We all have those driving moments when we see ourselves as technically proficient, skilled drivers, gliding through corners in expert, precise fashion as we drive up the Hamakua Coast, decelerating just enough going into the turn to stay in our lane, then accelerating appropriately to burst into the next straightaway.
Yeah, we say to ourselves, I know how to drive, if I only had one of those souped-up machines I’d be dangerous at the race track.
It is, of course, all a fantasy, a secret moment in our own head that no one else knows about, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Are you just dreaming up invigorating scenarios that make you feel good about yourself or do you actually have the chops to drive efficiently through a technical course?
You can find out Sunday at the Hilo Motor Speedway out at the end of Leilani Street where the local Sports Car Club of America will be hosting its monthly Autocross event, which might be the safest form of motorized racing anywhere on the planet.
“It’s really a fun thing that is basically available to anyone who can drive,” said Ron Carter, secretary for the Big Island SCCA chapter, “and I’m not sure how many people around here even know about it.”
It’s called Autocross, it attracts around 25 contestants a month, sometimes as many as 40, and it will keep you driving and tightly involved all day long through three heats that each include four runs through the course.
Cones are set up in the morning, distinguishing the course and drivers have the opportunity to do a walk-through, examine the tight corners and get a standup idea of how best to navigate through the challenge.
“It’s different when you get in the car,” Carter said. “It takes some real concentration if you are going to hit those corners just right, not knock over the cones and make it through with a good time. Believe me, 30 miles per hour has never seemed so fast.
“This is a different kind of racing,” he said, “because it isn’t necessarily the fastest car that wins, the winner is the one who can hit all the corners just right and make it through efficiently.”
Beyond that, you don’t need some jacked up, tricked out expensive car that you only used for Autocross.
That car you drive to work? Bring it.
The club will perform a basic safety check, if the throttle is functioning properly and the battery is tied down as it should be, you’ll be good to go.
It is one car, one driver at a time, testing his or her driving skills against everyone else on the same course. In your first heat, you make your run, return, get back in line and run again in another five minutes or so. Do that four times and you completed your heat.
Two more heats are run in the afternoon and the best time wins.
“You get really cognizant of your touch on the brakes, your steering wheel response, there’s a lot going on out there,” Carter said, “and there’s not a lot of time to think through things, you are turning, slowing down, speeding up constantly and you are always looking ahead, calculating the next turn.”
If you knock over a cone, wander outside the course, a volunteer will raise the yellow flag that can cost two seconds per dislodged cone.
They set up the course around 8 a.m. with racing usually starting 60 or 90 minutes later.
Bring that daily driver, see what you can do.
Centrally located
Oftentimes in the media we see high school grads spotlighted for coverage after receiving athletic scholarships at major universities to play football or basketball, and there’s nothing wrong with recognizing those local achievers.
But it would also be good if we could hear more from athletes like Jerek Prudencio, a shooting guard from coach Paul Lee’s basketball program at Waiakea High School. Prudencio recently accepted a full ride scholarship to a four-year college that went under the radar.
Two reasons for that, probably. First, the scholarship was for academics, and the school is Central College in Pella, Iowa, a Division III institution with a tuition of $35,000 a year.
Bottom line? Prudencio is going to play basketball at the next level and get an excellent education in exercise science that will open the door to multiple career pathways from training to coaching to teaching physical education to physical therapy and more.
“It really felt right,” Prudencio said this week of his recruiting visit. “It’s a small town kind of like Hilo, a really nice campus and a good history as far as academics.
“When I landed, they had a lei for me,” he said, “everybody I met seemed fascinated to know I was from Hawaii, they all wanted to know more and it just made me feel very welcome.”
Prudencio will take a jump shot with him that includes his specialty, the catch-and-shoot, or the ability to come around a screen, receive a pass and immediately go up for an open shot.
“It’s something every team needs and something I think I can improve on the more I work at it,” he said. “The environment there is going to be conducive, I think; one coach was on the Nigerian Olympic team, they have a lot of good experience on the staff.
“I’m not going there for a vacation, I’m going to work on my game and get involved in the academics. It just feels right, I can’t wait to get started.”
Racing ahead
There is no way Keely McGhee is going to say all the hard work is done for the inaugural Ohi’a Lehua Half Marathon in Volcano on July 27 and that she can coast home from here.
On Thursday, Keely, race director for the first time event, and husband Adam were exactly one month and counting away from their first event July 27 in Volcano that will replace the Rainforest half marathon, following the decision a few months ago by owner Sharon Faff to close it down.
But McGhee is in a good place, with all the permitting and other paperwork having been accomplished, the course has been laid out and checked out and she is more than half way to her goal of 200 entrants.
“It’s going well, but we have to keep working it,” McGhee said. “We have over 100 in so far and we get more each day, so the goal seems reasonable.
“Any way we can spread the word will be helpful,” she said. “If we get a good turnout, it will help us for the future.”
In hopes of carrying the message to interested parties, the McGhee’s will have a booth Saturday at the Kona Marathon Expo.
Send your upcoming events and personal athletic challenges to barttribuneherald@gmail.com