Why it’s worth celebrating a ninth place finish | Column | Articles

My first time there in ’94, I was driving a great car,Steve Hoelscher’s X1/9, and I ended up driving way under my capability.  Never underestimate the mental part of that event.  To me it was not the same as a local event.  The size of the courses and number of entrants in your class drove that point home.  I dnf’d my first 2 runs, and made a conservative run for the 3rd just to get a time.  The 2nd day was much better but not enough to overcome my first day mindless driving.  I recall going back to the hotel after day one and barely remembering any of the runs.  Getting into the mental aspect of that event is I think half the battle.  Great event though, I recommend it to anyone.  There is nothing like it I’ve ever been to in any form of racing.

I’ve been autocrossing off and on for about 15 years. I don’t think I have 100 events in, but I’m getting close. I still can’t fall asleep the night before a local autocross and I wake up before my alarm. I’m failing at the mental game, but I hope it never goes away. 

As Per (and everybody else who knows me) would tell you, I have a penchant for sticking my face in where it doesn’t belong and over-coaching people whether they like it or not.  Chalk it up to 15 years as a track & field competitor and another 5 years as a high school coach.  Therefore, I feel the need to burden you with my thoughts.

First of all, bear in mind the approaching hurricane took up a buttload of brain pan, since your bride and birds were back in the belly of the blowing beast. That’s not a concern for Canadian competitors.

However, if you plan on returning to the Nationals next year, take someone along with you whose sole job is to do all the video recording and removing any distractions so you can quiet your mind and spend some time preparing for each run.

Since we saw a lot of the pre-run mishegas and the runs themselves, we were also privy to a lot of camera adjusting and general futzing right up…