January 17th Post Event

[JWSmythe]

I forgot to post the link to my videos. For some reason, my PC screwed up the capture of two of them, so they came out at half speed. These two were good though. I don't think you'll see any "sawing" of my wheel, but I'd have to review carefully.

Run 1 - 68.210 + 8 victims (cones) - 1st gear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vHs2HFFc5I" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Run 3 - 67.610 + 3 victims - 2nd gear (I think)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGzNsy3OEuI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, I didn't mount the camera very well. I had planned the mount design a couple weeks in advance, and bought the parts Friday afternoon from Home Depot (copper pipe, 2 U bolts, 1 1/4"x20x2" bolt, 4 1/4"x20 nuts). My friend had a server emergency at 5pm (main MSSQL server, motherboard failure), so I was doctoring that through 2am (diagnose hardware, find emergency replacements, curse at Microsoft for requiring an in-place upgrade just to swap a motherboard). All I managed to do at home was drill the hole in the pipe. I'm surprised I made it through the day on almost no sleep. I assembled it at the track, and it looked ok-enough in the viewfinder. Turns out I was a little low, so you can't see the track unless I'm braking hard, but you see ahead a little bit, hear the engine, see that the car doesn't lean, and see me whipping the wheel around.

Oh, and the rattling noise is all my loose change. I know the rules are nothing loose in the cabin, so I threw all my loose change in the console, which happened to be right under the camera. We'll call it my lateral accelerometer.

[impalanut]

I now have more new (correct) tires

[JWSmythe]

How are course designs handled for this group? Is it up to the person running the event, or is it a free for all? I'm far far far from wanting to run an event, but I could have some fun drawing up some course layouts.

Ya, after I saw some of the measurements, I was pretty sure the map wasn't completely to scale. It still felt very tight. Gimme 35' wide turns. With enough speed, folks will still screw those up. Trust me. Given the opportunity, everyone can screw up. If there are only cones in the way, it's not that scary. Driving with 1000 foot cliff on one side, and a mountain on the other is scary.

Angeles Crest Hwy to Mt. Wilson Observatory

I used to take this for pleasure drives on weekends. A couple passes through here left visible wear on the outside edge of my tires from all the hard cornering. I never raced through, it was just like an endurance test to see if you could hold the speed limit. The fastest I could go was about 40mph, but that was for very short times. Corners were much much slower. A friend out there rode his motorcycle through there daily for work. He told me about getting passed by a car once. He was doing 30, and they were stupid. About two miles later, the car was nose into the side of the mountain, and the driver was stumbling out of his car. My friend stopped to check on them. The driver asked "What happened?" He told him, "You were stupid. You could have died." They didn't understand until he pointed at the other side of the road. If you looked down, you saw treetops. People fell off that road all the time. In plenty of places, it's at least several hundred feet down to the next flat ground.

Last time I went there, they had landed a helicopter in the road, to lift survivors (I assume) from a car that went over the edge.

[snookwheel]

I now have more new (correct) tires

C'mon.... there still life in the old ones.... keep using 'em. No need for new tires. Really.... trust me...

[Loren]

How are course designs handled for this group? Is it up to the person running the event, or is it a free for all? I'm far far far from wanting to run an event, but I could have some fun drawing up some course layouts.

The event chairman is responsible for getting a course designed and set up. He can delegate that as he sees fit. We have trained safety folks to review the course design (hopefully before the event to fix obvious problems) and check the final setup to ensure it meets our safety standards and nobody's gonna die.

[JWSmythe]

Ok, so if I design stuff, I'll entertain myself with it, and keep quiet.

[Loren]

Ok, so if I design stuff, I'll entertain myself with it, and keep quiet.

If you want to learn from your designs and find out what wrong (or right) with them (like this course would have been deemed "too tight" by anyone who reviewed it, but otherwise "safe"), myself or any of the other trained safety stewards would be happy to review anything you come up with.

Download this and give it a read before you start:
http://houscca.com/solo/courses/coursedesign.zip" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(bonus: it will also help you understand some common course design tricks that can make you a better driver)

[JWSmythe]

Thanks, I'll have a look at that tonight when I get home.

I'd love to say, "I've been driving for 23 years, and racing for about 16 years, I know everything", but you know ... I don't. I'm always happy to learn, even if it's something I already knew and forgot. Even if it's something stupid like "you don't have enough traction for 1st gear, try driving it in 2nd".

[Loren]

I know what you mean. I've only been at it for about 13 years, and most of it has been autocross. But, as I've progressed into road course events and a little racing... it's all good. I never met an apex I didn't like.

The interesting thing about autocross is that there are probably at least 10 distinct levels you can be at as a driver, and half of them you might consider "good". We rarely see anyone at our events that's much higher than a 7 or 8 out of 10. I'd consider myself about an 8 to 8.5 on most days... but I know for a fact that there are drivers out there that can flat-out leave me in the dust wondering how the heck they just beat my best time by a second. And if you talk to those guys, they'll usually be able to point out where even on what you thought was a perfect run, THEY made a mistake somewhere on the course, or tell you about something that they learned a couple events back.

We're always learning and honing our skills.

[AScoda]

Oh,yeah, one more thing:
Damn you guys and your new fangled, fancy-ass anti-lock brakes!!!!

That turned out to be a killer for me. The three spots where I had to slam on the brakes all were right where the pavement dropped over a rise, which just locked the brakes when the suspension unloaded. I had to slow down way earlier than my brakes would normally allow on a flat spot. Outside of that, I was able to get my V8 slug through the tight spots pretty quickly. Sometimes you think your car is bigger than it really is. You may not like this layout, but some of you guys may benefit from a really tight course like this. After this one, a regular course will feel like throwing a hot dog down a hallway.

[Anonymous]

This was the first FAST autocross I've ever been to. It was definately fun/interesting/intimidating. When I was walking the course I was thinking...I'm glad I have a smaller car...trying to get a mustang or vette thru some of these turns is going to be a bear. Kudos to Kevin and that Impala.

It was a pleasure talking with everyone I had a conversation with. Great people and awesome food! It was worth the trek from Ormond to autocross with a new crowd. Cheers to all it's members. I hope to visit again some time.

Matt

[Anonymous]

I'm always happy to learn, even if it's something I already knew and forgot. Even if it's something stupid like "you don't have enough traction for 1st gear, try driving it in 2nd".

Or "don't put your hand on the inside of the steering wheel."

[Native]

awesome food

Thanks for the reminder. I meant to post this earlier:

Connie's BBQ

[5speed4dr]

CONGRATULATIONS are in order to ROBERT VINCENT and some dude in a red Mazdaspeed (#66) -

FOR BEING THE ONLY TWO BLOKES THAT DID NOT POP A CONE OR DNF!!!!

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!!!!

Signed,

anonymous

Thanks for the props. I have to confess that I had a bit of an advantage coming into this. I teach the law enforcement course to new recruits, so I'm familiar with navigating tight turns. Although Loren did change it up quite a bit, and he had us turning in the opposite direction from what I'm used to, so I had to force myself to follow the "wrong" course.

Had lots of fun, and I'm very proud of the Speedwagon's performance.

Rob

[Solar]

awesome food

Thanks for the reminder. I meant to post this earlier:

Connie's BBQ

Thanks for the link Steve. How come you didn't order sweet potato pie or the bread pudding?

[Charles]

Oh,yeah, one more thing:
Damn you guys and your new fangled, fancy-ass anti-lock brakes!!!!

I feel your pain........ you should drive my car sometime.

Pedal travel is about 2" between no brakes and full lock up.....

If you make it out to a SCCA event where there are always runs to burn we might be able to arrange that.......

[FranK0AmerikA]

This was my first event (besides the novice driving school the week before) and I'd just like to say I had a helluva time out there Definently can't wait til the Brooksville event