Upstate NY Autocross Mark Mangicaro

Local events are a lot of fun, but have you ever thought about taking yourself to the next level? The SCCA offers two kinds of national autocross events: National Tour and ProSolo.

Jim Perrin has been attending national SCCA events throughout the Northeast and beyond since the early 2000. In this episode, Jim joins host Mark Mangicaro to discuss what you can expect at a national event, how these events are similar to (and different from) regional events, where you can find them and much more. 

Mindfulness, to me, means being acutely aware of what your are doing in the moment with an intentional deep focus on the activity or task at hand.  To perform at your highest level requires you to be mindful and have a high degree of both situational awareness and discipline. 

In this episode we take inspiration from Togi Berra's quote that "90% of baseball is mental; the other half is physical" and apply it to autocross.  

Competitive driving is a lot of fun, but how hard have you thought about the different options for getting the car to the event? 
Do you drive it or tow it? Are the more options? In this episode we explore several options and I bet one of them will surprise you.
Most of what is discussed in this episode can also apply to RallyCross, HPDEs, Time Trials, and even some club racing, so feel free to share this one will all of your driving enthusiast friends. 

We talk a lot on this podcast about changes and the evolution of the sport. There is no standing still. If you are not moving forward, you are falling behind. Yet, it can be easy to fall into the trap of changing things for the sake of change. 
Decades ago my mentor, Bob Jubinville, and I came up with a phrase that has guided much of what I have done since then: “Variety may be the spice of life, but consistency is the hallmark of perfection.”  Only if you hold a core element (or elements) consistent can you truly know if you are growing or reaching whatever goals you may have over a very long period of time. This is true even if that goal is something as simple as having fun. 
Southern NY SCCA member Pat Brennan has done just that. 

A couple of episodes back we discussed how to get better at autocross. In that episode we encouraged people to get instruction – especially new participants. So… we figured it was about time to do an episode on the other side of that equation: teaching people how to autocross (and how to get better at it).
Greg Turner is a retired music teacher with three decades of experience helping people learn in formal settings. He has also been autocrossing since 2005 and these days puts his teaching skills to use at autocross events. Greg joins host Mark Mangicaro (who has been teaching broadcast media at the  college level since 2006) to offer some insight on how to get the most out of the limited time we have when instructing at local events. 
In addition to some teaching/coaching tips we also discuss the different types of instruction that are available and where to find instruction. 
Two programs mentioned in the podcast are The SCCA Starting line school: https://www.scca.com/pages/starting-line-autocross-school and Evolution Performance Driving Schools http://www.evoschool.com/schools.html.
 
 

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of driving and take safety for granted. That is probably not the best way to approach your day. :-)  With the season about to get started, we decided this would be a great time to talk safety. 

Jim Gary has been an SCCA solo safety steward since the 1980s, a solo safety instructor for 20 years, and is the current Divisional Safety Steward for the Northeast Division of the SCCA.

Jim joins host Mark Mangicaro to discuss the importance of safety at SCCA autocross events. 

Topics covered include why the SCCA has safety stewards, what participants can do to help stay safe at events, and how you can become a solo safety steward.