As a certified curmudgeon, and occasional autoxer, other occasional autoxers and I break the grid into three groups. There are the novices, folks like us, and the group we call "professional autocrossers." The professionals are in a class by themselves. They are on the tarmac almost every weekend, often in trailered cars. They video and then analyze the video, adjust tire pressure after every run, and they fight for the hundredth, and thousandth of a second. These guys and gals are in that class. More power to them! Those of us in the middle group often ignore everything after the decimal point, we are fighting for seconds. We set the tires at the beginning of the day and forget about it. We laugh about our screw ups - like forgetting to turn the nannies off, and celebrate together with the same 12oz trophy. The novices are quickly join our ranks, and often move up to the next level. We cheer for them. When my daughter at 16 finished the autox school they set the course up for after lunch fun runs. When she pulled into grid with a cone under her car, I pulled it out and showed it to her. She had that look that she was going to cry. My buddy working grid asked how many cones she took out and if she was going to pay for the cone? "Only one" he said? "Your dad took out something like ten one time!" Almost cry was replaced with "really?" "yes." and a laugh. Some Dudley Do Right chimed in that she doesn't pay for dead cones. At that moment she went from Novice to one in the folks like us group. She got a 12oz trophy, but it was a little different than ours. I enjoy the friends I made on the tarmac. I enjoy the track walks, and the professionals explaining the logic I try, and usually fail to follow.
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