THSCC Forums

I'd like to echo Mike's comments and thank everyone that helped out. These events would never take place without your efforts!.

This being my first time as event chair, I was amazed at the number of tasks that have to be completed to organize and execute an autox event. I have a whole new respect for event chairs.

I personally would like to thank Mike Whitney for taking this GREEN rookie under his wing to help put together this event and showing me the ropes.

Thanks to everyone (a small army of people) that helped put out the cones and mark the course.

Thanks to Kevin, Jason, and Mike (and probably some others) for being there to make the necessary changes to the course to keep it fast and fun, yet safe.

I gained a lot of valuable knowledge from putting this course together on the computer to seeing/driving the final version that hit the pavement. It's hard to explain it, but after going through the process, I now look back at some of the elements that I had on the original course plan and can see how they would have negatively impacted the flow of the course. I'm thankful (as we all should be) that Kevin, Jason, and Mike were there to make the necessary changes to the course flow.

If anyone as specific comments (good or bad) regarding particular sections/elements, course flow, or whatever, I'd appreciate the feedback.

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Rob Harvey
919-697-5485
1997 BMW M3
1992 Acura Integra (Simon)

I hit it my last 2 runs & still braked too much for "the box of confusion." (and Rich's brakes were having some issues, too) Going through that left on the black stuff at full throttle with the beeper beeping (set at 6500rpm) was an experience.



Man, I need to get me one of those... If we can get Marcus to keep his STi and take his head out of his butt... & then I get an STi, STU will be fun next year. Oh, and maybe we could get Whitney to run STU in the M3...

Ooooh oooh... and can we change the designation from STU to PRO?



- dow

That was indeed a really fun course. Thanks to everyone involved. The remote grid worked really well. I worked start the third heat and only ran out of cars once. Don't know how hard/easy it was for the grid workers, though. Input?

Too bad Sanford is automotive death for me. Both times I've gone I've lost my rear end at least once and then had some sort of mechanical problem. This time it was a bunch of sliding on my first run at the sealed section after the crossover followed immediately by split intercooler hose which took my boost down to zero, and since my A/F was already rich I couldn't even give it more than 3/4 throttle without the car stumbling badly. Part throttle on a normally aspirated K car is sloooowwwww. Carl rode along and was like "gas gas gas gas" the whole way.

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1988 Plymouth Reliant

Donna and I have developed a system for simplifying/memorizing long courses, it's required skill at national events where all the courses are long and you only get 3 runs so you can't waste a run "finding" the course. I'd be glad to give a 15 min. talk/demo at the intermediate school if anyone wants me to.
We had the course memorized by the second walk thru (we only did 2) our DNFs weren't because we got lost.

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

Rob the only criticism I'd make was the last element that turned you to the right before the left to start the sweeper. The pointer cone/gate there was buried in a sea of meaningless cones that made finding the gate more difficult than it should have been. I had touble finding it even when riding with a novice driver. Taking away some/all of those cones would not have changed the line, a rule of thumb to use in laying out a course.

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

That was my fault... That element was 3 gates and drove well. During course testing on Sat, EVERYONE DNF'ed that gate, so I chucked a 4th gate in there to plug the "hole". This was as the sun was setting and was the last course change we did.

I still don't know the right way to have "fixed" that hole though.

But I figured, "so it's hard to see through, so what?" As long as people aren't DNFing it, being able to read and memorize a course beforehand is a skill we all need to have.

So I guess the lesson is -- having a couple of screwed-up elements in a course is not a bad thing. It separates the Good from the Merely Adequate in autocrossing

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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

During the Novice walk-thru I told them there were only two places they would DNF. The first was the offset gate coming back past the start. I told all of them that if I saw any of the DNF'ing there, I would slap them on the helmet.

Guess where my DNF was on the first run?

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

Comment on the course

Personally I like the course, fast, technical, good flow and fun. It was fun in the Miata and I was agreeably surprise by the grip of the RT615. I still feel I left some time out there, but comparing my time with other I didn't do to bad after all.

Now if I look at the safety side of the equation I will have to say that the course was too fast. Too many spins and grass excursion. Luckily nothing bad happened. Where I did my working assignment one car spin and was heading toward me luckily it stop just before the grass. A course like that required really smooth input, good car control and to look ahead. Novice and driver with little experience are not ready for these type of course. A course with slower speed is better for them and if they still spin at least they will stop much faster. A course like yesterday will be perfect for a non point event where the participation is more likely limited to experience driver.

My 2 cents.
Patrice
PS: Luckily Melton was not there yesterday.

excellent event, great weather & fun day all around. thought i had me a trophy, but my times got slower as i tried to force the course. we raised a lot of money for people that need it. thanks to all that participated and made such an event possible. steve.

I could very well be the guilty party here.



I personally really enjoyed the course. Since I only got one run in the morning (please don't read as a complaint, crap happens) I really tried to push hard in the afternoon.

I believe this course taught me to push a bit harder in some spots where I have been driving just plain slow. On the flip side I spun which was just a load of fun.

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Emmett

Chevrolet Cobalt SS

Rob, Mike and all concerned with the Sanford event,
Great job!!! That was honestly the most fun I've had this year in autox.
The course was long, and I thought it would be difficult to remember but it was well laid out and actually fairly easy to follow. I liked the flow and the speed of it. Unfortunately Gwen's Mini didn't like my speed shift to third and locked me out of first and second when I tried to down shift at the end of the runway. I made it home in third, fourth and fifth, timing the stop lights and running the stop signs. They carted the poor thing down to Flow for repair. Hope it'll be out for Laurinburg or else Gwen gets a chance to wreck the vette. Thanks again for a Great Event.

Special thanks to Steve Remchak for his overwhelming generosity towards those folks on the Gulf Coast who are in such desparate need.
Bernie

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2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

Excellent event!!! Even with the timer issues, the Duke FSAE car shuting off every 5 seconds and the late finish.

I liked the course for the most part but didnt really like the confusing part near the far crossover. It may have been a touch on the fast side but I still feel the course was safe. I know I was deep into 3rd gear for a good part of the course but a Miata on 13" rims isnt a good measuring stick.

I really enjoyed just driving a car and not worrying about it breaking. I see why so many folks buy Miata's. They are a REAL blast to drive. Very forgiving and balanced. I see lots of fast times in its future I just got to learn to keep my right foot to the floor!

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

No comment about whether this was "too fast" or not -- that is a topic for some other thread but I will say this:

(1) If we're going to run a 3rd gear section, the main runway at Sanford is the BEST place to do it out of all our sites IMO. It's about the safest place to spin of any place we got.

(2) The speeds at this event were in no way out of line with any "faster" events in the past. So we weren't breaking new ground here.

I never got out of 2nd in the M3, which is only about 64 MPH.

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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

I gotta mention too - you know who must be absolutely nuts? Those Driving Dyanamics guys who were there on Saturday ... Did anyone else notice all the spin marks on the Taxiway? There must have been 100 spins off of that taxiway into the narrow grass that ends abruptly in trees, concrete embankments, etc.

THOSE guys are the lucky ones!

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