and make them faster as well. I have never met his wife, but I understand she is fast as well.

 

I never said you didn't have any driver skill. I don't know who you are... I am saying that Danny will beat you. He beats everybody. He's a freak Been that way for years. It will be a sad day when he finally loses his throne. I've never seen him on a track but he is amazingly quick around a auto-x. I'm not quite sure what exactly it is about him that makes him so fast, but whatever it is... He has it in spades.

 

I can tell you what danny has because he was nice enough to give me a ride. He has the ability to push the car to the absolute max without breaking traction. He is so smooth its hard to believe he is going fast because it does not feel fast at all.

Many drivers can be smooth but he has that last tenth that lets him go 10/10ths and make it look effortless. So as you said he is a freak

As for today's results I'm afraid I let you guys down. I was a serial cone killer. The GTR was like a bull in a very small china shop. It was almost comical at how many cones I killed, but each run my lap times were coming down as I was collecting cones. On my last run of the first session I decided to do something different, not hit any cones. I ran a 47.1 which put me second over all. First over all was a state champion auto crosser sitting on 45.6

The second session started and my cone killing ways commenced although this time I just kept killing the same single cone over and over again. My times were 46 flats but then you had to add 2 seconds for that pesky cone. The state champion was kind enough to tell me to just slow down and run a clean run and my time would be great. So on my final run of the session I took his advice, slowed down, accelerated less, braked more and avoided all cones. My run felt so slow............ but I was met with lots of thumbs up as I was parking. I thought they were just happy I had not crushed the time equipment, it turns I had put up a 44.9 best of the day so far. Unfortunately this prompted Cory the state champ to switch from his street tires to R compounds which resulted in a 43.8


So I finished the day second over all with the fastest time on street tires. I think with another session I could have found more time but not enough to over come R compounds or the impovements that he surely would have made as well.

As for next time I'll be in the 911 trying be kinder to cones

 

stop worring about PCA AX. use it to work on your skills. if you want real competition - sign up with SCCA and start AXing with those guys where all real competition is.

 

as its a ton of fun for very little cash out lay. I think I could AX all year for about the price of 1 and half track days.

 

But it's not as fun, at least IMO. AX tracks are too quick, as soon as you start to have fun it ends and you have to get back in line. Road courses, you have a huge grin lap after lap.

 

resist temptation to mod car so you can stay with SCCA stock classes (you may even consider to remove some mods to make it fit stock), be ready to shell out for 4-5 sets of hoosiers A6 per season if your class allows them, if you want to save costs - look up if there are strict stock classes that require street tires only and if your car fits there - so you can use cheap hakooks r-s3 or star spec dunlops tires whatever will fit your rims in stock 997 sizes (but I do not remember rules for 'S' cars in SCCA - you may want to check).

all in all it is a lot of fun. if you are consistently in first top ten lap times at the end of the day with 60-70 people participating (nevermind what class) - then you are quite ready for SCCA.

 

you obviously are not in 'improved' class yet. any competitive sport gets ugly expensive as it progresses up. track and AX get pretty much evened up, A6 hoosiers take 6-7 heat cycles only before they degrade, if you are careful and wrap your tires you can count entire morning/afternoon sessions as 2 cycles only - it gives you an idea how many tire sets you may have to buy if you do 30-40 AX days per season, even considering that you will practice on an older 6+ HC set and compete on a new set. lodging, fuel, etc. expences are same as track. participation fees are less but it is a very minor part. club racers spend definitely more than top level SCCA AX crowd guys but it is not very much different, really. same big trailers, 4 way ohlin shocks, race fuels, custom cars with full cages, pretty much comparable amount of $$$$$ invested.

all in all - money here is a very secondary topic, everyone spends as much as they see fit. top level cars are eating money like crazy. what is definitely good about all this - anyone can find his own nishe and do what feels right for him.

 

Auto-X feels lame once you do a DE.

 

fun than parking lots or airport run ways but I still had fun at the AX. I've done more track days than I can remember and used to teach for keith code so I am very well aware how much fun track time is, but the easy of showing up with your stock car, knowing you won't take much tire wear off and I doubt you will harm your break life either.

at this point I just don't want to devote much money to racing and AX at the PCA level provide good thrill very cheaply, and the people are great.

 

AX is a desease as anything else when you take it to the limit. it is boring when you`re slow no doubt, but when you have several top level people to compete with during whole season it takes whole different angle. standing and looking at your top competitors while you work is also not boring anymore as you are trying to see what is it they do you can`t do.

i find DE to be quite boring as it is all the same driving in circles, you do work on your technique for sure but you do not measure each lap time constantly and do not push to the edge of 10/10 limit as I personally do not have a tow vehicle to haul my wrecked car back home, I need to drive her back, so overall there is much less brain work there. but it teaches something else that AX does not and it is fine.

for me after 2 years of AXing i did hit a 'flat spot' as my running times stopped improving at last 3-4 events, I do need a major skills improvement leap to get over those final 2-3 seconds of lap time that separates those who sits on top of first dozen TODs from bottomers. I am consistently 1.5-2 sec behind on a 60 sec course where I think I should be and hopefully a season of DEs should improve this a bit.

 

What a crazy thread. Almost seems like you were baiting us with some egotistical statements, followed by an acknowledgement that you've only done one AX. Then you soften the tone and state that you have plenty of experience, even instructing on track.
Whatever. At one point, I was going to chime in about your ego wrt logo gear, referencing the other thread, but I didn't bother.
I say - enjoy the AX. Like you say - it's inexpensive and safe. No reason not to have fun with it while you maintain an interest.
I know plenty of track guys that do AX as well, with PCA in the two locations where I was active - previously in Boston and now in ATL.
Personally, I think it's a shame that folks here would knock something like this that you're enjoying, but maybe you brought some of that on yourself.
Good luck with it - really!

 

The original thread was actually just a this or that thread. Should i take my 911S and go for a class win, which I was pretty sure I could achieve because I was a full two seconds faster than the current class champion at my first and only previous AX, Or should I take the GTR (which I would only have this one opportunity to use) and go for the over all win? Of course this may sound egotistical but I was basing my thoughts off my first AX where I was within a 6 tenth of a second of the winner who was on slicks compared to my shot street tires.

The thread was always meant to be fun. I did not figure I needed to give much of my racing background because to me it was more of a which car to take? I only included the part about class win and over all to show there was a consequence to choosing one over the other.

But to be very honest I do have an EGO. I think most people that compete do. I think its just the nature of the beast. Of course I know many people who are very humble, but they still believe they are going to win every time they go out, and in sports that I compete in regularly I do too.

I will never be the type of person that is satisfied with settling for 2nd,3rd or what ever place because some one has established them self as the best and everyone else is just competing for second place. It was mentioned in the thread that no one else could win if Mr. shields is at the event, which has been the case for many years, but I can assure you Danny is not winning by pure luck. He has a tremendous amount of talent that has been refined to near perfection over a long period of time. I know many people would just think well Danny is the best I'll never beat him, but my brain just does not work that way. My brain says Danny is the best so listen to what he says, ride with him as much as you possibly can and eventually be better than him. This is where I soften the tone. Will I ever be better than Danny? Who knows, but if I did not think it was possible what is the point of racing. So i guess I have a huge EGO LOL, but i think you will find this trait in most on this board. Just from a pure economics point everyone on this board has done something right to be in a financial situation to afford a luxury sports car. Maybe EGO is the wrong word for it because you don't necessarily have to have an ego to have a drive and a belief in yourself but those traits are so commonly mistaken for ego. Well this is getting so far off topic now I'll just wrap it up.

I had fun in the GTR, the PCA AX cross was a ton of fun and the people made the whole event. I did win something at the AX (most cones killed)
At this point I'm actually not sure if I have an EGO when it comes to driving a car because I don't blindly believe I'm better than anyone one else until there is some data to look at, I have a huge EGO when it comes to young ladies ( i must be compensating for something else ) and I DID where my Porsche cap at the event while driving a Nissan

I have think skin, feel free to comment at will.

 

I love how you have done your car, could you post a larger picture. I always click on your avatar hoping to get a bigger picture but I don't think you have an album or I'm just a computer retard. Both could be true