so, E and I attended a "ladies practice" autocross yesterday. the idea of a practice event, of course, is that there's no competition, to get everyone a lot of runs, and to encourage people to have instructors ride with them, to ride with others, and even to try each others' cars and so on, all of which can be a lot more fun than an actual competitive event, and a better learning opportunity. the goal of a ladies practice is to encourage women to try autocross and get better at it an so on, in a low-pressure friendly environment. because, and this should come as no surprise, there are a lot more dudes than chicks out there racing cars, and the ladies sometimes feel intimidated.

what's great about the practice is a lot of guys show up to help out, so the ladies can spend the whole time driving without having to chase cones and so on. though the guys get some run time at lunch and afterwards, so really everyone gets a pretty full day of racing excitement. this was E's first time out -- she's been working up to it for a while but finally took the plunge and had a great time. she had to flog her poor crappy automatic daily driver around, but did well regardless -- she was naturally smooth and controlled, and improved markedly over the course of the day. it was fun to go and help out, meet some new people, and see E start down the path to speed obsession. plus I got about 8 shots at the course myself and got some good instruction in the bargain.

today we went to a regular event, and though E was nervous at first to drive in front of all those fast people (a lot faster than me), she got over it and did nicely. and everyone is super friendly to new people, especially women. so a good time was had by all. the only downside for me was that, being the usual sort of seattleish cave dweller, I am seriously sunburned, and utterly exhausted by all the standing around and working in the sun. it's not easy to find an entire weekend for racing, but when you can manage it, it's very satisfying -- lots of practice time all at once, with plenty of repetition and refinement is the best way to learn and, for me anyway, provides a more satisfying sense of understanding and improving. good times.