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Tarheel's first ever autocross event was held at Rockingham Dragway this weekend. I think about 50 folks came out and we all got 7 runs each. The course was about 53 seconds for the faster cars.

Huge Thanks to Jim Pastorius who had a very busy week. First he ran in Topeka Tues/Wed, drove back home, then went to Rockingham Saturday night with the bus, then he set up a fun course Sunday morning. You are the man Jim.

Overall I think the site has potential. Grip wasn't bad towards the end of the day, once we got the line cleaned off and the sun warmed up the asphalt a bit. The only problem is that there are a few things to hit scattered around the parking lot. It gets especially tight in the crossover from left to right pit areas. But with careful course design we should be able to work around that.

Shawn

Everything Shawn said, particularly the big thanks to Jim. For everyone that missed it (which was most of you), we had a nice course and lots of runs. We opted out of fun runs so Jim could get home before dark (driving the bus), then leave immediately for a job interview in Maryland today.

Scott

I want to thank all 50+ participants. Special thanks to Ken, Steve, Mark and others I forgot (I hadn't had any coffee, sorry) for the help on throwing a course together.

We took 15 minute breaks between heats for worker change-over and a 45 minute lunch break and still had 7 runs. This was by far the most laid back and hassle free event of the year. And it would not have been possible without the help and cooperation of all the participants.

I have to admit, I held little hope for this site when I visited it 10 days ago. My opinion has changed. I think it has a lot of potential. It was really nice to run on a big lot as ooposed to the run ways we normally run on.

Thanks to everyone in helping to get the course down and the bus packed in 15 minutes! One final thanks to all the dog sitters. How many times did I ask where my dogs where? And there were a half dozen people who knew exactly where they were!

Thanks to Malia the results have been entered into the computer and posted. Kind of a small turn-out to separate things into anything more than Open class and street tire class.

http://www.thscc.com/autocross/events/2 ... class.html

It looks like a whopping 2 people got into the 52 second range, Jim and Kent, too bad Kent coned...(but he was in a borrowed car! - Brian might think twice before loaning it out again).

The street tire- race tire difference at the Rockingham really does appear to be about 2 seconds.

It's amazing to see how different driving styles lead to similar times, Shawn was holding first gear through the first 1/3 of the course, only shifting to 2nd rounding the first big sweeper/straight. He also was back into first for the corner coming to the finish. The driving style that resulted was short bursts of acceleration between gates with lift throttle oversteer to point the car to the next one. The LSD in Shawn's car lets him do these fun things...

In the Celica, I was short shifting to 2nd gear around the 2nd gate of the course. I gave up on trying to accelerate between the tight sections and really worked on just maintaining momentum, I'd let the sticky Hoosiers do all the work, and just tried to stay ahead. The result is almost identical times between the two of us, with the stickier tires (just a hunch on that call) coming out on top. I would love to see a GEEZ comparison between Shawn's runs and mine, I bet he killed me on several sections (under acceleration), but I gained it all back over the long haul by having a little higher cornering limit.

All of Jim's fast runs just looked and sounded slow, there is no other way to describe it. I worked the first 2 gates, and after the launch he quickly was in 2nd gear then there was almost no throttle change up to the big sweeper, he went through all the early, tight offsets at nearly constant throttle (almost coasting).

I did like how the course was designed (by Jim) so that at the end of the longest straight he hit the rev limiter exactly once (maybe twice) before braking. The high revving cars (Celica, Type R, GSR, etc) all seemed to be begging for about a first and a half gear.

Scott

I loved the course, too - but my big, heavy wheels and tires didn't. Realized how much I miss the smaller diameter Azeni on the tight courses. Steering is much faster & the throttle is much more responsive. Also got stuck in "having fun" mode early, and only got myself out on the last 3 runs. Wish I hadn't coned away that last run... which is a funny/instructive story, btw:

I could tell I was a lot faster on this run, and I was really concentrating on not messing it up (or so I thought). I passed a cone in the offsets at the site entrance, coming toward the tight left/right into the finish, and thought I hit it; Christine was riding with me, so I said, "I just hit that cone, didn't I?" Next thing I felt & heard was "ba-bump!" which was the cone that I had forgotten about when I got distracted by the other one (which I hadn't hit!). I think Christine said something to the effect of, "No, but you hit that one..."

It was a great event, though - great course, relaxed atmosphere, lots of fun. Looking forward to the next one!

Kevin

The first section was a lot of fun if you left it in 1st gear! I don't think leaving it in 1st works very often, but in that one section the engine braking really allowed the car to rotate well.

I was really impressed with the course layout and using just about every inch of asphalt that could've been used. The night before at the dragracing event, I think we were all a little stumped at where the course was going to be. I was kind of hoping for a combination, paved/dirt course!

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In need of car.

It says nowhere in my solo 2 rulebook that other than for national events do you need pavement. Could be interesting/dangerous to try sometime . I would guess that people on hoosiers wouldn't like that too much.

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2006 Civic Si - #24 HS for 2015

2005 GMC Sierra
1991 318is Garage Ornament

You guys are going to give a complex. I always hear how slow I look on course

Yes, I tip-toed through the starting offsets. That allowed me apply power in the 1/2 chicago box and carry to across the back. I was actually braking before turning up into the lane change. Another area I crawled around was the offsets after the big sweeper (yes, we had a big, fast sweeper). That allowed to apply a lot of power through the slamon. So kids, yes slow is fast!

Two important lessons:
1) The grip really came around in the afternoon. On my final run I set the rear pressures down to their normal level and the car was glued. Wish I had done it ealier.

2) Never leave a can of Copenhagen in the glove box, especially when your car is breaking every event. On my 4th run of the day, the can was banging around and I thought the car was coming apart again.

No, no; you should be happy to hear that. It's the same thing I often say to G.H. & Tim!

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The person with too many names...
Mary E./ME/Emmie Fisher/Daniel/Daniel-Fisher
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