This should be great!
Photography Courtesy Tom O'Gorman
It’s like one of those road trip movies but without the Hollywood glitz. Well, maybe that will eventually come.
Multi-time champ Tom O'Gorman–so far holding two World Challenge titles plus five in SCCA autocross–aims to collect a few more over the next few days.
His adventure starts this weekend in central Pennsylvania for the UMI King of the Mountain. A $25,000 payout, split between the top eight spots, is on the line.
Then, a little more than a week later, he’ll be in Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals.
In between, there’s a road trip. Most great adventures involve one: Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda on choppers, Jake and Elwood Blues in a decommissioned Mount Prospect police car, Thelma and Louise in a ’66 Ford T-Bird.
Tom will drive a borrowed Acura NSX–more on that in a minute–riding on Yokohama Advan A052 rubber.
After wins in IMSA and World Challenge, why does Tom still have the attraction to autocross?
“For me it’s the only time I get the shakes,” he recently told the SCCA. “That’s after the pro races, the road races, the time trials and the coaching. None of those bring quite the intensity, at least not in the same way.”
With this effort, Tom explains, of course there’s a back story: “It actually started in 2017, when Honda of America Race Team–HART–let me autocross their NSX at the Bristol National Tour. It was spectacularly good–so much better than I expected.”
So he filed away that info and, over the years, watched some other big autocross events land on the schedule–like UMI’s King of the Mountain.
“It wasn't big on my radar at first, but they paid $10,000 in 2019 and 2020, and Optima one-upped them and announced one with a $25,000 payout,” he continues. “I was invited to KOTM 2020 but had no car, and the $25K event was when it clicked: One, these autocross events are getting really big, and two, NSXs are really good autocross cars.”
Acura loaned an NSX to Tom for this week’s adventure. Andy Smedegard of ASMotorsports–the defending King of the Mountain champ–aligned the car and will co-drive at Solo Nationals.
The goal: Win two of the biggest autocross titles in one car–and take in some of the country in between.
“I approached Acura for the 2021 King of the Mountain, which happened to be a week apart from SCCA Solo Nationals,” Tom says, “and proposed we try to win the two biggest autocrosses in the country with a stock NSX to showcase how capable the car is, and road trip it between the two events because it's a stock street car, after all.”
More to come.
This should be great!
Driving one of these at a POC autocross was saurel. First you have to fit in the car, with your helmet on. I was only on an orientation lap for the owner. He had taken a few laps and did not have a clear feel for the sea of orange cones lining the corse. Lots of visual noise caused by the overwhelming number of cones is one of the challenges for "newbies" at auto cross events.
One of the rewards for sitting in some very nice cars and getting to ride along with owners that understand that how they drive their very expensive toys is a skill, that they have to fine tune. I have had the opportunity to show them how to expand their ability, my job is to help and not embarrass my self.
First thing from the start, this car pulls you around a track. Even at 5 tenths you can feel the front working to drive you as you set up for a corner. Half way through the lap he confirmed the section that was causing his issue. My job done, as we pulled into the finish he commented on my smoothness of driving and "quiet" hands. His car did not require a lot of mid corner correction at the wheel, using the throttle would allow any needed input, as needed. Then he said, I was slow. My response, was to ask for one more lap.
He never invited me back in the car. He got progressively faster after our lap, I did my job. Yes these cars are, special. Very!
In reply to noddaz :
Yes, totally looking forward to Tom's adventure. Figure this is the best way that we can all ride shotgun.
Update from Tom O'Gorman after Day 1:
WOW. First day of UMI's King of the Mountain is in the books, and we’re more than in the fight! I have a saying; “high hopes, low expectations.” I hoped to do well at this event, my past experience said we should be able to, but I didn’t expect anything. Well, results from Day 1 are in, and we were the fastest car for a majority of the day and ended up 2nd Overall by less and a tenth. A TENTH! The format rewards consistency and our fastest times actually stack up 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th fastest of every run taken today. Only good feelings going into tomorrow’s competition and (hopefully) the KOTM Finals.
Tom's King of the Mountain wrap:
So proud of what we accomplished at UMI's King of the Mountain 3.0. We took a stock Acura NSX to a field of built essentially-racecars, placed 1st Overall in the event, won our class bracket, and placed 3rd in the Finals. We faced Robert Thorne in The Big Bad Wolf in the Top 4, Robert had consistently been the fastest car in the Shootout and I knew I needed a Hail Mary to have a hope at beating him, even ran the time to win, but hit a cone attempting it. Tough pill to swallow when the car could have won it, but even still - we put on a show and proved how incredible this car is. And huge congrats to Robert who went on to win!! Thanks UMI Motorsports Park for having us, and thank you Acura, ASMotorsports, and Grassroots Motorsports Magazine for making this happen
The experience isn’t over yet, in just 1 week we head to SCCA Inc. autocross Nationals to compete one more time! #acura #nsx #umikotm #umikingofthemountain #acuransx #ASM #grassrootsmotorsports
I know nothing about these, but the fact that it can go toe to toe with some insanely well built autox-only cars is extremely impressive.
I tuned in to watch the shootout but the pace of the event was. so. slow. I gave up. I saw in another thread people were watching until like 1am eastern?
It wrapped up just before midnight. The first round took literally forever, the latter rounds went pretty quick other than the time "wasted" running the half of the bracket that obviously had no shot at winning.
Kind of the same principle as CAM, semi limited width 200tw tires and a relatively high minimum weight go a long way to equalizing a lot of other variables. Which is not to say that the nsx's performance isn't impressive, especially since it's doing it at basically 1000lbs overweight.
In reply to ProDarwin :
It's not my market, but I wonder if Honda created an instant-classic when they canceled them. They're rare, apparently way better than their reputation, and still under factory warranty.
CrustyRedXpress said:In reply to ProDarwin :
It's not my market, but I wonder if Honda created an instant-classic when they canceled them. They're rare, apparently way better than their reputation, and still under factory warranty.
Only time will tell but I think that even when they're older they're still only going to appeal to a limited number of people. They're amazing cars but I don't think your typical supercar buyer wants Honda levels of sophistication and refinement. They don't really do anything better than other cars in their class and price range and I'm not sure that being easier to drive fast is that much of a selling point in a category that's mostly about image and bragging rights.
I don't want to take anything away from Tom's accomplishment. They're relatively easy to drive fast but you still have to know what you're doing to get the most speed out of them.
If you are over 5'10"with your helmet on, you might not fit. Well.
The target market for these cars is/was well defined by their on line marketing. The only time you might see these at rest in public is at the front of a valet parking situation. They were never intended for the masses.
Again, all that said, they are still very special.
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