ETR #2 done!

[John Brown]

well said.

however, from my standpoint on course design..its a one man show. It normally cant be brainstormed in the short period of time you have in the morning. You will be moving cones all day to please 2-3 course designers. I have had those mornings too....but I made simple = easy... (not a grip either..I totally understand)

Some of the new chair folks this year need to be there early to see what it takes to arrange those cones to be fun....
Rule of thumb to me is... "if it walks extremely fast..it will drive just about right" seriously. Believe me...your not going nearly as fast as you think you will be....

[MARKP]

I agree the course designer needs to have an idea of where things are going. Course design by committee rarely goes well. However, the course designer doesn't have to place every cone. I think I personally placed 95% of the cones yesterday.

Sent from the EVO

[ConeEater]

Hello everyone

Just wanted to thank you guys for putting on a fun day. That was my 1st event with the ETR ( and not last ) and it was a good time.

I'll say ( as a board member for another region ) that it's hard to 'just be' at an event that you're not running..

Overall I thought the course was very good. There was some elements that I thought were tough visually that a novice might have issues with, but the course flowed quite well and definately rewarded patience and planning. If you didn't look ahead you were off-line very quick. You really had to committ and pick your line ( for your car ) coming into that 1st big RH sweeper... if you didn't get that right, it got you behind for the last section.

I was running a car that while was 'similar' to mine, was on RE-11s (instead of big hoosiers ) and so on, but there was definately time I was leaving out there.

My main goal yesterday was to check out Paul's car and see what could be done with it. After seeing how much more aggressive I was with it, he quickly got faster.

Anyway, thanks to Mark and the rest of the Solo board for putting on a fun event on a nice lot. They are hard to come by so cherish it.

See you all again soon in MY car hopefully.

[John Brown]

Hello everyone

Just wanted to thank you guys for putting on a fun day. That was my 1st event with the ETR ( and not last ) and it was a good time.

I'll say ( as a board member for another region ) that it's hard to 'just be' at an event that you're not running..

Overall I thought the course was very good. There was some elements that I thought were tough visually that a novice might have issues with, but the course flowed quite well and definately rewarded patience and planning. If you didn't look ahead you were off-line very quick. You really had to committ and pick your line ( for your car ) coming into that 1st big RH sweeper... if you didn't get that right, it got you behind for the last section.

I was running a car that while was 'similar' to mine, was on RE-11s (instead of big hoosiers ) and so on, but there was definately time I was leaving out there.

My main goal yesterday was to check out Paul's car and see what could be done with it. After seeing how much more aggressive I was with it, he quickly got faster.

Anyway, thanks to Mark and the rest of the Solo board for putting on a fun event on a nice lot. They are hard to come by so cherish it.

See you all again soon in MY car hopefully.

and...your who?

[ConeEater]

Sorry... see signature Below... I forgot to add it in beforehand.

[MARKP]

Thanks for coming, Brian. We need to work on getting a nice shiny black convertible out there too.

Sent from the EVO

[RxCritical]

Sorry... see signature Below... I forgot to add it in beforehand.

So Brian it looks like you guys up north "cook" your novices???


"Novice Cheif"

[RxCritical]

Sorry... see signature Below... I forgot to add it in beforehand.

PS Thanks for the co drive, you are welcome to co drive anytime you want.

[integra55]

What I am talking about Chris is I think Gary won pro without getting out of first gear and I had to downshift coming out of the 180 that went back up the hill and point and shoot is ok but point gas and then brake inside of a second is not good. This was the first course ever that I had to down shift and you would think with 700 hp and 740 lbs of torq one would not have to down shift. I did have fun, but no way was it a fun course, way too many people talking about that and too much of the lot was not used. The course was just over 3 tenths of a mile. At z-max and stone mountain the course is 1 mile or longer, I know we can't get that big, but at pelli we are 6 tenths to 8 tenths of a mile. I am just saying the lot should have been utilized better.

shoot I've only got 115 whp ( or there-abouts) and ~ 100 ' #'s of torque and there is absolutely no advantage for me to down shift ... actually it would have slowed me down ( if we can assume that that would have been possible )

[integra55]

One thing that the course taught very well was unwinding the steering wheel. It was very tempting to use too much steering input on a few sections of the course. You can see that I caught on to this as I generally got faster toward the end.

I found myself unwinding the steering wheel once or twice.....You really get faster when you do that...snicker Now if I can just stop hitting cones! 1 clean run....but thats all it takes to win!

It was great to see alot of new faces !!!!! And it was great to see Curt again!

you keep rubbing it in and it's going to back fire .... sooner or later ...

[ConeEater]

Mark, If she wants to do it, I'm all for it, but it's on her terms and her pace. I personally would rather her drive my car since I don't mind it getting marked up.

Paul... the Novices must be motivated...if they dont' perform, they get cooked.

When I bring the Z down, you'll have to hop in it.

[MARKP]

I understand. I just like to give her a hard time.

Sent from the EVO

[oldmuscle69]

If i'm not mistaken the rules have some thing about a parade lap before running the course. Not being a PRO by any means I think if we did this and have some spacing between cars even the noobs would benifit. Like not so much getting lost on course,being pissed for a day full of DNF and never comming back. If I remember right our first event was a DNF waiting to happen and it did. At least the cours was less DNF,but some did not have a clue.One thing that would help would be if a run groupe that is not working at the time could sort of help with ride alongs or actualy drive the car sort of slow around the course and try to explain to the poor lost sole and show them the course and mayby ride with them after.I rember my first AX and was glad for williams ride along even we did A DNF I ran the last 2 runs clean and won class. Just saying lets help us help us.

Well, I am glad that at least my course got some people talking. It was getting a little quiet around here.

Without trying to sound like Col. Jessup from the movie “A Few Good Men”, let me try to explain a number of things that went into the course you did or did not like yesterday.

Most of the courses over the past year or so seem to be designed by the same core group of people. We are constantly asking for new people to run the events and design courses. Things get pretty quiet when that happens. Some of those that had issues with the course should give it a shot, seriously.

Your event charipersons and course designers typically get to the site, regardless of location or weather, at 7am. On the special events, we get there the day before. I was there at 6:45 yesterday, in the dark, trying to set up the course alone. I got a bunch of help from Chad Summey marking the course and sweeping and from Michael, a guy that had never attended an autocross before. Other than that, the only help I got was some variation of “this course sucks”, as they were walking the already completed course. Thanks.

Before you get your panties in a wad about that paragraph, read the rest. I didn’t really like the course either. There were elements that did what I wanted to do. There were other areas that didn’t. After driving it, I would have changed the offset in the first slalom to make it straight and opened the turn following it to make it more of a sweeper. After that, I would have changed the angle of the three walls to make things line up correctly with the 180 at the other end. From the 180 back to the finish, the course was the way I intended.

Someone mentioned driving the course to test it before turning everyone loose on it. I used to try to do that in a car that was completely different from whatever I was driving that day, typically a Mustang or Camaro with as much HP as possible. I think some of my competition frowned on that so I didn’t do it this time around. I probably won’t be designing any more courses this year because that is the only event I am chairing this year but I will try to do that in the future if I get to chair another event.

I know this probably sounds like I am griping but I’m really just trying to explain things. As some have said, it is not as easy as it looks. I would like to see more step up and give it a shot. More perspectives will typically get more variations on courses and we all learn from each other.

[John Brown]

DNF's............... they happen for 2 reasons.

YOU DID NOT WALK THE COURSE ENUFF......
heres my one secret.... its the only ace in the hole I have.
If you cant see EVERY apex cone in your head with your eyes closed.... at race speed,as if your in your car driving it...

you aint walked enuff.. period. If you dont agree.. show me your method..and have references.



or you were going to damm fast for the element and blew thru it.

[oldmuscle69]

Crap the master has spoken.Poss the second part to.But jezz give a common man a break driving into a bazillion cone area can sort of mess with the head unless you built it.

DNF's............... they happen for 2 reasons.

YOU DID NOT WALK THE COURSE ENUFF......
heres my one secret.... its the only ace in the hole I have.
If you cant see EVERY apex cone in your head with your eyes closed.... at race speed,as if your in your car driving it...

you aint walked enuff.. period. If you dont agree.. show me your method..and have references.



or you were going to damm fast for the element and blew thru it.