2013 North Carolina Autocross Championship (NCAC) - Oct 5-6

Bill Aycock · **Joined:** Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:55 pm **Posts:** 117

RodneyWright wrote:

Bill.... Call me when you get close. I should have your key by then and I can give you the room number.

We'll do.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:00 am

Great weekend! Karting, wings, steak, beer, oh and some autox'g too.... I do want to say congrats to the trophy winners who ever you are. I know that Shawn and Mike picked up some trophies. Anyone else?

So I left early on Sunday, I had no desire to hang around for an additional hour while they did more fun runs. I have some mixed emotions on this weekend. I would have rather dumped the fun runs for some more timed runs, especially since I coned away my fastest run on Sat. For 85bucks, I'm not feeling I got my moneys worth in regard to runs. I also think they could have asked for some food trucks to be on site, would have helped.

Not to be completely negative, I think CCR put on a very good event w/ a challenging course on both days. I did prefer Sundays setup, not as busy cone-wise.

Congrats to all the THSCC crew that ran this weekend. Where did we place cup wise? I heard rumors of 2nd....

Zach Hill · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:38 am

That was definitely an intense and fun weekend. Zmax's surface, the 3-run format, and sweeper-intensive ("national style?") courses are very challenging for me and probably other people in our club. While frustrating, in the end it makes me want to seek out more opportunities to tackle these challenges and improve my skill (CCR events at ZMAX, National Tour events...).

I think we had a solid showing from THSCC. Huge props to Dick Rasmussen for taking the overall FTP time for the whole weekend! :thumbsup:

Shawn Whipple also drove really well, being 1st after day one and ended up finishing 2nd overall (to a Highlands member) in TIR class, the largest class of the event. Mike Miller also got a trophy in TIR class as well. STR saw a number of THSCC trophies, despite not being able to claim the top spot: James was 2nd, I was 4th, and Noah was 5th in the last trophy spot.

We as a club ended up finishing 3rd in the club cup, beating NCR. Highlands was not eligible due to attendance numbers, CCR was 2nd, and Triad won. Isn't that about the same club finishing order for the past ~4 NCACs?

Though, the real highlight for me was hanging out with so many cool people throughout the weekend.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:46 am

RodneyWright wrote:

Great weekend! Karting, wings, steak, beer, oh and some autox'g too.... I do want to say congrats to the trophy winners who ever you are. I know that Shawn and Mike picked up some trophies. Anyone else?

So I left early on Sunday, I had no desire to hang around for an additional hour while they did more fun runs. I have some mixed emotions on this weekend. I would have rather dumped the fun runs for some more timed runs, especially since I coned away my fastest run on Sat. For 85bucks, I'm not feeling I got my moneys worth in regard to runs. I also think they could have asked for some food trucks to be on site, would have helped.

Not to be completely negative, I think CCR put on a very good event w/ a challenging course on both days. I did prefer Sundays setup, not as busy cone-wise.

Congrats to all the THSCC crew that ran this weekend. Where did we place cup wise? I heard rumors of 2nd....

I bailed early on Sunday also, sorry I missed out on Fun Runs, Pt Deux.

I had a great time! The karting was really fun (first time at MMX, probably not the last....), good times with good people at dinner(s) Fri and Sat night!

I had a different impression of the NCAC event itself. I thought doing a Nationals-style 3 timed runs was fine. That's how they do it in SCCA, and this is a SRSBSNSS event so I guess it made sense. We may not have been mentally prepared, being accustomed to 4-5 timed runs at our events. Clearly, one needed to come out of the gates with a clean 9/10ths effort on Run #1 if one expected to be competitive. For folks aiming to go to Tours or Nationals, getting comfortable with this format is a necessity--maybe I had less of a problem with it because I still hold on to the hope of doing a BigTime event or two?

Anyway, keep in mind that all Zmax events (CCR, PCA) are $50-65 for one day (4-8 runs, IIRC). Including funruns, I got 11 for $85 over the weekend (more if I stayed on Sunday, apparently) which IMO is reasonable given the rental costs and quality of the site.

I drove better this time, for sure. Finally got the offcamber looseness under control (after some shock adjustments it pushes a bit when turning offcamber, so I just need to back it off a bit) Still got stomped by the really good drivers, but not as badly as usual....I guess that makes it progress, right? :roll:

Hopefully my schedule will clear up to make it to Statesville on 11/2 or NCR at MCAS on 11/17...fingers crossed!

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:48 am

Zach Hill wrote:

Huge props to Dick Rasmussen for taking the overall FTP time for the whole weekend! :thumbsup:

This x 100. Way to go Dick! :thumbsup:

RobLupella · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:33 am

I agree with Zach. The 3 run format is similar to national events and adds priority to being fast out of the gate and paying attention on coursewalks. I still have to get used to the way they set up these courses with a million and a half cones. (every element has 6 cones where 2 would do) as it makes me spend my first run decyphering where the damn course goes and not concentrating on where I want to try and put the car. Especially on such a long course.

Congrats to all the winners.

Rob

Jordan Normark · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:59 am

It is interesting to see so many viewpoints on the courses. I really liked the courses for both days, and I did not find the amount cones excessive as in blocking my view or making it difficult to pick out the important cones, but most of them were ornamental, making similar elements look different at first glance. The biggest challenge I had was finding the correct line through the offsets at the far end of the course and "backsiding" the important cones, as Rob can attest to. Having a passenger give feedback helps me a lot. However, with so many fun runs on the first day, I found I could get through satisfactory on one run, then blow it on the next. I think much of that is from not scanning and thinking far enough ahead. I also find my brain distracting me at times, one instance I clearly remember thinking, "damn this engine sounds good!" :roll:

Congrats to Dick, that was some awesome driving!

michaelsmiller · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:04 am

What a great weekend. Neither Miller did the wild thing, so we set the car up loose. We were planning to run easy so that the Miata could pass state inspection. We dumped that plan with fun runs. Maybe I could borrow some tires. I could have skipped the three timed runs on Saturday and just done the fun runs. I didn’t do too well on Saturday because I wasn’t used to the site. I improved 1.3 and Anders 2 seconds during fun runs. The last time that I ran ZMAX was when the NCAC was last there. I felt that the fun runs were an excellent tune up for Sunday. Both Anders and I did much better Sunday. Shawn, you ran very well all weekend long, congratulations. I look forward to next year. Maybe I’ll give you a little more competition. Were do we go to get results?

Zach Hill · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:51 am

Mike, I have your TIR trophy and will bring it to the meeting this week!

shawnwhipple · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 6:28 pm **Posts:** 603

What a great weekend! CCR put on a great, well run, event that really felt just like a mini SCCA national tour event. There were great courses, great drivers, cool T-shirts, what more could you want.

Congratulations to Dick Rasmussen for taking fastest time PAX for the whole event :thumbsup:

You were really flying out there. Congrats to Mike Miller for locking down 5th out of 25 in TIR class with 2nd fastest time on Sunday!

I'm a little disappointed in my driving since I had the lead in TIR after Saturdays runs by .250 seconds and then coned on my first 2 runs on Sunday. I took it easy on my 3rd run just to get a clean time. At the time it looked like a good plan because that run moved me into first place. Then Matt (sorry forgot his last name) from highlands laid down a blistering run on his 3rd run to retake the lead. So while I was a little bummed at the results it was a great close battle which is always fun.

Can't wait till next year.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:23 pm

Obligatory posting of sub-par driving:

http://youtu.be/oSu9n7GaTas

You can see where being tight on the exit of several sweepers (the carousel and the long lefthander), combined with being pointed slightly off-line enabled me to be late in the ensuing offset slaloms to the point of lifting throttle and losing time. Plus, a couple of lazy steering inputs didn't help :stick:

At least I finally made the car pushy, so I can back off the shock settings a bit.

Bill Aycock · **Joined:** Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:55 pm **Posts:** 117

I had a great time this weekend, and it capped off a really fun, first full season of auto-x for me. I also enjoyed hanging out with everyone there and continuing to get to know members of the club. Special thanks to Matt McGrain for the ride along and instruction, which, I think, showed immediate results.

I'm learning to autocross and getting to know my car at the same time, and the last 3 events, Cherry Point, NC CAR road course, and ZMax have really been eye openers. The speed in those 3 events struck me as an order of magnitude greater than previous events this year. Right now, I think my biggest challenge is mentally staying ahead of the course. I'm not anticipating what's coming next, and thus i come into corners too hot, oversteer myself into trouble or a slowdown, and consequently overdrive the car in an effort to make up (lost) time. At any rate, I feel like I learned a lot this season and am looking forward to next season already.

Congrats to all who trophied. It's nice to know that the standard being set by other club members is the right stuff. :thumbsup:

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:48 pm

First, thanks for all the congratulations both at the site and here

! Believe me I was very happy to "put on the show". :sing:

It was really great to finally have the car setup and the "driver" working well after so long. Obviously I loved the site and the courses even though only three runs is my biggest issue with Tours and Nationals. Fortunately I got a rerun Saturday on my first run which gave me an extra shot at figuring out new rear springs and discovering how much grip/handling the car "finally" had. I could do stuff with the car that I haven't done in many years. Whee! Regarding course design, these were very much in the "Nationals" style depending on the course designer and the site. I happen to love sweepers, especially when the car isn't pushing (finally) and grip/radius are high enough that a fast entry followed by a lot of throttle is possible. Double "whee"! Since the main sweep at the far end was symetrical it could be driven the same way both days in a single seat car. Only the entry speed was different with braking on Saturday and a lift on Sunday. The offset/transitions were great fun too and I was amazed at what my car could do. I don't think I've ever driven offsets so fast. The top PAX, of course, was a bonus! :sing:

Links to my best fun run on Saturday and real run on Sunday (I didn't get video Saturday morning) but the time was the same as the best official run. Sunday my first run was slow, the second run included a cone, and the third run was about 1/10 quicker and clean thanks to the incredible grip that allowed the car to turn when needed if the driver actually moved the steering wheel to do it.

FYI I ran both courses in second gear after the initial shift except for crossing the finish line on Sunday. Probably should have gone to 3rd for the walloms on Sunday but couldn't find a place to "comfortably" shift. The calculated "gear" in the videos gets confused at times.

Saturday http://youtu.be/V6i4Nd042Jg

Sunday http://youtu.be/wHc5Ge9avCs

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 5:58 pm

Even though I and most other autocrossers tend to "complain" about "only three runs" it could be much worse. When I started in Northern California turnout was so high (300 drivers was common) that at the primary site (small lot) we got ONE run which consisted of 3 roughly 25 to 30 second flying laps with the first lap being the "practice/warm up the tires" lap. When SCCA autocrossing got started in the SF Bay area one of our sales points was we promised TWO runs at first.

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:41 pm

The issue with the amount of cones was functional width of the track in several spots. The line to most corners was determined for you by a offset gate or pinched on track out by cone walls. Lets say that you have a tiny narrow car. You might not notice, probably go fast enough to set ftp. If you drive a wide car constant jinks are necessary simply to clear the track features. If you are going fast the yaw of a 8.5 foot wide car makes it 9.5 feet wide. I thought the line was fine and challenging but the cone layout and placement were an example of what not to do. The course was not prerun either. The course designer never took the final step of cone reduction after the line was placed. You must ask yourself two questions at this stage. 1: Does the cone force the car to change line as I intend? 2: Is the cone required for visually indicating course direction? If the answer is no to both questions then it can and probably should be removed. If one or the other is yes consider moving the cone or changing feature. I thought several gates were in poor alignment to the direction of travel and lots of elements used were hokey and used way more cones than needed. You could have easily pulled 20 cones off each course and not changed the line one inch. The goal is to create something that is hard to drive fast. Not create something that is just hard to drive.

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