Getting to the track on a budget

You’ll also need a helmet, but you can probably borrow one at the track. Depending on how far you have to drive to get there, your gas and entrance fee could cost less than $60, but you might want to bring a lunch. 

This type of racing is called Solo II, and it’s the least expensive way to go racing on a closed course.

Solo II is owned and operated by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). At other times and places, this form of racing has been called slalom, gymkhana and autocross, but Solo II is specifically designed to allow anyone to compete in almost any kind of car. Racing is never free, and the old adage “racing is expensive, how fast do you want to go?” still applies here. But driver skill, not speed, is the ultimate goal of Solo II, and there’s a class for every budget. The idea is to provide real competition in a low-speed, low-cost and very safe environment that doesn’t require a big commitment in time or money. And depending on your interest level, you also can be as seriously involved with it as any other form of racing. In fact, it’s commonly used as a ‘stepping stone’ to road racing or as a way for road racers to stay active during an off-season break.

This is what it looks like when you’re doing it right in a front-wheel-drive car.

The racetrack is actually a large parking lot with a course defined by rubber cones, so even if it’s held at the same place time after time, the course is different for each event. Depending on the size of the space available, a typical lap is between one-half and three-quarters of a mile, about 30 to 55 seconds per lap for the average car. The course is usually tight, full of turns and slaloms, and the emphasis is on handling rather than speed. Except for the national series championship race held at Forbes Field in Topeka, KS (an old airport), the fastest cars rarely reach 60 mph, and that’s usually just a quick ‘spike.’ Solo II places more emphasis on preparation and driver skill, rather than the ultimate capabilities of the machine. It’s not uncommon to see a 100-horsepower Civic and a 350-horsepower Corvette turn lap times within a few tenths of a second of each other.

Safety first
As with all sanctioned forms of racing, safety is the first order of business. In Solo II it starts with the fact that drivers race against the clock, not against each other. Thus the name ‘Solo.’ The cars line up single-file, and the first driver starts off. After crossing the finish line, the first driver returns to the end of the cue to wait for the next run. 

A second car might be started before the first one is finished, but with separate start and finish lines (as opposed to a closed-loop circuit), two cars can be on the course and never come close to each other. This way it takes less time to get all drivers through one lap, and more laps can be run in the time available.

As noted earlier, speed is not the goal, so the courses tend to be rather tight and slow. On more open, faster sections, the turns have a run-off area to provide plenty of stopping distance before encountering a solid object. Although nothing is ever ‘idiot-proof,’ everything possible is done to make sure the hazards don’t exceed those encountered on legal public roads, and the only thing an errant driver might hit is a rubber cone.

After arriving at the track and registering to race, a driver’s next stop is the Tech Inspection Lane. Each car is examined for loose items or parts, condition of the tires and suspension, fluid leaks and a properly secured battery. Where possible, an inspector may sit in the driver’s seat to make sure the brake pedal is firm and the throttle-return spring does its job. With a crew of just two or three people, an experienced racer’s car can be checked quickly. Newcomers’ cars are inspected more thoroughly, and the inspectors will gladly explain what they’re looking for and why.

All drivers must wear a helmet and seat belts. The helmet doesn’t have to be anything special for racing, but it must meet Snell Foundation standards. Most full-coverage motorcycle helmets made after 1990 will do, and loaners are usually available at the track. 

The standard seat belts in production cars are legal for Solo II, but they’re not very useful for racing. The driver needs to be held tightly in the seat to control the car, and inertial reel belts don’t lock. Many drivers install a racing harness, but a simple lap belt that can be pulled tight is almost just as good.

The SCCA Philly Region Solo II program is well organized. The start and finish lines are automated. Total elapsed time is displayed and then recorded into a simple but effective computer program. The equipment is built into a truck donated by a club member. A barcode reader is part of the computerized timing and scoring system. With this system cars can run in any order and be assured their time is properly recorded.

The cars
With a few exceptions, Solo II racers can drive any car that passes the safety inspection. Trucks, SUVs and minivans are excluded due to rollover tendencies; cars with wheelbases longer than 116 inches also are generally excluded because they might not be able to negotiate the course. Otherwise there are classes for just about everything that might reasonably be called a ‘car.’ While certain cars are better suited and therefore more popular, it’s not at all uncommon for a driver to enter the most mundane sedan on-street tires and still have a lot of fun. Some entries have even been built from scratch using production-car components on a homemade frame – often called ‘junkyard dogs.’ At the other end of the spectrum are single-seat, open-wheeled Formula cars. These are usually older models that aren’t really competitive in their original road racing series anymore. But they make excellent autocross cars.

Most autocrossers drive regular production cars that you might see on the street every day. Some of the most common are the Honda Civic, VW Golf, Toyota MR2 and the Mazda Miata. These cars are popular partly because they’re inexpensive to prepare for racing and partly because their outstanding handling qualities are more important than power. That said, heavyweights like Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs, BMWs and Porsches are almost as common, and it’s not surprising to see exotic names like Ferrari, Acura NSX and Lotus on the track. It’s also not surprising to see old classics like Triumphs, air-cooled VWs, and of course all types of MG.

Often the choice of car is dictated by budget and intent. The budget racer who knows what he’s doing can drive a dead-stock car to the track and win, then drive it to work the next day. Serious racers planning to compete at the national level may choose a car that’s easy to modify into a dedicated racing vehicle. Whether it’s front- or rear-wheel-drive, old or new, regular production or full-race, SCCA will group vehicles of similar type and capabilities into the same class to make the competition as fair as possible.

Cars are also categorized by their degree of preparation, and SCCA strictly defines those categories and preparations. The Stock category is defined as a regular production car sold in the United States for on-road use, raced in its showroom configuration. Certain aftermarket wheels, tires and shock absorbers are allowed, but they must be street-legal and commercially available to anyone. At the other end of this spectrum is the Modified category, which defines purpose-built racecars. Some Modifieds started out as production cars, but just as often, they’re the aforementioned pure sports racers and formula cars. Between these two are Prepared and Street Prepared categories. Prepared cars start out as production models, but the engine, suspension and body can be changed significantly. In fact it’s sometimes hard to tell a Prepared car from a production-based Modified car, and there are pages and pages in the rulebook that spell out all the details.

Street Prepared is probably the most hotly contested category. This is basically a stock car that’s been modified for racing but is still technically street legal. It’s easy to unintentionally bump a daily driver into this category by adding an aftermarket exhaust system or a free-flowing air filter. Internal engine modifications are not allowed, but changes to the intake, fuel injection, ignition and exhaust systems are permitted. This category allows adding a roll bar and a fuel cell, as well as modifications to the brakes, body, suspension, wheels and tires, battery location and so much more. Depending on the car and the level of competition, it can get expensive. In any category, it pays to study the rulebook before spending money on modifications that might put your car into a class where it simply isn’t competitive. 

Tires
In every category, the most important thing to spend money on is tires. With the right tires, a showroom stock car can be competitive. With the wrong tires, even an open-wheeled formula car can be frustratingly inadequate. And there are a lot of tire choices to be considered. 

According to Rob Leone, chairman of the SCCA Philadelphia Region Solo II program and driver of a C-Stock Toyota MR2, DOT-legal race compound (R-compound) tires can easily reduce lap times on an average course by two full seconds. He also points out that a set of race tires can cost $750, and some drivers don’t make it through the whole season on one set. For the budget racer, there are excellent street compound tires that are far more durable for half the price. They won’t stick as well as the R-compound tires, but Leone also says sticky tires can actually impair the novice’s ability to learn car control by hiding mistakes. For cars in the stock category, a driver can get good bang for the buck and probably finish a whole season on street compound autocross tires. But in the other categories, a competent driver in a mildly prepared car will always be quicker with race compound tires.

Race tires don’t become sticky until they’re warmed up, which, in other forms of racing, usually takes a couple of laps around the track. How can they work in autocross? According to the people at Tire Rack, SCCA’s major sponsor for the Solo and Pro Solo series, there are race compound tires made specifically for autocross racing. They’re designed to warm-up and cool-down quickly, what they call a ‘short heat cycle.’ Tire Rack also says any race tire’s first heat cycle is critical to its performance and durability. They recommend an ‘easy’ first heat cycle, bringing the tire up to full temperature and then giving it 48 hours to cool, which allows the rubber to take its final set. That’s one reason the major league teams will ‘scrub-in’ a set of tires on Friday for Sunday’s race.

No matter what kind of tires you’re planning to use, plan on using them hard. If you’re driving the car anywhere near its limits – even on a lighter, lower-powered car – three or four runs will put a visible amount of wear on even the hardest street tires. Most autocrossers who drive the racecar to the track will bring their race wheels and tires and install them in the pits before tech inspection.

Race day

A bad day at the track is still better than a good day at work.

Everyone who registers to drive also gets a work assignment. That might mean sending cars off at the starting line, policing the finish line, helping with timing and scoring or chasing after cones that have been knocked down. The lucky workers get to work before it’s their turn to drive, because no matter how many times they walk the course, a driver’s first impression at the starting line is a forest of orange cones. Workers not only get to learn the course by watching others race, they also get to see the other drivers’ racing line and where the trouble spots are.

The goal of autocross is to complete one lap in the shortest amount of time without knocking down any cones. Every downed cone adds a two-second penalty, and going off-course for any reason results in a DNF (Did Not Finish). Each driver gets a minimum of three laps, but as noted earlier, not consecutively. 

Since outright speed and wheel-to-wheel competition are not part of autocross, the focus of the race is on the abilities of the driver. Those who learn to see the best line and concentrate on following it smoothly will do well and improve quickly. There is much to learn, and not everyone ‘gets it,’ but those who do will probably drive differently on the street for the rest of their lives because they are more aware of what they’re doing.

It may only be racing around a parking lot against the clock, but autocross is every bit as intense as any other from of racing. I once watched over a driver’s shoulder at the starting line. He tightened the shoulder straps on his five-point racing harness, then as he waited for the green light, he ran the whole lap in his mind, deliberately turning his head to look from one set of cones to the next. That moment of waiting was so intense, the little pull-tabs on the shoulder straps bounced with the pounding of his heartbeat. Racing is that exciting for anyone who gets to sit in the driver’s seat, and autocross is one of the least expensive ways to do it.