In the continuous quest for more autocross runs under our belts before everyone takes a break for winter, we found another group to run with. The National Capital Chapter of the BMW Car Club of America runs six or eight times a year at a couple different locations, and they were finishing their season Saturday at Bowie Baysox Stadium. Impressions of the group from our fellow Miata enthusiasts were mixed, but laps are laps so I went to find out about them for myself.

The BMW club breaks cars into different classes, but not like SCCA. They break their brand up pretty well into categories, but if one shows up with a non-BMW it winds up in one of two "Other" classes, broken down by how aggressive tire treadwear rating is.

My initial plan was to run the '99 Miata, which raced in Myrtle Beach and Texas in the spring, and again in our first Autocrossers Inc. appearance back in June. I put the Potenzas on the '99 and, seeing rain in the forecast, took the hardtop off Captain Slow and put that on the '99. Once we saw the forecast was not just calling for rain, but downpours during the Saturday afternoon we signed up to run, another vehicular change was made. Kate was out of town and her '93 Ugly Duckling was left behind, so I figured I'd run that and even keep the Michelin Pilots it's been wearing lately on it. While those Pilots are not aggressively treaded, they still have a low treadwear rating (180) and that kept me in the Other Race Tire category. This would be the first time I drove the Duckling in anger and I was looking forward to seeing how an unmodified car would handle autocross.

Arriving at the stadium as the morning session was winding down, I got to scope out the course that used both the upper and lower lots. It looked tight, really tight, like 90-plus degree turns right off the start and a couple decreasing-radius turns along the way. The drivers of mid-size and large German sedans would probably have all kinds of problems negotiating maneuvers like that, but perhaps I'd have better luck in a small Japanese roadster.

It sprinkled some while I was working the course during the first half of the afternoon session, but it was still pretty dry when I strapped in for my runs. The first time through I put up a 61-second lap but I had a hunch that I missed a gate coming up from the bottom of the course, and that was reflected in the results.

I ran my second try and thought I nailed it, at least as far as staying on course. I picked up half a second over the first run but the announcement was accompanied by the dreaded "off course" words. I was pretty perplexed by this and took advantage of a break in the action to see if I could find the corner crew that made that call and find out where I erred. I got the information and was ready to put that information to use on my third run.

Then it rained.

And when I say "rain", I mean monsoon. Deluge. Downpour. Look up at the sky and drown.

A little rain - or a lot of rain - does not stop the program of intrepid autocrossers. This means that as I came up to the line with the wipers barely keeping up with the stuff falling down from the sky, they sent me on my way regardless. In all fairness, the folks who ran in the first afternoon group and were now working the course deserved our getting our runs in as quickly as possible so they could find some way to towel off and warm up as they were getting drenched.

Starting the third run, the first obstacle to overcome wasn't a tricky gate or a sharp corner, but standing water. The little Miata sloshed through with few problems, probably fewer problems than the high horsepower cars. Even though water was splashing over the hood on the lower part of the course, I instead concentrated on my mantra of "In slow, out fast" and found it actually working. And even though the conditions hadn't really improved when my fourth and last run came around, I somehow managed to post my fastest lap, picking up a couple seconds over my best dry (relatively speaking) run. "In slow, out fast" clearly made for a more controlled romp through the cones, even when it was raining enough that those cones were in danger of floating away.

When the results came out, we were surprised to see that we were third best out of nine in the non-BMW race tire class. Considering there was some serious sporting machinery in that class, including many that ran in the more favorable morning session, this was very encouraging.

We're real happy with how how the Ugly Duckling handled. This brought to light how badly Captain Slow has been handling on tired shocks. Parts to take Slow from pretender to contender are on the workbench and we're doing homework on how to properly set up the coilovers before they go under the car in order to reduce trial-and-error once everything's back together. But it's nice to know that we could fall back on the Duckling if necessary and not be completely uncompetitive.

The 2009 autocross season is winding down, with just a couple more opprtunities to go out and have big fun in little cars. Capital Driving Club is the only area group still running, and we'll rejoin them on November 7th at Baysox Stadium. If Captain Slow is freshly resuspended, that'll make the trip to see how it's improved. The '99 is also an option - you just never know.

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