THSCC Forums

To the “Fabulous Breakey Boys”, Thanks! I had a great time at the Slaloms on a Course event. Although I heard several people saying early that the course would be a corvette course, my little green machine really loved it. Please, please, please, can we have a Slaloms on a Course, take two, and do it again? I especially liked the uphill side from the slalom to the turn around, as I was on the rev limiter. I know there was another second to be found on the downhill side though, 'cause I never really got that right. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was the split grid…but only because I live with the worker coordinator, who was crazy because he didn’t have enough manpower to man it properly. As a driver I wasn’t effected. All in all, another great THSCC event. Thanks.

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SCCA Solo Triad Award Recipient 2014
SCCA HSL National Champion 2012
SCCA DSL National Champion 2013
SCCA DSL National Champion 2014
NCR National Driver of the Year 2012
THSCC Heel of the Year 2011
Former Club Secretary
http://www.petscompanioninn.com

I thought it was a Mini course - but what course isn't? It was pretty fun with the STi, too - actually made me want to run it fast instead of in drift mode. Fun both ways, just different.

Congratulations to David Spratte for giving us a beating. At least I beat your raw time...

Thanks again to Adam and Todd!

The course was awesome - flowed really well, no annoying tight stuff, lots of places to pitch it around, and speeeed! One of my favorite parts was going back past the start - I was pitching it into the left and then letting it pendulum back for a nice drift toward the slalom. THAT was fun. And it was 3rd gear after that, all the way to the finish - with just a downshift/upshift at the 2nd turnaround. And although there were some people who didn't like it, I LOVED the finish.

We had a great weekend. Most fun we've had at an autox in a long time.

What he said. I can't really think of a portion of the course I didn't like. I espicially loved the whole section from the last turn around through to the finish.

Nice job guys.

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2001 Honda S2000 - SOLD
2012 Boss 302
2003 BMW 330i

Mike's fun run in Walter's car was pretty amusing from the passenger seat.....I think he needs to take up drag racing. It was almost like the cones weren't even there. It was start....punch it, turn around, punch it, turn around, punch it through the finish. Cones? What cones? There might have been a few left standing.

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Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

I enjoyed the course a lot from a driver’s point of view. I was flat in a lot of places (peddling as fast as I could!) and that was LOTS of fun. I think the course suited me and the car as I was closer to Rodney (congratulations Rodney, I think you clinched STS for the year at this event) than usual and maybe if I hadn’t screwed up to of my last three runs I might have had something for him. I loved the semi-slalom after the second turn around and how it moved over a bit to the left before the last quick slalom before the finish. I also liked the area between the exit of the first turn around, through the cross over and into the slalom.

It was a bit rough as a course worker. I worked station 5 during heat 3. The two gates (right before the slalom prior to the last turn around) were offset to the left and because of this, the two cones on the right lined up with the overall slalom aspect on that part of the course. So for those who didn’t know the course, they tried to slalom those two cones instead of going past both cones on the left. I watched a few cars DNF all three of their afternoon runs here and I don’t think they had a clue what they were doing wrong. Also leading into that section the cone spacing tightening up and this was done via two sets of three cones. If the driver screwed that up, there were a number of cones that usually needed to be put back.

Basically as I worked I was thinking that part of what gets lost with the entire “looking ahead” concept is that you need to know “where” to look before you can look ahead. Basically the importance of course walks and analysis. We had a thread recently about course visualization and memorization. If that wasn’t a place that you needed to know in advance what was happening (i.e. knowning the cones you are looking at are part of a gate and not the slalom), I don’t what was.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

The course was awesome. I really enjoyed its layout, now if I could have only gotten my head out of my butt and actually done a clean fast time instead of backing it down just to get a clean run that was enough to win. If Kevin or Chris were there they would have taken me to the woodshed, but that was my fault, the course was great. Thanks Adam and Todd for such a great design.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

I agree that this course was rad. I'm totally in favor of fast slalom course considering I too drive a torqueless wonder of a car much like the Mini that absolutely cleaned up FTP. Great job!

I was amazed at the grip compared to the last event we did there especially since my tires are older. Was anyone else surprised at the grip?

Five runs plus fun runs always makes for a great event. Just for the record, when one of your fun runs is 8/10th of a second faster than your quickest official run you know you were driving like a wuss...


-Matt (looking forward to cording some v710's in L-burg!!!)

Great event. Enjoyed it immensely.

(Not to open a can of worms, but) It did remind me that I really do much prefer this split run format over the AAO. It just feels more like an entire day of fun rather than just a quick burst. Seems it ran pretty smoothly too, much credit to the event chairs and grid workers to keep the tight space moving well.

I loved the course. Kit and I had this big discussion about the optional slalom, and when I did the fun runs in her car I saw exactly what she meant -- on street tyres it wasn't optional, I tried to take it to the right but there was no way the car was going there. Enlightening and interesting.

This was a notable event for me by being the first time ever I have actually led a class after the morning runs. Of course, Jim then proceeded to work his usual magic and demolish me by about 3 seconds (I knew that was coming, figured it would take a 46 to win FS), but it was fun to achieve the minor milestone anyway.

I finally and most emphatically corded one of the Hoosier A3S05's somewhere in the afternoon. They'd run a full season so far, including the Test and Tune and to the semi-final in the bracket Slalomania, and I have to be pleased with the way they held up. Originally I guessed they might do half a season, and they've done substantially more than that. At this point I probably won't be replacing them until next season. I don't yet know what I'm going to do for the final points event, either run FS on the all season street tyres or switch to TIR and see if I can give those folks a run.

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Martyn Wheeler
AXing Kit's '05 Mazda 3, #29 HStock
(when The Gonzo Symphonic allows)

Great job! This was a great course. The only problem was the grid and that could be fixed.
I argee with Marty. I like splitting the runs.

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Rubbin' is Racin'

I will have to say that was one of the best autoxes of the year IMHO.

Good course
Good weather
Good times!

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Todd and Adam, Great course and a fine job of chairing the event. I loved the course but unfortunately I didn't do enough course walks and DNF'ed in front of work station #5 three times, I don't think I DNF'ed that many times the whole year. It was my bust for not walking the course more.

The problems with grid were mainly due to lack of grid workers. If the split grid format is used again at Danville three grid workers will be recommended to keep things from getting too chaotic. Most of our normal grid workers were sick or not in attendance. Also with the large number of novices it was difficult to keep experienced people on the work stations and get extra grid workers. The split format does work well but the extra grid workers are the key.

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

Well, the grid format used was taken from the format they used at the Coventry games. If we would have done a AAO format...it woud have been fine because you only have 1/4 of the cars on grid at any given time. That is what they did at Conventry games.

We tried to take that same format and use it in combination with our 2+2(or more) format and it didn't work near as well because we had 1/2 the cars on grid at all times. 30 cars in grid vs 60 cars in grid makes a big difference. Something to consider for the future.

Just my personal opinion....but the seperate area for 2 driver cars is kind of useless when you run the A/B grid like we did. It works very well for the AAO format though like we used in Greenville and Greensboro.

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Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

I thought the course stunk and you guys did a terrible job. Acctually it was a blast, I had a bit of trouble finding the course on my first run, but this was my own fault as well. After my first run I walked out and watched several other people run and was able to figure it out. Obviously my second run worked out ok.

Thanks again to Jeff Eng for the use of his baddass machine.

I will be on street tires in October. I want to save my V710's for Rockingham and the TT Yes, I noticed you had me after the morning runs and felt a twinge of pressure from it.

I enjoyed the course and especially the cross over. To all those who did not take Vincent up on his wager, shame on you. The Camaro came through the finish front end first every time If that slalom had been a foot narrow though...whoa nelly!!

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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

first time ever that i can say i was able to memorize at least 80% of the course. never really got the end set in my mind. walked it twice. personally i felt it drove much better than it walked. excellent flow. course simplicity rocks. thanks to all.