Danville first autox

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 5:57 pm

If only there was something on the bus/trailer that naively made AC power.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:27 pm

Steven Carter wrote:

Then Change your setup. If you want to know where you are hitting cones, you need to see behind you with a camera, or have a spotter follow you with binoculars. It doesn't have to be permanent, just for one event or the first few runs until you get the feel for the car's edges.

Just trying to help....

Thanks Steven.

What is a good relatively low price "camera" for monitoring cone hits behind a car for reviewing between runs?

I've got an RT Video4 with 2 bullet cams for viewing the course and with pip for a rear view (mount the camera outside the car due to the "wires"). This works for after events but cone hits are really only relevant between runs.

Maybe my old unused Galaxy Nexus smartphone and a good mount to the outside of the rear window? Comments from anyone who has tried this would be appreciated. I don't really want another high quality "autocross video camera" if the unused phone plus a decent suction mount would do the job.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:36 pm

Aaron Buckley wrote:

I was working the last worker station on the course during heat 3. I remember 2 runs with cones in the previous section (3 coner before the angled 3 coner prior to the finish sweeper) and another run with a cone in the first slalom after the start sweeper. - AB

Thanks Aaron. I just need to correlate the cones with the runs once I see the cone carnage totals in the results. I know my second run was dirty at the last corner at least since I turned in early for no good reason. The last run was really bad in the area between the far end and the finish area (blew the start and was "going for it" for practice). I don't know how many hits on the first, third, and fourth runs and where they were. I could only find "body work" cone marks from the second and fifth runs so the others might have been "just barely" from tires.

Alec Moody · **Joined:** Fri Feb 15, 2013 9:02 am **Posts:** 299

What model is the new printer and what are the stats on our inverter?

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:47 pm

First autocross run in 2015 Mustang: 52.676 seconds. Don't know if I hit cones on that run BUT I apologize to the course workers for the huge number of cones I did hit. Fortunately by waiting until a warm day the cone marks came off easily with Mequiars Quik Detailer rather than scratching the clear coat.

http://youtu.be/4HfLtwa0dWY

Fourth autocross run in 2015 Mustang: 50.540 plus 1 cone

http://youtu.be/yDRLz33_7oA

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 9:34 pm

Here's a 50.8 from "Hot Street". I will have to get used to rotating early in the turns. I can tell I was driving to much distance in the longer turns. The Si is a nice car and factory stock, I think it could be a class killer car.

http://youtu.be/oUL4eHUngrE

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Dick -- if Kelly had a hand-held radio tuned into the same channel as the course workers, she would at least know how many cones were downed in each run. To make it even more fun, put the radio it the car so you can be distracted by it.

Need more A/C power to drive the printer? Has anybody thought of getting a generator? (Oh, I'm sooo funny sometimes)

I have to say I have new-found respect for those who work the raw sheets + radio in T&S. I haven't done that in years, and I can honestly say that it was really hectic, and I hope I didn't offend too many course workers. Here are my suggestions to make it easier:

1) Print off blank raw time sheets in advance instead of making the T&S worker draw his/her own during the heat.
2) Position the timer display so that you don't have to look 90 degrees right and up to see it. (I usually just looked at the computer screen.)
3) Cut a giant porthole in the bulkhead between the drivers seat and the side window of the bus, because that's where the president's car with the incredibly crappy numbering was always hiding in the staging line. (I have the utmost respect for you Zach, but even Jennifer's numbers were easier to decode.)
4) During the driver's meeting, make every single person sing "I will hold down the radio button for a second before I start talking" five times, in the key of F-flat.
5) Position a remote bus horn actuator on the timing table, for the next time a driver gets out of his car to adjust the GoPro hood ornament on his car while in the staging line.

OK, I'm done.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:21 pm

Arthur McDonald wrote:

1) Print off blank raw time sheets in advance instead of making the T&S worker draw his/her own during the heat.

OK, I'm done.

I had printed off a crap load of T&S timing sheets years past and put them in a binder. I think I still have an excel copy if anyone wants it, but it's too easy to gen up a new one. Need to print up a 100 or so and put them in a binder and keep in the cabinet....

Can't we just get another laptop and run raw sheets on that instead of killing trees? There's got to be an easier way considering all the geeks in the club....there's an app for that.... How about a club ipad for meeting notes and raw sheets? We could also display the ipad on the side of the bus and have a scrolling display of times in live mode.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:38 pm

I had a great time Sunday, thanks everybody! The new to me Focus ST is an absolute RIOT to drive. I love it. Feels like my old Integra from a million years ago, only taller, and with like five times the torque. Acceleration is traction limited in 1st and 2nd gear pretty much all the time (!!). I think it's a better fit for me, too, I already feel like I'll drive it better than the Miata. Or maybe even better than I did my S2000.

I liked the course and appreciated the slow, gentle launch. I'd have hated it in my S2000, but in the Focus, which is impossible to launch without wheelspin, it was welcome.

As to the event being run well or not, I have a few observations as someone who hasn't been a regular lately.

1. I didn't even know we were still using a printer for anything. I never thought to look. The post-its are great.

2. I gave up on the live results thing at a previous event, because when I wanted to see what was going on, I was often out of range.

3. I vastly prefer all at once runs. I know there are some traditionalists in the club who don't like it, and that's okay too. Years ago when Wes and I started trying it, we got a lot of grief from people about it. Someone even swore at me over it. Personally, I'm glad to see it's stuck around.

4. The work everyone puts in shows as usual.

See everyone soon, and for a change, I'm actually kind of excited to see the results this time.

Austin Culbertson · **Joined:** Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:35 am **Posts:** 47

I'm reading many of these posts, and realizing that I really have no idea how much really goes on in the background. Can someone give an idea as to what exactly is required to get the timing and stuff taken care of? I'm reading stuff about 'printing,' but I can only imagine that there's got to be a way for all of this to be handled digitally. From what I understand, it's recording raw times + cones, PAX times, classing, ranking, etc.

Anyways, just genuine curiosity - this is the kind of thing that kind of interests me, but being a novice, I guess I don't really understand how much goes into making this stuff happen, and I'm interested in learning more about the logistics (and helping) if at all possible.

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:56 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

Can't we just get another laptop and run raw sheets on that instead of killing trees?

The entire purpose of using paper is to avoid the complications of technology. We all know how to use a pen/pencil -- we're not *that* young! Paper doesn't require power. Paper doesn't crash. There's zero learning curve (even moreso when you start with a blank sheet.) And paper doesn't depend on something someone forgot to bring, or was broken rattling around on the bus. (no paper for the printer would a different problem.)

If we were really paranoid, we'd be printing timing slips. With the aforementioned DMP, that's doable.

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:19 pm

Austin Culbertson wrote:

Can someone give an idea as to what exactly is required to get the timing and stuff taken care of?

Show up on setup day. Then sit in the bus the entire day of the event -- from registration to handing out the magnets. Then come back to the next event and work the grid. (it's a long list, and during the event, things move fast.)

I worked T&S for rallyx last year (and will again this year), and that's not even 40% of what autox goes through. Rallyx only has 8 total classes, no PAX, and rarely even 40 drivers. And there's no formal grid, and the drivers aren't always keeping count either. :-)

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

RickyBeam wrote:

The entire purpose of using paper is to avoid the complications of technology.

... and then there was the day Tom Hoppe spilled a large glass of water on the laptop during the driver's meeting. While he disassembled the laptop to try to dry components, I started looking in the file cabinet to get the paper class and raw sheet forms that we had used prior to AXWare. They had been thrown out during the bus cleaning party the weekend before. I had to recreate them by hand. I guess that's what I'm good for.

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

Austin, shoot Carlton a message. We are always looking to train new T&S workers, and if you are interested in that portion, I'm sure we would love to get you in there.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:29 am

BriceJohnson wrote:

Austin, shoot Carlton a message. We are always looking to train new T&S workers, and if you are interested in that portion, I'm sure we would love to get you in there.

Interested as well. The more people we have with redundant skillsets to make an event work, the better. I can run grid and be starter pretty well, and would like to do in-bus stuff too. As worker coordinator a couple seasons back I saw how there was sometimes a scramble to get bus workers.

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