NCAC #4 10/12

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Mon Oct 13, 2003 9:25 am

was held at the Greensboro Coloseum. Jinx Jordan designed a large challenging fun course. The weather was perfect, too bad there wasn't more THers representing, but those that were there did well.
class results: http://www.auto-x.com/results2003/event ... 3-best.pdf
PAX results: http://www.auto-x.com/results2003/event ... 03-pax.pdf

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Oct 13, 2003 10:13 am

For those who don't like turn-arounds how about three? :furious:

Yes three turn arounds in one course. The course was not very technical either. One open slalom, one moderately tight slalom and three 180's. The rest was foot to the floor from 180 to the next one. It was OK but not my favorite.

The organization wasn't the best either. I guess Tarheel has spoiled me. I'd love to see the re-run count from yesterday. I'll bet it was over 50. With the overlap, at some point there were three cars on course (40-50 second course BTW) which made one re-run turn into three. Not to mention the workers who constantly walked through the finish lights to retrieve cones. :stupid:

Still the Tarheels showed 'em how it's done. Highlighted by Mr. "Jim Diesel" with FTD even on worn-out crappy tires in the turbo Miata. What could he do with new tires I wonder? Of course if I had started racing with a turbo-charged Fisher-Price go-kart with Hoosier racing slicks when I was four years old I would be that fast too! :mrgreen:

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Mon Oct 13, 2003 12:42 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

For those who don't like turn-arounds how about three? :furious:

Yes three turn arounds in one course. The course was not very technical either. One open slalom, one moderately tight slalom and three 180's. The rest was foot to the floor from 180 to the next one. It was OK but not my favorite.

The organization wasn't the best either. I guess Tarheel has spoiled me. I'd love to see the re-run count from yesterday. I'll bet it was over 50. With the overlap, at some point there were three cars on course (40-50 second course BTW) which made one re-run turn into three. Not to mention the workers who constantly walked through the finish lights to retrieve cones. :stupid:

I thought the course was technical as you could lose a lot of time in the turns especially the off camber ones, there was enough room for multiple line choice requiring looking well ahead, it was easy to overshoot the brake points or lose momentum. Maybe it was different with 4WD? If you didn't like the 180 sweepers (no downshifting required) on that course you'd hate! the South course at nationals, this was a scaled down version.
Trying to add insight: the organization was a problem, but Triad used to run pretty tight events, I think a club's organization reflects the attitude of it's officers and core volunteers. The person running the computer (and manning the radio, they only had one person doing T&S) while I was announcing was pretty cavalier about the job and easily distracted which resulted in a large % of the reruns. I announced well into the next shift since they didn't have anyone to relieve me, but I finally had to put the mike down and walk out of the van, it was getting too painful to watch. They've burned out most of their good people, and have very few serious AXers left in the club.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Oct 13, 2003 1:52 pm

Chuck Frank wrote:

it was easy to overshoot the brake points or lose momentum. Maybe it was different with 4WD? If you didn't like the 180 sweepers (no downshifting required)

I guess in the Talon it was the momentum loss that was the killer. Hence I had to downshift to 1st otherwise no turbo boost leaving the turn-arounds.

Also we wasted 5 runs between us fighting hellacious oversteer because we forgot to change the front shock settings. :banghead:

If you want oversteer and can't get it in a Talon with AWD and adjustable Konis... set the front to *full soft* and see what happens :crazy:

JamesFeinberg · **Posted:** Tue Oct 14, 2003 12:54 pm

I thought the course was pretty good considering what they had to work with. They were able to use a bit more of the lot than usual which at least gave us a chance to use something other than 1st gear. Even though there were a lot of reruns and a few too many delays, they still managed to get us 5 runs along with fun runs. Not ideal but not too shabby either.

Vincent Keene wrote:

Still the Tarheels showed 'em how it's done. Highlighted by Mr. "Jim Diesel" with FTD even on worn-out crappy tires in the turbo Miata. What could he do with new tires I wonder? Of course if I had started racing with a turbo-charged Fisher-Price go-kart with Hoosier racing slicks when I was four years old I would be that fast too! :mrgreen:

Heh. Not too bad considering I corded my right front tire on the first run. After telling Joel about 50 times to try and not lock up the front brakes, I proceeded to almost skid through 2nd turnaround with the right front smoking. Oops! :oops:

Considering Joel and I got 9 more runs out of it, I can’t be too unhappy. By the time we were finished, the right front had 6 fairly large cord spots showing in various places all over the tire. Now that takes talent!

Joel did an awesome job with the car and probably looked smoother around the course than my wild ass. I guess driving a Cobra with massive torque induced traction issues is good preparation for driving a girl car with , um, massive torque induced traction issues. :wink:

With a bit more seat time in the car, I’m sure he could be a contenda’.

And for the record, I ran my Fisher-Price go-kart the first year with street tires and no turbo. It wasn’t until my second year of racing at the age of 5 that I put on the slicks and turbo. You know, don’t want to jump in too deeply too quickly. :lol:

Jim

Joel Heywood · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 5:51 pm **Posts:** 108

Thanks again for letting me co-drive Jim. If there was ever one car I could give up the Cobra for it would be a turbo powered girl car. It sure felt strange to drive a car with power and it changes directions.

THSCC Forums

NCAC #4 10/12

Who is online