THSCC Forums

So, this past weekend was a new site. There was, of course, some negative and positive comments about the course.

For anyone in attendance, do you have any input from how the course could have been better or some additional thoughts on what could have been added?

This is not to complain about how things sucked, but some constructive input on how to make this area more 'interesting' and useful for future rallyXes. I would be interested in competitor feedback about the class for this weekend as I thought that it actually had some good attributes that was interesting for me, personally. Of course, the afternoon course was the most awesome... as that had the most 'hack' in it

- dow

morning course: too many tight turnarounds, but it was really limited by what the afternoon course was going to be (didn't want to create ruts that would interfere). the launch/left over crest/pendulum turn into the turnaround was fun, but then the fun was over until just before the finish.

afternoon course: I liked everything, especially the yumps into blind right turns, the on-camber banked right turn and the uphill blind right over crest into finish.

I'm really glad we decided to switch the course you guys set up to the afternoon. Ending the day with that morning course would've sucked balls.

And we definitely need to think about shifting the course a little between run groups if the ruts get that bad again.

It sucked. Go back to the old way. I don't like change!












j/k

Seriously, I really appreciate your willingness to try something new. The site was a touch small and rutted up worse than I think anyone expected but thanks for being willing to experiment.

One thing that I liked was the initial turnaround past the scary pole - I finally almost nailed it on my last run. The combination of radius change and big camber change made that turn super difficult.

One thing I _really_ didn't like was the potential for serious issues off-course on both AM and PM courses. Yes, someone would have to be a moron to get into the trouble spots but part of rallyx (and autox) is low enough consequences to allow bad judgement to be slow, not dangerous.

Please let's do a grid at future events. It was really nice having Charlie running a semi-grid for the 4wd heat.

Great job overall, thanks for putting in the extra effort!

--Kevin H.

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2003 WRX (again!)

I really enjoyed both courses. Neither of then gave an advantage to the WRX, and the 5 speed legacy seemed perfect for the courses. The ruts were a great experience even though they caused some trouble. It allowed me to play around with altering my lines on the fly and not losing much if any time while doing it. The courses were a little short but not too short. The afternoon course was definitely a better course but the morning course was fun also. I just wish I knew which cone I hit on my 2nd afternoon run, it cost me 3rd place overall. That is about all the input I have.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

I am going to have to disagree with the way the grid was run. I found that to be a huge fiasco, and I am NOT for that.

IFF we do a grid again, it is going to be in a MUCH bigger area, and preplanned for.

Not a bad idea, but the implementation of that WILL change. I found it to be too formalized and highly frustrating. If anyone wants to challenge that statement -- fine. I, however, did NOT like that, and I was still waiting in a line anyway.

Meh.

- dow

I will agree with you about the grid. It was a good idea but we did not have sufficient room to run a proper grid. At the next event we should setup a proper grid where you actually can park your car until the next run.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

Oh yeah the way the grid happened was still a major pain but being able to turn the car off, get out and look at things falling off the car, and get back in without worrying about holding up the line was a very good thing. Let's do a proper auto-x style grid next time. I volunteer to work grid for the 2wd cars, it's not like we're hurting for course workers. (every station had at least 3 workers all day from what I could tell)

Still overall a great event!

--Kevin H.

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2003 WRX (again!)

I had a fun time at the event. The courses were a good use of the space and were set up well considering the rolling land. The course marking was great -- few actual gates, lots of inside-only turns letting people find their own line.

But, I will say that the "new" field left me wishing we were on the original field at BMW farm or at Four Oaks. The other field definitely has more usable room. Personally I don't think we should bother using that one again.

Grid - even with the chaotic grid (just caused by the tight space), I welcomed the chance to get out of the car and be able to ride along in other cars. But I agree w/ Kevin, please always consider grid at future events.

Re: tight turnarounds. I think we've learned by now that these should in general be avoided if possible. Not fun to drive, rut up horribly, and increase danger to equipment. But at this site they were nearly unavoidable.

Now if we could use this field + one next to it in combination -- even open one short section of fence to allow a "crossover" from one field to the next -- then we'd be golden. I didn't check out the whole area well, would that be a possibility? Is the next field over usable, and is there a short area of fence which could be taken down with no other obstructions?

With all that said -- THANKS to everyone for all their effort behind the scenes. I'm really not griping about anything, I had a great time.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

The field sure didn't seem as big as the other one once we laid a course out on it. The big advantages of this field are, IMO:

• Easier to cross the "berms" at a shallow angle to avoid sharp transitions, also made for some fun elevation/camber changes
• More square, so easier to make best use of space.

Disadvantages:

• A few hazards, though they'd be pretty hard to hit
• Smaller
• Large number of hard-to-see electric fences in close proximity to everything.

WRT to the rutting, I think we should recognize that we now we had more than half the field with 4WD, rally tires, or both, and that's going to create more wear on our courses than we've seen in the past. And due to the size of the new field we required more sharp turns, which of course get more rutted.

I think I would vote to have the next event back at the other field, but I don't feel strongly about it and would be happy to have another event at the new field, either in July or one in the future.

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Hmm... I think my opinion on the field or any location is 'is it fun'. For me, it wasn't bad, but at the same time, I didn't find it 'as fun' as the other two sites we have. While I *did* learn something and didn't find it intolerable, I didn't find it 'as fun' as the other two sites we have.

Is this to say that a small sites cannot be fun? Heck no. Greenville in autoX is fun. Do I think we can have fun on the site we were just at? Oh yea. I just think that the chair's at events like this in the future need to learn from this event, and realize what did and didn't work well. I think that we can have a *great* event here, but it will just take a little more creativity and time to make a good course.


I agree that just one more 'section' would really make the course a lot more 'exciting' and using the 'extra' poart at the top of the field might have made that happen. I am sure we can make that work better, but in all *I* found it quite alright.

Change, for me, is good, and I am glad to see that we took a chance. Now, we just need to add to what we learned.

- dow

Thank you staff and event chairs for your time and effort!

I thought both morning and afternoon were fine.

The pole and camber in the afternoon were entertaining.

Perhaps future plans for that field could involve pitting "one field up" (where the food was) and that would make enough room for an organized grid (if the event chairs decided they wanted one).

For future new/first-time locations, perhaps a map or description of exactly where to pit could be made available before arrival. The folks who got there early stopped in the wrong field.

Thanks again to all volunteers!

Anders

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Lina Racing: As Seen On Radio

BTW, Anders, you left your sunblocker. It's currently on the bus.

whoops please remove

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traded the ultimate driving machine for a hatchback.....

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traded the ultimate driving machine for a hatchback.....

Great event guys!, great dashplaque too!

If i remember correctly.. isnt the upper field mostly sand while the lower was red dirt/clay? Could this be a factor? I would think sand bogs you down more.

Does anyone think the truck helped/hindered the conditions? On one hand it was fast and had big tires, but on the other, the tires were wide so maybe it made "better" ruts(btw are trucks allowed now?).

I also like having a grid, the acclaim tranny sucks and the fewer times we shift from park to drive the better.

At what entry number do we no longer need to work 2 shifts? There are definately fewer cone calls in rallyX compared to autoX.

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traded the ultimate driving machine for a hatchback.....