Autocross is a form of motorsports that emphasizes safe, low-cost competition and active participation. An autocross is a timed competition where drivers navigate one at a time through a temporary course marked by traffic cones, rather than racing on a track with multiple other cars, as in road racing or oval racing. Autocross tends to place more emphasis on car handling and driver skill than on sheer horsepower, and events typically have many classes which allow almost any vehicle, from economy sedans to purpose-built vehicles, to compete. Speeds are slower in absolute terms when compared to other forms of motorsports, usually not exceeding highway speeds, but the activity level (measured in discrete turns per minute) can be higher than even Formula One due to the large number of elements packed into each course. Autocross courses are typically 40 to 70 seconds in length. In addition to being a national-level motorsport in its own right, autocrossing is a good way to learn skills that transfer to road racing, as drivers learn vehicle control and club ethics.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocross
The Ipswich West Moreton Autocross track is a compacted, permanent, hard dirt surface that has the inside and outside boundary defined by an imaginary line that passes through a number of witches hats. We start on a concrete pad, after the lights to your left change from red to green, then join the track proper and do a standing lap, straight into a flying lap, exiting to the pits shortly after the finish. Typically for a fast day the top times will start at around 1:36 for the combined lap time, and can get down to 1:28 on a really fast day. That is for the faster cars, usually running street legal, but very soft, competition tyres. The range of times can go out to well over 2 mins for the two laps. It all depends on the car (what modifications), tyres, and driver.
For newcomers to the sport – a slow but steady driver attracts far less attention than a spectacular, but error prone driver!!
The track can be completed in either direction depending on the regulations for that event. Typically we run the clockwise direction for 6 runs.