A week ago, I was at an autocross with a coworker and I saw stickers on his car for this series. I had forgotten about it so I talked to him. I found out the next round was the following weekend (oct 4th and 5th) at Pittsburgh International Raceway (formerly BeaveRun Motorsports Complex) just 3hrs away.... I registered and prepped
There are 5 events over a weekend... autocross, speed stop (short autocross with a stop box), a design judging, a road rally and a road course. There are 3 official classes: over 3k lbs, under 3k lbs and AWD. Rules are pretty open. Car must be legally registered in any state, must have valid insurance, and must be on 200 treadwear tires minimum. In theory a Dauer Le Mans Porsche 962 would be legal
An unofficial class is the Exhibition class. I ran in that class, and apparently I won it!
Results are here
http://driveusca.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Pittsburgh-Results-Release-Final.xlsx
It was a great time running against (mostly) muscle cars of the Pro Touring persuasion. They were mostly surprised how well I was wheeling my M3. They were all very welcoming and nice. The competition was hardlly fought, sure, but the people made it a supremely good time. There were about 60 cars, which was a very high number!
Saturday rained a bit for the autocross and speed stop events. Rain was on and off. My autocross experience let me clock in my fastest time on my 2nd run, before rain could mess up any chance of improving. I was 1st in class, and about 7th or 8th overall... I could have been higher up if it didn't start sprinkling on my fastest run. See the results above!
Speed Stop was a killer for me. this course emphasized POWER. Aside from a GTI (maybe) I was the most underpowered car there at ~205whp. See the Results above!
The road rally was probably the most relaxed event. The organizers emphasized all you need to do is finish without being caught breaking the law and you get max points. It basically was a procession over 21 miles of gorgeous leaf covered back PA roads. It wasn't a hardcore TSD rally. My co-driver put together this awesome video from over 3,000 photos with his Go Pro
The road course was pretty fun. I had never driving this track before but it's tougher than it looks. One car was a victim of running out of talent