Bring on the dancing horse

Speedy really doesn't care what kind of car you have
if its on Hoosiers and has a V8.

With the tow vehicle out of commission, rather than just back out of Sunday's WDCR-SCCA autocross (like I did when the throwout bearing went out on the Camaro the night prior to the SCCA-Susquehanna event in Harrisburg), I decided to drive our 2019 Subaru Crosstrek.  Just to get some seat time in something.  It's completely stock right down to the original (55K+ miles now) tires.  I call it the Sloth-Trek for a reason, though, but it does have a six-speed manual and the brakes are really good, terrorizing H-Street didn't seem like a half bad idea.

Ready to play in H Stock.  I mean, H Street.

Upon arriving at Summit Point, I unloaded the car, made "H" magnetcs from a piece of material to go along with "S" magnets that were in the garage from who-knows-when.   The course wasn't even close to being setup, so I went wandering around and found T.s. Garp* at his trailer with his C Prepared Mustang.  T.s. and I autocrossed against each other for a few years in E Street Prepared when he had another Mustang and my Camaro had the old L98.  Always fun battling and trash talking with him and his co-driver Adam George, who now owns the old silver car and turned it into a track whore.  We had exchanged fun runs in our cars on several occasions and would almost always go faster in the Mustang than I did in my Camaro.  I thought i n the right hands, that Mustang would have been a force in ESP.

Now Sam ... um ... I mean ... T.s. has the 2010 Mustang that is probably setup like the old silver car was except now he's done CP stuff like removed weight and put a fancy wing on the rear decklid.  Since a 4.6L engine is under the hood, it can be lighter than my Camaro.  Anyway, Sam asked if I was ready to drive and I lamented the whole story about the rusted brake line and being relegated to the Crosstrek.  "I have an open seat, do you want to drive my car?"  Hell.  Yes.  My only concern was the weather forecast and ending up in the same situation the last time with my car with a lot that won't drain and not really wanting to drive on Hoosiers.  

Luckily, the forecast had improved since earlier in the week (if it was going to rain, I might have just brought the Crosstrek anyway) and the chance of Mother Nature interfering had minimized.

I usually do pretty good in cars I've never driven before.  No expectations, just stab it and steer.  Except this time, I was going on two half-assed autocross runs since late 2017.  So now I didn't know what to expect.  I was perfectly content to being the tire warmer but with six runs, and T.s. having a weird phobia at driving his car with a "1" on the side, he drove first and drove second.

Either this is M. Night Shyamalan's new movie
or it's the Washington Circuit at Summit Point
Motorsports Park.

Everybody has already grumbled about the "lot" at Summit Point.  It's a former karting track that has grass encircled with curbing scattered throughout.  Probably could have some fun courses setup for a little kart, but in normal cars, it's more of a challenge.  Even finding a spot for grid is a challenge.  The last autocross that had rain was probably going to be really fun, though, and this course didn't look half bad, albeit short.  But, hey, six runs of seat time in someone else's (reliable) car.

T.s. went out on his first run, then I took the reigns.  It's a drive-by-wire car, and those always weird me out for some reason.  Kind of pussy footing around, my first run felt OK, and it was a 40.X.  Actually didn't seem that bad compared to times from other competitors earlier, but I did hit a cone.  The Mustang was kind of loose but in a good way.  It could be made to dance but didn't seem out of control. 

From then on, I kept getting more comfortable with the car and improved on raw time on every run.  I only hit three cones total and my fastest time -- 37. 764, video above -- was clean.  Won CP, fourth-fastest raw time (behind a kart and "fast guys" Marcus Pyne in an STR Miata and Justin Neal in an XSA -- whatever that is get off my lawn with these new classes ruining autocross -- C6 Z06 Corvette) and 10th in PAX.  It felt good to get the shakes again, although it has happened a few times since my autocross exile when hooking a smallmouth bass.

* T.s. goes by "T.s. Garp" on Facebook.  That's not his real name, so I'm not sure if he's trying to hide his identity.  I'll comply with keeping his real name a secret but most people who know me should know who he is.  Or maybe ... they don't.