This is the group to run with if an autocrosser wants to take his sport seriously. And while the results don't exactly show how seriously we took it in 2010, it showed that we were capable of making a lot of progress from the start of the year to the end of the year.

The first thing to say when reviewing the WDCR SCCA season is to not look at the points standings. While I did run all of their events, I split time between two classes, just like what I did with Autocrossers Incorporated. With AI, I managed to run just enough events to qualify for the season championship. With WDCR, that wasn't the case. I wound up splitting the seven-event season right down the middle, with the slight majority of events in the STR class in my 1999 Miata. But the performance just wasn't there with that car, and I only earned two points all year.

The season got off to a terrible start. After a good AI event at FedEx Field the week before, we came back to find half the lot resealed. Combine the sealer with brisk spring temperatures and that made for one slick surface. Very few people got away without spinning at some point in the day because the difference in grip between unsealed pavement and newly sealed pavement was staggering. My day was forgettable. I ran my first two runs and put up decent times. As a matter of fact, as I was approaching the start for my third run, I heard James Dunham's time and the announcer noted that Dunham was now fifth-best. I checked my second run time on the post-it note and found I was just a hair off that.

But after the third run I was told I was off course. I thought that wasn't right, since I ran the same course I did the first two times out. Further investigation showed that I had actually been off course on all three runs up to that point. It very quickly went from a very good day to pretty much a wasted day. I did have one more shot, and as I was prepping for that, I figured out where I was going wrong and knew to fix that. Setting out to lay down at least one good run to show for the day's efforts, I got too greedy on sealed pavement and spun myself. The results came as no surprise. In a crowded 15 car class, I was dead last. It was hardly the way I wanted to start my year with the group I wanted to impress the most.

We regrouped and showed up for the second event at a new venue. FedEx Field management had decided they didn't want us running on their newly sealed lot with freshly painted lines, and demoted us to a smaller lot elsewhere on the property. It was a late change, and SCCA brass had to scramble to determine logistics and design a course for the small lot. It was another large class, 13 strong this time, and I managed to get four runs on course and actually did pretty well considering the lack of go-fast parts installed on that '99 Miata. I was 9th out of 13, but the class was so tightly bunched that if I had gone just shy of a second faster, I could have been as good as fifth. A second in the other direction, though, would have bumped me down to 12th.

With renewed confidence, it was time for event number three. Still in STR, I was part of an eleven-car class. After first runs, I was all the way up to third place. If I could have kept improving like everyone else had, that would have been a spectacular result. But as everyone else picked up time and stopped making mistakes that they were making early, I was taking smaller bites out of my time and got bumped down to 9th.

Back on the big lot for event four, I made a switch to run STS with Captain Slow just to see how that car stacked up against the STR regulars I had been running with up to that point. Let me say something about the STS class with WDCR: these guys are very good. There are at least two drivers who regularly compete there with National championship experience and aspirations, plus a handful of part-timers there who also have experience at the SCCA Solo Nationals. To do well in this class means beating some drivers who are among the best in the country. On this particular day, with nine entrants, three drivers had made the trip to Lincoln (or Topeka) in the last couple years. Two other drivers could probably go out and do well. I hoped to finish sixth behind these drivers, but wound up seventh, just a hair more than a second out of fifth. Winding up not-last out of this class was an encouraging sign; finishing as close to some of the true contenders as I did was even better news.

The class I avoided, STR, had a staggering 15 entrants. My best time in my STS car would have put me tenth in that group, beating about the same people I had beaten before with the '99 Miata. With this news, I had decided the smart money would be on parking the '99 from serious competition and concentrating on the '90 as it was readily apparent that it was more competitive in its class. One wrinkle popped up, though: one of Slow's rear wheel bearings was getting loose and was getting close to flunking tech inspection. A replacement hub was ordered, but while I waited for that, there was a WDCR event to run, and the '99 was pressed into service one more time.

Thirteen STR cars lined up for event five at FedEx Field. I don't remember much of that day, which means nothing went terribly wrong, but when the results came out I was dumbfounded. Even with no disasters to write home about, I was thirteenth out of those thirteenth. Finishing dead last, even by just a couple tenths, was enough to convince me that the decision to shelve the '99 was correct, and I could not wait to get the '90 safe and inspectible so I could start the process of working on my driving with a car that was prepped well enough to be competitive in its class.

Event six threw a fairly new wrinkle at me, as we had rain to deal with. The wet stuff started falling during the tail end of the first heat, which was when I was working the course. I was working the corner that was about as far away from grid as possible, and I left the car parked with the top down. With the first few sprinkles, I figured it wasn't going to be too bad. As the rain grew steadier, though, I knew I was in trouble unless someone took pity on me and flipped my top up. Fortunately, someone did, though enough rain fell on (in) the car to make for a pretty uncomfortable day.

On the course, the wet course actually wasn't that bad. There was actually good grip to be found in places of the lot that hadn't been treated to the new sealer earlier in the year, and I grew more comfortable and confident each time out. The confidence grew into overconfidence on my final pass when I suffered a harmless spin in the slick stuff, but the other runs were not bad at all. Of the six entries, I wound up fourth, even beating one of the co-drivers of the black RX-7 that usually dusts me by more than a little time in the dry. As I packed up I heard compliments of my driving from those who were working the course, including some saying that I was being fairly aggressive despite the conditions. I'm glad I didn't shy away from the challenge of inclement weather, and took away another boost to the confidence.

There was over a month between the sixth and seventh events of the year, a break necessitated, partially, because many local drivers made the pilgrimage to Lincoln, Nebraska for the National Championships. With that in the books, some STS regulars used the last event to do some experimenting. Greg Olsen co-drove Stuart Fain's Porsche GT3 (who wouldn't pass up that opportunity?). Shawn Roberts bolted on a set of R-comp tires and took on C Street Prepared. John Vitamvas co-drove Michael Gross' STR car. The Salisburys ran STX in a Subaru. And head honcho Ian Baker ran the UMD Formula SAE car.

With most of the regulars away, STS was made up of me me and Dan Donahue, who both have 1990 Miatas. Dan was faster, no doubt about that, but he had trouble with either cones or spins (or both at the same time?). I was not aware of this as I put in three clean runs and then suffered a spin of my own. But I left knowing that Dan had posted the best time out of all of ours, so I congratulated him and packed up and headed home. When the results came out, imagine my surprise when I saw that Dan's fastest run had a cone attached to it, and that was enough to bump him to second in class. I had my first SCCA winner's trophy and didn't even know it.

And while a win in a depleted class isn't the most significant thing to brag about, it is a win and I'm very much looking forward to getting my mitts on that magnet trophy. With any luck, it'll be the first of a bunch, though we have to be realistic about what we can do as a driver and what the competition is capable of. But with such good measuring sticks to compare ourselves to right here at home, it'll give us a pretty good idea of how badly we may get slaughtered if and when we tackle even more serious competitions next summer. We are certainly looking forward to that.

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