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On Friday, Rodney and I went down to Laurinburg to meet with site manager Randy Hoffman. He took us to our new area of the site to show us around. We're now adjacent to the Golden Knights drop zone, which most of you should recognize as the area with the shelter close by, close to where you first enter the paved part of the site.

Before anyone asks: No, I don't yet know for certain what parts of this pavement we're going to set up courses on. Rodney and I have some ideas, but nothing definite yet. So please be patient with us as we learn how to best use this new area. The below descriptions and photos are meant to show the basic lay of the land, and the condition of the pavement. This is not intended to describe the layout of a course

Our area is shaped more or less like a figure eight, fatter at the top of it where the main runway is. The photos below start at the corner where the shelter is. This is more or less how it goes, walking clockwise:

1-) Start, at the shelter
2-) From there, the pavement takes a 70 degree or so right.
3-) As you drive further down, you'll pass the taxiway on your right hand side, while making a gentle bend to the left.
4-) After this it's a right hand turn onto the main runway.
5-) Down the runway and right onto another crossover
6-) Crossover T's at the same taxiway mentioned in item 3; we'll turn right, and eventually end up back at item 3

I took pictures, so here they are. You can ignore the debris that was hidden behind the lens of my camera - it was a thread from something, probably my camera bag.

Here is the Golden Knights' crest, which is adjacent to the shelter. Let me be perfectly clear. DO NOT TOUCH THIS. At all. With anything. Mr. Hoffman made it very clear to Rodney and I that this area is considered sacred ground; I didn't ask why, and it doesn't matter. Just stay off of it. No adults, kids, cars, dogs, bicycles, anything.


Here's the Golden Knights shelter, which I'm pleased to report we can use.


The shelter is now to our right, barely out of frame. At the far end of this photo, in the distance, you can see the 70 degree right hand bend the pavement takes, which I described in item 2 of the above list.



Better view of the right hand bend. To the right, we can see that the pavement is pretty broken up, so we'll be driving people around this.


Here, we've exited the right hand bend. The pavement here is quite good. That thing at the near right is a little stub, like a miniature cul-de-sac.


A little further down now, with the cul-de-sac thing directly to the right, and the shallow left hand bend just ahead of us. You can also see a road that goes 90 degrees to the right, at the exact point of the left hand bend; that's the taxiway.


We're approaching the main runway here. The right half of the road we're standing on isn't usable. The left hand side is; however, we will need to monitor its wear closely, and possibly patch it up in the future.


Right hander onto the main runway. Pavement is in pretty good shape here, plenty of possibilities:


Can't go super far to the left entering the runway, as some of the pavement is broken up. Don't be deceived by this photo, though, there's plenty of room for a nice sweeper here. We've already done it this way once before.


(Continued, next post)

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

(Continued from above)

Here's the look down the main runway. In the far distance, you can see a bunch of orange barrels. These are marking off our old area, at the crossover where we often had start and/or grid. This area is forbidden. It belongs to the Gryphon Group, a military subcontractor. Don't go over there, for any reason. Really.

Anyway, as you look down the runway from this photo, you can see good pavement to the left and right sides, but the middle is kind of beat up. In that area, we'll simply pick a side. There are plenty of places where we can "cross over" side to side further down the runway.


Here, I've chosen to be on the left hand side of the broken up pavement I mentioned just above. If you look just to the end of where the broken pavement is, there is a large area where cars can pass from one side to the other. Each good area is roughly the same width, allowing plenty of room for course design. Also: ignore the debris on fire on the left. The site staff was burning some old wood of some sort.


Still on the left half of the runway, a little further down.


Further still. Pavement here is quite good for basically the full width of the runway.


A little further yet. Standing center runway. You can barely make out the crossover (90 degree right hand turn) in this phpto.


Closer to the crossover. Here, we could continue straight, as there is plenty of nice, usable concrete beyond the crossover. So, were we to lay a course out in a similar fashion to this walkthrough, we could pass the crossover, continue, do a pin turn, and come back to the crossover, turning left onto it. Plenty of options.


Here are two photos of the 90 degree right onto the crossover. First photo is on the left hand side of it.


And the second photo of the crossover, more to the right, so you can see the grass on the inside.


Nearly all of the crossover is nice pavement.


Exiting the crossover and on to the taxiway, a 90 degree right hand bend.


The first half of the taxiway here is in pretty okay shape. In this photo, you can see three little roads that go to the left. The first and third are both cul-de-sac things that lead nowhere. The second takes us back to the Golden Knights shelter area, completing the figure eight.


A little further down the taxiway. All three of the things to the left still visible in this photo.


This is the final shot I'll post of the taxiway. Beyond here, it gets broken up enough that I seriously doubt we can use it for course. Perfectly serviceable for grid or paddock area though.


So, what did Rodney and I think of the place? We both agree that it's certainly as good as our old area, and overall, we think it's better. There's more usable pavement overall, with less of the course design being determined by potholes. The somewhat circular layout means that folks won't have to walk half a mile to get to their worker stations. The ability to use the shelter will be a nice touch on bad weather days. And, when viewed on a map, it's not a whole lot shorter than the old area with the P and the sweeper.

As I said in my first post, please bear with us as we figure this out. Rodney and I have some ideas for basic layouts that we are confident will work well, but we haven't done any testing yet. At a minimum, a good start will be the layout Wes and I used at last year's Test and Tune. That course was, IIRC, a fast, 50 or so second layout in an AS S2000 on street tires.

That concludes our tour! Hope you enjoyed it. We'll answer questions as best we can; otherwise, sign up for the Test and Tune on March 7th!

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

So do you know if the ECTA folks are SOL now? Those barrels were before their finish line. Unless they're going to let them use the runway on the Rt 74 side, which often has planes on it, or else the active runway.

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

I don't know - I didn't think to ask.

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

Thanks Karl, great writeup. I'm tempted to sign up to chair an event there, looks like a fun challenge. Lemme know if you're in need of a chair and I'll start working on the "family calendar"

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

as far as I have heard, it the other chair seat for Lburg is open (end of march, first event). So, come chair it with me

Hmm. Nothing mentioned about it on their website, which seems current. Maybe they get special permission (or we lost it).

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

You guys will figure it out. This is not total virgin territory, we ran the 2005 TnT starting around the GN shelter and 2005 Event #1 was the "infamous" Jim P course that started around the area where you come onto the main runway. Unfortunately, the course map did not get to Carl and Emmie to get scanned in, if any pack rats happen to have old maps, the event was "Luck of the Irish".

The concrete is in WAY better shape on this side of the airport, except for that 1 spot and I think that can be fixed.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Link Ryan posted in other thread a few weeks back: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=34.779966,-79.354218+&sll=34.787233,-79.361544&sspn=0.039933,0.034804&g=Maxton,+Robeson,+North+Carolina&ie=UTF8&ll=34.779575,-79.356898&spn=0.009984,0.012789&t=h&z=17

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

i think...wait....maybe...it's a strange feeling, but yep, I think i'm actually getting excited about autocrossing again!!!! anyone have wheels for an 05 MCS i can buy!

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05 MCS

what class are you trying to run in? I've got a set of 16x7.5's (the tires that are on them won't fit, but I'll take the tires off and sell seperately if you want) that are a GREAT fit for a mini (4x100 +43). They aren't stock class legal though. . .

Check the FS forum if you're interested.

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

He wants to run STX

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Want some SSRs?

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

Come to think of it, Mr. Hoffman pointed out to Rodney and me that ECTA has, over the course of the years, poured many, many thousands of dollars into site improvements at Laurinburg. I forget the exact dollar figure, and it doesn't really matter, but it was a surprisingly large amount. They built the tower on the main runway, they've patched the pavement countless times, etc. If ECTA has indeed been given special consideration with regards to what areas they can use, surely this played a role.

As far as I know, we haven't done anything to improve the site in the last three years for certain, and probably longer than that. This is something I'd like to see us improve on. We could have a club day down there to patch up some pavement, fill in some low spots in the entrance road, general improvements, whatever. It would surely reflect well on us as a club. But that's a different thread.

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)