How not to brake for a corner, newbies pay attention

[t walgamuth]

When I first started autocrossing my VSE ...my first event was at the rolling prairie high school parking lot in northern Indiana. The lot is not really big and it is ancient asphalt with lots of cracks filled. I had on oldish treaded street tires....then it began to drizzle.

I came off a right hander and then there were two or three s curves. I was fine until I hit the s curves then spun comprehensively. I ran that corner five more times and spun again in four of them each time a little further down the course. I decided that with the large engine and only 2000# weight that just letting off the gas too abruptly was like locking the rear brakes.

I solved it by setting up the idle a bit and never letting off the gas much but trail braking. The Hoosier slicks helped too.