Sanford Event

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Sun Nov 11, 2007 8:52 pm

If you missed this event, you missed a very fun course. Even though many cars were in third gear for most of the second half of the course, the layout flowed well and was very safe. Great job designers.

I also have to post kudo's to those in the bus. Our work station was spread a bit thin and we had a few troubles and the folks in the bus were on top of everything and were great to deal with, even when we weren't.

Oh yeah, who ever was in charge of the weather rocks too!

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:27 pm

Great course. Very different and very fast. Unfortunately, I relapsed on the "cone disease" I thought had gone into remission at Danville last month, and couldn't clean it up. The raw times were strong, but as always, cones count.

Eric Peterson set FTEverything in my car. He took a well deserved win in the "FTS Challenge" pool too.

Got some between-events work to get done, including getting the tires flipped, but I'm still planning on making it to the switch rides thing in December. I won't be switching rides with anyone though, since I really need to work on cleaning it up some more...

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

Had lot more fun that I expected today. While the taxiway half of the course had me wondering "will these @#%^%@$ :furious:

@#$%^^* slaloms never end?!?", once in 3rd gear on the runway, it was amazing how well the course flowed. From my vantage point 7 seconds off the pace, it seemed you just had to keep your line tidy and set up early on each element to scoot through the second half of the course. Nice job!

p.s. Mike - the bus did start, finally.

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:58 am

I thought it was an excellent and fun course with the needed elements along the taxiway to keep the speeds down. There were numerous sections that would suck you in and seduce you into overdriving them, so from that respect it was an outstanding course -- one where MUCH learning could take place on a wide range of elements and speeds. The setup for the turnaround/sweeper, when done just right, resulted in a hugely rewarding outcome. I got the 330 into 3rd gear on the main runway in two spots, and 2nd gear, with these 245/40s, runs out at 68mph.

I hit my share of cones too, always on the taxiway. However, I did get one clean run on my 3rd run with a super sweeper outcome, a 67.500 which is up on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWe6OUf2RNM

Matt suggested he and I beat Jim on our last runs, but for some reason it just didn't work out as planned. Perhaps it had something to do with how hard we laughed when he made the suggestion. :lol:

Good driving Jim!

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 9:00 am

Definitely a fun course!! The faster courses take some getting used to, but I think I can learn to like them. :lol:

I need to remember not to fill the car up the week of the event. Almost 3/4 of a tank of gas made the taxiway slaloms challenging and I never got them right. :oops:

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 9:07 am

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Matt suggested he and I beat Jim on our last runs, but for some reason it just didn't work out as planned. Perhaps it had something to do with how hard we laughed when he made the suggestion. :lol:

Good driving Jim!

Damn, our plan didn't work! Oh well, big surprise... LOL!

Personally, that was my favorite autocross course in my four seasons of racing. It was easy to remember and I was anxious to drive it after walking it a couple of times. The most exciting part was the fact that it actually took some careful downshifting which is something I have zero experience on an autocross course along with the third gear section- almost the whole 2nd half of the course for the R.

I was a little discouraged after my first run on cold tires when my car started to get loose when I DNF'd on the second set of reversed twin set of slaloms near the start.

Even working the course was a hoot seeing how cars of different power ranges handled sections differently. It was fun watching the turbo cars cover the 'dragstrip' gaps between the slalom and lane change sections at the beginning of the course, especially Bobby in the yellow Evo. Man those awd turbo cars can scoot!

Incredible driving Eric! 62.9 is unbelievable.

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 9:41 am

Thanks, Kevin, Mike, Les, Rob, and whoever else was involved in yet another great event. I had concerns that my necessary win for the Ladies Year End thing was in jeopardy when I saw that the course was probably more suited to cars with more than a gerbil in a wheel under the hood. (Actually, I’ve upgraded to a bunny for better low end torque-but that’s another story.) :lol:

Add to that that Sanford has never been me best outcome, and, well. As it turned out I loved the course, . The taxiway was well done with elements that required patience and rhythm, but was safe if you practiced both. The runway was smooth and fast. It was a great opportunity to work on keeping momentum up and using as little real estate as possible.

I’d also like to thank Malia for a super year of racing in Ladies class. She kept the pressure on me at every event. Great year, gal. Thanks!

Since it’s mostly you guys who read this stuff, please encourage your wives or girlfriends to join Ladies. Next year is shaping up for Ladies to be a smoking class. The learning curve is great, they will be pushed to improve, and the friendships formed will outlast a year of autoX.

JamesFeinberg · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 9:51 am

Thanks again for letting me drive your car Matt! I had a ton of fun and it was a nice change of pace from the loud and obnoxious CRX. I wound up taking a couple of fun runs in Bret's Type-R and came within a couple of tenths of matching my time from competition runs-- on street tires! I think the course had slowed down a touch by then as well given that the sun had nearly set and it was much colder than the peak of the day which puts the cars on a fairly equal standing I believe.

I guess that dead V710's pretty much equal nearly dead RE-01R's as the cars felt nearly identical. I could tell Bret's car gave up a touch under braking and accelerating into the sweeper but that was about it. They felt nearly identical through the transitions with Bret's car being a touch tighter or less apt to rotate.

It was also interesting that even with his OTS Konis and your stock shocks, the cars felt nearly identical in the transitions. I think if I did a blind "taste test," I wouldn't be able to tell you which shocks were on the car. I think that backs up what I've heard others say about the OTS Koni application for those cars in that they could use a stiffer revalve at least in the rear.

Are you sure that thing still isn't for sale?

Jim

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:13 am

Hell of a fun event again!!! Mike and Rob, you guys did an excellent job and gave us one of the best Sanford courses ever. Good Job!!

Eric Peterson is stupid fast. Enough said.

Once again I have to thank our wonderful Bus Team. You all did a great job again and the even couldn't have happened without you. :thumbsup:

Congrats to Charlie Monroe on the STT season championship. I think I basically had to win and Charlie score 0 points for me to get the championship, but with Maureen jumping ship into her new car, she guarenteed Charlie would get the points. :poke:

It was a fun season and I'm sorry to see you go to CS. Though with Jeb and possibly Bernie coming to STT, we should have a fun season again next year.

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

I had fun, although I blew my 2nd through 4th runs before I even made it to the runway. It's kinda weird going from dirt to tarmac & getting used to having grip again. And funny hearing people commenting on how little grip there is when I'm going way faster in most places than I'm expecting to be able to go & still braking or lifting too much. :lol:

I think I'm going to start doing this again regularly next year. I'll have to go back to stock front brakes if I want to run in STS, but no big deal. I'm also going to need some decent wheels & tires... $$:shock: There's a pretty big group in STS now, and hopefully Chris Brown will go to Open class with me and add to the competition. Should be fun.

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

I had a blast too - I'm really looking forward to STS next year. I just wished I had managed a clean run

Thanks a ton to AB for the help! I know I managed that 2nd run from the advice to smooth out my inputs - if only I'd had the stones to pull off that fun run in the competition!

My best of the day (70.668+1):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4630952989101739354&hl=en

4th run runway section - I think the RallyX practice saved me :lol:

:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1262300852617922408&hl=en

Aaron teaching me how to get it done in the fun runs:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2428406045706219822&hl=en

David Spratte · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:27 am

Thanks Mike, Rob, Les and the rest of you. That was a good time. The taxiway rewarded patience and the runway awarded go ahead and hang it out there. A bit of Jekyll and Hyde. I haven't spent that much time in third gear at an autox in . . . I'll take "Never" for 1000, Alex.

Patience. I have to work on that. I never felt like I was really crushing the taxiway portion.

I was revlimiter through the lane change at the end of the taxi way so I'd grab third for that brief stretch and then down shift (yes, VK, I heeltoed it) into the sweeper then have to shift back to third on exit which, when I did it right would get me a little rotation to set up for the banzai runway run.

Wish I'd run video, I'd like to see what my indicated was since I was on throttle most of the way down.

Thanks for a decent season Jim. And thanks for the spectacular driving display Eric. Now I have to see if I can clear the 16th!

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

I loved the layout of this course. The taxiway was more of a blast than I though it would be while doing my course walks. After clearing the slalom by work station 1, it was 3rd and 4th gear for the remainder of the run

The stop box was difficult for me (again). With all of the cones in front of and in back of the finish cones it was visually unclear where my braking point should have been. I was using all of the stop box in full ABS. Did anyone happen to notice if I was braking too late? Silver STi, SM 6.

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

Yep...that was a FAST course. I can still see the red 'shift' light blinking at me as I entered the runway....in third gear. And I'm thinking about having my ears checked, but I swear I hit a few pops of limiter....IN THIRD GEAR!!!!! :shock:

I was too scared to take my eyes off the course to look down at the speed. Eric drove the STi home and said 75mph was the top of third. Still wish I had just ONE MORE RUN, not only to clean up the cones but...that dang runway still had a second or two left on it. (not to mention the second or two I left on the taxiway...)

That was one heck of an adrenaline rush - nice job guys!

Kristin Cauldwell · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:43 am

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.

I have really missed everyone this year. Thank you Staff and Officers for all your support yesterday on such short notice. Thanks Jim F. for allowing me the opportunity to race your car even though I didn't. Fortunately for me you were all way too entertaining for me to even think about place my cameras down. Thank you Chad and the other staff and workers for keeping me safe on the track. I could not have done this without any of you.

Please don't be shy send me any kind of videos for viewing. Totally Off Track and myself really want to get this show on the air. I know you guys are going to love this show. After all who could resist it since it is a cross between Cheers, Saturday Night live and Funniest racing videos....Plus prizes for the best video are rewarded weekly on the show that I am helping to Produce.

I encourage all questions, and thank you so very much everyone for your help again. I could not do this without any of you.

Sincerely,

Kristin Cauldwell
kcauldwell@gmail.com / 919-673-2296

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