Arthur McDonald wrote:
Well, that explains why Mitch Moore was running up and down the grid so much during my heat. Maybe we need two grid workers, both equipped with signal flags (or air horns!) to communicate.
I am starting to see the value of AAO. (Whatever you do, don't tell Dishman I said that) At both Sanford events this year, I managed to get the jitters before my afternoon runs, and made a mess of them. So in my feeble-minded years, maybe it's best to make all of my runs in a row. Also, I don't have to reinflate my tires before the 2nd set of runs.
Of course, the advantages of 2-2 still stand:
1) If you're totally lost in the morning runs, you have an intermediate heat to figure out where you went wrong, or at least have an hour+ to complain to everybody before you go out and screw up again.
2) If you suffer a mechanical failure, or just want to make a big adjustment, you can. In my pre-ABS days, I often found myself between heats rotating tires to move a flat spot to the rear.
3) Event officers can, depending on the progress of the event, opt for 3 or (gasp) 1 run in the afternoon heats.
Final thoughts:
A) The grid scheme above is one step short of being a proper 10-step progam.
B) Michael Czeiszperger, with his excellent grasp of the issues, is a strong contender for club prez in 2011.
C) Chuck B., when he said "that's the way THSCC used to do it", was referring to his early days in the Tarheel Surry & Carriage Club.
Don't worry Art, your secret's safe with me. I won't tell Dishman that you're secretly a member of the "hey, trying new stuff is kind of cool" faction.
Mitch and I talked about grid on our way out to work for first group of fun runs. He told me "it wasn't so bad," but if I were to do it over, I'd have two grid marshals, one at either end. The one at the far end of the line can help with arranging the cars in their correct locations, sort of like the impound guy does at a National event. They can both carry radios to communicate with each other, since we have plenty of radios. Yesterday's new grid process, should we choose to implement it more frequently, will certainly see running changes and improvements.
To the advantages of 2+2:
1. Well, you're right about that. 2+2 certainly does allow for one to consider carefully their previous session, and make changes to their driving as needed. That's true.
2. For this item, I'm going to disagree, on three counts:
- I saw Keith Vail change two tires on Sunday during an AAO event...and he had a codriver!
So, it can be done.
- If someone has a mechanical issue, we'll certainly allow them to make the necessary repairs. At least, I'd certainly let them fix their car. Rodney, though, he's pretty mean, so he might not.
- Since you've seen the light and are campaigning a stock-class car that was built in this decade, you won't have any mechanical problems anyway.
3. Yes, the decision on number of runs for the day can be put off until mid-day when using the split format. This is definitely true. Yet flexibility remains using AAO. Yesterday, Dustin, Rodney, and I made the decision to go for five about 30 minutes into our first heat. Quick math showed us that we could get 93 cars through five timed runs by about 3:00. We missed our mark by half an hour, which I attribute to the shutdowns for worker changes, and the occasional rerun/timing glitch/whatever. Once a launch interval is established, it should be pretty easy to make a call on number of runs.
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