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For Autocross fans. Show your stuff!

I just came across this video on Facebook. Sam Stano is one of the best drivers in Autocross. Something like 11 or 12 National Championships. He owns and runs Strano Performance building performance parts for Mazda and Ford products. This is Strano driving last weekend in his F-Street Mustang Mach 1. Sam took the F-Street National title in this car in 2022 and 2023. He placed 5th this year in it. Take a ride and watch closely how he "attacks" the course. He is planning so far ahead the car is always where it needs to be.

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2manyturbos said:
I just came across this video on Facebook. Sam Stano is one of the best drivers in Autocross. Something like 11 or 12 National Championships. He owns and runs Strano Performance building performance parts for Mazda and Ford products. This is Strano driving last weekend in his F-Street Mustang Mach 1. Sam took the F-Street National title in this car in 2022 and 2023. He placed 5th this year in it. Take a ride and watch closely how he "attacks" the course. He is planning so far ahead the car is always where it needs to be.

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It looks like he is pointing the car in a direction with the wheel and then using throttle control to hit the apexes and turn outs. Very nice driving.
 
rb92673 said:
It looks like he is pointing the car in a direction with the wheel and then using throttle control to hit the apexes and turn outs. Very nice driving.
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You noticed. That is exactly what he is doing. Tom Kotzian, another multi time National Champion rode along with me and drove my car at the Audi Quattrofest about 4 years ago and showed me something I had never heard anyone describe. He would point the car right at the cones and hit the gas at the last second and go right around them. Using the throttle to make the car come out just enough to miss the cone. Within 1 run he had me doing the same. I haven't had enough room on courses unobstructed enough to practice the technique since then. It is a hard thing to explain to people. You can see Sam doing the same thing in several places on the runs above.
 
2manyturbos said:
You noticed. That is exactly what he is doing. Tom Kotzian, another multi time National Champion rode along with me and drove my car at the Audi Quattrofest about 4 years ago and showed me something I had never heard anyone describe. He would point the car right at the cones and hit the gas at the last second and go right around them. Using the throttle to make the car come out just enough to miss the cone. Within 1 run he had me doing the same. I haven't had enough room on courses unobstructed enough to practice the technique since then. It is a hard thing to explain to people. You can see Sam doing the same thing in several places on the runs above.
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I went to a race school a few years ago where we would do classroom and on track training in our own cars. The instructors were hit or miss, but I did have a few good ones. One of my instructors was teaching me to turn into a corner once and then use the throttle to hit the apex and turn out. Learning to steer is pretty basic, learning the dance between brake and throttle in the corners is the hard part.
 
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I also grabbed an Action 4 adventure bundle on sale to replace my ancient Hero2. They're heavily discounted now that the Action 5 is out.

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2manyturbos said:
Cool photo. Who is riding along?
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My friend who had never been to an autox event. He's hooked now! He has an LS/t56 swapped international pickup on an S10 frame with a custom back-half, he's going to set it up for autox over the winter and bring it out next season
 
threewagons said:
My friend who had never been to an autox event. He's hooked now! He has an LS/t56 swapped international pickup on an S10 frame with a custom back-half, he's going to set it up for autox over the winter and bring it out next season
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That's funny. I warn people before they ride along. "It's like a drug, the first hit is free, after that, you're on your own." It starts out with a set of race tires and before long, a tow rig with a trailer, extra wheels/tires, a back up car etc.
 
Terrible news: https://www.scca.com/articles/2019315-scca-confirms-the-loss-of-member-michael-ryan
Sports Car Club of America is deeply saddened to announce that member Michael Ryan passed away at a southern California hospital after sustaining injuries while attending a Regional Solo event on Sunday, February 23, 2025. Ryan, 58, of Crestline, CA, had been a member of the Club for two years. The remainder of the event was cancelled.
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I haven't been running around after cones all that long, but I did see one situation where a car spun out and then the driver seemed to have lost the brake pedal for a little and it kept going in a circle and (thankfully somewhat slowly) while a worker continued to run away from it.
 
2manyturbos said:
That's funny. I warn people before they ride along. "It's like a drug, the first hit is free, after that, you're on your own." It starts out with a set of race tires and before long, a tow rig with a trailer, extra wheels/tires, a back up car etc.
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My best ride along was a church secretary who screamed FFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCCC!!!! at the top of her lungs when braking for a 90* turn at the end of a 90mph straight. She offered me money to erase the GoPro footage.
 
And we're off... The Autocross season here in the NW actually began last weekend, however, my Mustang was still in the trailer and where the trailer is parked is like a swamp this time of year. I knew there was no hope of getting the car out for the first event. We had 7 days of sunshine in a row which dried out some of the ground around my tow rig and trailer. I was able to get the car out Saturday late afternoon by backing it out on to carpet that was left over which I laid out on the ground to give the car traction to "launch". I kept it moving about 10 mph dodging the huge soft spots and succeeded in getting it to the hard packed drive way so it will be ready for the double header event next weekend. My friend offered to let me co-drive drive his Audi TTS at the Icebreaker event. He and I used to go head to head in our Mustang GTs which were set up almost identically. The only difference being shock settings and tire manufacturer choices. Now, he is running the TTS in B-Street with great success. He is almost always top PAX at the events with 2-3 different clubs and quite often top time of day. This weekend was no exception. He got both, T.T.O.D. and top PAX. I'm waiting to see how I did in PAX in the Audi. I put down very fast times in it while driving it very conservatively since this lot is covered in loose gravel and has curbs and light poles to make you think twice about how on the edge you are willing to drive at this venue. I put down 5 clean runs. The fastest was within 1.6 seconds of TTOD set with the same car. Next weekend is the driver school and points event double header with another club I race with. I'll be back in the Mustang for that event. I am supposed to have a student in the morning session Saturday and then race for points in the afternoon session. Sunday will be a regular points event, no school session.

The TTS on the trailer. I forgot to take any photos of the cars in grid.



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Finally, first autox of the season for me in Portland (at PIR). My hands are pretty sloppy on the wheel, gotta work on that. I was also getting use to left foot braking, I'm not sure if it's any faster yet, but it doesn't seem slower. It feels like I have more control of how the car rotates, under vs over, which is nice, so I'll stick with it for now. Anyway two events next weekend at Volcano's stadium in Keizer, should be fun.
 
Daisywagen said:
Finally, first autox of the season for me in Portland (at PIR). My hands are pretty sloppy on the wheel, gotta work on that. I was also getting use to left foot braking, I'm not sure if it's any faster yet, but it doesn't seem slower. It feels like I have more control of how the car rotates, under vs over, which is nice, so I'll stick with it for now. Anyway two events next weekend at Volcano's stadium in Keizer, should be fun.
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That is what is so effective about left foot braking. It makes understeering cars rotate much better. Keep at it. At first there is a good chance you will be slightly slower because you are thinking about it, splitting your attention from the things you do naturally. Soon enough it will be automatic.
On those tight corners if you learn to shuffle your hands on the wheel is the opposite direction you are going to turn the steering wheel before you enter the corner you won't end up with your arms locked together like a steering stop. It didn't bite you in the ass in your car. It might in a car that turns very quickly. I'm looking forward to next weekend with WMC. See you there.
 
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Yesterday was the first event back in the GT. Also at PIR with the Oregon Region Porsche Club of America. It took a few runs to get used to the car again after taking almost 5 months off from driving it. We got 7 runs. All my runs were clean and got faster each run until the 7th run when I got impatient thinking the 10R80 didn't get my shift input and pushed the lever a second time. I get so amped driving a split second seems like an eternity. The trans had just delayed the shift so it shifted twice just like I asked it to. That put it in first gear in a slippery sweeper causing the rear end to start to swing around. This was right at the finish so I stayed if first and tried to just let RPM carry me across the finish. I lost almost .5 second right there. I arrived at the event later than planned and ended up waiting to be tech inspected for about 15 minutes while the person doing tech was out doing their course walk. Consequently, I did not get a course walk per say before making my runs. I got a quick look while setting the staging, start and finish makers in my data logger and then pieced the course together in my head while waiting in grid to make my runs. My first run was my course walk. Try to figure out what the car will do on cold tires while trying to find the course in a sea of cones. Not the way to do Autocross. I like to have at least 3 course walks so I know exactly where I want to turn in, shift, brake, roll on the throttle. Yesterday was like an EVO Autocross school exercise. Look at a course map, now, go drive the course at full tilt.

My course walk, AKA run 1.

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My quickest run of the day, run 6.

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My best driving of the day, other than the miss shift. The driving line is so much better connected with minimal input. A much smoother run right up to the middle of the sweeper.

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threewagons said:
When I started LFB I just used my left foot every time I drove the 940 anywhere and it feels natural now after almost a year
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That is a good way to learn and perfect left foot braking. I'll admit I don't do much of it on the street. I just revert back to casual mode for street driving. At a race event, it is all left foot braking. Even when I was running manual transmission cars. The only time I would switch to right foot braking was when I was heading into the stop box since I had to depress the clutch pedal and brake pedal at the same time. The same is true on a track where you need to rev match shifts heading into the corners.
 
2manyturbos said:
That is a good way to learn and perfect left foot braking. I'll admit I don't do much of it on the street. I just revert back to casual mode for street driving. At a race event, it is all left foot braking. Even when I was running manual transmission cars. The only time I would switch to right foot braking was when I was heading into the stop box since I had to depress the clutch pedal and brake pedal at the same time. The same is true on a track where you need to rev match shifts heading into the corners.
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That course looks confusing, running without walking would be tough, but looks like you had it down well.

During the offseason I started left foot braking around town, which feels more natural now (not accidentally slamming on the brakes at stops anymore), but still a little different than racing, I revert quickly to instincts, but I'm starting to get use to it and hopefully it will become more and more natural.
 
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