Solo
About Reno Solo
Solo, normally called Autocross, is a relatively simple event. Race around a cone track for the lowest time without hitting any cones. Sounds easy right? Not so much. In reality, it is a lot about perfection in technical turns, sweepers, straights, Chicago boxes, slaloms, and more. Even the slightest mistake costs time or makes you hit a cone - careful, they're worth 2 seconds.
Here in Reno, we race at the Regional Public Safety Training Center. Even though it is a small site we can do courses upwards of 45 seconds and have sections with speeds upwards of 50 mph, more or less depending on the car. We generally race 6-8 weekends per year between April and October, rain or shine. We usually have around 70 drivers, with a large variety of cars.
Event Flow
Our events are always on weekends and are almost always both days, scored independently. Course is open for walking around 7:30 am, this is when you walk the course to understand the layout and plan how you are going to take the corners, even though the plan always changes. Then at 9:00 am we have a drivers meeting, this is when we all get together, make some announcements, and go over flow and safety. Now its off to racing, half the drivers go to their cars to get ready and the other half goes to the work assignments. That's right, if you want to race then you have to work too. Don't worry working is simple, most people go to stations around the course and pick cones up when people hit them. Of course, there are other work assignments, safety, starter, grid, and a few more. Each group runs for roughly 2 hours, this means 3-5 runs. We always shoot for 5 runs but if there are a lot of people or the course is longer we may do 3 or 4. We want to keep people from working more than 2 hours, after all we came to race. After the first group races, usually done around 11:20, we take a quick 15 minute break and the second group gets to race while the first works.
Competition Info
The rules are pretty simple. Go slow in the grid area, go fast on the course. The goal is the lowest time, cones count for 2 seconds so stay clear of those. This isn't a drifting event, but people do spin out all the time. It's not the fastest thing to do but sometimes its fun to watch. We score every event. There is an overall PAX championship and group championships. What is PAX? It is sort of like a handicap, each car fits into a "class" depending on the model as well as modifications done. Each "class" has a specific handicap number, or PAX factor, that is multiplied to your raw time to get an indexed time. There are a couple of local classes, novice and vintage, that do not have a PAX factor but other than that every class has one. Winning the PAX championship is highest achievement and gives the most bragging rights. The group championships also use the index time but instead of competing against everyone you only compete against your group and several others that we think give the best competition. The group composition changes every year, and even though they look like they make no sense, we are trying to make sure every group has enough competitive people to keep things fun. Both championships are scored out of 1000 points. 1st place gets the full 1000 points, everyone gets points based on the percentage off 1st. That means if we have a course where 1st place gets 30.000 seconds, and 2nd gets 30.100 seconds, this means 1st gets 1000 points, and 2nd gets 997 points. This scoring method keeps the championship interesting throughout the season.
What kind of cars can do this race? If you have a car that is shorter than it is wide then chances are you have a car that can be used for Autocross. Here in Reno, we have everything from karts, to fully prepared race cars, even a crazy f100. Anyone with at least a learner's permit can drive, though minors do need both parents to sign off. Want to come see what your car can do? See our schedule and come play. We are always excited to have new people and new cars come out!