ABQ Church Autocross
 

Had a lot of fun on the drive to Santa Fe last weekend... I figure I should start a new thread regarding the church auto-x that's coming up this Saturday. Several people have expressed intrest.

It'll be at Hope Evangelical Church which is on Juan Tabo about 2 blocks north of Montgomery.

Directions (MapQuest)

It goes from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM. I'll be getting there around 5:00 to help set up the cones, etc. It's free of charge and pretty informal, just for fun!

Here's the link to the web page that they've got up at the church (church's website) I have done some html hacking and have a website ready to go that could replace that one and provide better info (I want to post times post-race, pictures, etc.). Hopefully I can get that up on their site reasonably soon.

I snooped around on racingsouthwest.com and found a few links regarding races last summer/fall ... one guy posted some videos of his attempts. lol. Here's the links if anyone's interested:

Post #1

Post #2 (May '05)

Post #3 (June '05)

videos from cadillac and buick

I wasn't at the one where the videos were made... looks like they had it set up as a figure-8 that time because there was some construction going on and a lot of the parking lot was occupied by equipment, etc. The parking lot is fully open now and even extended a bit, so hopefully we'll get something more fun than a figure-8 set up on Saturday.

I hope to see some rotaries out there... should be fun.

What about the weather????
 

what about the weather txag98? There is a prediction of 40% chance of rain today from the national weather service. Is the church still going to hold the autoX? I would hate to drive all the way in this evening and find out it has been cancled. If you can find out I would appreciate it!

Hey Stinger, glad to see you and Kewl out there last night. Sorry I didn't see your post yesterday about the weather. I was hardly home all day and never really had a chance to check the forum.

We ended up having about 37 different cars and 78 total races through... not a bad night. There were a couple of things to work out with the new setup since the parking lot changed from last year.

Your times were 52.01 and 51.07+1 penalty ... the best time overall was a yellow CRX who got 43.53 and the worst was a Gallant with 61.71. An interesting note, you had the most consistency if you factor in the cone penalty with a .04 difference between your two runs :D:

I'll get all the results put into HTML and try and get them up on the website in the next week or so... I'll post a note here when that's up.

A bit of excitement at the end when we were picking up cones... my father-in-law ran over my foot in his truck. :banghead:

txaq98....is your foot, ok? Steel toe shoes are in order even there I guess..

Sorry I didn't get to talk with you before leaving, but you were busy..

I was impressed at the turnout and the variety of cars that participated. The station wagon was a riot...and it did well and even the Mercedes did well all things considered. We will have to see if we can't get more 7's and 8's at next months run.

Yeah, my foot's ok... no bruising or anything. I didn't have steel toed shoes, but they are pretty sturdy so that helped a good bit. Also, it was the rear tire on his pickup so that probably helped some. The funny thing was I yelled when the tire went over my foot and he heard that and stopped.... right on top of the foot. So, I was standing there yelling GO! GO! GO! but his window was up so he couldn't hear what I was saying too well so he got out, then he saw what was happening and jumped back into the truck really fast and pulled forward. All told, the truck was sitting on my foot for maybe 15-20 seconds (though it seemed longer).

I was a little surprised to see so many people there this time, usually it seems like the first one of the year has been less attended. I was impressed with that mercedes guy, that was a big car with a really long wheelbase, especially at that tight back-corner turn. The guy in the wagon plowed around the course surprisingly fast.

It'll be cool to see if some other rotaries can make it out next month... the next one is scheduled currently for the first Saturday of May (May 6th).

Now that I'm back in town I'll make plans to attend. I didn't know it was a monthly deal. Cool....

Thanks for the info on my times txag! Sorry to hear about your foot, I actualy can identify with it all to closely. The guy in the subaru legacy definatly was a riot. I am planning on attending again in may as well. One of the people ther was taking pictures of the cars and was going to post it on RacingSouthwest and while there this morning I also noticed that Sandia Motor Speedway was having on firdays open track days here is the link to the times and fees

http://racingsouthwest.com/forums/showtopic27458.htm

I want you and your farther-in-law to know I really appreciate the effort that you guys have put into doing this autoX. It was a BLAST!!!!!!!

Results are posted!
 

Wohoo, the webmaster finally got the info up on the website for the results... here's the link to the website:

http://www.hopeevfree.com/events/arta/index.htm

I think it looks pretty good... you can also view the results sorted by either car identifier or by the best times. It was cool to see so many people come out. Hope to see more out there in May.

thought I'd give this a bump... The May auto-x is scheduled for this Saturday at 7:00 PM.

The results are posted on the website for the autocross last week on May 6th. Good to see more RX-8's run this month. Hopefully next time I'll do better than this time. I do have to say, after only having the car for about 2 months now I was really impressed with how nimble it felt through the turns. The '02 Audi A4 I had, which was no slouch, felt like a tank compared to the 8.

http://www.hopeevfree.com/events/arta/

When the June 3 times going to be posted? :ylsuper:

Any recent words on the July 4th event. Still on?

So How is this weekend looking for the event? You have enough helpers, ect.?

Ocho I beleive that the event was actualy going to be on Tuesfay the 4th. I have not heard if it is still on though!

On a side bar I talked to Tom from Rotary RX and the Bar-B-Que is set to be on the 8th of July. He was need response from people if they were going to go so he would know on how much food to get for everyone. I am going to post in the NM thread as well. So if any of you plan on going give him a call as soon as you can.

CRAP! I'm going to be out of town on the 8th!!

Double CRAP! I'm closing on my house the 7th and moving in that weekend. But I will see what I can do...

MadDog you want me to take your 8 to the BBQ for you?

LOL....I know

The church website says the autox is canceled - because of the holiday. That's weird. If that's an issue, why schedule it for that day in the first place?

I believe Will said one of the organizers was out of town. So they were lacking man hours and event organizer. That's why I thought this Saturday would be better than the actually night of the 4th. Most people would rather be with families than out racing there cars. O well. Guess have to look to the August event.

Actually need to buy a helmet and get to the bigger Santa Fe Auto X runs. I really want to make it to the BBQ but think I will be far too busy. Have to check with my agent for timeline update. I’m little disappointed that Mike with the really nice White RX-8 hasn’t stopped by the forum. I ran into him again the other night. You all would appreciate the work he has put in it. I like all the rain but my car looks like crap… Well I will get is contact info next time. Chow for now… Justin

Cross Linkage...

Yeah, unfortunately I decided to go ahead and call things off due to a lack of manpower. NMOcho was right, Dudley's out of town getting flight training... he'll be moving in to the co-pilot's seat for the 747's he flies soon :ylsuper:

I called the people who generally help out a lot and pretty much everyone is either out of town or at a family BBQ so there really weren't enough people to make sure things stay safe.

I don't know for sure... but I think the rationale for trying for the 4th was because there's a big theatre production starting its run on the 7th of July which will make the parking lot unavailable for races. This weekend was kind of out because I think there was something going on which had the parking lot in use.... maybe they're in final prep for the production or something... I dunno.

Anyhow, we'll be back for the first Saturday in August.

Oh, if anyone's interested in the play... more info can be found at clicky

I guess this just means that we're going to have to get off our duffs sometime in July and have a drive this month! Anybody have any ideas?

Good luck on the move Justin! I hope all goes well for you and there is no broken items to contend with in the end. Are you going to be moving into town or further out in the boonies? Well maybe I will see you at the BBQ anyway!

No kidding! We really really need the rain, but black cars and new mexico rain really don't go together that well. Guess I know what I'll be doing Saturday morning :-p

FYI...

KKOB web article on the auto-x

I didn't get to see the news broadcast last night, but I generally heard the feedback was more positive than negative. The writeup on the web seems (at least to me) to be focusing on the neighbor's claim that it's an out-of-control event.

Anyways, they do have a place on the web with this story to offer feedback... might be a good place to have some of the enthusiast community to give positive feedback :-)

This is what I posted on KOB's Feedback4.


I am one of the racers that participate at the Hope Evangelical Free Church near Juan Tabo and Montgomery. This is a very positive thing that the church is doing for the youth and the race enthusiast’s of the city. They are giving the youth of Albuquerque and the surrounding areas an option to take their cars out and race them in a safe environment. I am a 40 yr old father of 2 daughters that I take to the event with me every Saturday night. They both look forward to the event as it approaches every month. I also help the organizers from Hope Evangelical Free Church with the layout of the course; the course is looked at before each and every event to provide the optimum fun for the participants, as well as safety of the event. Purposely the course is laid out so no one is able to go faster than 35 MPH. By providing the youth this option to race here at the church, Hope Evangelical has drawn 30-42 (42 cars registered for the event on 09/02/06) off of the city streets that otherwise would have been racing on them, which in turn may have prevented a needless and senseless death. There is no real outlet for these youth in Albuquerque. If the Mayor and the City Council are really concerned about this city maybe they should take a look at the youth and address their needs. In stead of a High dollar arena or a study on weather to put a trolley transit system on Central Blvd., maybe the city should take one of the many vacant lots around town and pave it so events like this could be held. After your interviews on Saturday evening and talking to some of the participants that were there, they stated resoundingly “Well I guess we will have to go back to racing on the streets again”. No matter what happens here the youth will continue to race their cars be it on city streets or in a parking lot such as Hope Evangelical Free Church has provided. Where would you rather they do the racing?


Jim Aumiller

Hi,
We live close enough to hear the cars run at night, sometimes. But from what we can see is that they built a new building where they ran the cars. So where do they run now? The next envent is on 10/7/06 if we are in town that weekend I could help set-up cones. If you need the help? PM me if you care to.
Oh, sorry this is off topic. Does anyone in NM have any RX-8 OEM 18" wheels for sale? Again I'm sorry to ask on this tread but I have been looking on Classifides and can't find any.