This article first appeared in the April, 2016 edition of SportsCar Magazine. SCCA members can read the current and past editions of SportCar digitally here after logging into their account; To become an SCCA member and get SportsCar mailed to your home address monthly in addition to the digital editions, click here.

The best of the best reveal how they approach a Solo course

Precision and patience are skills every autocrosser must have. It’s a sixth sense, knowing exactly where the footprint of your car is while pushing the limits around a cone-lined course, nary disturbing an orange marker. Here, one inch separates the winner from the rest. But unlike almost all other forms of motorsport, Solo only allows course walks prior to competition, meaning the first time drivers see the course at speed is during timed competition runs. So, for top competitors in the sport, the course walks have become the most important part of the entire competition.

“When I do my course walks, I spend the most time looking for the exit to each element,” says 2015 Driver of Eminence and Solo National Champion Brian Peters. “I typically try to use the last two cones on the outside of a corner to help me establish the proper line through the exit of each turn. One of the other techniques I utilize is developing a mental movie of what the course will look like as I drive. This technique gives me the opportunity to develop clear objectives each time I take to the course.”

Tom O’Gorman, a past Tire Rack Solo National Champion and driver in Pirelli World Challenge, has a similar technique to Peters, but puts a premium on being smooth. “When I am making my course walks, I focus the most on the exit of each corner,” O’Gorman says. “In the end, my goal is to try to tie each element together in a way that will allow me to get through that part of the course as smoothly as possible. I feel like it matters less about how quickly you can enter a corner, than how fast you can get back on the gas moving forward.”

Rachel Kerswill, a two-time Solo National Champion and development driver of the 2016 Mazda MX-5 autocross package, says that Solo racing is all about adapting to a new course in a short amount of time. With that in mind, planning is huge. “I always want to keep myself thinking two turns ahead,” Kerswill explains. “So, when I’m doing my first course walk, I’m just trying to get a general idea of what’s out there. I want to see if there are any tricky spots or any areas where I could really gain some speed. When I go through the rest of my course walks I want to keep thinking about how I want to set up for the next two turns ahead. The best results seem to come when I know the course like the back of my hand.”

With course walks complete, many drivers approach their first run in different ways. Even the drivers who find themselves at the top of the sport, attack the challenge from different angles. “When I actually make my first run, my goal is to put down a solid, mistake-free lap,” O’Gorman says. “From that point, I can build up my speed. When I first started autocrossing, my goal was to put down the fastest lap possible on my first run. However, I have found that if you make a solid lap with no mistakes on your first run, it allows you to step things up more easily. It’s a lot easier to think about speeding up than it is to try and slow things down.”

Kerswill agrees with getting a solid first run in the books. “This past year, I used the strategy of getting a clean run in during my first lap of the course,” Kerswill says. “That way I can keep pushing it a little farther on each subsequent run. I have a cautious mindset, trying not to take too many risks. When there are course elements that could be taken multiple ways, I will take the least risky way on my first run to make sure I get a clean one in.”

Peters, however, takes the opposite approach – his goal is to put down a quick run with the hopes of setting the tone for the rest of the competition. “When I come out of the gate during my first run, my goal is to put down an aggressive first lap,” he says. “My feeling is that if I don’t do this, it shows. A conservative first run gives your competition the opportunity to get the mental edge early on. On the other hand, it you’re able to set a quick first lap, it gives you the upper hand.”

For his remaining competition runs, Peters says he tries to keep his intensity consistent from lap to lap. “During my competition runs, my goal is to execute each run the same,” Peters says. “The mental movie I develop during my course walks can be sped up or slowed down depending on the actual conditions on course. That is part of the reason developing a plan of attack during the course walk is so important. Without a clear idea of what you would like to do before you get there, there is no chance for you to be fast when it counts.

“When I do find that there is the opportunity to go a little quicker during a particular part of the course, I simply turn up the aggression. That allows me to make on-course changes quickly and effectively. This technique allows me to keep a clear mind while I’m racing and still be flexible enough to adapt effectively to a particular course.”

O’Gorman says his approach for the rest of the competition is to be mistake free, then start chipping away at the time methodically. “After my first run, it’s all about fixing mistakes and grabbing at low-hanging fruit,” O’Gorman says. “If I feel like I made a mistake on my first run, I will try to put down another mistake-free run until I get it. From there, I just look for the easiest places to gain some speed on the course for the remainder of my runs. Being able to put in a run without mistakes is important, because if you don’t do that you don’t have a solid foundation on which to build your next runs. If there are mistakes in your run, there’s not a good chance you are not going to be able to overcome those during the rest of the run.

“When I actually make my first run, I stick to my initial plan of attack. I don’t make any big changes during that run, even if I think I might be able to go faster in a certain section. If that’s the case, I will wait to make adjustments for my later runs. If need be, I will make little adaptations while on course. But those are usually very small and only if I need to.”

While each of these three drivers have been successful on a National stage, each echo the same opinion: that they utilize Regional Solo events to experiment and test their setup. With smaller classes, and a level of competition that is usually more social, these autocross veterans say Regional events are the place to push things harder since the consequences of a mistake or bad decision are reduced. Kerswill notes this is also the place to pick the brains of others and learn as much as possible.

“Try to learn a lot,” she says. “Pick the minds of people who are succeeding already. They have so many tips. If you can, hop in the car with a driver you look up to or someone with a similar setup. Getting advice from other people, and tapping into the community knowledge that’s already there, is one way to jump ahead more quickly than trying to do it all yourself.”

Words by Chris Berg
Image by Perry Bennett