ECTA and the Laurinburg Site

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:14 am

Arthur McDonald wrote:

None of them were really good. The rest of our site inventory that year included:
1) Old Rocky Mt Airport - 20+ year old crumbling asphalt, a hazardous waste dump, and interference from soccer Moms at the adjoining soccer fields
2) Belks Warehouse/Morrisville - tiny lot with semi trailers, a large commercial trash compactor, Belkie Bears, curbs and a fence
3) Tri-County Airport (just east of Rich Square) - active airport - when the tower radioed that a plane was coming in, we had to run out on the runway and pick up all of the cones.

Since then we've acquired (and in some cases subsequently lost)
1) Lumberton Airport - awful pavement, but nevertheless the site of the famous "Autocross Type R"
2) Sanford - tire-eating grit and car eating ditches
3) RBC Center - too good to last
4) Danville Airport - pavement similar to Rocky Mt 20 years ago.
5) NCCAR - now that's awesome pavement - can't wait for the VDA expansion to complete

That VDA expansion is going to be an outstanding location for the future. I'm really looking forward to running there.

In the old, old days, ala 1979ish, THSCC used to run at places like the mall in Wilson where we had some incredibly long courses covering 3 to 4 of the lots there, uphill on the side of the mall and return, etc. It was a LOT easier way back then to find places for autox on a Sunday since the majority of retail locations were closed on Sundays. Same with Kidds Hill Plaza lot, which although small, was a fun spot for an autox with almost always a Kevin-Allen-dream pure handbrake turnaround cone to reverse back through the course. Sunday shopping hours ruined the availability of plentiful autox locations.

JohnByers · **Posted:** Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:57 am

Thanks for the link Ryan. That sux for sure.

Aaron McCurdy · **Joined:** Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:17 pm **Posts:** 21

What happened to Greenville? It seemed to have just dropped off the radar this year..

I still need to link up with a friend of mine who is on the Fay PD.. I know either they or the CC Sherriff's department has a nice big training area that we need to try and borrow..

I for one will miss Laurinburg. I thought it was an ok site even with crappy pavement.. made it a little easier for a street tire guy to keep up LOL. I especially liked being able to sleep in, it's only like 20 minutes from my house

.

RobLupella · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 9:33 am

I did my first AX at the Belk warehouse. It makes Greenville look like a huge site. Hell, it makes my driveway look big. It had the added benefit of parked semi-trailers and chain-link right off of the pavement guarded by bushes. :shock:

Sanford and Danville are not bad and NCCAR will be great after expansion. If we could just get one sight in Raleigh it would be a great opportunity to get more people.

George Bright · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 10:43 am

One of the last Auto-Xs I ran was at Belks. To show them it could be done I ran an E350 cube van for a fun run. I got a standing ovation after making a clean run. After my run one of the miata drivers was grumping to me how tight course was and aked me if I had run anything. I pointed to the cube van and the guy quit talking about a tight course.

For a long course I believe the first years of Rocky Mt. take the cake. We were allowed to use all of the old pavement. One of the courses was almost 3 miles long and I was hitting 95 mph in a HS Datsun 510. We had a 100ft spacing slolom down one of the runways. We were also running out there in July and August.

The parties on Saturday night were also legendary, but that is another story. :drunkin:

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 9:02 pm

Aaron McCurdy wrote:

What happened to Greenville? It seemed to have just dropped off the radar this year..

Site changed owners and the new owners wanted NOTHING to do with us.

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