The "Rides of March" Rallycross School at OCS

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:55 pm

OK everyone here are the details on the upcoming “Rides of March” Rallycross school at OCS on Saturday March 24th.

Schedule:

8:00-9:00 Tech & Registration (don't be late!)
9:15 Drivers meeting
9:30 First Car Off
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-TBD Practice Course

We are setting the student entry limit at (24) to ensure all students get the maximum numbers of runs.

The instructor pool is pretty much a who’s who of THSCC Rally-X so there will be lots of good information to be passed onto the students. The list of “professors” will include:

Kevin Allen
Carl Fisher
Chris Suich
Cosby Wood
Jim Feinberg
Dustin Fredrickson
Mark Hoerath
Charlie Guthrie
Mitch Moore
Eric Adams
Vincent Keene
Keith Vail

The school 'curriculum' will be divided into (3) three separate stations with groups of students spending about 45-50 minutes at each. Students and instructors will rotate stations to give everyone some time at each discipline. The station scenarios will be as follows:

Station 1: Launch and tight radius corners.
Work on your launching skills. Knowing how to pick the right spot on the line, and how much wheel spin to have is a good thing. We will show you how much is too much.

The tight radius corner approach is all about speed vs. distance. Generally speaking, cutting the distance is usually better, but is somewhat dependent on course conditions during the run. You will learn how to best take these elements.

Station 2: Offsets / Slalom
Learning to get through these elements while keeping the car as straight as possible is the key. The more the tail wags, the worse off you’ll be. Practice make perfect and you will get lots of it.

Station 3: Large Radius Sweeper / Drift positioning
Driving the car sideways the entire run is fun and looks cool, but is not the fastest way around. However knowing when/how/where to use drifting will help your run times drop. Learn when and how to use those drifting skills you’ve seen on TV.

After everyone has rotated through the stations, we will break one hour for lunch. After lunch will we join the elements together to form a typical course where students will try their hand at what they’ve learned. We will break into two (2) separate groups run/work as usual with the numbers of runs per to be determined.

Hope to see you all there!

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:47 pm

Any instructor who can be at the site early (7:00-7:30) please email me at vkz24 at wpc dot net. I have a small task that we will need help with.

Thanks!

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:47 am

I would like to apologize, but I will not be able to make this rallyX. With a death in Stacy's family this week, we will be heading back to her homestead this weekend.

My apologies, and this is the first time I have seen technology (read: internet) since Monday morning, when we got the call.

- brian

ChrisSuich · **Posted:** Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:08 pm

Hmmm.. I didn't consider myself good enough for instructing. I was hoping to get instructed.

ChrisSuich · **Posted:** Sat Mar 24, 2007 6:58 pm

Vincent/Chuck,
You guys put on a great school today! I really liked the format of 3 small groups rotating around to the different stations. I think everyone got suffcient amount of runs during the morning practice areas and then to get 7 full course runs in the afternoon was fantastic. :clap:

I'm looking forward to applying what I learned today in tomorrow's event.

Thanks again.

And big thanks to all the instructors that gave their time today. :thumbsup:

Chris

ChuckNelson · **Posted:** Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:15 pm

I had a great time as well. I don't know why people are not fighting to chair an event.

I ran all over Southern Wake county looking for a replacement tire. Found a a cheapie at Walmart, got home, found the spare wheel. With a tire on it already!

Mo Monroe · **Posted:** Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:03 pm

A huge - thank you to Vincent & Chuck who dedicated their time and effort into planning the school and another Gigantic thanks to all those who spent their day instructing us.

Today was just an amazing event with at least 7 runs each on the short courses (yes, that's 21 short runs), and 7 full course runs in the afternoon - I think I got more seat time today than all of last years rally competitions combined!

The courses were fun as hell, the weather was great, and I must say, I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday.

Now, if I can just beat Charlie tomorrow with all I learned today - the weekend will be complete! - :twisted:

Thanks again!

Mo :redcool:

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:28 pm

Agreed- a great school. VK had a good plan, and it gave everyone beaucoup seat time. The morning elements were simple but challenging, and everyone was still learning stuff all the way though to the end of each session. He allowed enough time for everything to happen, so even with a couple surprises we were able to stay on schedule.

The afternoon "mini-course" was a straightforward connection of the morning elements, but still took on a character of its own and was a great test of the skills the students learned in the morning. Lot of runs, and you couldn't have asked for a prettier day!

Unfortunately the day was marred by a few mechanical problems, including a couple debeaded tires, a blown clutch in Carlotta's 323, and Vincent's transmission getting stuck in neutral a mile from the site before he even got there this morning!

Chuck did a great job laying out tomorrow's course, and seemed quite at home doing it. Great job Chuck! So we've got 45 drivers preregged for tomorrow's event- I hope it goes as smoothly as today did!

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:53 pm

Great event, beautiful weather, record attendance (45). Thanks to Vincent and Chuck Nelson for doing a great job!

Results are now up.

If anyone has photos or videos, please post them here.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:11 pm

Great even for sure. :woo:

I will say one thing. In a year, some of you guys have gotten pretty damn good at this driving in the dirt thing!!!! I needed to be less of a wuss today :oops:

Still fun nonetheless. Again, if you arent participating, you a TRULY missing out.

CosbyWood · **Posted:** Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:03 pm

That was a LOT of fun. Whatever we are paying Kim for that site is well worth it IMO. If only there was something we could do about that pesky dust and those sneaky rocks. :shock:

Great event guys! And the school was exceptional and the students that I talked to echoed pretty much the same thing.

Oh, for those who didn't know, it's also nice to know that we have access to tire machines and air on site if anyone debeads while there. That's a pretty good bonus as well.

ChuckNelson · **Posted:** Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:14 pm

Also a big thanks to Kim and Orange County Speedway. On Saturday, when the lunch wagon could not make it, Kim brought out coffee and drinks. She also offered to get lunch as well. Cosby and Mark camped in the OCS infield and had the use of the pit showers. We even had access to the tire machines for debeads(Or punctures, I would have been a bystander otherwise) OCS stickers and Rufus.
A great host who really enjoys having us and a great location.

Edit: Cosby types faster than me.
Edit2: We are working on pictures and video. I thnk we have everyone but it will be a day or two before we get them hosted.

ChuckNelson · **Posted:** Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:21 pm

Bouncy, bouncy

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:43 pm

It felt like it was bucking like that around the entire course. I am sure our crew would have been a little bit faster without blown shocks. :shock:

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:26 am

Dudes, you so need new shocks! I watched Steve on 1 run come up around the "tree" turn, and as the springs rebounded from the compression, the whole car went 6-8 inches in the air! :shock:

Cosby was standing nearby with my camera, maybe he got it on video, but he said it ran out of batteries early in the afternoon session so maybe not...

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