Sanford Event

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:00 pm

Thanks to all. It was great seeing lots of familiar faces and meeting some new folks who have joined the club since I moved north. If I'm gonna drive ~800 miles for 5 minutes of seat time, I can think of no other group I'd rather run with than THSCC.

Special thanks to Steven Westerfield for a seat in the Integra.

Excellent course, fast and fun, and rewarded those with a heavy right foot.

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

Kristin Cauldwell wrote:

Thank you everyone for being so incredibly kind enthusiastic, and entertaining yesterday. I could not have picked a better day to have gone out and shot a course event. My unfortunate mistake was Murphy's Law

It was clear to me I really needed three of me and three video cameras. I have some wonderful footage! I can hardly wait to show all of you it.
<snip>

Cool! Maybe I did get some video for you - you could use me losing it on the runway: "AUTOXER? Maybe not..." :lol:

You have an A4, right? You should have taken that for a fun run!

Kristin Cauldwell · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:03 pm

Yes, oh baby yes!!! Please give me your video footage for viewing...Wipe outs are the best, and anything crazy.....

I will be at the meeting Wednesday or make a copy and send it to

T.O.T Productions
P.O. Box 4465
Mooresville, NC 28117
Phone :704-662-7074
my cell 919-673-2296

I look forward to seeing it!

Kristin

Gary Hill · **Joined:** Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:53 pm **Posts:** 17

Hey guys great course. Mike's been a tough opponent this year. And next year looks even tougher in CS. Of course I have a long way to go to beat the [son-in-law] # 1 CS ace.

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

Wow, no whining about anything ?!? C'mon, you slackers, I'm sure y'all can find something to complain about

Things that sucked:

- No daylight savings time. I wanted another run dammit!
- Um, I can't think of anything else.

Thanks again to everyone who helped on setup. I have never seen a course come together that quickly in my 8 years of setting up events. We were on site at 12:30 on Sat and by 2pm the course was 95% complete. Amazing.

I also learned at setup during test runs that the 540i is amazingly competent and fun to autocross despite 320 HP and an open diff. What a beast!

Great event, thanks to everyone who came out, helped out, behaved well, and drove within their limits. Zero timing faults that I know of, and the bus worked flawlessly, until it was expected to actually start at the end of the day. Thanks to Kevin for shlepping it out, driving it home, and volunteering to take it to the Switch Rides event next month!

So, in all seriousness, any lessons learned or things to improve for future events? It looked to run about as smoothly as possible from my viewpoint as event chair.

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

Only thing I can think of is we should probably try starting the bus before it gets dark next time. :lol:

Chris Brown · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:20 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

So, in all seriousness, any lessons learned or things to improve for future events? It looked to run about as smoothly as possible from my viewpoint as event chair.

how do we get better about making sure everyone has large enough car numbers and letters? seems like no matter how much we talk about it in driver's meetings and on the forum, some folks seem hell bent on bringing unreadable magnetics.

is this something i should be failing cars at tech for? Should the starter be enforcing it at the line?

Patrice Bousquet · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:34 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

Wow, no whining about anything ?!? C'mon, you slackers, I'm sure y'all can find something to complain about

If you want something, the course was good and challenging for experience driver, but I think it was too fast for novice driver.

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

Chris Brown wrote:

how do we get better about making sure everyone has large enough car numbers and letters? seems like no matter how much we talk about it in driver's meetings and on the forum, some folks seem hell bent on bringing unreadable magnetics.

The grid worker shouldn't send a car to the line if its numbers aren't legible/paper numbers are flopping around. The starter should never have to hear a call from the bus asking for a clarification about what is on the car, it slows down the event.

Chris Peterson · **Joined:** Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:02 am **Posts:** 243

Chris - on the magnetics issue, as someone who works in the bus, I think the enforcement is going to have to happen at the line with the starter in conjunction with the bus workers. Certainly if you see something you KNOW is not going to be visible during tech, fail them. But I think most times we don't know for sure until they get to the line and we can't read it. When that happens, I think the bus workers should call the starter and ask them to get out of line and fix it before they run.

I will say that during the heat I worked, we did have one or two that we couldn't read. The starter let them know and it was fixed by the next run.

Something else to look for - making sure those who are using paper numbers tape ALL THE WAY AROUND the paper so that it doesn't blow off.

Just my .02!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:46 am

Chris Brown wrote:

MikeWhitney wrote:

So, in all seriousness, any lessons learned or things to improve for future events? It looked to run about as smoothly as possible from my viewpoint as event chair.

how do we get better about making sure everyone has large enough car numbers and letters? seems like no matter how much we talk about it in driver's meetings and on the forum, some folks seem hell bent on bringing unreadable magnetics.

is this something i should be failing cars at tech for? Should the starter be enforcing it at the line?

It's funny you mention that Chris. We were talking about that in the bus. Maybe we should have that added to the tech items and if someone has numbers that aren't contrasting (silver on white comes to mind as does light yellow fading to white on white vinyl) or aren't big enough, they should have to run our paper numbers or they can remedy it themselves. Either way it should have to pass tech. Or if the tech guys have a question, send them to me (or Malia

) , I'll set the straight.

Honestly, all of our regular members are good about their numbers most of the time. It is the new members or novices who are trying to get fancy with their numbers that we have problems with.

If anyone has a question as to wether or not their numbers are up to snuff, step about 150 to 200 feet away (the distance from the bus to the start line this weekend) and see if you can read the class and number clearly. If you can't you need bigger numbers.

If you REALLY want to make the bus people happy, find out where Shawn Whipple got his numbers made. They rawked!!!!!

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

Quote:

Either way it should have to pass tech.

Yeah, but what about people who aren't at their car & haven't put their numbers on it yet?

Ditto to what Wes said - don't send them to the start line until the numbers are right.

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

Part of the problem is that we put the bus on the finish-side of the ditch. If it was closer to the start it would have been easier to see the numbers.

I wanted the bus closer to the finish because I was hoping someone would crash into it so we would have an excuse to buy a new bus with a turbodiesel. :twisted:

Actually we stuck with the finish side because the start side grass had too much slope.

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

Patrice Bousquet wrote:

MikeWhitney wrote:

Wow, no whining about anything ?!? C'mon, you slackers, I'm sure y'all can find something to complain about

If you want something, the course was good and challenging for experience driver, but I think it was too fast for novice driver.

Patrice - I agree. The runway drove faster than we thought it would during setup. I wanted just one third-gear section after the sweeper onto the runway, and the goal was for top of 2nd for most cars after that. After my first run at speed I said "oops!" to that idea and left it in third. Yeeehaa!

Still, it was intimidating but not unsafe, so not a problem in my opinion.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:16 am

Kevin Allen wrote:

Quote:

Either way it should have to pass tech.

Yeah, but what about people who aren't at their car & haven't put their numbers on it yet?

Ditto to what Wes said - don't send them to the start line until the numbers are right.

That would be a requirement for tech. I raced with MSCC in Florida a couple of years ago and in order to pass tech, your car had to be "ready to race" which included numbers and class. Of course they didn't have a roving tech. Maybe that is something to think about. Get rid of the roving tech and add numbers and class to the list.

Another part of the problem is that the size requirement is really a little too small. 8" numbers and 4" letters look very tiny from 100 feet away. If I had my way, it would be 12 inch numbers and 6 inch letters on a contrasting background.

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