So, as some of you may know (well, the people from my area at least), there is currently nowhere to autocross in Northeastern Ohio. I haven't autocrossed since the last local event we had, back on the 4th of July. It would bug me, but the time that autocross consumes on Saturday nights and all day Sunday really is too much of a distraction for me to properly concentrate on finishing up school.

Anyway, with that said, how long do you usually find you have to be out of any competition before you start to lose your skills? It has been two months now since I last autocrossed, but the gap between events before that was six weeks, and yet I'd say that was perhaps my best event ever. I was in a very good state of mind that helped me focus better than any other time I've autocrossed, a focus I only had once before, when I tried out for the Red Bull indoor karting thing last year. I would've made it to phase two if it wasn't for the fact that I had good luck when it didn't matter, and horrible luck when I needed it least.

I doubt I'll be back out again this year since I don't have the time to drive out to Beaverun or Toledo, and who knows what next year holds, so serious seat time may be out of the question for the next future. Should I worry about being "out of it" when I return? I feel that driving the MR2 on a daily basis helps me stay familar with the car, even though I don't drive aggressively on the streets. But still, being able to do 10 events last year (the most I've ever done...think I've only autocrossed 18 times in my life) and about 200 laps of indoor karting since April '03 always gave me something to constantly aim for and try and top. I'm hoping that not having that luxury doesn't slow me down.

 

I hopped in to a WRX that wasn't set up the best and drove reasonably quickly at the Rainlanta ProSolo this February, after probably 5 months of downtime.

For me it's not so much my driving skills (more like kills...am I right folks? ) getting rusty as my ability to get my brain focused. And I can lose that ability in 5 minutes if I'm not careful.