Summit Racing’s Autocross Week: Multistate, Multiday Autocross
You all know about HOT ROD’s Drag Week, or maybe the famous One Lap of America, or maybe even a less competitive event like our beloved Power Tour.
What they all have in common is that they are multiday events where you drive from venue to venue and engage in some sort of throttle-mashing driving fun. Autocross has also become increasingly popular, so it was only natural that it would get its own week of dodging cones and having fun.
Enter the Summit Racing Autocross Week. The foundation is built on racing at three Midwest tracks over four days. In the spirit of Drag Week all the vehicles must be registered and driven on public roads between each event; no trailer queens allowed.
There are seven racing classes, so there’s a variety of vehicles and horsepower levels.
Oh, and the cars must be DOT-legal to weed out the race cars.
The third annual Summit Racing Equipment Autocross Week kicked-off with registration and tech inspections at the Pittsburg International Race complex.
This is also where competitors took the day to swap their rides from road-trip mode to ready-to-race mode. Although the cars had to drive from venue to venue they could pull small trailers with track tires, tools, and other needed bits from venue to venue.
They also used this time to familiarize themselves with the grid at Pitt Race and check out the first of four autocross courses before the event’s kickoff dinner and some fun go-karting!
The first day of racing at Pitt started with breakfast sandwiches
The first day of racing at Pitt started with breakfast sandwiches generously provided by Ken Edwards followed by a driver’s meeting laying out the daily running format.
Racers then quickly got to competing on-track with five morning runs laying down some blistering times before the first lunch break. Lunch would provide a chance to refuel both the cars and racers and allow for some setup changes before the afternoon competition began to heat up.
Zach Sawyer in his S-10 would then shock the field by going “full-send” and putting his truck up on two wheels using nothing more than a combination of sticky tires, aggressive driving, and a bit of the loud pedal.
Thankfully photographer Brent Pursifull was there to capture an image that would dominate autocross news for a few days on social media.
After their five afternoon runs everyone packed up to head out for the first road trip stop of the week at Summit Racing Equipment in Akron, Ohio.
These mandatory photo stops give racers the chance to be entered in a raffle on day four and some incredible prizes provided by the event sponsors. They also ensure that everyone is driving the route between venues.
Rain was in the forecast at Dragway 42, the “superspeedway” of autocross action, so morning runs in the dry were important if drivers wanted to remain in the points for a podium later in the week.
As luck would have it the rain was sparse and never fully soaked the course.
Everyone was quick to get their runs in and get on the road since it was a three-hour highway blast to the next venue, UMI Motorsports Park in central Pennsylvania.
UMI Performance provided the morning breakfast, which would prove imperative, as the course at UMI was the most challenging of the week.
The UMI Motorsports Park oval combines multiple banked-oval sections with a tight infield keeping racers on their toes with the transition from one surface to another that is familiar to anyone who has seen one of their King of the Mountain events.
The day’s cruise back to Pitt Race included photo stops at Gobbler’s Knob, to see the spot where Punxsutawney Phil predicts spring weather each year, and at Moraine State Park in Pennsylvania. Yeah, the focus of the event is the racing, but the cruising and hanging out together is what makes an event like this such a blast to attend!
Wrapping up the week, the racers returned to Pitt Race utilizing the same course as day one, but in reverse.
Pitt would also see a first for autocross with a bracket race dial-in format in the afternoon.
The bracket concept was cooked up the day before over lunch between Jim Greenleaf of Summit Racing and Eric Heller. Luckily Eric’s team was able to build out the technology overnight to allow racers to choose a dial-in during lunch, to try and run as close a time as possible in their first afternoon run.
Throughout the event Summit Racing was there to support racers with a truck full of products and plenty of ad hoc prizes for racer achievements on-course.
The awards ceremony was full of Summit- and sponsor-provided race gear, free event entries, and of course trophies. To find out more, and register for next year’s event, be sure to visit Summit’s Autocross Week website! – Photos provided by Brent Pursifull
