THSCC Forums

Lots of fun! Thanks to Keith and Stephen for chairing such a great event!

The courses were fast and fun, with an optional section in the morning that was hard for me to remember completely, which I think made it more fun. The weather gods smiled upon us - especially in the morning. Mid 80's feels like a crisp fall day when it immediately follows a week of 100+ temperatures.

Two cars down today, Michael Matyjasik's Celica appears to have broken a driveshaft, and unfortunately Jim Feinberg's CRX broke at the subframe at the control arm mount.

As this was my first rallyX I can say with confidence that it was my best rallyX ever! I had a blast and lucky for me I did not break Chuck's car. I am looking forward to the Sept. 22nd rallyx already!

Thanks also to everyone who bought a DVD and donated funds! I will continue to work on a few videos that I did not get finished before todays' event, and for those interested I will release a version of the DVD that includes those videos. If anyone has footage or pictures from the 6-23 event that they would like me to include, please drop a PM or an e-mail my way.




<EDIT> D'oh! Jim posted his review while I was still composing mine Mods, feel free to move my post. Thanks!

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~ RallyX VP 2009 ~
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'92 Prelude
'76 Celica

Kinda hated to miss yet another event at OCS, but we just didn't feel like travelling that far or getting hot and dusty today. So instead, I went to work, and Christine slept all morning.

Glad to hear that Ash finally competed & had fun. Now somebody please tell me that an AWD car got FTD this time.

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

I'd just like to pause for a moment and mention that, from a T&S perspective --

WHAMMY TUBES KICK ASS!

Thanks Carl for having the idea to get those working! I wasn't working T&S but I was in the bus announcing and I think that this event was the first in a LONG TIME that there weren't repeated false triggers from the laser. Awesome.

Hope we keep using those tubes for a long time!

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

We really lucked out on the weather. Instead of sunny and hot, it was overcast and... well, not cool, but certainly not hot either. The sun didn't come out till around 3pm, and even then the air temp didn't seem too bad. A gentle but pretty reliable breeze kept the huge volumes of dust moving off the course, though not always as fast as we'd have liked.

We had 41 unique drivers, a pretty good turnout, with 1 driver double-entered in SU2 and NO4- the NO4 car broke and wasn't able to complete its runs, but we DSQed him anyway per the rules.

Event chairs Stephen Westerfield, Brian Herring, and Keith Strassel really did a great job preparing for the event. Stephen and Brian designed some great courses, and worked setup for 4+ hours in the 100 degree heat. Both suffered some degree of heat exhaustion, and Brian was still feeling unwell on event day and stayed home to rest. Keith put in plenty of time on event day abd designed the cool dash plaque as well. Thanks are also due to my co-VP Chris, who jumped right in and tackled a bunch of new duties for this event, making me really feel the program's future is in good hands.

Comments anyone else?

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

"unique drivers" ? yes, i would say my performance was unique.
not spectacular, but unique.

thanks to all for the hard work invested.

Thanks for all the hard work. Another fun event.

Does anyone have any ideas how we could get done earlier? I realize the dust was a factor for the lauch intervals, but it seems like we could do things more efficiently and get done before 1700 in an event with only 40 participants.

Sorry for the crappy anouncing yesterday. I was catching a cold and was lacking in my "usual" witty banter. Oh well.

Looking at the results, I think Mike's afternoon run is incorrectly highlighted red for fastest afternoon time. Keith Vail had the fastest afternoon run.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

You nailed it -- launch interval. Other things may seem to be the problem, but trust me, the launch interval is 95% of the reason an event takes long. Course design and bus placement control launch interval at autocross. Course design and how much water is in the ground controls at Rallycross.

Only solution that I thing would work would be a water truck on site.



I pointed this out to Chris S when the results were posted on the table yesterday, and he didn't seem to concerned. Carl, do you want to try to fix it?

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Are we sure those results aren't the aggregate of the 3 morning and 3 afternoon runs, instead of the single fastest run? No, I haven't done the math to see if this actually matters, but given the way the software works, I suspect this could be possible.....

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Dustin Fredrickson
-- I'm a nobody --

Yeah, launch interval was the main culprit- otherwise we were fairly efficient. FCO was at 10:15 on the dot, but we didn't finish the morning runs till 12:45. The lunch break took about 30 mins longer than I would've liked, but we had to fiddle more with the PM course a bit after laying it out initially (we did not have the afternoon course fully planned in advance). Resulting in afternoon FCO at 2:20.


That or have a fixed course, and then maybe we could have OCS treat it with an anti-dust compound like they do at dirt tracks. Personally I enjoy having a different track every time.


Oops, fixed. The results report has a bug where it picks the wrong run as FT sometimes, and I didn't check it closely to see if it was right before posting.

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Aside from needing a GPS to find my way around the course, i had a great time. That was my first DNF in 3 years!!! I would come around the loop and see the course workers and totally blank out... The afternoon course was easier to navigate but the Summit turned into a cone magnet. I picked up 4 cones for the day which is the same number I had all of last season. The weather cooperated and the course was challenging. I really like the elevation changes. Now if I can just get Carl to remember to bring my camera!!

Thanks to all the THSCC event staff for yet another excellent event!!

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02 2.5 RS, 02 Honda Insight CVT, 04 PT GT 5spd, 71 340 Dart

It must be weird to be normal...

I forgot to mention I like the "new" pit area a LOT, and the incorporation of the "old" pit area into the course.

OCS is definately my favorite site for terra-consistancy, video shooting locations, tire-changing facilities, and Kim and Rufus are awesome too. I just wish it was as close as the BMW farm is to our house

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~ RallyX VP 2009 ~
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'92 Prelude
'76 Celica

Hint: You can help by reminding me!
I did think of it at one point a few days ago, but then, like the brain cells of my college days, it flittered away...

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Strangest thing I've now heard at a RallyX: "I would bring my Festiva out here but it's just too nice." -- uttered by a guy I was working the course with in the afternoon.

That cracked me up for some reason.

Jim

OCS is worth my 2 hour drive. Look at the times and see that most people got faster, not slower. The surface just holds up way better than our other sites. If it would rain for about a week it would be perfect there.

We lucked out on the weather for sure. I was prepared for a 90 degree sunny and it was overcast for the better part of the day. Cloudy and breezy FTW!

The morning course was fun, fast and flowed well. I was lazy and didn't walk it enough and was suprised at a few sections on my first run. I should know better. Also to add another excuse Steve R. put too much gas in the General and made the handling a lot different than we are used to. Note to Steve, it ain't a BMW...it's FWD!!!! Of course w/o Steve the General wouldn't even make it to OSC so we can't complain too much, but we still do.

The afternoon course was pretty choppy and didn't allow for too much speed except in the two sweepers. I paid more attention to the tight stuff on my course walks and it paid off with better times for me each run. Not nearly as fast as the Adams SE-R though. We need to find a way to double our HP!

It was good to see Ash finally get to come and play after all her hard work behind the view finder. I'm pretty sure she had a good time even though she still drives like a girl. Of course she did beat Steve Remchak and this was her first time.

By the time Stephen and I left it was 6:00 which did kind of suck. The launch interval was the problem, but I was running start and had to manage the dust clouds to prevent a bunch of re-runs. The whammy tubes helped a ton too. Unless we get a lot of rain or start earlier I don't see another solution. The water truck sounds like a good idea, but IMO it would need to be the size of a 18-wheeler to have done much good. I'm sure one ain't cheap either.

See you all there next event!

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)