PORTLAND – For anyone who has never had a taste of autocross, the Cumberland Motor Club’s “Spin Away Autocross” on the morning of June 26 at the Portland Jetport’s overflow parking lot was certainly an eye-opening experience.
For those unfamiliar with the term, autocross is a breed of time-trial style competitive driving in which car enthusiasts and novices alike maneuver their vehicles around a predetermined course that’s more turns and twists than straightaways. There are no competing drivers present on the track, and no prizes to be handed out to the victors: just the wind in your hair, the sun’s glare on your windshield, and smell of burning rubber if you take a turn too quickly.
Cumberland Motor Club’s members will be quick to tell you they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The only investment that you need to make is the entry fee,” said Club President Steve Dupuis. “It takes practice and patience; learning the abilities of your car. It is mostly learning about how to make your car turn on the course. Once you have learned how to navigate the course, you can start to increase your speed. It is all about staying within the limits of the driver and the car.”
The course itself, being a temporary beast set up in the jetport’s parking annex, consists of nothing more than orange and green cones demarking where drivers need to turn. Those turns are frequent, and are the backbone of the course. They are designed to force drivers to limit their speeds, but at the same time test their ability to maneuver the car cleanly and thereby not lose time.
“It’s you and the cones, and speeds are very slow,” said club member Chris Mills of South Portland, who was driving a 2003 Toyota Spyder MR2. “It looks slow, but it doesn’t feel slow when you’re out there. But even on a very large course – like some airfield courses (we don’t have that luxury around here) – they are designed so you never get going more than 55 or 60 miles per hour on the straight bits. So you’re never going that fast. It is all about control and consistency.”
Participation is open to just about anyone who pays the entry fee and has a vehicle with a relatively low center of gravity. Even teenagers in go-karts are welcome to hit the course.
“My dad raced his Audi TT in autocross, and we used to come, and it was really boring just sitting here and watching him,” said Hannah Miller, 15, a freshman from North Conway, N.H. “So we got a go-kart and I started racing. The hardest thing when you’re new is learning where to go. I still get confused all the time.”
Indeed, the club is a showcase of drivers from all backgrounds and ages. Erin Bridgeo, 25, from Limerick was in attendance in her 2009 Subaru WRX.
“My boyfriend actually did this before me, and he got me into it, and I have been doing it ever since,” she said. “It was very easy to get into. Everyone in the club is very friendly. They want everybody to come to these events and learn, and you pick up very good driving skills, too.”
And that, according to most club members, is the true benefit of autocross: the skills it can teach all drivers. In a way, it’s kind of a glitzy, fast-paced, no-holds-barred driver’s ed. Competitors hurl themselves against the restraining boundaries of the course, but everything they do is an attempt to refine their technique.
“Even with more experienced drivers – people like myself who have been driving for a long time, but have never driven competitively before coming here – can learn something,” said John Rice, 46, from Scarborough, who serves as one of the club’s novice driving instructors. “It absolutely makes you a better driver. It makes you more confident. It doesn’t make you more aggressive on the street; it makes you smarter on the street.”
What’s the most common hang-up for new drivers? Surprisingly, speed.
“A lot of times for new drivers, you get the adrenaline pumping and you think ‘go fast, go fast, go fast,’” said Carl Perry, 50, of Gardiner. “But a lot of times, because of the turns, going slow is actually faster.”
And what are the rewards? Well, aside from the occasional cheer from a few bystanders and the new fastest time being announced over the loudspeakers, let’s just say that there are a lot of “traditional” intangibles involved in autocross.
“It’s for bragging rights, I would say,” Perry said with a smile. “When you’re classed in with a bunch of other guys, it’s friendly competition in the sense that you are always watching the other guy’s time. And if they’re having a great day, you’re thinking ‘oh, I have got to beat their time.’ But kind of like with golf or ball or pool or anything like that, it is really just about skill development, and you are out there competing against yourself.”
Cumberland Motor Club’s next Autocross event will be at Crooker Lot in Bath on July 10. People interested in attending are urged to check out the club’s website at www.cumberlandmotorclub.com. Future racers also need to clean their cars out (there can be no loose items in the vehicle while it is being raced), come in for a quick inspection, pay the entry fee, and get out on the course. The members of Cumberland Motor Club are eager to welcome new members, and judging by how approachable and easy-going everyone in attendance at the last event was, slipping into this group might just be as easy as sliding behind the wheel of a purring roadster, growling hungrily at the prospect of another whirlwind tour of the course.
“The very first time it is slightly confusing,” Mills said.” The thing to do is to take somebody with you who knows what they are doing. If you don’t do that, you could be disillusioned very quickly. If you do that, I suppose that most people who try it are back the next time. It grabs you.”
Fifteen-year-old Hannah Miller of North Conway, N.H., digs her
Comments are no longer available on this story