The makers of Cialis claim that “when the moment is right”, use one of their pills. As a man, every moment is right when it comes to that, am I right? While I understand what the pill is for, I find it funny that a pair of bathtubs, placed outdoors and overlooking the ocean, is needed to help get these couples in the mood for lovin’… Frankly, if some guy just popped one of these miracle pills, I’d think anywhere would qualify as the right moment. Movie theater? Supermarket? Burning building? They’re all good!

To each his own, I suppose.

For autocrossers, however, we know when the moment, or more specifically, the run, is right by another feeling in our bodies… The shaking of our hands. When we’re novices, each run is usually dramatically better than the one that preceded it; it’s not uncommon for some of the individuals I work with to see 10-12 second improvements from their first-ever run to their last of the day. Furthermore, as we gain experience through seat time, that time delta between our first and last run of an event begins to grow narrower. Ultimately, we (ideally) reach a point where there may only be a .2-.3 variation between our first and last runs at all… And it must be said that a lot of events and a lot of time passes in between those two examples. Yet, somewhere within that span of time, the premise of autocrossing just comes together. There’s no rhyme or reason behind it, it just happens.

Suddenly, it all makes sense. We see why looking ahead works. We begin to see how sections of a course link together to form a complete whole. We suddenly go from casual participant to “I’m gonna quit my job, travel the country, and do this full-time!”

And it all begins because our hands shook. That one defining run where the adrenaline rush was so great, so effective at elevating our senses that we transcended into a different dimension as drivers… No pills, or bathtubs, necessary.

Tony “Mario” Crea