THSCC Forums

To expand/elaborate on my comments in the Greenville Autocross thread regarding multiple lap experience. Note that this is not to advocate specifically for Greenville but simply to give info that might be relevant to other sites with similar dimensions to the one I (and many SCCA Champions) learned on in Pleasanton, CA (SF area) and had LOTS of fun driving on.

I actually found some maps from courses I designed in the 1970's for the Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC). The course portion of the site dimensions (with fences on the two long sides and one short side) were 600 feet by 370 feet. There were two light poles and a few drainage grates to deal with. We maintained a minimum of 25 feet to hazards and typically 40 to 50 feet unless the speeds/risk were low. Course width typically was 20 to 30 feet since the courses were what we called "minature road race" rather than gates and slaloms (slaloms were generally done using "fingers" made from lines of cones that protruded into the course from alternating sides. Same effect but different local style). Speeds for my stock class Z or my slightly street prepared Z on slicks of the day were generally up to about 60 mph with no first gear corners. Corvettes on slicks had fun . . . so did Mod cars . . . and so did cars slower than the Z. We generally ran multiple lap events as noted in the other thread. Because we could watch the other competitor's complete runs, some even during our run group, we could learn a lot and could be "entertained". (Everyone could watch the top time of day cars and the Prepared Corvettes doing their thing which was great entertainment and helped get me hooked). Worker stations were usually inside the course unless a course element made that part too narrow in which case the station would be in a wide, safe area between the course and the fence. The multilap approach, with or without a practice lap, allowed drivers to really learn the corners similar to road racing. Even though there were lots of course design options you did get to see the same "basic" corners repeatedly. The site allowed fast (45 - 55 mph) sweepers similar to the Greenville turn around at the far end but faster.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT