THSCC Forums

The same thing happened to me at the end of Saturday's first heat. I had been red flagged twice in a row after my first run. Instead of sending me 5 cars later, they kept sending me back to the grid line to wait another turn. Each time I was red flagged, there were no cones still being set up or car spun out.

Congratulations to Highlands for "Gitin' 'er done". Despite all the obstacles in their path, their perserverance insured we got a complete 2-day event in.

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“I feel safer on a racetrack than I do on Houston's freeways.” - A.J. Foyt

Kevin Butler
Mobetta Autosport Spec E30 #612
2003 C5 Z06 Corvette
AFR Miata, SM2 61, '93 w/200 SC'd RWHP - soon to be resurrected
Waaaay too many other projects....

C'mon Walter, you know the reason you enjoyed it so much was you got to hug the trophy presenter.

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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)

Thanks Dustin! It wasn't just me as we also owe Anthony Hodges a thanks for stepping up as well. It was one time where his, um, "personality" came in handy. And a big thanks to Highlands for being receptive to last minute changes in a situation where most others would have likely thrown a hissy.

They may not have had much experience with airport designs but the courses wound up fast and extremely fun. Sunday's course gave me a big case of the "shakes" on my last run and I don't think I've been that amped up since college. And that involved a couple of liters of Jolt cola, a few caffeine pills and an electromagnetics final exam.

Jim

As for radios, first with 8 worker stations plus the other people requiring them Highlands had to commandeer several personal radios to come up with enough. there were still a couple people that could have used a radio: grid, etc.. Putting the starter on another channel would have required the computer operator to deal with 2 radios, entering cars and penalties and dealing with operational issues like misbehaving software and wireless timers (Shane ran the computer for most heats and was busier than a 1 armed paper hanger) The disadvantage of their wireless system in addition to the obvious was that a timer display could not be connected at the same time. This required a person to sit at the finish and write times on a board. Those times were radio relayed by the person doing raw sheets. With 8 worker stations, starter, and OD on the same frequency calls were being stepped on constantly, and I suspect the course workers were dropping their radios to their sides after making the call and not hear a request for a repeat on a call. One more timing and scoring person would have been a big help.
Getting workers out on course was a problem because the paddock was so far away. The PA would not carry that far and their FM transmitter also crapped out on Sat.
AXware ate all the times for the first heat on Sat so all those times had to be reentered from the raw sheets after the event on Sat.
Note I am relaying all this to hopefully to learn from it, not to be critical. Sunday's course was one of the best I have run at Danville IMHO, and we had a blast despite the weather. Next time tent city will be in our trailer as we should have the AC installed by then.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

Thanks Highlands for pulling this off. I was wondering where all of their members were. Even with the hot weather and issues, I had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with car guys and gals. It was refreshing to have a different use of the airport space. I think there were some definate positives that can be taken to design future courses for Danville.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results. I felt like I was hanging in there with the big dogs in TIRE class on Sunday. Saturday I was not as close. Thanks everyone.

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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

Now that I’ve had a couple of days to re-hydrate, re-cooperate, and cool off, I can now say that I did have a great time. And, as others have said before, the 3-4 minutes you actually get to go *quick* was only a small part of the enjoyment. The single greatest thing about this event was, and continues to be, the members of THSCC. From the time we arrived on Friday evening, and throughout the weekend, our club friends were there to help each other in any way. Everyone putting their tents together and bringing fans was a life saver. When the generator was running low on fuel, someone was there with more fuel. When I was DNFing on Saturday there were at least 6 Tar heelers trying to help me out. Sunday, while Bernie was running late in the day, I began packing the truck and hooking up the trailer. I turned around when Stephen said something and found that the guys had even taken our “pain in the tush” awning down and had it ready to load. Need more plastic trash bags? Poof, they appear. This is a group of people who can have serious differences of opinion on the forum on Wednesday and laugh, talk and socialize together under the tent in 100F heat on Saturday. All the gushy stuff aside, this is a great club in which to be involved and I’m glad to be a part of it.

On a personal note, even though I sucked large on Saturday, I made a fairly dramatic comeback on Sunday. Seventh on Saturday if you pax all the Ladies classes together as we do in THSCC, to first on Sunday. I’ve had some concerned over the past month or so as to why I’ve been doing so poorly, compared to the level of ability that I believe I have. I had even discussed it at length with several club members who’s opinions I respect. The best preliminary diagnosis we could muster was that I was not coping well in excessive heat. (A problem apparently not possessed only by myself.) Sunday, when I was fortunate enough to run the 2nd heat, during an overcast portion of the day, when it was not nearly as hot as it had been by 4th heat on Saturday, and became later in the day on Sunday, I was able to concentrate on the task at hand-the course and more GAS! To those who heard me yelling “I’m Back, I’m back!” after my last run on Sunday, that’s why. It was a good, clean run, especially for my little HS Mini. What I’ve learned is that I’m not going to do anymore 100F autoxs.

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SCCA Solo Triad Award Recipient 2014
SCCA HSL National Champion 2012
SCCA DSL National Champion 2013
SCCA DSL National Champion 2014
NCR National Driver of the Year 2012
THSCC Heel of the Year 2011
Former Club Secretary
http://www.petscompanioninn.com

I thought I learned that lesson back in ~1982 at an unbelievably hot THSCC autocross at the old Rocky Mount airport when I came really close to passing out from heat. I swore off summer events, but that only lasted a year or so. There is only one thing worse that autox events in summer heat...track events in summer heat.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2