East Tennessee Region SCCA

Steve and I are leaving for Spring nats this Wed. about 2pm ish and driving as far as we can. If you are leaving in this time frame and want to caravan, post up and if not we will see you in Lincoln.

Good luck! Maybe next year! I always say that.

I'm probably leaving 7 or 8 PM Weds. Hoping to get there somewhere in the 4-6 PM range Thurs.

If we are the first ETR peeps that get to the site, we will save spots up close for the rest of youins.

Just a reminder: registration opens for the Bristol Match and Champ Tours at 7PM EDT on Wednesday.

We will be leaving Knoxville sometime around 3 or 4 Wednesday. Will drive as far as we can. Hope to be there by lunch on Thursday

Sadly we're not leaving until Thursday afternoon - missing the Pro this year. But we'll be at the site early PM on Friday if you would please save us a spot for the truck and trailer.

Brutally hot. I was far less social than I like to be because I, along with everyone else, was just trying to deal with the heat.

I know Jeff didn't like the courses, but I thought they were fun. Courses seem to have slowed this year, but I'm okay with that.

Hopefully everyone got a lot of good info for nationals. I learned a ton. Hopefully it pays off going forward.

Heat,heat,heat,heat was for sure an issue and like Steve said, the courses to me were not big car friendly as the top 100 pax will back that up on each the pro and the champ tour. The day 2 tour course was a little fun but if not for the change that they made in day 2 course, it would have been the worst course that I have seen in Lincoln. The day one champ tour was the 2017 west course run backwards and the visuals were worse going backwards than they were going forward. The pro solo course was very slow and very tight as the top 100 pax will show as well. Overall I enjoy racing, but if I had known the course were what they were, I would not have gone. The pro courses were so busy with cones being hit that one of the scca officals even said we are working the workers to death and my response to him was, your boss designed the course....lol

I can say as a worker at the finish slalom for the Pro, it sucked. I think that is the most running for cones I've ever seen done at a corner for a national event. Between the 4 of us it seemed like someone was always running and more often than not more than one of us at the same time. And it wasn't just big cars that had trouble getting thru there.

Of all 3 courses I'd say I enjoyed day 1 of the Champ the best. It was tight and busy but once we figured out we were running the wrong line my last run felt pretty good, just wish I'd have done that 1 run sooner.

Monday's course I had trouble with the visual in the beginning section. It may have just been me trying to over drive it but I was only able to pick up the exit cone from that turn around once, the other two runs I was either too wide or too shallow. I was also disappointed in the fact they reused so much of the Pro course for Mondays course. I think there were at least 4 cones that were in the exact same place and another half dozen that were only moved a foot or so. With so much room seems like we coulda done something different. I would have understood if it was limited by lot layout but can't use that excuse.

The heat was just brutal, never expected it to be that hot out there in May. But suddenly cutting the grass yesterday in 80 degrees felt refreshing. ..lol. Overall had a good time. Was just a little disappointed with the courses for such a big area to work with. And it wasn't just us that felt that way, heard those sentiments echoed from quite a few people during course walks and discussions Sunday night.

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Ill say this... I got out of a small car because the courses were getting faster.. so I get a damm 600hp car,and from my own personal experience, the courses are so Fn bad at National events... Im not even putting an effort into going.
I hate that its happening, and feel bad for the guys that have 4 times the money into those bigger faster cars .. but I get a relief every time they come home and say how that if they had only known,they would have stayed home.

Its how "they" operate. Its par for the bandwagon this year. Its no wonder the West Coast folks are much faster than the rest of the country.

I hope Peru is normally fast... and they dont slow Bristol down (but IM pretty sure they will try)

...and Ill just go ahead and add this.. when a JB kart wins pax at a Pro... thats funny shit!

So what was the last good course at a national event?

Back to Wilmington... or almost any course at Topeka Nats. Lincoln in 14-15 maybe.. ( not so good in a small car)

Cecil has had some good ones.

and all you have to do is watch almost any course out in Texas or farther West.. they all are awesome!

The Fort myers pro this year was good and Dixie last year and other than that probably etr double and Wilmington, IMO....if it is so tight that you can't be full throttle in at least 3 places on a course, than it is a bad course. I was never even close to full throttle any where at spring nats/pro...well at the pro the start was a brief full throttle, but they have gotten away from what the rules say in that the pro is suppose to have a 200 foot start drag start... hence the drag start, but they have been 125 at best. Sam is doing the course at peru for the champ tour in 3 weeks or at least he is suppose to.

Not everybody is in 3700 lb, 400+ horsepower cars.

I was using a lot of throttle on all the courses. Top speeds were low (I don't think I got limiter at the Pro, no limiter Sunday, rode the limiter in 2 places), but I still got to use a lot of throttle in a lot of places.

I think we are losing site of the sport when you have lower classed cars with normal gearing DEEP into 3rd and every single transition is a "straight" in an ES/STS car.

I liked these better than Dixie the last few years and Bristol because those courses had punishingly slow turnarounds.... which I guess you guys like because you can hammer it out of them.