There is one thing that is certain when moving across the country, you’ll need to find a new SCCA chapter. Having recently moved back to Reno where I grew up, I made it about a month before signing up for a local SCCA autocross event. What can I say, I have a problem. Being new to the club and its events, I was curious as to how different the setup would be from the Spokes Club. Due to limited space restrictions, the Reno chapter definitely has a unique location and layout for its courses. I decided to sign up for both days as Reno runs on both Saturday and Sunday. Looking forward to my first time, I got my car ready to go post-move and made my way down to the “circuit”.

I arrived at the Reno Regional Public Safety Training Center the morning of the event. The facility is owned by Washoe County and used by first responders for various training from fire drills to police pursuits. Autocrossing in a parking lot with a row of police cars was not what I was expecting, but made it feel like I was in a hot pursuit.

My first impression was that the course was small, like really small. While we had access to the site, our “hot area” was limited to a specific skid pad. The space was roughly 3x smaller than what I was previously used to in the Circuit of the Americas parking lot. Unfortunately for me, this meant that my turbo lag wasn’t going to do me any favors. Not wanting that to ruin my day, I decided to focus on the event and headed over to the tech inspection. Nothing exciting here, but since there were not as many cars, they opted to inspect the competitors at each event instead of a general yearly inspection. Better safe than sorry, I guess. Unsurprisingly, I made it through with no hold-ups and made my way to the paddock.

After parking, I started my course walk. Course walks are one of the most underrated parts of autocrossing. I absolutely love the calmness that comes from walking the circuit with a morning coffee and focusing on the driving line. With autocross, there are almost infinite lines you can take, so getting it right with a top lap time is exceptionally fulfilling. Needing to “get it right”, I was a bit overwhelmed with how technical the course was. It had multiple cross-overs due to the tight space. Additionally, Reno SCCA only runs 1 car at a time in order to limit safety incidents. After walking the course a couple of times, I was not too upset that we’d have to wait until the other drivers finished. There was no way to run multiple cars safely so I couldn’t complain too much. By this time, the drivers meeting started and we got ready to go out on course.

Another huge difference was the car class running. Since there are only about 70 drivers per event (much lower than Spokes’ ~200), the cars do not compete solely in their class. All drivers are split into 2 groups. Each group is made up of multiple car classes and then you are lumped together. Since I run in STH Class, instead of only competing in STH, I run against CS, DS, ES, FS, GS, HS, SSC, and HCS classes. Obviously, I was not going to be competitive against all of these classes, so that was a bit of a change. On the one hand, its sucks, but on the other hand, there is always a faster driver and a faster car to catch. You can’t improve by being at the top constantly so some competition never hurts anyone. I ended up in Group 2 which meant I worked first and drove second. Being my first time here, I preferred that as it gave me some time to watch the other drivers attempt their laps before I had to do my own. Working the circuit was nothing to write home about. All I can say is that there were no incidents, and that’s all you can hope for. After a couple of hours, it was finally my turn to drive.

I was a bit nervous rolling up to the start. With all the cross-overs in this course, it was extremely easy to get a “Did Not Finish or DNF”. My goal as always was the autocross triple-crown: No DNFs, No Cones, and Improve each run. Not sure if this is a real autocross thing, but it’s what I consider to be successful. Regardless if I place high, if I can get those three things, I can leave happy. Rolling up to the start, it started pouring torrential rain. I was so pissed! I worked for 2-3 hours just for it to rain on my first start. We waited a bit as it was supposed to clear in a short time. Finally, the rain stopped and the sun came out, but the course was soaked and I’d have to do my runs in the wet. I felt that I held my own and did a solid job. I finished first in STH, 6th out of 13 in my group, and 21st out of 50 on overall pax time. You can see the full results here. With tons of rain, a new venue, and ~4,500 feet of elevation, the GTI handled all that was thrown at it. I managed to remember my GoPro AND the SD card this time and was able to record some of my sessions. You can see just how technical and tight the circuit was in the footage, but overall I enjoyed it and will be back for more. 

My experience with Reno SCCA wasn’t bad by any means, but it made me realize how spoiled I was with Texas Spokes. The Reno chapter is much more grassroots and in some respects I enjoy that more. The vibe is less showy and more “here to drive” which is nice. While the course layouts are great for the space they are confined to, the size of the location leaves much to be desired. I spoke with the chapter president and they are constantly on the lookout for a new location. I think a bigger skidpad is really all Reno SCCA needs to be a truly great club. Until then, I am looking forward to at least 2 autocross events a month and potentially one of their track days at Thunderhill Raceway. All I need is to rebuild my cooked brakes and I’m good to go out on track, thanks again COTA.