THSCC Forums

Yea, what Donnie said - especially when you are running one of the most hotly contested classes! BS had a class of *52* drivers this year. I'd say at least any one of a dozen of them could have been in the top spot with another 20 or so in the hunt. Part of the challenge is nailing the car set up right out of the gate, having your head on straight, driving the best you've ever driven. Oh, and you have to do that two days in a row on two VERY different courses. Finishing out of the trophies is not a testament to your driving skill. Look at all the former national champs who cone out each year!! Or who win once and don't win again for 20+ years! (the name Jinx Jordan comes to mind)

As others have said, if you are the least bit curious, it's well worth the trip. The driving is amazing, the courses are the most fun and challenging you will likely ever see and, good gracious, the stories alone are worth the price of admission!

Congrats to all you guys. Like Jeremy said we are both planning on def doing DC next year. We will be towing up and soaking it all in. We want to experience it and hope it steps our games up a bit. Oh, and as Karl said, try not to get lost and go to the "wrong" entrance to the "wrong" side of town

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2005 Mazda RX8 STX 11

NCR Solo Chair & Cape Fear Chapter Coordinator
http://www.ncrscca.com

Excellent quality videos posted by DP Winner. Note the speeds stay between 40 and 60 mph.

Steve's total time was a 117.

http://sccaforums.com/forums/thread/430385.aspx

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

And that's why when someone tries to shoehorn a "nationals" course onto one of our sites, its usually a soup sandwich. We don't have a "nationals" type site

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Great link, Dick....thanks for that.

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

Thanks Dick -- what amazing courses those were. The only thing I can think of that I've driven similar is at the Performance Center in SC when the BMW club holds autox events there, but there it's much tighter in some spots and much more open in spots (i.e. 80+mph).

I sure wish we had some venue with enough space to do some courses like these!

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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

NCR runs 2 sites that have that sort of real estate (New River Air Station and MCAS Cherry Point).

I was out on the Cherry Point Airfield last week. Miles and miles of concrete and asphalt. It just boggles the mind

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

TRUE! Miniature minature road race courses don't work. What our sites may permit is full size portions of Nationals style courses. You can learn a lot with regular exposure to a Nationals style corner or other element on the sites we have.

Dick

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Sure, but then you get a 25 second course instead of the 50 second one everyone is used to, so they complain.


--Donnie

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My Blog

Absolute blast this year.

The west course was okay, but that east course was a riot. Let's just say when they have the divisional next year the week before Nationals I'd consider going back. Seriously consider. I'm pretty sure the big sweeper "complex" in the middle was the size of Greenville. Not quite the town, but definitely the site we run at.

Lesson learned, come out of the gate strong. I was flat and lazy on Day One.

As far as a compressed trip, I'd say you need to get out there at least a day early to get some walks in.

Congrats Chris. That's awesome. Way more awesome than that picture of Eric with King Kong, which, lets face it, is pretty awesome.

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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.

The solution to that, if the site can do it, is 2 lap runs. Where I started in Northern California the prime site was smaller than Greenville. Every run was two laps. San Francisco Region used to dominate class wins at the Nationals. This included Prepared Corvettes and small cars like Datsun Zs.

Another thing they did for many years was to have a practice/warmup lap as part of each run so each run was actually 3 laps with the first lap not being timed. They could do this since there was only one timing cord/light and the timing equipment and people were set up some how to ignore the car's first crossing of the line even though we did overlap with the car on its last lap. Even had a flagman to help us know which lap we were on. I loved that job! The whole format was great fun and great training. It was a big part of why I got hooked and got competitive.

They also did a once a year event called the "Rubber Chicken Memorial Endocross" which had a bunch of laps with run length being around 5 -8 minutes as I recall. Frequently each lap consisted of two "lanes" so there was an outer course and an inner course that you ran for each lap. I drove that with a Datsun Z many times. My arms typically were "dead" at the end of a run. Those were the days.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

National championship for Chris Peterson.... Congrats to all the Tarheel folks who went out and kicked butt!!!!

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OK so I'm back in. Now which tire should I buy??

Congrats to Chris, and all who went to Lincoln. I've always said it's far more laudable to finish DFL at nationals than not go at all. I hated that I was in the latter category this year due to no fault of my own, but that won't be the case next year!
PS: the Monday welcome dinner and free run of "Speedy Bill" Smith's awesome 3 story Museum of American Speed alone is worth the trip.

There are a few sites within reasonable travel distance where you can run national size courses: ACU4 in Norfolk, Michellin Proving grounds in SC, FedEX field in DC (with major elevation changes to make it even more interesting) VMP in Dinwiddie is close, Remax dragway in Concord is supposed to be huge (haven't been there yet). The site where they held the SE Div in GA is supposed to be comparable but a little further away.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

Someone told me that for your first time at Nationals, just be happy if you can find the port-a-johns. Well, that was easy, they were everywhere! Now, if I could have just found my bike as easily!
We figured the distance from our set up to the course and back was just a little less than 1/2 mile. Not counting countless trips on my bike whenever possible, but just walking the courses and going back and forth to our set up, I walked well over 25 miles. And, we were only 6 rows back! Imagine how many miles the guys on rows 20 on back must have walked!

I won't go on and on about our trip. It's done. However, I will say this. It would have never been as much fun without all the help the THSCC crowd gave us all year. I will happily follow Eric's suggestion on paying it forward for anyone who hopes to go to Tours or Nats next year. Just ask and we'll help in any way we can.

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SCCA Solo Triad Award Recipient 2014
SCCA HSL National Champion 2012
SCCA DSL National Champion 2013
SCCA DSL National Champion 2014
NCR National Driver of the Year 2012
THSCC Heel of the Year 2011
Former Club Secretary
http://www.petscompanioninn.com

I was extra disappointed that I didn't go when I found out the picture on this year's program cover was of me driving the Kanary. Anyone who is willing to part with their copy it would be much appreciated.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.