What I learned at Novice School

[UPDATED: added times from measured runs]

Man, just sitting down for some pho for dinner after an amazing day of learning how to race. Ahhh. My legs are tired from walking so much, but aside from that, I had such a great day!

So, what'd I learn today? I learned a bunch of things including:

- autocross is NOT about pressing the throttle as hard as I physically can
- fast autocross times are typically contrary to getting my ya-ya's out
- steady is good
- smooth is good
- slowing down for slow corners is better than powering through them
- all things being equal, the shorter line is better
- my car is amazing!

I netted the second best time, beat only by Dave in his BSP RX-8. Before he did his time, I had first and second place. Not to toot my own horn, but I was smoking!

I have so much to be thankful to this new guy I met named Raijo. He was an incredible instructor and he gave me so much to work with and practice. I'm indebted to his patience, skill, and generosity of spirit.

Lastly, I swear, the community of autocrossers really kicks ass. All the instructors were volunteers and they were good spirited throughout and endlessly helpful. Thanks to all the volunteers.

The course was designed with three segments that we practiced one at a time in the first half of the day. We ran late, so the last segment was after lunch. After that (with a quick run for more gas for myself), the segments were connected together and we got to run the entire course in its entirety. Here are my times (in order):

- 78.823
- 77.071
- 77.681
- 77.746