A forty-five foot slalom is pretty tight, even in a small car. A sixty foot slalom is a "typical" medium paced slalom, if there is such a thing. Open it up to 70 feet or above and it starts to get really quick! We save those for airports. The 45' slalom spacing is the SCCA minimum and it is painful. That also applies to any series of gates that has the same effect as a slalom. In other words, don't put your gates that close together.
To avoid the sea of cones effect, make sure the distances between gates is far enough that there is no question about which pairs of cones form the next gate. It may sound silly, but I've seen courses, which at speed, it was difficult to tell which pairs of cone belonged together to form a gate. For example a few 30' wide gates spaced only 45' apart can be pretty confusing at 60 mph.
You mentioned that you would use 20' gate widths.... don't do that on every gate. Let the gate width vary as the site dimensions and course design allow. For example, in a sweeper, if you mark the inside and outside edge with a gate, it's ok for those cones to be 40' apart or more, if you have the space. Give folks the flexibility to choose their line.
For your first course, either measure things off with a tape measure, or practice pacing next to a tape measure so you know how many feet your paces are! I have to stretch a bit to make sure I get 3' paces, but I can do it consistently. I know because I practiced it against a tape measure and I "recalibrate" myself now and then. Ok laugh. I hear you already.
Be sure to read the SCCA rule book on course design. Get Roger Johnson's course design handbook off the Internet. It's detailed and filled with examples and great advice. You can download it here, and get some other great info:
http://home.houston.rr.com/rogerthereal/
I like Mike's tips, and here's a few of my own to add to your list:
1) To make a course "flow" generally means that one gate somewhat naturally leads to another. If you exit a gate with the car pointed 20 deg to the left and the next gate is offset 70 deg to the right and only 60 feet away, you have what we call a tire grinding exercise. Try to avoid those!
2) Remember that novices typically drive looking over the hood of the car trying to find the next gate. So, be sure to try this visual trick to test for possible DNF areas. Stand at each gate, and then look at the next gate in front of you. If you don't see any part of the gate after that in your vision, chances are that a novice will DNF -- unless the course is properly marked. Put a pointer cone, or two or three if needed in the line of sight of the novice that points to the next gate. This is mostly needed when you have a gate that is significantly offset to the side and it isn't readily visible. The Solo book states that the course is not supposed to be a memory contest. It isn't that memorization doesn't help, but a novice should not have to remember every gate just to be able to find it!
3) Think about the line you want the cars to drive, considering avoiding damaged pavement, holes, ruts, and staying away from hard objects appropriately. Then go back and lay out the cones where you need them to be in order to encourage that line. If done properly, most of the cones are not in a location close the line the cars will drive. A few cones might be, but most of them will not. This will allow driver's to choose their line, and minimize cone counts.
4) Be extra careful with sweepers and slaloms near hard objects. Avoid this if possible. Remember that cars sometimes spin in a sweeper and end up on the INSIDE of the turn. It's happened to me numerous times, especially in ABS equipped cars.
5) If I remember correctly Roger Johnson had some good keys for how to tell if your design was a success:
a) It favored neither high or low hp cars
b) There were very few DNFS, at least due to people getting lost. (This means the course was easy to follow and well marked.)
c) Cone count was low.
d) It rewards experienced drivers. Part of the way you do that is to allow drivers to choose their line. If all your gates are 15' or 20' wide, there isn't much room for choices.
Food for thought. This is subjective topic, so I'm sure there will be contrasting thoughts here. And I know you never asked for tips on course design! Hey, Whitney started it!
Good luck!
Miles
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No personal motivation here, since I won't be there!
