After spending 17 years flying attack aircraft, typically at high speed and low level, I found that I missed the rush of terrain whizzing by in my peripheral vision and set about looking for suitable alternatives. Initially, I started flying civilian aircraft and soon found myself doing incredibly stupid things in them in an effort to drive up my heart rate and get the adrenalin rush I craved. Anybody who spends the least bit of time in aviation has heard the adage "There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there aren't any old and bold pilots". Recognizing that I had a limited number of heartbeats left if I continued to pursue civil aviation, I set about looking for alternatives and stumbled on the Stalker website (www.stalkerv6.com). Reading the propaganda about this 240 HP, 1200 lb car, it sounded like my cup of tea. It could be used as a daily driver but could also deliver the FTD if the driver was so inclined.

Understand that I'm no gear head, I had never built a car before, never torn down an engine, but I recognized that the principals of a 4 cycle engine (suck-squeeze-bang-blow) were identical to a jet engine so how hard could it be right? Thankfully, the Stalker kit makes it remarkably easy for the novice to build and, 9 months later, I was driving the car out of the driveway for the first time. As soon as I put my foot down, I knew I had made a good decision. This thing takes off like a light weight takeoff in the Harrier. I was low enough to the ground that stuff was whizzing by just like the old days. Sweet! I was sure to collect FTDs in this thing. Just mash the throttle and don't hit any cones, pretty easy.

In my military aviation experience, we frequently conducted air combat training missions, more commonly known as dogfights, the quintessential mano-a-mano contest. While I was no ace, I could hold my own against similar aircraft but would commonly get smoked fighting F-18s, F-16s, and F-15s. After all, the fighter type aircraft had superior agility in comparison to attack aircraft, so it was a foregone conclusion that the fighter guys would always wipe the floor with the attack guys. Arriving at my first autocross event at Buena, and after scoping out the competition, I was drafting my acceptance speech for the fall series trophy. I had the fighter and everybody else was driving the pigs.

Then I got in my car and started driving......

I approached autocross driving using the brute force theory and quickly found myself all over the place. My recollection of my first run was that the steering wheel never stayed in one place the entire time. I was holding on to the back of the car just trying to keep up and I wasn't even close to being competitive. I watched the guys in Miatas and in cars half the horsepower of mine have faster times and I was shocked! How could this be, I was in a fighter!

Just like in a dogfight, if you have a good machine and use it properly, the odds are you are going to win. If you use it stupidly, you're almost sure to lose...and badly. The trick in a dogfight, is to maximize your machine's goods and minimize the bads. That requires that the loose screw behind the stick make good decisions on how best to use the capabilities they had. I remember learning this lesson after engaging an F-15 in a horizontal turning fight, getting behind him and gunning him. (Getting gunned by an opponent is the worst humiliation of all). During the debrief with the crest fallen Eagle pilot and watching his HUD tape, it was pretty obvious how I had beat him. He had allowed his airplane to get slow, where the Harrier performs better than the F-15. He couldn't turn with me at those speeds and the expletives when he recognized his mistake were music to my ears. Had he stayed fast and used his superior thrust to weight to fight a vertical fight, the outcome would have been much different.

Not surprisingly, I've found autocross driving to be the same. It isn't about the horsepower, or the amount of tire you have on the road, it's about how you use them, maximizing the goods, and minimizing the bads. My initial mash the throttle and avoid the cones technique failed me miserably. The fastest times around the course didn't require having the most horsepower, there were times where having the best brakes was the advantage, other places where having grippy tires were a plus. The trick, in my opinion, is to figure out where those points in the course are.

If you can figure that out reliably, my guess is you're well on your way to winning.