Thumbs up for going about it the right way. The speed of a road course is awesome but auto-x is really fun too.
With auto-x, its important to get there EARLY so you have time to register, get your car all prepped and have time to take a deep breath, before walking the course to start visualizing things. It would be ideal to walk it on your own (or with others there), and then also make sure to get to the novice walkthrough which will be led by an instructor, probably the one who set up the course. Walking it ahead of time is SOOOO beneficial. Then when its time to drive it, use your first drive to focus on staying on course, and keeping a good line, drive it at 50%, it doesnt really matter if you go fast. After that you should be in a good position to start bringing more speed into the equation, as long as you can keep on course and keep good lines. Speed isnt fast, smooth is fast
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But of course if you're looking at road racing, going to a HPDE (drivers education) day at one of the road courses listed above would also be a really memorable experience. Definitely do a HPDE though and try to soak it all in and listen to what those with more experience have to say. I'm hoping to get out to one this year myself
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