der Bayerische November/December 2020 - 23

The Habits of Highly Effective Autocrossers
Interview - AJ Aviles
By Jack Raymond

| Photos by Jaclyn Heck

(Above) The car that AJ drove to his most recent NCC autocross championship is this 1995
Acura NSX.

Over the last year, dB has featured a series of articles entitled
"The Habits of Highly Effective Autocrossers." The series featured tips
and techniques for competitive motorsports driving gleaned from
years of experience. dB now continues that series by interviewing
successful autocrossers from the National Capital Chapter of BMW CCA.
We're pleased to have the opportunity to interview AJ Aviles, 2019 season
champion in NCC's Pro-Pax autocross class. I can personally attest to the
fact that AJ's driving is consistently impressive; he definitely knows how to
wheel a car.
dB: In what years and car classes have you won a season championship?
AJ: With NCC, I've always run in one of the non-BMW classes every year
since about 2008. Since then I've won numerous season championships; in
the years in which I didn't win the season championship, I managed to
trophy in the overall season standings. With SCCA, I have numerous local
class championship wins along with a few national wins and trophies
as well.
dB: Tell our readership how and when you got started in motorsports?
AJ: In 2006, I was still in high school, just getting into the car scene, and a
couple of friends told me about this autocross thing. I was basically told it
was a timed event in a parking lot with cones and you drive as fast as you
can. Being 17 years old I thought that sounded like an awesome thing to try!
Needless to say, the moment I finished my very first run at my first event I

November I December

was completely hooked. Fourteen years later and I'm still at it.
dB: What's your all-time favorite personal car for motorsports?
AJ: I find that really hard to answer. I've been fortunate to drive a countless
number of cars over the years as an instructor with various clubs.
Ultimately, I cannot decide which car would be my favorite. I would say the
best car anybody can drive is the one that they find to be the most fun.
I've driven plenty of FWD, stock, low power cars that were extremely fun.
I've driven a lot of high-horsepower, highly modified, RWD and AWD cars
that I did not find to be much fun. I've driven everything else in between, and
it all comes down to personal preference.
dB: What were your criteria for selecting your current car?
AJ: I have two autocross cars that are vastly different from each other. One
is a '91 Honda Civic SI, the other is a '95 Acura NSX. I purchased both of
them basically for the same reasons: they're fun, fast, reliable, and relatively cheap to maintain and modify.
I purchased my '91 Civic SI for the sole purpose of having a
competitive car to run virtually anywhere. While it doesn't have a lot of

https://www.nccbmwcca.org/driving-events/autocross/

der Bayerische November/December 2020

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