Craig Wilcox is this episodes featured autocrosser.
Craig has 5 SCCA Solo Championships
2006 G-Stock
2008 G-Stock
2010 BSP
2016 STX
2019 SMF
6 ProSolo Championships and he said "Six painful 2nd place finishes for Solo Nationals".
On the first take we forgot about the crazy story of his Mini being stolen right before Nationals so we had another call to record that story.
Craig is one of the drivers with success in FWD and AWD. And unlike many he has gone back to FWD with a very fast SMF honda.
We cover all the typical questions relating to autocross including:
The metal side
What he actually does physically: looking ahead, walking courses to find the key elements
Tuning vs. Driving
Slower when overthinking
Tight line in the rain
He also talks about co-driving and the advantages of it.
Alex Piehl is on Autocross Talk.
He did it right for his 10 year anniversary with the SCCA H Street Pro Solo class championship, STH SCCA SOLO National Championship as well as a Triad award.
In a normal year he makes 50 to 60 autocross events a year.
He brings 6 Sigma thoughts to autocross. For example, he thinks about waste and likes to measure and analyze. He will often walk a course backwards.
I really like his comment "Use an excuse to improve".
For Nerves - or rather to get rid of them he focuses on what he has to do. I phrased this as "Focus on the plan".
He has thoughts about how playing in a touring band relates to autocross.
He suggests driving in the wet on the wrong tires and loved the Evo Challenge School.
He recommends Vivek's course Beyond Seat Time
Listen for these comments as well as other autocross tips and suggestions to improve your autocross racing.
His question is would your rather do a dual course ProSolo where one side is 35 seconds long but the other is 15 seconds (Possible Peru ProSolo for 2020) or 3 stale Chicken Nuggets from your favorite fast food restaurant?
He created Pittsburgh Autocross to list all the autocross events happening in and around the area (there are a lot and he needed to know where they all were so as he could make 50+ of them each year 🙂
David Marcus has is the first Solo Nationals champion to win in an all electric car.
David shares his autocross tips and thoughts on this podcast.
He won both the BStreet Solo Nationals and Pro Solo class in a Tesla Model 3.
He also won the STX SCCA Solo National championship in STX.
He started his auto addiction with a Richard Petty Driving Day. Then he tried autocross and track days before dedicateing himself to autocross.
He explains how codriving with Darrin DiSimo helped to learn to get on the gas sooner by looking at Data and Video.
Fingers crossed that we will be driving his nationals course in 2020.
He talks about how he sees slaloms as muscle memory, exits are the most important thing to setup for, you can't fix going to fast into an element and position is more important than speed.
He also talks about the metal game of calming down.
A point I've not thought of much is how he looks for places where he under drove.
He mentions Vivek Goel's course being helpful as well as Andy Hollis's top ten tips to autocross.
He also watched videos of everyone who beat him.
And his question to the audience is what is your favorite element?
He is a racing coach for cars as well as bicycle racing. He knows more than a couple of things about professional racing since he was a cyclist as well as a coach for his wife and others.
His wife Kate Compton is a 15-time national champion.
This episode is focused on how to get the best results by working on you. Your mental game as well as your physical game.
You will learn how the fight or flight response is good for strength but not for sports like autocross and car racing.
Mark will share tips to help us keep our breathing in check which can keep us out of the fight or flight when enables us to see more and have more fine muscle control.
Take a deep breath and keep doing it all the time 🙂
I really think this knowledge, tips and exercise can help you with your racing.
Thanks for your emails and comments!
www.AutocrossTalk.com
Mark Daddio is featured on this episode of the show.
12 SCCA Solo National Championships
11 Pro Solo Class Championships
2 Over All Pros Solo Championships
Hear Mark Daddio's thoughts on Autocross Coaching and Autocross Tips he uses.
I like his moto "just drive" when it comes time for his run. This is a great tip to drive faster when wondering how you can autocross faster.
We hear when he started left foot braking and why he likes to do it. He breaks down what the car is doing when skipping the lift between braking and accelerating.
You will hear his Autocross mental game to prepare for a run where he goes back through the course mentally until he gets it right. Then when it is time to drive, he says "I Just Drive".
When he is racing, he says "I rely on what I'm seeing at the time".
I'd phrase this as being in the present moment or being in the zone. Nothing to think about rather just taking the input of seeing the cones. He mentions how when he can’t see the cones he will DNF.
We talk about Mazda's Rev It Up which he won back to back. When he asked after the first win if he can compete again and the answer was "Yeah if you can win again more power to you".
We talk about him doing endurance karting and how much fun as well as how much of a workout karting is.
Pat Salerno rode with him on an Autocross Run and commented: "Your Nuts".
You will hear what he has gotten out of Autocross Coaching as well as having co-drivers.
Once again, we hear "Lifts have a place" meaning he left foot brakes but also will only lift at times.
We hear some about how he sets up Autocross cars which is often the opposite of others.
Like Bob Tunnell he will tap the brakes in between slalom cones. He notes he only does this for tight slaloms to put weight on the nose of the car.
I asked about his preference for a harness and he said he only uses a seat belt because he needs to be able to move around to see around the A Pillar.
He mentions how he learned how important it is to put down power coming out of an Autocross turn (think sweeper and any other place where we get to accelerate).
We touch on road racing. And briefly we talk about using video and data as it relates to him Autocrossing, I say briefly because he doesn’t use them.
And we talk about competing at a high level at Autocross and age. How much time is needed to prep a car to win at Solo Nationals as well as the seat time.
He also talks about tires and how they feel at Lincoln Airpark when it is hot and when it is not.
And we talk about splitting the Run Days at SCCA Solo Nationals...
Adam Benaway SCCA Autocross National Champion talks racing with us on this show.
Adam is the only champion so far in the 2 year old Solo Spec Coupe class. That is 2 national championship in 2 years.
He has been blazing fast each year. You will get to hear his thoughts on how his military training help him plan for and execute at Nationals.
You will hear how vehicles influenced his choice of Scout for the Military.
You can't miss the "Racing For Heros" stickers on his car. We chat about how this charity helps veterans and how you can help the charity.
https://www.racingforheroes.org/
on Facebook @racingforheros
You will hear about his good friend and fellow fast autocrosser John Wolf who he met in the Military. Lots of Racing tips and thoughts in this episode along with some stories to get to know him better.
We also talk: ChampCar, Line Choice, Plan A and Plan B, mental game, rallycross, course walking as well....
We even talk Sri Lanka racing which looks like a lot of fun!
I had not thought about his thought of keeping a slight bit of load on the car at as much as possible even if only 10% throttle.
Jennifer takes this podcast where this podcast has not been before....Horse talk and comic book store talk. The horses we had in common.
Her comic book store is www.AtomicEmpire.com
We talk a lot about Autocross as well! As usual I think you will learn some new racing tips and ideas to try at your next autocross to drive faster/better.
I mentioned Autocross Talk T Shirts now being available on Amazon and they are even Prime. As of early August we have not uploaded the new designs but they are almost finalized.
Check out our facebook page and you can send me notes and comments on via this website as well.
This show features Dennis Sparks and Jordan Towns.
Learn what drives them and their journey to championships, Pro Solo Challenge wins and Fletcher Cup wins.
"Anything worth doing is worth trying to be the absolute best at" Jordan Towns.
"You want to go faster drive with someone faster with data" Dennis Sparks
You will hear about codriving - Hint if your car isn't setup and you can drive someone's who is then you can really see how your driving style measures up.
Hear how they look at data to get faster and what they are working on now which is the transition between elements.
You will hear "The Best Story Ever" - Jordan's first Pro Solo
Since 2012 they have been doing 9 plus national races each year.
You'll hear about the benefits of fast codrivers.
For video once again you will hear that it is best to see the drivers hands to see how much input and when the inputs on the steering wheel are being made.
And you will hear about the WRXs they have been driving and winning in.
Question Dennis - where will the SCCA go with Spec Class(es) - will SSC be the only one or is it only the first one?
Question Jordan - what are you thoughts on how to increase the participation of women in autocross?
Thomas Thompson is on Autocross Talk he runs the site National Autocross News NAXN.org and you can find them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/autoxnews/ They are always looking for contributors who would like to write about autocross!
He shares his stories and insights ranging from XP to STH.
He would live to hear what you would like more of on his site NAXN.org - and would you like to contribute some stories??
Autocross STF Audi TT Thomas ThompsonThomas Thompson and FriendsThomas Thompson Autocross CarsThomas Thompson Autocrosser of NAXN.orgThomas Thompson C7 CorvetteThomas Thompson Corvette
Marchell Fletcher joins us for this podcast. A 5 time Solo National Champion.
And if her name sounds familiar its because the "Fletcher Cup" is named in her honor.
We cover topic from ice racing, mental blocks, Bio feedback devices and differences in coaching women vs. men.
And like Jeremy Foley her question is should we have more runs at nationals? 🙂
Here is some background:
Five time SCCA Solo National Champion
Porsche Club of America National Champion
SCCA Spec Miata Class: 1999-2006, Regional Road Races. 2nd and 3rd place finishes.
Professional Driving Instructor
Racing History:
2002- 2006 SCCA Club Racing, Colorado Region Top 10 - Spec Miata
1989 - 2000 Five SCCA Solo II National Championships: ‘89, ‘94, ‘95, ‘99, ‘00
1998 Porsche Club National Champion
1989 SCCA Rocky Mountain “Driver of the Year”
1982 - Present SCCA Solo II Competitor
Driving Occupation & Teaching Experience:
2005 - 2013 Toyota Driving Expectations, Teen Driving Program Instructor- Danny McKeever's Fast Lane Driving School, Willow Springs, CA
2006 CART Hot Lap Pace Car Driver at Denver Grand Prix and Mustang VIP autocross
2002 - 2004 Drivers Edge, Bridgestone Teen Driving Program Instructor
2000 - 2001 Driving instructor, Audi Quattro Challenge client appreciation program
Jeremy Foley is your SCCA Autocross B Street National Champion.
This was an entertaining and enlightening podcast with Jeremy.
After listening to this I bet you will be working on your plan for yourself as well finding a way to test, test and test some more...... I know I am!
He covers a lot from autocross coaching, video and data analysis to codriving, and thanks his codriver Kerry Emmert. Kerry owns the beautiful 1M "unicorn".
His question for the audience, shows how he thinks outside, he asks if you think we should get more than 3 runs at SCCA Solo Nationals.
If we added two extra days I could see that being possible (that would also help us get all our runs in the daylight or more racers).
Thanks for listening and thanks for the emails and feed back!
As of now the Autocross Talk "Party" T Shirts are available on Amazon (Buying them helps suppor the show - Thanks!)
With the final question for you - Star Wars or Star Trek??
I actually used his advice of make a change if you feel like it at Nationals here in 2018 on day one when after the first run I needed some rear grip so I added toe in between runs two and three.
Jeff has won a lot as evidence he has the longest Streak of SCCA Solo National Championships for Men with 12 autocross wins.
What stand out to me is how much family matters to him and how much of a family sport autocross is for him. (And as of 2018 his family has the most SCCA Solo National Championships.)
If you are hoping to buy the bug eye listen to find out more...(or do we talk about that I part 2?) Listen in for his autocross insights, tips and a few stories!
Some of Jeff's Autocross Accomplishments:
1st - Longest Consecutive-Years Winning Streak, Men - 12 years (2006-17)
1st - Longest Personal Event Win Streak, Men - 12 years (2006-16)
1st - Most Family Championships - 25 (Jeff 12, Shawn 11, Zak 2)
5th - Most Championships, Men - 12
5th - Widest Margin of Victory, open class 21-30 cars - 4.726-sec, EM 2010 6th - Widest Margin of Victory, open class 11-20 cars - 6.048-sec, EM 2013
Jeff's company has been giving away Guitars for several years now to the top PAX winners as well as Pro Solo Overall Champions.
I had no clue how custom Kiesel Guitars can be. See them at .com/
You can contact me at www.AutocrossTalk.com or on our Facebook Page. I like input and feed back!! Thanks for listening and saying Hi! Kinch
Jeff has won a lot as evidence he has the longest Streak of SCCA Solo National Championships for Men with 12 autocross wins.
What stand out to me is how much family matters to him and how much of a family sport autocross is for him. (And as of 2018 his family has the most SCCA Solo National Championships.)
If you are hoping to buy the bug eye listen to find out more...(or do we talk about that I part 2?) Listen in for his autocross insights, tips and a few stories!
Some of Jeff's Autocross Accomplishments:
1st - Longest Consecutive-Years Winning Streak, Men - 12 years (2006-17)
1st - Longest Personal Event Win Streak, Men - 12 years (2006-16)
1st - Most Family Championships - 25 (Jeff 12, Shawn 11, Zak 2)
5th - Most Championships, Men - 12
5th - Widest Margin of Victory, open class 21-30 cars - 4.726-sec, EM 2010 6th - Widest Margin of Victory, open class 11-20 cars - 6.048-sec, EM 2013
Jeff's company has been giving away Guitars for several years now to the top PAX winners as well as Pro Solo Overall Champions.
I had no clue how custom Kiesel Guitars can be. See them at .com/
You can contact me at www.AutocrossTalk.com or on our Facebook Page. I like input and feed back!! Thanks for listening and saying Hi! Kinch
Most of you know Randy Pobst the World Champion Pro Racer with over 60 wins but did you know he started autocrossing at the age of 19.
He has Solo National and Pro Solo championships.
And you see his article every month in Sports Car Magazine.
Randy Pobst in the 1977 VW rabbit at SCCA Solo Nationals AutocrossRandy Pobst at SCCA Solo Nationals 2018Randy Pobst at SCCA Solo Nationals 2018
This interview is before his return to solo nationals (a 30 year break to give us some time to practice) where he will be driving a 1977 VW Rabbit yet again this time in FSP.
Listen in and hear great stories -he remembers it all- as well as great insights and tips. I really think I know a lot more about shocks and weight transfer after his explanation.
And can you answer his question(s) - Visit our Facebook page to interact.
I forgot to ask him if he has raced in the Rolex 24....If not I hear he would like to so please connect him 🙂
www.RandyPobst.com and Follow him on Instagram, Watch him on YouTube.
www.AutocrossTalk.com
He is your 2017 KM ProSolo National Champion in Autocross.
This was a fun call with Larry MacLeod also known as Lefty (catch that funny story toward the end).
He has been autocrossing a Kart for a long time and driving them fast (Lots of National Trophies). He did start in a car like most of us.
He covers at lot of tips for karts including:
Practice shifting at a track
If it's quiet down shift, lout upshift
Jetting
Logging events (temp, altitude...)
Physical Aspect
As well as his metal game, prosolo thoughts, course walks etc
Connect with us on Facebook and on the website www.AutocrossTalk.com
Let me know who you would like to hear from and what questions you would ask.
This is the second show for 2017 Autocross SCCA Solo National Rookies Series. It was fun to hear their insights and experiences. The may be rookie racers but most of them have autocrossed for quite some time. So their insights and racing tips are that much more helpful.
This show features four guests. If you've listened to the previous show and this one you will notice some similar advice and comments like: The grip level is quite high in Lincoln so make practice runs on the test course.
Terrance Pearson - ES Mazda Mazdaspeed Miata (Alaska)
Gordon Kuhnley - STR - 2000 Honda S2000
Eric Less - Kart Modified - 2018 Briel Kart
Dan Simms - AS - 2009 Corvette Z06 - 1:11
Who else will catch my reference to Lincoln Airport instead of Forbes Field where we had Nationals back in the early 2000's.
This is the first show for 2017 SCCA Solo National Rookies Series. It was fun to hear their insights and experiences as well as to get to know some of the newer autocrossers.
This show features four guests.
D.J. David Alessandrini - C Street 2017 Mazda Miata
Greg Tarantino - F Modified 1937 Chevrolet Legend
Haley Nicole Oosterhof - D Street Ladies 2014 Subaru BRZ
Brad Herley - B Street 2008 Honda S2000
Who else will catch my reference to Lincoln Airport instead of Forbes Field where we had Nationals back in the early 2000's.
This show features Dave Ogburn who is a multi time SCCA National Champion.
7 trips to Solo Nats, 6 trophies.
2 National Championships
A-Stock in 2011 (C5 Corvette)
C-Street in 2015 (Scion FR-S).
Triad winner in 2015 (C-Street).
3 seasons of ProSolo - 2013 - 3rd in ESP class points, 2014 - 2nd in ESP class points, 2015 - 2nd in C-Street class points
Here are some links and videos from things we discussed:
He shares a lot of insights, tips and thoughts for racing from the mental side to setup.
He worked at Honda R&D as a design engineer on suspension and had the MDX front suspension as a project. Interesting hearing how bushings on cars can impact your suspension and thus handling.
He now drives cars on a pad we should be using for auto cross in San Angelo Texas. He says he has learned a ton driving on all season tires. Don't challenge he or Lane Borg his coworker and codriver this year since they get a lot of practice!
He mentions that if you are slow in a certain type of car it might point to a weakness you can improve.
He has been autocrossing with his dad for many years and continues to do so at Nationals.
He watches the other competitors and likes to stay calm and relaxed rather than feeling any stress.
He did quite a bit of TAG Kart Racing...who else wants a kart for the track?
Biggest key he learned in karts was getting to the limit and learning to feel it.
He has autocrosses a D Street Nissan Sentra as well as a 350Z Convertible.
He also did Baja FSAE and got to autocross them (He isn't sure what the colleges were thinking).
He bought a formula ford and ran it in CMod in 2008 and learned a lot.
He looks for areas he should be best at as a place that can separate him.
Mentally he focuses less on other people and more on good technique. He likes to rotate on entry.
Uses the DL1 for data and it is more useful with data port data.
He likes to make a car as loose in the slalom as he can handle which makes it better in sweepers.
When it comes to practicing he focuses on car setup or driver but not both at the same time.
***When at nationals he ends the practices with three runs he treats just like nationals as in they count so being clean is key. (I really like this approach as compared to mine which is probably over driving for the fun of it).
Get feedback from people and have them drive your car for you.
His dad asks him after wards about three things he did well and three he can improve on.
1:54 Walking course: 1st walk pick out key cones (circle them on map)
Mark technical areas he thinks he can use as an advantage.
Example: Fast exit slalom vs. slow exit.
He will stop after a section and rerun it in his mind and any previous sections.
He visualizes as the front view of the car like he is a GoPro on the front.
He does not preplan inputs.
He has his codriver walk them through the course - what are they seeing and planning to do.
At nationals he thinks about being as fast as possible.
He only looks at video of someone he trusts.
He thinks about the position of the car relative to cones as well as direction it is pointing.
He thinks about weight transfer and likes the book I often reference but forget the name of which is "Driving on the Edge"
Dave Ogburn at the Runoffs 2016Dave Ogburn UVA Baja SAE in 2008Dave Ogburn Taking track map notesDave Ogburn Racing shifter karts in 2011Dave Ogburn Crossle Formula FordDave Ogburn's Spec Racer FordDave Ogburn autocrossing in C StreetAutocrossing the UVA Legenda Car Dave Ogburn
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Nick Chu Solo Nationals SCCA 2016Nick Chu SCCA Silver S2000 STR
Nick is the guest on this podcast. He was just awarded the 2016 Solo Rookie of the Year for Autocross.
He was 2nd place in the STR class which had 64 drivers - driving a S2000. And he wasn't even driving his own car (which helps since he no longer owns an autocross car).
I think you will get some good autocross tips and things to try after listening to this podcast. ***He started autocrossing in 2013*** so he caught on quickly. And you will hear how he learns while not actually racing.
Yes he has video game racing experience and talks about the setup he uses which makes the braking feel real.
He has driven in STS in a Civic and a CRX, as well as an ES Miata.
He talks about how he looks at data and videos and we will share a link below to some of his data.
He talks about over driving on purpose for practice as well as not being able to duplicate being fast with applying throttle later. (It worked for a codriver but he had to find another way to drive faster.)
And a tip I'm looking forward to implementing - watching videos at 1/2 or quarter speed. (I tried this and had to mute the volume on my coaching video to keep watching it.)
I thought we were going to wrap up the interview when he mentioned owning a kart so we had to hear about that. He has a 4 stroke kart which sounds much more up my alley for lower maintenance!
Episode 3 features Bob and Patty Tunnell Driver of Eminence award winners and multi time autocross champions. It was great to hear their history in the sport.
Their business is BimmerHaus.com and it was interesting hearing how apprehensive Patty was to buy that first BMW and now that is just about all they will drive.
Towards the end we get to hear about one of their passions of helping people in Afghanistan you can learn more and support the cause at http://www.barekaub.com/
I was surprised to learn that Patty does NOT like to ride along with Bob and don't invite her to a roller coaster.
We still don't know who was in the halfway house. But we do know that Bob uses his left foot for braking and Patty her right.
Awards:
Bob Tunnell
Solo Cup, the sport's highest award 2007
Driver of Eminence award, 2002
Inducted into The Silver Circle (25 events), 2010
Keeper of the Old Fartz list
2nd - Most Family Championships - 2nd - 19 (Bob 6, Patty 13)
7 ProSolo Class National Championships (92, 95, 97, 98, 00, 03, 06)
ProSolo Street Tuner Challenge Championship (07)
Solo Nationals Sportsmanship Award (05)
Rocky Mtn. Division Ricky Peña Award (03)
Rocky Mtn. Division Driver Of The Year (04)
Patty Tunnell
Driver of Eminence award, 2002
Roger Johnson Spirit of the Sport Award, 2002
Inducted into The Silver Circle (25 events), 2010
Won the largest Street Prepared Ladies class ever (1 of 2) - 13 cars in BSPL in 2001
No. 1 Among Women in Who’s Who In Solo - 464 points (2nd overall)
This episode is with Julian Garfield who has won 5 junior kart championships in autocross and has a 2nd in CSP and 3rd place finish in DSP at nationals. And the third place was with his mom riding shot gun since he only had his drivers permit.
Julian has great insight on kart setup and driving which was all new to me. If you are a parent of a junior kart driver take notes.
He talks about adding distance to keep the junior kart in the torque band rather than taking a tight line which would bog the kart. Sounds like physics supports a wider line at times.