I regularly go autocrossing with the Lone Star Chapter of the BMW Car Club of America. In case you haven’t heard of it, autocrossing is a timed driving event; the club sets up a course of orange cones early one Saturday each month at Mineral Wells airport and each participant drives around it as fast as he/she can. It’s a lot of fun and I look forward to it each season (they hold about 8-9 autocrosses a year during the warmer months).
The first one this year was in March which I ended up missing since I was in Austin that weekend for SXSW. And, I couldn’t make the April one either for some reason. So, today — May 7th — was supposed to me my first autocross of 2005. I had everything lined up and I was ready to go. Sunscreen? Check. Bugspray? Check. Protein bars? Check. Cooler with Fruit2-0? Check.
The usual sequence is that I’d meet up with some other drivers at the McDonald’s at MacArthur & 635 at 6:30am on the morning of the autocross. And, from there, we caravan to the event. It’s not always the same bunch of guys that meets there but there has always been at least a few people that would drive down together. So, this morning, I had my alarm clock set for 5am and I was out the door by 6am. I drove to the meeting place and waited a few minutes, and then a few minutes more. No one showed up — I guess everyone decided to eschew the caravan this time.
Since I had always driven with the caravan, I never learned how to get there. And, while the group would normally head off around 7am, I waited until 7:15 in case anyone showed up. At this point, I was kinda stuck — there was no one else to follow and I didn’t know how to get there on my own. Figuring that I might be able to drive home, print directions, and still make it in time, I headed back to my apartment. I got there by around 7:45 and checked MapQuest which gave me directions but confirmed that it was about a 1 hr 40 minute drive to get there. Considering that Mineral Wells is roughly 100 miles west of Dallas, I wasn't terribly surprised. But, as the registration cut-off time was 9am, I soon realized that I couldn’t make it :(.
That really bummed me out since I was thinking about this first autocross since the beginning of the year and I was looking forward to it all week. My coworkers were even joking with me about it as I left the office yesterday — “Drive carefully!”, Leia said with a smile as I walked out, to which I cheerfully replied “I’ll be sure not to!”. Well, so much for that idea. It’s about 9am now so I guess I’ll go back to bed for a few more hours sleep and figure out the rest of my day after that. Blargh.
Dude, that blows.
Why does registration have to happen in person?
As it turns out, Bryan, the fees for each event can be paid online. But, they still require registration in person so that they can verify each driver’s BMW CCA (BMW Car Club of America) membership; and, each car also get a “tech inspection” where the car gets a once-over to make sure it’s safe to participate.