THSCC Forums

I think as even chairs, Mike and I pulled off what we said we were going to do, have a long course. As for the cone hits, it wasnt the event chairs, it was those silly drivers! I even hit 2 this weekend. It was a little busy on the taxiway, but we needed to keep it "slow". As it was pointed out, no "offs" on the taxiway, just the runway. I do want to thank everyone in the bus. I was working the "V" on the first heat and cone counts were excessive on the course as I listened on the radio. Fortuantely it calmed down later in the day.

I think we can continue to use the taxiway as long as the we keep the speed low. That leads into the use of the sweeper and even w/ the sealer, can be a great element.

That said, I hope everyone liked the course. As course designers you can NEVER satisfy everyone. As for extra cones, yes we had them, but we were looking for a differernt course layout and I think we did just that.

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

FWIW, I've never really seen an autocross course I didn't like, just personal performances.

Great challenging course with tight elements, especially changing to a car that feels about a foot wider or more.

I'm used to flying through the boxes and now I have to really think about what I'm doing.

I too liked the course. It was long, but not too difficult to remember. I think I would have REALLY enjoyed the sweeper in the afternoon had it not rained. Long sweepers are good, we need to use them more often!!

Bernie, I think if you look at the cone counts, you will find that the VAST majority (I'm talking average per run) of cones knocked down were not done by novices. I have found over the years that it is definatetly the experienced drivers that are trying to eek out that last millisecond hitting cones. Just my $.02

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

Second that

I liked the long course a lot, and it was not too complicated to remember where to go.

For me personally, this was the "breakthrough" autocross where I finally went fast enough to push the limits of the car, and ventured out of my comfort zone.

And yes, I have coned away all the time I have gained going faster--apologies to course workers --but I think at last I got to be more aggressive out there.

Thanks to the organizers for putting this together! I am still riding the high from Saturday.

I must admit, decidedly one of my favorite courses. Thanks Mike, Rodney and all. Since my pax rocks, (ok, sucks for some of you) I love a longer course, the longer the better! This one seemed very easy to remember. To me, each element set you up for the next. I just hated that it was raining pretty hard during my 3rd and 4th runs. (Fun, but not competitive.) I usually can continue to improve in the PM, so was really looking forward to cleaning up my 73.5 and maybe getting into the 72’s. Though I’m actually not a fan of Sanford, especially the taxiway, this course suited me. I thought it had just the right combination of elements. The taxiway was a bit tight and slow enough to be safe, great for exercising patience and staying ahead of the course. If you got lazy for a second, many seconds were lost! Then, opening up to a great sweeper and elements that allowed for enough speed to be fun, but maintained a balance for low hp and high hp cars. I agree with Mary. I wouldn’t mind seeing this course again.

I’m surprised to hear that most cones were hit by non noobs. Not what I would have thought. Ok, well, I didn't have any clean runs, so what do I know? What about DNFs? When I was announcing, it seemed like there were many DNFs-second heat.

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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

ben isn't a member so he's not on the board but i can verify this...he left after working 3rd heat so he only got his morning runs.

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05 MCS

I thought the taxiway was about as good as you can make it without killing people. I was in 3rd gear for part of it, but never felt like there was an opportunity to get out of control. There were a lot of cones, but I didn't think there were many that weren't necessary. And I thought it really screwed those who drive from element to element without making the course flow.

The runway was pretty awesome, although (as usual) it would've been nice if the RS was a few hundred pounds lighter or had about a hundred more hp. The 3rd gear stuff was fun with twitchy handling, though.

And yes, Todd, I left early, so I only got two runs.

I enjoyed the course a lot. After walking it I thought it was going to be difficult to visually throw away the extra cones, but after driving it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

This course reinforced some basic principles.
Patience, patience patience!
Look ahead; look ahead; look ahead!

The taxiway required a lot of patience. You fly off the start and get too fast for the slalom so you have to slow down and stay moderate speed; then patience through the double boxes. And wait... you want to go right after the 2nd box. then it's haul ass to the next long slalom. I rev limited 2nd gear on my way to this slalom. Lots of patience through the last slalom of the taxiway. On the runway, some hard braking into the "V" and after the next offsets shift into 3rd before the lane change allowed me to get 72.5 MPH max speed and a 69.769 clean run.

And there is still several seconds out there for me to improve.

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"Ruttin' is racing"

Chris Suich
Apex, NC
AutoX 2012 Nissan Leaf (Quietly changing the world)
AutoX 2003 Mini Cooper S (on sabbatical)
RallyX 1993 Nissan Sentra - "Le Tigre"
FunX 1970 Camaro LT1 ('95)

Um...well...I had an "off" on the taxiway. Pretty big one....well into the tall grass. Most definitely driver-error-induced. Just thankful there were not huge boulders or ditches to dodge and that my passenger didn't start screaming.

I was also under the impression that a certain yellow Mini driven by a husband trying to catch his wife, but who shall remain nameless, also had an off on the taxiway. But I never actually SAW it, just heard about it, so I may have my facts wrong.

I was working worker station 2 during heat 2 and I recall a lot of people were hitting a cone as they were exiting the second L-shaped Chicago box. People were hitting a lot of cones for the first slalom as well - so much that I had to make sure I clarified that the driver hit a cone or two again (the cone calls were so close together) when I radioed the cone calls in.

In regards to the second L-shaped Chicago box, it was pretty clear why so many people were hitting the cone on the exit. Most people (including me) felt that going right on the optional slalom was best so keeping it close to the right cone upon exiting was necessary.

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2003 Audi A4 1.8T quattro | Dolphin Gray | Ebony | 5 Speed Manual | Sport & Premium Packages
144 TIR (GS)

Todd, I just talked to Cathy Taylor. She had only 2 runs and Gordon had 4. She said only one of her runs was noted on the results but that it was the better of the two that she had.

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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

That was an excellent course. Well done. I will have needed all dry run to make a good time. It was quite a long time that I drove the Porsche in an AX and I was not up to it.
In the slalom the car was reacting much faster than I thought it would. I left a lot of time there. Then the course went wet.... I guess I need to start to do more AX with it.
Again good course.

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Patrice
1973 911 former track and AX car.
2016 VW GTI
2002 Nissan Sentra (Olivier car)
2012 Nissan Juke (Kathy car)
2010 Suzuki Kizashi (Audrey car)

Those working the course while Chris or I was running.

Which tires was I locking up? Front or Rear?

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

From station three it looked like you meant to because you came out of it just as quick! It looked pretty wild.

Ryan or Chris, it was the driver's side rear. I noticed it working from the taxiway and seeing you guys go through the final offset before the finish.

One time was really distinct with the tire smoke.