2022 Haul Ass Tour Schedule

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For whatever reason there isn’t a whole lot of information online about how an autocross works, especially for people completely new to racing. Everything I found was along the lines of “show up and have fun!” which is great advice for people who have done it before. Like my intro to piano class in college, it’s only helpful if you already know an instrument. Reddit forums, SCCA posts, etc. are all geared toward going faster, but what about the people who just want to go and try racing for the first time?

When Mike asked if I wanted to write an article on my experience as an autocross first-timer, I thought it was a good idea. So let’s start with the basics.

What is Autocross?

Autocross, or “parking lot racing” as my brother likes to call it, is a low-cost, low-struggle, low-risk way to get out and drive your car fast. Typically set up in a parking lot, airport, track, or any place with a wide open piece of tarmac, the “race track” is an improvised course marked with small traffic cones. Cars run one at a time in an effort to score the best time through the course. Hitting cones results in penalty time added to your run, usually a second or two. Most runs are anywhere from 40-100 seconds long.

Those are important details for those of us with either:

1. Expensive cars that we don’t want to break or
2. Only one car that we need to get to work in the morning (and also don’t want to break)

These details are what make autocrossing so approachable for racing newbies. The track is a giant piece of tarmac. Generally speaking, if you lose control or get a little too enthusiastic through a corner there’s nothing to hit. This is by design. Sure, you may wipe out a few cones, but rarely do they leave lasting damage on a car’s finish. With a little blue masking tape, even that damage is preventable.

The other important element is course design. It changes with every event and course designers try to keep the max speeds under 80 mph. This helps limit the size of wipeout someone might have and minimizes the stress put on the car. Thanks to a shorter track, lower overall speed, and fewer laps, your car needs fewer consumables than a comparable track day car. That translates to fewer brake pads, rotors, tires, gas, etc., which means you don’t need a fortune to take your Mustang out for a weekend of fun.

Dodging the Cones in a 66 Mustang

What Do You Need to Autocross?

To start autocrossing you need a car… and that’s about it. What type of car you ask? Nearly anything. Mustang, Lamborghini, your mom’s Corolla, basically anything that doesn’t have a high center of gravity like a truck or SUV.

There’s a common misconception that you need a “fast” car to go autocrossing. While you will see your fair share of fast cars, you’ll also see stock Hyundais, Saab wagons, Civics, Go-karts, and yes, even the occasional 90s Corolla. Many racers will tell you it’s better to start with a slower car, as it gives you the chance to develop good habits at slower speeds.

I know what you’re thinking: I’ll never win anything in my Mom’s Corolla. Wrong again! Thanks to the classing system the SCCA uses to organize the cars, you’ll only have to race against other similarly equipped, 90s beige cars with 6-CD changers. The fast guys will race the fast guys and the slow guys race the slow guys, which means you get to be competitive no matter what you’re driving. As a novice, you’ll also be added to a special “novice only” class to see how you stack up against the other newbies.

Besides the car, there are a couple other things you’ll want to bring with you to ensure a good time:

1. An approved helmet – Check with your region on the specific rating your helmet should have. Usually they have a couple to borrow if needed, but you’ll probably want your own. The cheap ones work just as well as the expensive ones and they’re like $75. You don’t need a full-face one, in fact you may want an open-face one for improved visibility. Don’t show up with a bike helmet, they’ll laugh at you.
2. A roll of painter’s tape – This is your first event, so you won’t have numbers to slap on the side of your car. When you register, you will pick a number to represent your car on race day. Any old one- or two-digit number will work: 5, 9, 12, 69 (really?). You’ll also pick the class your car goes in. Here’s a good article that outlines where your car will probably end up.

Your roll of tape is what you’ll use to spell out your number and class on both sides of your car. Make ‘em big and make sure you use a tape that people can see (don’t use dark blue tape on a black car). Remember, a 1 or a 7 is a lot easier to make out of tape than 55.

Worried about rocks and cones damaging your paint? Slap some painters tape in the areas behind the wheels and on the front bumper if you want. Tape is cheap, paint is expensive. People may chuckle a little, but that’s only because they don’t care what their car looks like.

3. A hat and sunscreen – You’re going to be outside, in the sun, on tarmac, usually with no shade. Bring a big hat and sunscreen. Bring lots of water and comfy shoes (closed toed). Bring snacks. All of this will go a long way to making the day more enjoyable.
4. Advanced stuff – At some point you’ll want to think about bring a pyrometer (temperature gun), a tire pressure gauge, a garden sprayer, a jack, and a bunch of other stuff. Cool, but you don’t need it for your first event. Eventually we will write an article that covers what all this stuff is for, but for now stick to the basics.

Painters tape is your friend if you want to protect your paint at the autocross.

How does Autocross Work?

The actual event is split up into different heats, sometimes two, often three or four. As part of your entry to the event, you’ll need to “work” one heat, and “run/race” another. Yup, unlike other forms of racing, autocross is affordable because people volunteer to help run the event. The good news is the work is pretty darn easy. First, let’s walk through the typical schedule and where you should be.

Registering for the Event

To register for your local autocross, Google SCCA SOLO plus your local area. You’ll find your region’s website with a calendar of events and links to register. Fill out the form, pay the registration fee (usually about $50) and sign up to be a member of the SCCA (if you’re not already, usually another $90 for the year). The SCCA events aren’t the only game in town, but they tend to be well supported.

You’ll need to punch in details about your car including the class you’ll be competing in and your desired racing number.

Once finished and submitted, you’ll get a confirmation email and a link to the waiver you need to digitally sign to get into the track. Your region may have you sign something on your way into the event instead. Review the schedule for the day and make note of when things get started.

Have a friend who wants to come along? Does your Mom want to watch and make sure you don’t crash her Corolla? Spectators get in free! They’ll even be able to ride with you so long as they have a helmet. The only thing they can’t do is drive.

At the Event

ARRIVE EARLY. Get to the event early in the morning. You’ll want time to get your bearings and see how things work. This will give you the time to tape up your car and hopefully meet a few people. Walk around and see the other cars. Look to see where the grid is. Watch what the other racers do. Absorb it all.

Once you’ve taken in the sights and sounds, head over to the registration table. This may or may not be marked, but you’ll see where people are checking in. As part of your registration, they’ll give you your work assignment and which heats you’ll be working/running.

Arrive early enough to walk the course a couple times. You want to know where you’re going and your plan of attack.

Next, keep an eye open for when they post the detail sheet. I don’t know if this has a better name, but when you see everyone drop what they’re doing and head over to look at a freshly posted sheet of paper, that’s what you’re looking for. This sheet will outline important details for each of the racers including your grid number. Make a note of your grid number which IS DIFFERENT than your car number. I like to take a picture of the sheet with my phone so I have it with me all day.

At some point, the course will open for walking. WALK IT A COUPLE TIMES. You need to get a feel for where it goes and how you want to approach each of the turns. The more familiar you are with the course, the faster you will be. My region even offers a novice walk. Anyone who wants to join can walk with a group led by someone with a lot of experience. The guide will talk through each of the corners and how to approach them. I go on this walk every event. Just talking through the track with an experienced racer makes the time commitment worthwhile.

Once you’ve walked the course a couple times the event will begin with a driver’s meeting and safety brief. They’ll tell you what’s going on today, how many heats there are, some important safety information, and anything else you need to know. Once finished, they ask the workers for the first heat to report to their work assignments and the event gets underway.

Work Assignment

When you checked in they gave you a work assignment, right? If you’ve never done this before you’ll probably be on cone duty. This assignment is self-explanatory, pick up and reset the cones that get knocked over by racers. Simple, but with a few more details:

1. Each cone will have a little chalk box around the base. This indicates where the cone is supposed to be.
2. If a cone is knocked completely out of the box, grab it, wave it over your head so the corner captain (person in charge of the corner) can see it, and set it back in the box. The corner captain will radio the cone into the timing people so they can add the penalty to the driver’s time.
3. If any part of the cone is still in the box, then it’s safe, no penalty. Signal a baseball style “safe” move to the captain and put the cone back into position.
4. Do all of this while making sure you don’t get hit by the next car coming around the corner. They space the cars out enough so there’s time to do this safely.
5. Congratulations, you know how to shag cones!

Maybe you’re like me and don’t have the best ankles to be running around on. Luckily, there are other roles that need filled. Timing, course setup and teardown, starter, grid… all these positions require helpers to keep the event running smoothly. As you get more familiar with autocross, you’ll have the opportunity to work in other areas.

Racing

This is the fun part. When it’s your turn to race you’ll pull your car into “grid”. This is home base for the racers and the racers only. If it’s not your racing heat, your car probably should not be in grid.

Typically, the grid is a diagonal parking arrangement, each parking spot marked off with cones and a number on them. Your grid number (NOT your race number) will determine where you should park. Once you’ve found your spot, pull your car in and get settled. This is your chance to pull out everything loose in your car. Floor mats, garage door openers, iPhone mounts, etc. Basically anything that could fly around and whack you in the face while racing should be removed and set next to your spot (but not in a place where it can be run over.)

The grid at an autocross event at Crow’s Landing. There’s David from the shop!

While you’re doing this, the tech inspector will likely come by. Have the hood open for him or her. He/she will have a look at a couple different things on your car:

1. Is the battery mounted appropriately?
2. Are the wheels mounted on the car properly?
3. Has all the loose stuff been removed from the car?
4. Do you have an appropriate helmet?
5. Are there any fluid leaks?
6. Is there anything else that would make racing this car a really bad idea?

But that’s about it. No need for a roll bar (except for some convertibles, check your local regulations), racing suit, or HANS setup. Not that these would hurt to have, but they aren’t required. When your car passes tech they’ll probably put a small sticker on your windshield and you’ll be OK’d to race.

You may have noticed a rather official person walking up and down the grid, usually with a headset and a clipboard. Their job is to run the grid, telling the individual drivers when to pull out and head to the start line for the course. Hang out in your car, helmet on, ready to go, until they stop in front of your car. When they point at you it’s your turn to pull out and follow the guy in front of you to the start.

Wait at the starting line until the starter gives you the go ahead. That’s when you can start your run. Assuming everything goes to plan, you’ll finish your run then need to IMMEDIATELY slow down. Some courses may even have a designated stop area after the finish line that you’ll need to physically stop in. Take a glance at the timing board to see how you did but note that this time doesn’t include any penalties you may have received. Then, at a slow speed, you can proceed back to your spot in the grid.

You’ll have some time between your runs, usually at least ten minutes. But this isn’t the time to go grab a sandwich. You’ll see competitors get out of their cars, check tire pressures and temperatures, maybe tinker with a setting on their suspensions, etc. Some will use garden sprayers to wet their tires. Some will just chat with the other racers for a minute. If this is your first time, you’ll be sitting in your car waiting for the adrenaline to taper off. You did it! You made your first run.

Think about how it felt and what you think you did right. Your first event isn’t about laying down the fastest speed, it’s about learning how this works and feeling it out. Eventually the grid worker will come back to you, and you’ll head off on your second run. How many runs you get each event depends on the number of vehicles entered. Fewer competitors, more runs. At your first event just try to improve your personal time with each run.

When you’ve had all your runs, pull your car out of the grid to make way for the next group of racers. Grab some water, take a breather, and if you’re working, get ready for the next heat.

Wrapping Up the Day

As the day comes to an end, there may or may not be an award ceremony for the winners in each class. If you won, congratulations! If you didn’t win, congratulations on making it out to your first event. There’s no doubt that autocross can feel intimidating, especially for first timers, but it gets easier. Even after only the three or four events I’ve done I find myself getting into the groove and wanting to go faster.

Autocross is a great way to experience the capabilities of your car. It gives you the chance to safely understand how it handles, accelerates, and stops. Better still, it offers the chance to meet other people who are as into cars as you are. In my experience, these folks have been friendly, welcoming, and more than willing to help if something goes wrong. They might even let you go for a ride with them if you ask nicely.

Get out and give it a shot. So long as your Mustang is in decent working order you’ll have no problems passing tech and learning a whole lot about your car as you go around the track. You’ll find it an addicting way to spend a Saturday. Good luck out there!

Sometimes you win a trophy, sweet!

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Preparing a car for Optima’s Search for the Ultimate Street Car is not an easy task. As the series has grown and more people build awesome cars, the times keep dropping and sweat equity never stops. When it comes to regular racing you have one thing you need to do well: with Optima there are multiple disciplines in one weekend. Getting into the top pack is breaking into a lifestyle. It requires constantly improving your weak points and a dedication to evolving the car. Not to mention actually having to drive the thing well!

This winter we wanted to make a solid effort at improving our 2017 Mustang. The obvious first task was to shore up loose ends. The car has sat aside for several seasons. Want to know the best way to ruin a car? Let it sit.

The to-do list was hefty for sure. Freshen up shocks, differential, brakes, and hubs were just the basics to ensure the car made it through the weekend. But what was the plan to go faster? The first one was simple. Find $10-20k and build a nasty motor. Uhhh… ok maybe we aren’t there just yet.

What else can we do?

We turned our thoughts to avoid being slowed down. If we can’t go super fast, maybe we shouldn’t go super slow in the center of the turns. We had noticed the back of the car was a bit hard to feel. Perhaps a redesign of the rear shock and spring package could get our back end more predictable without bouncing off bumps as much. So we turned to what we knew and liked: a rear cantilever system. This proved to be an effective solution in the past for Ol’ Blue so perhaps we can adapt it to the S550 platform. At the very least the judges would appreciate the innovation… right?

The rocker system took several months to sort out. We have had two different ratios and several hub bearing assemblies. Revalving new shocks to work with it was a task as well. While developing and assembling that system, we were also tending to a hurt diff in need of a burp tank. Thinking back to an old race car we developed, we remembered a little trick. Put the burp tank in the tubing! So the cross member became the burp tank. This as of to date feels much more compliant than ever before. We have been adding valving and spring rates as well as rocker ratio in the effort of progress. This was definitely a good start.

Next our list as the biggie, literally. We really wanted to try ground effects. The theory was simple: suck the car to the ground by controlling the air under the car. We started out with a cardboard model, then an aluminum one, and finally we built the real deal. It took months of work to come up with our plan to assemble and fix it to the car. When you’re doing something new, it isn’t easy to look it up on line.

This whole strategy was a total gamble. Either it was going to be freaking awesome and it wouldn’t be allowed back, or it was it was going to be a huge piece of wall art after one weekend. This was going to be our attempt at a substantial improvement over our current set up. Honestly we had no idea what it would do.

Along with all this we still had all the basics like a brake job, and figuring out a valve cover breather set up (which we buried in the chromoly tubing of our shock tower brace.) We also had to reset up the trailer after sitting for almost a whole season. Lots to do and it better be good.

Once the weekend started it was evident everyone took the time off to improve. First was the autocross. But this autocross was half the road course. Our first laps were fast but eventually tires came in and power started to get put down. This wasn’t in our plan. We needed the slow parking lot style to maximize our strengths and not let the big motors get a leg on us. We just had to hang on but this was telling for the next day. Our setup felt solid and the new Falken Rt660’s were a huge help, but all the tuning could not make up for the repeated drag races with u-turns in between. Power would be king this weekend. We held on to 5th place out of 30. Not bad but much to improve on.

Next was the speed stop. Again we showed good promise at the beginning. But as things started to grip up in the second half of the day our little motor (as Scotty from Star Trek would say) “was giving it all it’s got!” The group started to stretch out on us and we fell back again.

The road course was just a give-it-hell event and at this point don’t give up. Just keep digging . Don’t let them get you like this. Again we weren’t far off in the beginning. Just a couple of tenths. Then they started to stretch it out again. It was clear that we had an advantage in the technical sections but the straights left us behind.

In short, it was a tough weekend. The competition just keeps getting better and better and it inspires us to continuously improve. In total we dropped over 4 seconds from our lap time compared to our last visit to Vegas, but we will need to do better if we want to keep winning. Stay tuned.

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2021 Haul Ass Tour Schedule

2021 American Auto-X Series

Mike and Brianne have been a part of American Autocross for years, this is where they like to test and play locally. Keep in mind due to other schedules they may not attend all events. Also take time to check out SCCA Sacramento Chapter they have amazing autocross events they put on at Thunderhill Raceway.

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The first order of business is to pull all of the old parts out and the mock up the rear end housing and the front hub to their new proposed locations. At this point we put all of the hard pivot points into the computer and started to figure out what would be the best plan of attack with respect to geometry. Every thing in the car is built off the cars foundation and that is the geometry.

The front suspension is already a prototype R&D MOD2 and its mounting points are all vertically adjustable. This made everything much easier and all of the pick up points were shifted up and this got us most of the way there. With the new ultra low ride height we could not get everything we wanted out of the chassis mounts. We ended up employing a drop spindle to get the rest of the job done.

To get the width increased we made up an extended set of MOD control arms they are basically a stretched version of the 65 MOD1 control arms.

The back was a little more involved. We took out the prototype MOD2 rocker system and installed a new standard equipment MOD2 rocker system. However with the new ride height, the frame rails were much too close to the axle. The remedy was to simply raise the rails for vertical clearance. Also the rear end housing had to be dealt with. The lower control arm brackets needed to be corrected for proper geometry. This turned out to be one of the most labor intensive pars of the job.

While all of this fabrication was going on we also had some basics to attend to. The wiring has been plaguing us over the years. This also had to be ripped out and remade. We have also had growing pains with some torque arms as of late and this put a bevy bind on our drive shaft. Our beautiful Dynotech drive shaft was getting beat up bad so a couple of fresh Dynotech drive shafts had to be made up.

By this time we started to get a handle on things. Progress was slow but consistent . The rear end seemed to take for ever. We had straggling to do’s here and there to wrap up loose ends. Things like mounting brakes seem to skip the big list.

Once we got the chassis components completed. We then moved on to the body work. We still had not come up with much of an idea how we were going to flare the car. We had several ideas, but none of them stuck. Finally mike stayed late one night and roughed in a flare concept out of cardboard that wasn’t half bad. We left the car like this for a day or so to let it marinate for a while just to make sure.

At this time the decision was to be made on what/how we were going to make these flares. We found some aluminum in the shop that looked like it would do so we started cutting patterns out. This was handled by Mike and shop guru, Gary Mole. Gary was the one in charge of the wiring and anything else that Mike came up with. With uncharted territories like this Mike was reassured with Gary’s confidence and they kept going.

After a couple of days of thrashing we called up an old friend for the paint work. Arthur from Alameda Collision is one of those body shops that still understands the privateer. He took the car in and got it out in record time. The boys down there really did us right. While the car was at paint mike met up with the family for a short recharge.

Once the car got back from paint the guys had about a week to get Ol Blue back up and running for the first practice. Doing their best for the customers already slated during the days all of this was done at night. Every thing from trim, alignment, and interior had to go back together. This was finished up at about ten at night the day before the first test.
The goals for the first test were to make sure everything worked as planed. Then to start tuning. This was a lot to ask at an autocross given the number of laps possible. Ultimately the main and final goal was to improve the transitional control of the car. The way the car feels as it is setting into the turn; Although the car was not tuned yet Mike could clearly feel the difference. This was for sure a good first test. The car stayed all together and it continued to feel better every run.

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With the decision now made we had to choose a path. Over the years we have done as much as possible to milk every second out of the old coupe. We could possibly fine tune a couple of tenths, but what we needed was seconds. Over the last few seasons it became apparent that we were among the skinniest of cars. As the years went on the manufactures have seen the benefits of widening the car and reducing weight transfer. This distributes the weight more evenly across all four tires throughout the turn, reducing the strain on the outside tires. As we noticed we were the narrowest by about 4″ with respect to the rest of the field, not to mention taller than most as well, this only exaggerated our problem. The fix is now clear… Widen and lower to get on an even playing field, maybe even a bit of an upper hand.

Setting parameters is the first step. Scope crepe is a killer for jobs like this. The old….. I’m here so why not…. Always adds to the job. We do not have time for this so we added up what was realistic and this was a 2″ drop and a 4″ wider track. We can keep most of the guts of what we have with this. Re-engineering the front chassis will be at a minimum and the rear will need vertical clearance among several other things. Our one bit of scope creep needed will be a new wiring job. The wiring has been the same as the day the car was bought. Our goal was to be finished by the Circuit of the Americas Ultimate Street Car event

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Those of you with weak stomachs, do not like change, and believe 1978 gave us everything that we will ever need please back away now.  Those of you who are still reading, welcome to 2016.  This is a short story about evolution.

Many of whom who have been present during this metamorphosis have shown excitement and other have shown disgust.  Over the life span of Ol’ Blue the pro-touring scene has evolved and so has Ol’ Blue.  The purpose of this evolution has also changed over the years.

Going back 12 years Ol’ Blue wasn’t the old blue you know today.  It was a mere gift to Mike’s wife and was nothing that would get much of a second look.  It began as a “seafoam green”, 289ci with an automatic transmission.  When first seen before the wedding Brianne though, “Mike sure has a lot of work to do.”  After a quick 1 month to build the car it was ready to get driven to and from the wedding.  It evolved into a simple performance street cruiser complete with the same 289, a toploader 4 speed, 9” rear end, blue paint, and a cleaned up interior.  Over the next few years the car was a cool street car that just got driven.  In 2008 the industry also began to evolve; performance parts and events alike.  Good Guys Rod and Custom developed their autocross series.  A couple years later the Run to the … events began to pop up around the country.  During these early days most people were competing with their 350 horsepower, medium tires, and some bolt on suspension parts.

We then saw another level of evolution when people began to develop suspensions, chassis, and powertrains to get an edge on the other competitors.  This drove companies that were content with leaf springs, panhard bar, bilstein shocks, and a Shelby drop to develop their knowledge of these vehicles to keep up with the trend.  Now we have competitive events like Optimas Search for the Ultimate Street Car where if you want to compete you must push the envelope on development.

As the environment that we work and play in has evolved so has Ol’ Blue.  What started as a stock 289 auto Mustang, evolved into a tool that we use to develop our suspensions and chassis.  To develop our chassis past where it is currently, we need to be at the cusp of development. We use what we learn to fine tune and develop products for everyone.  Without the evolution we(the involved industry) would still be happy with polyglass tires and eight tracks. Further, our companies would go stale and become stagnant.  We would also become irrelevant to the industry.

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