THSCC Forums

Thanks to the hard work of former THSCC auto-x VP Ed Gelston, we began autocrossing on the unused 10,000 ft runway and parallel taxiway at the Laurinburg-Maxton airport in 1989. This article explains the original purpose of the airport: https://www.newsobserver.com/latest-new ... 28988.html

A lot of grippy concrete. No extra charge for the potholes.


Signature of the builders.


Other info:
https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2015/08/28/l ... er-warfare
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/news ... n-air-base
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laurinbu ... 0645771533
https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/659/
https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-waymarking- ... 1a09_d.JPG

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

Thanks for the link Art. It's an interesting article, but it gives the impression that nothing was going on there post-war. At times it's been the home of the Golden Knights I believe? Of course it was also the home of Rodney's "Onion Ring" (which I enjoyed driving) in addition to being the fastest drying course on earth...literal lakes of foot deep water that disappear within an hour.

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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

I don't recall a course named the Onion. Will have to dig through my old stack of course maps. Remember course maps?

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

It was in 2007, and it was just a feature at the end of the long main straight as it turns to the right. There was a "onion ring" there where you went into it and had to go around ~450 degrees.

Here's the thread: http://thscc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=6120

If I recall correctly, this was "that" Maxton course where the cone hit per run ratio was insanely high.

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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

OK, I recall that element ... as a tire grinder for my old Mustang. I still miss that site, but the pavement was bad in 1989 and much, much worse when we finally gave up on it.

I watched this documentary on Prime last weekend. Some of the video of the glider crew training was obviously shot in the sandhills. https://www.amazon.com/Normandy-Airborn ... B074HRHM3M

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

Bumpy? Potholes? WWII era concrete? We missed our opportunity to build a legendary race track to beat Sebring.

Imagine the 12 hrs of Laurinburg... respect the bumps

not sure anyone will read this, but Lee Williams and I set up that course. And it was much hated. No one liked the "ring" at the end of the straight. Surprised I didn't get booted from the club after that one...

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

I remember that element! It was but a pale echo of the "Spitzner spirocete" done at Morrisville, where a car had to spiral inward to a focal point then spiral back outward. It was not so much hated at the time, but as Dick Rasmussen pointed out afterwards, it was only due to the rain that day that no entrants suffered oil starvation due to the constant G forces. (I was to blame for that course).

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'66 CORVAIR MID-ENGINE V-8
'88 FIERO GT

Reading that thread was an interesting trip down "memory lane" thanks for that Chuck. RIP to those we have lost who contributed to that thread Walter and Jim at least, any others?

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'07, '08, '11 Autocross VP
'06, '10 Mike Dishman Cup
'21 MX5, '13 Corvette GS, '92 Corvette 383 c.i. 413whp/390wtq, '03 Expedition

Les,

Yes, those threads after each autocross were great back then. I learned a lot about how to improve through everyone's comments on a course that was still fresh in my memory, and of course participation of people like Jim were instrumental in that learning. For some reason people became uninterested in continuing the course shakedown after events on the forum with some claiming that it's "all done on Facebook now" -- I don't and won't ever have a FB account, but from looking at the club FB content post events, there never appeared to anything close to what we used to have herein. I don't think FB yields itself to the forum format necessary to focus discussion threads like those we used to have.

I don't know what's happening with THSCC since the past few years. Two years ago now we moved to Greenville SC area to be near Jackie and her husband and also downsize now that we're in our 60s and don't need so much house. She's worked at Michelin as a tire performance engineer for the last 9 years now, so I guess one could say that early start with her in autocross and track events years back helped on that career path.

There are ridiculously incredible driving roads everywhere here nearby (we're in northern Greenville county), so it's just minutes away to have super fun roads, mountain climbs, etc, which we've done a lot of over the past 18 months including just Saturday up to Saluda for lunch.

My autocross activity has been limited to either Michelin family autox days (at their proving grounds) or the local BMW CCA chapter autocrosses at the Performance Center. Those are such fun since you get a super long track/course, hardly any cones, and no course working required as BMW PC provides a couple of employees out on the course (speeds are pretty high in certain spots, ~100mph, so I'm sure they do not want anybody out there who isn't an employee stationed at a corner worker spot and protected). Before covid I've done a few events at Michelin via the CCA on the 1/2 mile skidpad and their wet handling course too -- incredible experiences.

Great to hear from you! Cheers to great times in the old days!

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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