THSCC Forums

I want some feedback on what worked and what didn't for this weekend. This is a unique site in regard to its layout, but it has TONS of potential. I want to come back this fall, so I'd like to scrub one of the L-burg events and run here again. This will have to be a Saturday event as well.

In regard to the EV challenge, I didn't really take into account the students having to push the cars up the hill, so in hindsight, not the best choice we could have made, but the use of the golf cart helped.

So, I want comments, both good and bad as to what went right and what we need to improve for both our event and the EV challenge. I can tell you right now, we'll be doing this again next year in regard to the EV autox according to Eric Ryan.

Ok, fire away!!!!

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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....

Firstly, I apologize for the WC snafus. Because of the overlap between T&S for the EV Challenge and registration for the THSCC event, when I asked for a final registration sheet, one was not available. So, I had to rely on the prelim signups--since there ended up being fewer Stock class drivers and more *SP drivers, the third run group was lopsided and ran long. Sorry about that--my fault.

I don't know if it's possible, but if there is going to be continued "remote setup" for the WC table, (which I think worked pretty well, as opposed to having it by the bus) perhaps the WC could have a wireless microphone to announce upcoming worker shift changes? I felt like it was too intrusive to have to radio into the bus to have them announce worker changes.

Definitely need some remote PA to the pits, since there is no line-of-sight to the VDA.

Thanks

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

Regarding the EV challenge, I guess we could have ran the course the other way so they'd be pushing on relatively flat stuff and coasting down the hill (woo hoo regenerative braking). Other than that I think it went really well.

I'll take responsibility for the confusion with the THSCC volunteers: A) I think we should assume that GM/President won't have the time to help B) I should have recruited a few more folks and have had a definitive plan (these 6 go with students, these 5 work the first hour, and these 5 work the 2nd hour). Sorry about your long shift Ryan Hill!

On a side note, volunteers who prepaid, please email the registrar for a refund and thanks for helping!

For our event, I think due to the EV challenge being that morning, registration was quirky, but I don't think it messed thing up too much. With 94 drivers and 5 runs and starting at 12:15, I think the event went really well and we finished up before dark!

Finally, someone needs to tell the idiot autox VP who made trophy plaques with the rear 'hanging' grooves upside down to pay attention next time!

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2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

Regarding helmet tech -- it was not possible for Kendt to be doing roving car tech and be up at the bus / worker table checking helmets at the same time. I know that in the morning this resulted in some people wandering back and forth with their helmets, trying to find him. Since Steve and I are generally hanging around doing worker signups during registration anyway, I suggest we do helmet checks as well. It would give new drivers a central place to go to get their stickers and take a little pressure off of whoever is doing tech, especially at a sprawling site like NCCAR.

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"Nationals snob"

Having the pit area out of sight from the track presents some challenges. I didn't think of it until now, but are we still using the FM broadcast? That might be the simplest way to keep people in the pit informed. My stereo does not work, so I didn't know. The airhorn could possibly work as well.

It might be nice if we could use a larger section of the actual track, but I would think there would have to be some taxiways built for that to be much of an option.

I'm fine with pivot cones, but it should be clear to everyone what counts as a DNF if the rules are going to be changed. I think there was a lot of confusion from workers and drivers.

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2003 Subaru WRX Sportwagon = daily driver/boost and booster seats
2000 BMW 540iT = wife's kid hauler
2012 Toyota Highlander = the boring reliable vehicle

Rodney went over the fact that 2 off is NOT a DNF for this event during the driver's meeting, but given the EV challenge was going on and people were late, I guess some people might have not heard that.

If we have special rules like that, we need to make sure a) the WCs know, and b) the WCs let the specific station workers know when they check in.

Were there DNFs called in for this?

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2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

One of the Novices was stuck at that position and was pretty lost with what counted as a DNF. I think the bus tried to clear it up, but it's hard to fix things on the fly. At the very least I do agree that WCs should tell everyone when they go out to work if there are special rules or at the very least don't put a Novice there. The driver's meeting was severely under attended from what I could tell.

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2003 Subaru WRX Sportwagon = daily driver/boost and booster seats
2000 BMW 540iT = wife's kid hauler
2012 Toyota Highlander = the boring reliable vehicle

Yeah, I think I agree with Steve's stance that not only should an experience member be put on radio at the worker stations, but possibly a member or someone we know comes frequently. A lot of people who are not necessarily running NOV class but have only done a couple autocrosses sometimes sign up for the experienced worker slot. Having a policy that you have to have run 5+ events (or something of the like) to be the radio person would just be hard to enforce so I think the better way to do it would be to have the WCs use their discretion and request that a specific person uses the radio .

_________________
2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

I briefed work group one on this and then went off to drive. I am uncertain whether or not Steve passed this on when he sent out groups two and three, but Mary said that not only had she not heard about the rule change (and she was at the drivers' meeting), she heard this called as a DNF in groups two and three. We made sure group four was clear on it, but unfortunately, I think that there were probably inconsistent calls. Mary also made the point that she would have driven differently if she had known that there was no two-off DNF in that section.

In the future, I will keep a list of any special cases that we need to go over with the workers so we can be sure to be consistent.

Regarding only giving radios to folks with experience, I feel like yesterday was a fairly unusual turnout. We were missing many of our regulars, and lots of folks showed up who were new, or who had not autocrossed recently. We tried to get an experienced person at each worker station, but sometmes ended up drafting them away for grid and start. I'm just brainstorming here, but I'm thinking that instead of having people sign up for specific worker stations, we change the worker signup sheet to just have Name, Class & #, # of Previous Events, and Special Skills (eg, Start, Grid, etc). Then when workers check in we could distribute them evenly by experience.

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"Nationals snob"

This is a good idea. And I agree there wasn't a typical turn out of folks yesterday.

That's unfortunate about the inconsistency of DNF calls for 2 off .

However I would wager that 2 off will NOT have been your fastest run....particularly FWD cars with open diffs and even other configurations; distance == time .

_________________
2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

We (the T&S folks) rely on the course workers to be our eyes and as a result do not question calls, whatever is called is what we write down. With that said I know that some people (like myself) were unaware of the 2 wheels off rule being amended for the pivot cone during run Group 2 and some of Group 3 and I am sorry some people were called for DNFs that shouldn't have been.

A big thank you to Les and Todd... Todd was T&S yesterday (worked x3) and Les helped get the bus set up for the day (working out the new bus-isms), got our new wireless timing system up and running, and both Todd and Les helped worked T&S the last 30 min of the EV Challenge.

I appreciate everyone's patience yesterday as I know the bus was a bit crazy from 10-11am with the EV event still running and registration being open. I enjoyed the opportunity to help our wonderful registration folks who were in Charlotte supporting their Lemon's team.

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Professional Student
2006 MINI Cooper S JCW

Oh yeah, mad props on the wireless timing display. It was fantastic.

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"Nationals snob"

^This

If knowing that two off is okay would change your approach to the pivot, your doing it wrong. Its actually my understanding that two off is always a non-DNF unless it is explicitly stated otherwise.

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'07, '08, '11 Autocross VP
'06, '10 Mike Dishman Cup
'21 MX5, '13 Corvette GS, '92 Corvette 383 c.i. 413whp/390wtq, '03 Expedition

I think that had we thought about the hill, we might have thought to move the start up a little and make two lanes on so they could finish and instead of driving up the hill to the right, have them go left drive back and use the drive to turn around saving the uphill runs. With one car on course it could be done.

I didn't think the pivot was bad, just needed to clarify how many wheels constituted a DNF. As was stated I think in the other thread, a pivot cone (even a tight one) is a good learning device and a patience requiring element so we don't have to always avoid them.

surface is great, grippy, just needs to be a bit bigger, but with experience we can make good use of it.

Also, sorry for the delays getting cars to the line at the start of Group 2. I had trouble finding names and making sure that I had everyone right, but I caught up only to forget to get cars called for Group 3 in time. I haven't worked grid in years and years so it took a bit of getting used to.



Rob

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1990 Faded Reddish CSP Lite Miata
2002 Electron Blue Corvette Z06
2005 Mazda 6 Wagon
2003 Nissan Pathfinder DTV (Dog Transport Vehicle)

That's cool to hear that it actually worked. Maybe one day I will be able to make it to an event and see it myself.

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)