The wife and I are heading down to GGP for Rev-it-Up next weekend:

Houston, TX on Sunday, 3/28/2004
Gulf Greyhound Park
1000 SM 2004
LaMarque, TX

Competition Group - 13
Registration Time - 11:00 AM
Chalk Talk Time - 11:20 AM
Track Session 1 - 1:00 PM
Track Session 2 - 2:00 PM


Anyone else going on the Sunday?

Originally posted by eccles
Anyone else going on the Sunday?

Nope, I went on Sunday last year, and the index was impossible to get anywhere near. I saw it get 1/2 second quicker while I was watching other competitors!

I am up in the FIRST group (9:00am) on Saturday. I figure I know as much about that surface as anyone, and the index will be the "easiest" it will be all weekend. I
m SURE I am "overthinking" this, but ALL the fast times last year were on Saturday.

The FASTEST Sunday competitor last year finished somewhere in the 200's.

do you mean fastest nationwide or in Houston in the 200's...

I ran late/midday on Sunday last year and came in with a score of 601.00 which was good enough for 37th overall (Houston)

Sorry, I apologize. I was there most of the day on Sunday, and didn't see anyone within 2 seconds of the index, whereas Saturday, there were a couple of people faster than the index.

2 seconds is a long way. The index on Sunday was in the high 27's (I don't know what Saturday's was officially, but I heard it was higher). I ran a 29.4, which was as fast as anyone to that point (Sunday - noonish), and I finished 408th.

Both of the guys who beat the index on Saturday are friends (and fellow autocross competitors), and I can typically run with either of them. Some days they are faster, some days I am, but the point is that if I would have run on Saturday, I would have been in the top 2 or 3, but running (approx) the same time on Sunday got me 408th.

If I misstated the results, I am truly sorry, and congratulations on your finish.

What time's did you run? AND, can you teach me your secret?

You should also be coming to our autocrosses at Gulf Greyhound Park. First Sunday of every month (except April).

We could ALWAYS use good people, and I am tired of being the only RX-8 out there.

I should autocross but several factors kill my time threshold, (home repair, autocross, 5 college classes) not to mention N/A RX-7s fall into a really nasty category.

(Sorry, don't have an RX-8 yet)

Originally posted by tpryor
Sorry, I apologize. I was there most of the day on Sunday, and didn't see anyone within 2 seconds of the index, whereas Saturday, there were a couple of people faster than the index.

2 seconds is a long way. The index on Sunday was in the high 27's (I don't know what Saturday's was officially, but I heard it was higher). I ran a 29.4, which was as fast as anyone to that point (Sunday - noonish), and I finished 408th.

Both of the guys who beat the index on Saturday are friends (and fellow autocross competitors), and I can typically run with either of them. Some days they are faster, some days I am, but the point is that if I would have run on Saturday, I would have been in the top 2 or 3, but running (approx) the same time on Sunday got me 408th.

If I misstated the results, I am truly sorry, and congratulations on your finish.

What time's did you run? AND, can you teach me your secret?

Nah don't worry about that... im surely not offended... even the scoreboard was a pain to keep up with out there... here are some sample scores from me, my freind Scott an avid autocrosser and yourself. My guess is that maybe since you listed yourself in a PRO class maybe the index they used against you had a different threshold. Both Scott and I chose CLUB and did nearly the same.

here are the 2003 Results (http://www.mazdarevitup.com/results/default.asp?yr=2003)

First Name Last Name | Score | Comp Class | Gender | Age Group | Natl Rank | Comp Class Natl Rank | Gender Natl Rank | Age Group Natl Rank | Location Rank | Comp Class Location Rank | Gender Location Rank | Age Group Location Rank |

me :
KEITH ***** | 601.00 | CLUB | M | 25-39 | 465 | 78 | 461 | 288 | 37 | 6 | 37 | 23

scott :
SCOTT ******* | 593.00 | CLUB | M | 25-39 | 555 | 89 | 551 | 341 | 47 | 7 | 47 | 27

tim :
TIMOTHY ***** | 465.00 | PRO | M | 40-54 | 6929 | 1745 | 6841 | 1070 | 463 | 104 | 458 | 67

Well, THIS year it's going to be different (I hope........)!

Hopefully, I'll see you there.

at this point in the day I was 15th and the index was 28.166

http://www.rx7club.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=1720869

according to my posts from last year I was about 1 second off the pace.. :)

You ask about my secret.. the only thing I can attriubte to my success to is the fact I did get to run on Friday a lap or two... .albeit the track had changed slightly from Friday to Sunday seat time in the 6 helped. Also I have some experience autocrossing FWD in the form of the Dodge Neon. The cars exhibited similar front-end steering characteristics...of course the 6 pushed like a whale in comparison. When racing a FWD, I try to pretend that the car stops after my seat. I forget about setting up for turns like a RWD. I just make sure those front wheels are pointed at the corners and go like hell.... oh yea and watch out for torque steer!

I am going to Chicago this year on Saturday. I ran Sunday last year and this is where it got me:

First Name Last Name Score Comp Class Gender Age Group Natl Rank Comp Class Natl Rank Gender Natl Rank Age Group Natl Rank Location Rank Comp Class Location Rank Gender Location Rank Age Group Location Rank
1 DAVE xxx 647.00 CLUB M 25-39 166 24 166 104 14 2 14 10

So 166th overall.

This year I'm going to focus on the high-risk areas and give it an all-or-nothing approach. Last year I was too conservative, and there's no place for that in a two-run competition. ;)

The Mazda 3s also should be a bit different... it's going to be really important to maintain momentum because these are 4-bangers with an auto...

Originally posted by tpryor
Both of the guys who beat the index on Saturday are friends (and fellow autocross competitors), and I can typically run with either of them.I would have been the third person to do so (well, first actually - I ran before Karter et al arrived) but for that damned cone at the finish.

Note to self: stay away from the cones this year.

heh last year i went ballz out on my 2nd run (on the VIP day) and managed to get the 6 into a 4 wheel drift and took out like 12 cones!

good times, good times!

i will be there on sunday, group 10...

this will be my first autocross. maybe after this experience, i will take out my 8. :D

I'm thinking of heading out there on Sunday. Although I love driving my new 8, I hate driving to Houston for some reason.

If I end up going, I will try and hit the same group. Don't worry, I'm a newbie to this sort of thing.

you wont have a choice in your group if you wait until Sunday..

register now while there are still spots avalible.. i understand the revitup is at 85 % capacity right now

It would be a kick if they'd let us race RX-8s this year.

What else is Mazda going to do with those buybacks!

FYI: we are meeting up at the Waffle House across from the track at about 8AM for breakfast!

See ya there@!

(on Saturday) @ Waffle House sorry.

Not driving this year. I have to work all day Saturday and maybe Sunday. If I'm not working Sunday I'll stop by to see the sights but nothing else. I'm a little broke right now anyways.

Pics from today - unedited - http://www.houstonrx7club.com/events/2004/revitup_march_2004

super pics, wish I could have come by to meet y'all. next time.

Dang, I thought you guys were meeting Sunday at the Waffle House, so me and my roommate went to Denny's. My first time at Rev it up, and it was sweet. It was definitely worth the 40 bucks and it makes me want to do some autocrossing now. How did the rest of you do in the competition? The best I could scratch out was 31.64s, but it was better than I expected to do, that being my first time doing something like that.

My index score was 535. (times dont mean ***)

Oh, well my index score was 467.

Here are my rankings:

| First Name | Score | Comp Class | Gender | Age |Group Natl Rank | Comp Class Natl Rank | Gender Natl Rank | Age Group Natl Rank | Location Rank | Comp Class | Location Rank | Gender Location Rank | Age Group Location Rank |


KEITH 535.00 PRO M 25-39 398 181 395 231 118 56 118 67


you know it's funny the standings look the same as last year in the top spots..

Karter and Brian obliterating the other cities... of the top 10 spots 7 of them are from Houston.... and H-town owns 16 of the top 25 spots.

Tim, sorry i never was able to track you down.. we all saw the Yellow RX-8 sitting out there... you owned that #1 spot for a good while...

Well, it was also my first time to autocross. And, let me say, I am dispappointed that I have never done this before! It was awesome!!!

I was able to leave yesterday ranked #2 in the Novice Class! But, unfortunately I found out this afternoon that I was bumped to #4 in the Novice Class.

Here are my results:

First Name - CESAR
Score - 603.00
Comp Class - NOVICE
Gender - M
Age - 18-24
Group Natl Rank - 64
Comp Class Natl Rank - 11
Gender Natl Rank - 64
Age Group Natl Rank - 15
Location Rank - 30
Comp Class Location Rank - 4
Gender Location Rank - 30
Age Group Location Rank - 9

I am actually considering on participating again. It is probably either going to be in the Chicago or Atlanta competitions. I felt all I needed was one more run to match the pro driver index.:) This is why I must do it again!

Once again I posted a raw time that would have given me the win in Houston, but just like last year, I tagged a cone and threw it all away.

My raw time of 27.935 would have given me a 799 index (target time was a 27.6xx) but the 2-second penalty dropped me down to a 566, 66th overall and coincidentally tied with Tim Prior's RX-8 co-driver Cody Clark.

I'm now planning on making the trek to Dallas this Sunday for another shot at it. All the Solo II hotshoes will be back at Gulf Greyhound Park for the National Tour event this weekend so the competition will be less intense, but I still need to keep away from those damned cones!

BTW, I found the in-car video footage that they were showing inthe staging tent helped enormously. Just like walking the course at an autocross, I watched it many times until I could play the course through in my head.