First time autocrossing at the asphalt "Field of Dreams" -- UMI Autocross Challenge

The Field of Dreams of autocross -- UMI Motorsports Park.

Since I returned to autocrossing, I have made a rule of not travelling more than two hours for an event. I did a couple autocrosses at VMP, but those were more out of necessity for getting seat time.

A few years ago, UMI bought a roundy-round track in Pennsylvania and started hosting autocrosses. Most notably, their annual King of the Mountain which might be the most lucrative autocross in the world -- Sam Strano won $15,000 last year winning the shootout capping the event.

Fifteen. THOUSAND. Dollars. For winning an autocross.

When you win $15,000 autocrossing, you get to be on a billboard!

UMI has added a couple more events as well. While not having as big of a payout, they still attract some top-notch competition.

So I broke my rule of only competing within two hours and signed up for their Autocross Challenge, which was run over the weekend.

The rules are pretty simple. Seven classes, you can do anything you want to the car, but it has to weigh 2,900 pounds with driver. And only tires with treadwear ratings of 200 and over were allowed.

With my car not even being close to the minimum 2,900-pounds with driver, I could ditch the 50 pounds of lead I need to make weight (3,000 pounds WITHOUT driver in C Prepared).

Turbo, supercharger even nitrous, it doesn't matter. The limiting factor would be how much tire you could stuff underneath the fenders.

I competed in the "Mid Model" class for third- and fourth-generation F-Bodies, and Fox and SN95 Mustangs. A good ol' showdown between good guy Camaros and Firebirds versus those evil Mustangs, which has been happening for more than 50 years.

When I first thought of doing the UMI autocrosses, I realized I had a dilemma. The only good set of wheels I had were 17X11 CCWs, and there are very few options for wide tires.

Other than Hoosiers. Which of course I couldn't use. 

Mickey Thompson makes 315/30/17s, but they have a 300 treadwear rating.

Arriving early on Thursday.

Talking about this with Sam at the VMP autocross in February, he said he had a few sets of 18X10.5 Corvette rims with good (200 treadwear with decent tread left) 315/30/18 tires -- Yokohama A052s and Bridgestone RE71s. He sent some pics when he got home, and I opted for the C5 Corvette Z06 Speedline replicas with Yokohamas.

I eventually got them a month ago thanks to The (Big) Mike Snyder Express. Since I have driven the Camaro on street tires once -- 13 years ago at the National Street Tire Challenge -- I probably should have driven on them the previous weekend at the D.C. Region autocross. But I had been sitting on a set of sticker Hoosiers since last September and opted for those for some dumb reason even though there wasn't anybody else in CP and could have "won" the class on a set of Freddy Flintstone tires.

The format for the UMI events is similar to an SCCA National Tour. Run a course on the first day and a different course on the second day, and add together your fastest time from each day.

The only thing different was there were two sessions each day. We ran the Friday course four times in the morning and three times again in the afternoon. On Saturday, it was two three-run sessions.

That's a lot of seat time! With thirteen runs total, I can't give a run-by-run breakdown. Let's just say on Friday, I dipped my toe in the water early then got too confident. I was seventh in the Mid Class after the first session with a 38.3 but didn't go any faster in the afternoon and dropped to eighth.

My fastest run on Friday:

On Saturday's slightly altered course, I had a similar plan to feel things out but didn't go charging into the deep end. My best time in the morning session was 37.7 but then dropped seven tenths in the afternoon to get seventh place back. Unfortunately, only the top six in class qualified for the class shootout bonus round at the end.

My fastest run from Saturday:

On Friday, my time was 48th overall, but my time on Saturday's course was 38th.

For the King of the Mountain event next month, there isn't much I can do to make the car faster. Probably will raise the rev limiter a bit and tweak the alignment. There is a WDCR-SCCA autocross the Sunday prior, so I will keep the Yoks mounted for more seat time on them.

Or get a nitrous kit!

A few more random photos:

When you have your own racetrack, you can store your mule car in the garage and pull the car out for testing.

It's a DNF if you go in the grass, so this is a really expensive cone to hit.

Worked the loud pedal out so much on Saturday that the sole fell off!

Lots of thirdgens. Weird that the Camaros were all black except for one.

Some serious $$$$$ at this event.

More serious $$$$$.

The event T-shirt with thirdgen F-Bodies r3pR3s3nT1ng!

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