Keyboard Racer: FAIL at the "Lawnchair Autocross"

[38P]

They saw the writing on the wall. People with cars are tiring of lawnchair shows. They are building cars to drive. Good thing too. They gave Chad a real job.

Their options were limited given that they like to host shows at oval tracks and other non-drag racing venues. On the other hand, NSRA held gimmicky gymkhana-style driving events at fairgrounds shows back in the '70s. So the GG/Power Tour autocrosses aren't unprecidented.

On the other hand, from the looks of the motorhome lot and the limited participation in the autocross (probably less than two percent of the registered vehicles ran the autocross), a fairly large number of Goodguys participants are still into trailering their cars to the "lawnchair" part of the show. And only a handful of the dozens of awards Goodguys hands out are for driving events.

As an occasional MCA Nationals show participant with my other Mustang, I can understand why some choose the static car show route over driving events. It takes a lot of effort to maintain a pristine show pony.

One of the mistakes I made in the run-up to Drag Week '12 was to prepare my other Mustang for the MCA Grand National held over Labor Day Weekend. Consequently, I didn't spend enough time on either car, as the results from both events showed.

It will be interesting to see whether traditional Bangshifters will warm up to autocross. With fewer drag strips and ever-increasing costs, autocross could be a fun alternative for many.

I didn't enjoy it as much as an open track day (where the speeds and costs are much higher), though.

I really would like to see a more reasonably-priced Bangshifters' alternative to "One Lap of America" -- an event for time trials on different sorts of courses (Drags (including some outlaw strips), auto-x, open track . . . even ovals, dirt, rallycross, and maybe a limited LSR "closest to dial-in" top speed challenge) . . . And if they used simple "Great Race"-style timing rules for the sections between tracks, instead of just untimed checkpoints, the whole thing could be a bitchin adventure for real street car "Walter Mittys."