First SCCA Race

My first SCCA race, all by myself, yeah! So, Jared and the car people I know over here, went yesterday to the test and tune so no one came today for the actual points race. Jared just dropped me off, helped me switch tires, and I was on my own.

Being pretty much the only girl, the only one in my class, in a very girly looking car(yes, it has coy fish on it), and without any one that I knew, it was quite awkward.

So the class I want to run my car in is C Stock Lady's. But, there aren't any "lady's" in C Stock, except me. SO, this makes it an easy win, but no competition. My thought was that there would be at least me one other girl and we could have like an arch nemesis thing going on. But, looks like, as of now, no one else is in my class. So, I'm wondering if I should stay in my class and just drive to represent the girls (for shits and giggles) and compare my times to the C Stock, or just run in C Stock?

I was the second group to run so I worked the course first. It was so cold and windy, my eyes were watering, nose running(having trouble catching it), and not able to feel my fingers.

I had walked and studied the course a couple times before the first group ran and had planned out in my head how I thought it was all going to go down. But, while working the course, I noticed very few people were doing what I had thought was the fasted way to go through the course. Once I actually drove it, I found out why. While walking a course I figured that I had plenty of time to maneuver the car. But, silly things like what I can only assume is physics, act on the car preventing this from happening. I also realized that I may plan out how to go through the course but while driving there is really no time to think and I am forced to act on my instincts and just see and react. Hopefully I will be able to get better at this.

Shifting, another very difficult thing to time. I am used to small courses that you just need to shift into 2nd and leave it there. But, these courses are so open and fast, I had to shift into 3rd. I of course didn't realize that I probably should shift until my car started to beep at me through the whole course. My car beeps when it hits the red line(9,000 rpm). But the problem is that this isn't the rev limiter and I still have power, so I am unaware of it until my car starts beeping. But, once I shifted into 3rd I knocked like 4 seconds off my time. Then I thought, should I downshift? I didn't have enough runs to determine if this is effective or not, but my thought is that the time it takes to downshift is not enough gained by downshifting?? We will see.

I don't know how my time compares to that of the C Stock but I'll post when I find out. I'll also try to post pics once I find my camera/computer connector thingy.