"The Big Easy - Great Event! (almost!)

David Teague · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:01 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

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

I went into thrid once on the del sol and that was becuase I loath hitting the rev limiter, I alos around 63-65 at the top of second. I will say the car was in its powerband for most of hte course which means the adverage speed was probably higher here than any of the other autocross;s I have been to, but it sure was fun! :lol:

robharvey · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:04 pm

Chuck Frank wrote:

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.

Sign me up!!! I struggle with this probably more than anything (in regards to autox that is

).

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:14 pm

robharvey wrote:

Chuck Frank wrote:

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.

Sign me up!!! I struggle with this probably more than anything (in regards to autox that is

).

Everyone has a different technique. The easiest way for me is to simply break it down into elements. For the tricky ones, I will give them names. Take your course map and circle those, simply as a reminder.

Walk with me next time...because I want you to tell me what you are doing, where you are looking and what you are thinking.

You would not believe how helpful it is.

Chris Landi · **Joined:** Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:31 pm **Posts:** 579

Kevin Allen wrote:

Quote:

The course was fast, and on my 3rd run, I hit the limiter in 3rd (78mph) heading into 'the box of confusion'.

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.

:shock:

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... :wink:

& then I get an STi, STU will be fun next year. Oh, and maybe we could get Whitney to run STU in the M3... :twisted:

No wonder why I was slow..I kept it in second for almost every run. My gameplan was flawed from the beginning.

What I liked about the flow of the course was that I really got a chance to see that early turn in does work. At the course speeds and with the gates not being too tight in the fast sections allowed me to turn the wheel and let the car get loose and still feel in control. I have trouble doing that on slower courses. I think I came away with a better feeling of where the edge is (for me) being that I really didn't hit it and yet my car felt like it was floating around some cones. It felt really light and driveable...me like!

Kevin Butler · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:34 pm

Great job, Rob, Mike, et al! I applaud your efforts. :clap:

The course was easy to read and flowed well. The offsets in the 2nd half were very reminiscent of an intermediate class we held about 4 years ago. It was like deja vu.

I was shifting into 3rd going into the last slalom sequence. On my fastest run, I missed 3rd and went into 5th instead. I was a little mift with myself, figuring the goof cost me about 3/10 of a second. If I deducted that .3 s from the run, it would only have moved me up 2 places (overall PAX), so I guess it wasn't really that expensive a mistake. Darn sure wouldn't have gotten me ahead of Jim(13th PAX on wore out race tires :thumbsup:

) We're gonna miss chasing after Jim P in E Stock!

I couldn't believe how Whitney's car was sticking to the surface the way he was throwing it around. Got to get me some of those 710's!

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

Patrice Bousquet wrote:

Luckily Melton was not there yesterday.

I've said that at the last two events! (You can come back now, Randy).

Learning the course.. even that long thing .. can be done. Whitney rode along with me on my 2nd run, and while we were waiting in line, he began reciting his mental notes about the course.

As I see it there are two ways to preload your mind with the course layout. One is to use a system to break down and summarize the important parts of the course on event day, as Chuck and Jim suggested. The other is to show up on set-up day. Help with the set up, walk it a few times, then sleep on it.

I tried a third way yesterday. Slept late, showed up at 9, took a couple of half-hearted walkthroughs of the course. We used to call this the "Kauffman/Gratton Glad-You-Could-Stop-By Method". I haven't perfected my version of it, but hey, Randy Melton wasn't there.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:10 pm

Nevermind, I got the info

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:18 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

Patrice Bousquet wrote:

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

I was also working worker's station 6 where I heard you bounce off the rev limiter in the MIDDLE of the 2 cone slalom section all the way into the "box of confusion". While that worked well for you, to me, it seemed like you were on the rev limiter for quite a good amount of time.

- dow

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:32 pm

It gets my vote for most fun course of the year (so far, of course

). As many have mentioned, it flowed really well, and fortunately it "read" very easily, as I never got the whole course memorized. People tend to think of fast courses as favoring high-horsepower cars, but I think actually the opposite is true. There were only a few places on the course where I wasn't floored, and the excellent flow meant I didn't have to give up much of the precious mo' too often.

The Mini tops 2nd at 56mph, and I was hitting the limiter in 3 places: crossing back in front of the start, approaching the big offsets, and exiting the double-cone slalom before the "box of confusion". Only for the latter did I shift to 3rd (actually I shifted in the middle of the slalom).

The fast right out of the BOC and the left-right onto the crossover was my favorite feature of the course. Deceptively fast at first, then deceptively slow (maybe that's a nice way of saying it was visually confusing...

). There wasn't a run when I didn't wonder if I was gonna make the turn onto the crossover.

Anyway, thanks to Rob and Mike, and all the others who helped make this fine event happen!

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Brian Herring wrote:

MikeWhitney wrote:

Patrice Bousquet wrote:

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

I was also working worker's station 6 where I heard you bounce off the rev limiter in the MIDDLE of the 2 cone slalom section all the way into the "box of confusion". While that worked well for you, to me, it seemed like you were on the rev limiter for quite a good amount of time.

- dow

You're right. On my second run I tried to take third and got 5th instead, which had me paranoid about shifting into 3rd in the car on the rest of my runs. Now I have something to work on

Damn sloppy tranny mounts are to blame, and I plan to replace them with fresh OE ones soon...

So how fast would I have been going if I had shifted? :twisted:

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Here's what I had screwed into my head by the 2nd run. I must have repeated this to myself 50 times on Sunday:

Launch, left sweep flat, 3 cone slalom flat enter, easy exit, pivot, 3 cone slalom flat enter right, hard exit, 4 cone slalom enter left, brake for 2, power 3, easy exit right, gas gas, 4 cone slalom enter right, brake for 2, power 3, easy exit, exit left, crossover, 3 lane change enter right, brake 2, power 3, cross over, gate, 3 cone diagnonal, fast, easy offset, enter left, hard exit, crossover, 5 offsets, tightens at 3, patience 4, flat 5, easy exit, 4 lane change flat, easy exit to right 3 gate chute, tap brake, left chute w/ wiggle, tap brake, right chute, brake, left chute, brake, right sweeper tightens, pop out (turn left), brake, right sweeper tightens, flat to finish.

I left out a few things that I knew were obvious (didn't define the course for me).

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:50 am

I would also like to add that this was my favorite course at sanford for sure and it ranks right up there with one of the Laurinburg events a couple years ago.

I found out what happens when you've not autocrossed for a while, but it was still a blast even when I was in control!

The timing issues just show you more about the club. When all goes to hell, the leaders put their heads together and fix the problem. Thanks again!

phil

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:44 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

Launch, left sweep flat, 3 cone slalom flat enter, easy exit, pivot, 3 cone slalom flat enter right, hard exit, 4 cone slalom enter left, brake for 2, power 3, easy exit right, gas gas, 4 cone slalom enter right, brake for 2, power 3, easy exit, exit left, crossover, 3 lane change enter right, brake 2, power 3, cross over, gate, 3 cone diagnonal, fast, easy offset, enter left, hard exit, crossover, 5 offsets, tightens at 3, patience 4, flat 5, easy exit, 4 lane change flat, easy exit to right 3 gate chute, tap brake, left chute w/ wiggle, tap brake, right chute, brake, left chute, brake, right sweeper tightens, pop out (turn left), brake, right sweeper tightens, flat to finish.

Yeah, that's a good system- it sounds so simple when you say it that way... :roll:

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:59 am

Carl Fisher wrote:

MikeWhitney wrote:

Launch, left sweep flat, 3 cone slalom flat enter, easy exit, pivot, 3 cone slalom flat enter right, hard exit, 4 cone slalom enter left, brake for 2, power 3, easy exit right, gas gas, 4 cone slalom enter right, brake for 2, power 3, easy exit, exit left, crossover, 3 lane change enter right, brake 2, power 3, cross over, gate, 3 cone diagnonal, fast, easy offset, enter left, hard exit, crossover, 5 offsets, tightens at 3, patience 4, flat 5, easy exit, 4 lane change flat, easy exit to right 3 gate chute, tap brake, left chute w/ wiggle, tap brake, right chute, brake, left chute, brake, right sweeper tightens, pop out (turn left), brake, right sweeper tightens, flat to finish.

Yeah, that's a good system- it sounds so simple when you say it that way... :roll:

Yeah, he had me a "Launch, Left Sweep Flat"

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:08 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

So how fast would I have been going if I had shifted? :twisted:

mid-65 seconds and near top of third (77 - 80 mph).

- dow

THSCC Forums

"The Big Easy - Great Event! (almost!)

Who is online