Gerry, Mike, and myself were in the "FSP" class. FSP stands for "Class F, Street Prepared" and is for vehicles that are slightly modified from stock. Matt Gelvin's car is still pretty stock, so it was placed in the "H Stock" class. One of the club officers remarked that they might even have to create a new class just for Spitfires, as they couldn't remember a day when they had three at one event. We even had a couple guys drop by that plan on bringing their Spitfires to an event next year, so it is possible that we may have six or seven Spitfires and a few other British cars at one or two events.
Mike Nelson and I showed up fairly early so we could get a good parking place, and get all of our gear set up. Mike's Union Jack flag provided the visual clue that there were LBCs to be reckoned with. Beach chairs, coolers, tool boxes, and everything that wasn't bolted to the car was removed and stacked neatly. The early arrival also allowed the two of us to get our share of the volunteer work completed before the racing started. Every driver is expected to work at something during the day's events. We walked the entire half mile course with small chunks of drywall that we used to mark the location of every traffic cone on the course. This allowed the course workers to establish whether or not a cone had been moved, and also enabled them to correctly reposition any cones that were knocked around. Most of the other drivers ended up working the course while cars made their runs, reporting in any time penalties and replacing the cones.
Having never participated in an Autocross, I wandered around with eyes wide open trying to take in all the details. The SCCA club officers did a great job of organizing the event and even held a "Course Walk-Through" for all novices so that we could walk the track and discuss how to attack different sections of the course, and how to avoid certain types of problems. My fellow Spitfire drivers were very helpful also, helping me figure out how to set up my car for optimum handling, and keeping me aware of all the different things going on. I don't think I would have considered entering the event without their assistance. Once we got going, I felt pretty comfortable and was able to concentrate on how to cut time from my runs, not figure out where I was supposed to be and when.
Gerry Conant ended up with the first place trophy in the FSP Class with a "best run" of 51.302 seconds. Second place went to an amazingly fast 1975 Mazda pickup (powered by a nicely prepared Rotary engine, mind you) that clocked a best time of 51.759. Mike Nelson and I were next with best runs of 53.967 and 53.745 respectively. Matt Gelvin had the fastest Spitfire of the day with a best run of 53.087, though he came in second in class to a 1980 VW Scirocco that ran a 52.684. I was amazed that the posted times were so close together.
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