Has anyone setup/attended a "private" autocross?

My friends and I were talking the other day about how most autocrosses are rather far from where we live or are just never heard about.

We were all wondering if anyone ever sets up an autocross thats not sanctioned by an organization. I remember my dad telling me about all the autocrosses the Corvair Club used to have back in the day but doesn't do anymore. I imagine there are car clubs that still host them, but once again, we never hear about it.

We were just daydreaming about autocrossing the giant parking lot that the horse race track in the town north of us never uses.

I don't know if I asked the question right, but it was worth a shot.

Yes, I have. One of the members of my car club rented a site, and the club's equipment, for his birthday party a few years ago. Lots of fun, but 20+ runs/car chorded many people's tires of tires.

I guess it would be fun, at least so long as no one crashes out and sues you. Wish you could count on friends not to do that, but my experience as an attorney says otherwise. A nice compromise is to look for brand specific clubs (BMW/Porsche/Miata clubs) and run with them. MOST don't seem to care if you aren't driving their particular vehicle, and they tend to have smaller numbers and more informal events (in my experience at least), which sounds like what you are looking for.

In short, you might be able to do it, assuming you are willing to go to the trouble of obtaining your own cones/timing equipment, but if somebody's car ends up "shiny side down", you're in serious trouble.

In this age of insurance and lawyers, it doesn't happen as often as it use to. It can happen, but usually you'll find the venue is the sticking point. They'll want to see a certificate of insurance. It will be tough to get insurance at a reasonable rate without being able to prove a history of safe events. Not impossible, just more effort than most folks are willing to take on.

I have run with PCA twice and I do not own a Porsche, I was welcome by most people but there were a few haters (I was faster than them as I recall ) But overall a good time , I have been told that some corvette clubs host auto x but they only use four cones.

Paul B

Those are sanctioned by the porsche club and the corvette club.....does the original poster mean something not sanctioned by the scca or Nasa?

There are also local clubs like equip rapid, MSCC that are not affiliated with national organizations....

sachilles wrote: Those are sanctioned by the porsche club and the corvette club.....does the original poster mean something not sanctioned by the scca or Nasa?

Yes

I ask that, because it seems like nowadays the clubs and organizations that have the big bucks are the only ones who hold them. I just don't ever hear of them. My cousin who's in the Chicago Audi Club knows of their events, but I never hear of any other.

It's doesn't seem like a group of guys want to get something together and make it a "tell your friends" type deal.

I understand there is a lot of legalities and such, so I feel what me and my friends were originally discussing is just a pipe dream.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Yes My cousin who's in the Chicago Audi Club knows of their events, but I never hear of any other.

In the area, we also have the Windy City Miata Club, Salt Creek Sports Car Club, VW club, Porsche Club, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something else. All of their events that I've been to are lower attendance than others, but they are all also at Maywood Park. The site is kind of so-so.

You aren't that far from the Champaign County Sports Car Club. You usually get 6 runs a day there (average) but it is a really nice group of people on a relatively big lot. The second day is only 10 bucks, and they put on more events than any other club in the nation. It is the cheapest group I've run with--$15 year long membership gets you $20 first day admission.

I've been running non- sanctioned events for years. It's easy. Contact K&K for insurance. No matter who you go to, they'll be the ones underwriting so just skip the middleman. Get some cones and a venue and you're done.

Insurance is easy. You just have to put down a $1500 deposit, and that goes towards your premiums for the next 12 months. You're basically committing to $1500 worth of insurance. A one-day autox will run you $282 of that, so you should run at least 6 events a year to get the most of your cash.

Venues are harder. But that's true whether you're sanctioned or not!

We used to borrow the NASA classing system, until I got a phone call from NASA saying I had to be sanctioned to do so. That meant I got to pay more for the NASA insurance and...well, that was it. There were no other benefits. So I said okay and removed the classing. Everyone seems to enjoy themselves just as much.

So it's not hard. Go ahead and do it!

In reply to Keith:

Wow, that sounds really feasible. Now it's just getting the location set up and approved.

Also, this is a link to the track I'm talking about. It's right off of I-394 and is about 45 Minutes straight south of Down town Chicago. The lot is on the south end of the track and the track is a one mile oval to give you and idea of how big the lot is.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=balmoral+park&ie=UTF8&ll=41.411079,-87.625494&spn=0.010991,0.01929&t=h&z=16

When Mazda was doing their "Rev it Up" tour, they used this place. GM about 10 years ago did something too. So I know this lot would be awesome for an autocross.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

sachilles wrote: Those are sanctioned by the porsche club and the corvette club.....does the original poster mean something not sanctioned by the scca or Nasa?

Yes I ask that, because it seems like nowadays the clubs and organizations that have the big bucks are the only ones who hold them. I just don't ever hear of them. My cousin who's in the Chicago Audi Club knows of their events, but I never hear of any other. It's doesn't seem like a group of guys want to get something together and make it a "tell your friends" type deal. I understand there is a lot of legalities and such, so I feel what me and my friends were originally discussing is just a pipe dream.

Ok,

Then my club is a private club. We are not affiliated with the scca or any larger organization. However we've existed for over 50 years. There are a few others in the the northeast that are similar to us. Honestly, I'm not sure if you asked us to form the club today using our same rules, if we'd be able to afford to do that. A large part of our cost saving with the insurance company is a track record of running decades of events that the insurance co is happy with.

In my experience, acquiring a safe site is the biggest challenge. If you can get your hands on a good site, I'm sure you'd be able to convince a semi local club to have an event there. Site acquisition is usually the biggest hurdle.

How far away is "rather far" from where you live? If the location in your profile is correct you're about 30 miles from Route 66 Speedway and 30 miles from Majestic Star Casino. That's 14 autocross days right there from just the SCCA clubs.

If you go to 40 miles you've got Toyota Park and Portage High School.

If you go to 50 miles you can hit Maywood, which will probably have 20 events this year between all the clubs (Tri-State, Salt Creek, BMW, etc.).

At 75 miles you can hit Sears Centre and Alexian Field in Schaumburg. There are already 13 events scheduled between those two places.

I regularly travel 80 miles each way for events. See what you can do with that horse racing track. It looks like a good site.

edit: spelling got the best of me

Syntheticblinkerfluid

what town do you live in?

I've been attending autox event for 20 years as mentioned Windy City Miata Club awesome vary friendly people grate track layouts the track layout may seem small compared to say SCCA but for me I love it tons of runs ( average 10 ) tuns of fun.

Salt Creek Sports Car Club another grate club and vary friendly bigger faster track layout less runs ( average 7). http://www.scscc.net/

VW club ( CVO ) grate club fun nice track layout average runs 8. http://www.chicagovw.org/

Porsche Club ( PCA Chicago ) forget it unless you own a Porsche and are a club member or you are with a PCA club member that is runing that day not fun or friendly track layout not grate .

BMW club I've never ran with them. http://www.windycitybmw.com/

don't forget TSSCC ( Tri-State Sports Car Council ) http://www.tsscc.org/ Good club good track layout vary few runs same with Chicago SCCA http://www.scca-chicago.com/solo/ but vary expensive to run with scca unless you join the club and to me not worth it for how few runs you get and a vary long day. .
Good luck with getting Balmoral no club that I know of has been able to get it. If you can get it contact Lora at Salt Creek club to ether do a joint event or rent there equipment.

sachilles wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

sachilles wrote: Those are sanctioned by the porsche club and the corvette club.....does the original poster mean something not sanctioned by the scca or Nasa?

Yes I ask that, because it seems like nowadays the clubs and organizations that have the big bucks are the only ones who hold them. I just don't ever hear of them. My cousin who's in the Chicago Audi Club knows of their events, but I never hear of any other. It's doesn't seem like a group of guys want to get something together and make it a "tell your friends" type deal. I understand there is a lot of legalities and such, so I feel what me and my friends were originally discussing is just a pipe dream.

Ok, Then my club is a private club. We are not affiliated with the scca or any larger organization. However we've existed for over 50 years. There are a few others in the the northeast that are similar to us. Honestly, I'm not sure if you asked us to form the club today using our same rules, if we'd be able to afford to do that. A large part of our cost saving with the insurance company is a track record of running decades of events that the insurance co is happy with. In my experience, acquiring a safe site is the biggest challenge. If you can get your hands on a good site, I'm sure you'd be able to convince a semi local club to have an event there. Site acquisition is usually the biggest hurdle.

Me, too, with AROC Detroit. And sites are a major pain.

RCRX19 wrote: BMW club I've never ran with them. http://www.windycitybmw.com/

Must be a member or a guest of a member. If you are the guest of a member, you must be driving the members car OR you must be driving a BMW.

I used to attend autocrosses with my school's car club. I'm still allowed to, my cars just have been in disrepair.

One thing to consider when researching sites. Most sites will be upset if you damage their surface. Watch for fresh asphalt or topcoat sealant.

David

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: I imagine there are car clubs that still host them, but once again, we never hear about it.

If you just want to do an auto-x once in awhile, I have to think you may not be looking hard enough.

You live near Chicago? It took me about 30 seconds to find this:

http://www.scca-chicago.com/solo/index.html

Not that I think there is anything wrong with setting up events yourself, but as Keith indicated, it's not an inexpensive endeavor. Besides insurance, you also need a crap-load of cones (which add up) and an accurate timing system would be useful. I know the Philly region invests no small amount of money in alone every year just to replace damaged cones from the past season.

I inherited a bunch of cones from a defunct autox club, actually. Haven't had to replace any yet, but some are looking a little haggard.

Timing gear isn't really that expensive, mine was originally designed for barrel racing. We run a bit low-tech with a stopwatch that's triggered wirelessly by the two seats of gates, but the flip side is that anyone can easily understand the timing system. It's accurate, easy to set up and bombproof.

do you record results in axware?

kazoospec wrote: I guess it would be fun, at least so long as no one crashes out and sues you. Wish you could count on friends not to do that, but my experience as an attorney says otherwise. A nice compromise is to look for brand specific clubs (BMW/Porsche/Miata clubs) and run with them. MOST don't seem to care if you aren't driving their particular vehicle, and they tend to have smaller numbers and more informal events (in my experience at least), which sounds like what you are looking for. In short, you might be able to do it, assuming you are willing to go to the trouble of obtaining your own cones/timing equipment, but if somebody's car ends up "shiny side down", you're in serious trouble.

what he said ^^

Setting up a small private autocross seems like alot of work, plus alot of expense (lots aren't super-cheap in most places), and then you need to have insurance and the timing equipment and alot of cones (which can be borrowed).

As noted above alot of other car clubs run events. I ran the full season with the NCC (DC area) BMWCCA in my WRX. They had four "non-BMW" classes and at any given event 40-50% of the cars there were not BMWs.

I've also run with Mercedes and Porsche clubs here and there, never with the make of car...

Plus most of these events are more laid back than SCCA is, since alot of the field is just club members and not competitive, plus the non-BMW classes are pretty broad so nobody is "building to the rules."

The Adirondack Motor Enthusuasts Inc, (AMEC) holds autocross's at a paved .4 mile stock car track. We rent it for the day and insurance is not that expensive. We set up a list of very loose rules, no one seems to care. They just have fun. It is not your normal autocross. We have used NASA rules in the past. We got permission before and their only requirement was that we mentioned we were using NASA rules.

After talking to my cousin (who actually just informed me that he and one other person run the autocrosses for the Chicago Audi Club), he suggested getting in with a local car clubs because a lot of them are hurting right now financially with events. I probably will come to a couple events.

Like I said before, it's more of a pipe dream than anything else.