Being from the Chicago-region, I would have to say that, in terms of
Quantity of events, you can pretty much find an autocross with 1.5 to 2 hour
drive of Chicago from March through early November. With the Chicago-Region
SCCA, Tri-State Sports Car Council, SaltCreek Sports Car Club, Wisconsin
Autocrossers Inc, Milwaukee Region SCCA, Indiana Nortwest Region SCCA, South
Bend SCCA, and then the CenvDiv events, you can always find an event to
attend. There is even the Snow Solo series in South Bend for those who can't
stand not competing all winter(Uh, that includes me!). And even some local
specialty car clubs, like the Miata Club and the VW Club that run events.
The Chicago area also has a very good turn out in many classes as
well. As was mentioned there are several CM cars. There is also a "flock" of
neons that show up to every event. FSand GS are also well populated. ES
always seems to have several cars. HS even occasionally has more than one
car.
In the Chicago Area you also get to run with national caliber
drivers in many classes including HS, ES, FS, GS, CP, and AM. If you are
into Street Tire racing, there is always 30 or so cars running the the
Street tire class. Plus the people are freindly and always seem to be
willing to give helpful information if you ask for it.
So from my limited experience (1.5 years) view of the Autocross
world, the Chicago area seems to be a pretty decent place to be.
John Moore
1993 Toyota MR2 NA (CS #55)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Bultemeier [SMTP:hottvr@tfs.net]
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 1:32 PM
> To: Robert Glover
> Cc: autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: best places to autox?
>
> I think it depends on what class you run. I run C-Mod and it looks to me
> like a
> lot of the competition comes from Cen-Div. 75% of last years Nationals CM
> field
> came from a five hundred mile radius around Indianapolis Indiana. If I was
> going
>
> to relocate for Auto-X my choice would be Chicago Illinois.
>
> Mike B. TLS#1
>
> Robert Glover wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 21 Jun 1999, Mari L. Clements wrote:
> >
> > > Where's the best place in the country (sorry Dennis, I am talking US
> here)
> > > to live for autocrossing? Make the case for your region or your
> favorite
> > > region.
> >
> > I will place my vote for San Francisco Region (though from reading pots
> so
> > far, it sounds like San Diego is really nice too). Even though we have
> > "winter" (if you can call it that), our season never really ends either.
> >
> > First events of the season start in January and will run roughly two
> weeks
> > apart until March or April. By then, the American AutoX Series and
> > Sacramento Region starts up, providing events within a 100 mile radius
> of
> > the Bay Area for nearly every weekend from around April through August,
> > with an occaisonal weekend off (or two) in there somewhere. All you
> need
> > are tons of tires.
> >
> > For locations, we have Oakland Coleseum, which is slippery asphalt and
> > therefore really nice for people who can't afford a lot of tires.
> > Candlestick Park (I refuse to call it 3COM) isn' too bad, but a bit
> bumpy.
> > Stockton Fairgrounds is kinda small, but homey. Then our two "premiere"
> > sites are Mather AFB and McClellan AFB in Sacramento. Both are huge,
> are
> > concrete, and very Nationals-like. The downside is they're hard on
> tires.
> > If you weer to run ALL events available to you during the season, I
> would
> > expect you to go through at least two seats of Kumhos. Even more if you
> > run multiple drivers.
> >
> > The downside, of course, is the high cost of living in the Bay Area.
> >
> > BUT... that being said, I lived in the midwest for a year and attended
> the
> > events locally, but finally gave up in frustration. The people were
> > friendly enough, but totally unwilling to consider any kind of change.
> > Their insistence on numerical run order, meaning you get to show up at 8
> > AM, work, run, wait, work, wait, run, work, wait, run, work, wait, run,
> > work, etc, etc, etc and finally get out of there around 4-5 PM was
> > frustrating and tiring. I was even told by more than one long-time
> region
> > member that they were far more interested in having fun and socializing
> > than trying to really compete. Explains why there were only one or two
> > national caliber drivers from that region. SFR, by comparison, has more
> > national champions in its region than anywhere else in the country, last
> I
> > heard.
> >
> > I'm all for socializing and having a good time, but structure makes
> things
> > a lot more enjoyable.
> >
> > Rob
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