WHAT IS AUTOCROSS?

  An autocross is a time-trial competition held on a temporary closed course, usually set up in a large parking lot or on an unused airfield. These events originated in Europe during the '50s and '60s. When European sports cars began reaching American shores in the late '50s, these events came with them, evolving into the modern autocross. In the U.S., the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) sanctions autocrossing under their Solo Events program, and most independent sports car clubs use SCCA rules and classes.

  A typical autocross course is a half-mile to a mile long, marked by traffic cones forming straights coupled with quick, challenging turns. Competitors run the course individually (thus the term "Solo") with times recorded by an electronic timer. Knocking over cones carries a time penalty (usually 2 seconds per cone), which is added to the raw lap time. Each competitor runs the course several times, and at the end, compares his or her fastest time with those of similarly classed competitors. Competition is often close, with the top places separated by tenths or even hundredths of a second. Courses emphasize handling and driver skill over sheer speed - stock classed cars seldom exceed speeds reached on any interstate highway.

  Highway speeds? 60-second courses? Sounds kind of dull.
Autocrossing has elements of both drag racing and road racing. Like drag racing, drivers and cars start on an equal footing with the competition - there is no advantage to grid or track position. Like road racing, autocrossing demands the ability to read the course, find and drive the fastest path through a collection of turns and straights - and often without the benefit of a practice lap. Autocrossing is about keeping the car and driver on their collective limit for the entire run -- there is no place to relax and assess position or plan the next move. Quite a few top road racers such as Neal Sapp, Randy Pobst (click here for Randy's take), Jeff Altenburg and T.C. Kline started as autocrossers, and still compete regularly. Different? You bet. Dull? Not a chance!

  Preparation Levels and Classing
Classes are designed to pit cars of similar performance and preparation level against one another. Stock and Street Prepared cars can run on race tires. Prepared and Modified cars are either heavily modified street cars or purpose-built racing cars. At present, the SCCA preparation structure used by most clubs contains 25 different classes within these four preparation levels, encompassing just about every car built since 1950. In stock trim (A Stock), the Charm City Racing Honda S2000 competes against cars such as the Acura NSX, Subaru WRX and STI, BMW M3 (also M Roadsters & Coupes), Porsche Boxter and Boxter S, and others.

  Where are autocorsses held?
In terms of participants, autocrossing rivals drag racing as the most well-subscribed motorsport in the United States - thousands of people compete in events are held all over the country nearly every weekend of the year.

www.autox4u.com lists of hundreds of events throughout the Northeast. In the Mid-Atlantic area, several SCCA Regions (Washington DC, Philadelphia, S. NJ and others) along with several marque clubs, holds several dozen events between April and November of each year at sites from Long Island to Virginia.