2019 solo nationals

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John Brown
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by John Brown »

jcox07 wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:55 am The courses were better than last year but far from being good to me. West didn't have any flow or any place that I was over 38% throttle and the east just had too much pinch on exit. It is sad that every national event I went to the speeds were better and the courses flowed better than nationals courses did and my opinion is that the designers are trying to do to much and get too cute with the courses at Lincoln.
LOL! :lol:
EVERY SINGLE TIME..
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thrdeye
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by thrdeye »

38%?! Maybe you should get some street tires. Dunno what to tell you about that one.

https://youtu.be/cDKSffYG6_U
Chris Harp
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by steverife »

Harp got me curious and found Cody Hunt in SSR. He was 100% at 6 places and flirted with it several more times. Get a Corvette!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vf2KAntlww

CAMC runner up was 100% more than that. Might have been 100% more than me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EECglXj-hxs
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MARKP
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by MARKP »

First, I will say that I was a bit concerned about 1300 entries but the changes that were made to help increase the flow of the event definitely made the difference. I cant think of any angle that wasn't scrutinized to help keep the event running. Great job.

I didn't care for the east course at all. Almost everything was 90 degree turn, straight, 90 degree turn, offsets, 90 degree turn. The finish was the only section that was remotely fun for me and that was just me trying to hit the rev limiter in 2nd before the "big pinch".

I thought the west course was great and I think Scott B nailed the description. There were plenty of places to hang yourself and I saw a lot of people doing just that. However, if you did, you weren't going to take out a bunch of cones unless you were REALLY off line.

For Steve and Chris... where to run? I didn't feel unprepared for the west side and I ran locals and travelled to some national stuff. Maybe you guys got used to zmax? Our Bristol events typically have semi-fast to fast sweepers and some offsets. For concrete experience, you know I like Peru. For me, that is the closest grip we have to Lincoln. I never felt like Blytheville delivered on grip and I don't think Grenada does either but it was mostly wet when I ran there this year. Toledo was better on the old concrete we got this year. I have no interest in running on the newer lot where they park the Jeeps.

And now you have my $.02 which won't even get you a piece of gum. [emoji6]

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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by steverife »

I don't feel like I ran much of anything all year that requires you to consistently place the car the way you did at nationals.

Grip is whatever. This hopefully will change, but I didn't have much in the way of viable options as far as adjustments this year.
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John Brown
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by John Brown »

When I hear that Steve.. "requires you to consistently place the car"
all I hear is "BUSY" too busy.
however, in a car that is light and takes a long time to accelerate.. maybe its not all that busy. But in that Vette vid... its busy! :lol:
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by steverife »

Busy is subjective, but I kind of thought that was the idea behind autocross. High density inputs, precision driving, and all that...

The thing with that is if you run what we often get at Bristol, or maybe at Dixie or Peru, is that many of the offsets are so open that setting up for turns or backsiding the first cone in a series of offsets is unnecessary and scrubs off speed. So it is easy to get lazy with your turns or lazy mentally because you only have to really worry about a couple cones and your brake zones. Then it is tough to execute when you have to be spot on for 20 or 30 cones and focus for an entire run.

Somebody posted pics of Motlow State the other day and I couldn't tell grid from the course. Maybe I need some of those events.
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jcox07
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by jcox07 »

The vette video, Josh was under 50 % throttle for 56 seconds of his 64.4 second run.....
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thrdeye
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by thrdeye »

jcox07 wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:55 am The vette video, Josh was under 50 % throttle for 56 seconds of his 64.4 second run.....
I guess my response to that is "so what?" He also maintained about 55 mph through a real slalom. There's not some specific amount of throttle time that defines what an acceptable course is. Autocross is about turning, not going straight. In anything with 300 or more horsepower, you're going to have to pedal it often. It's the little squirts of throttle that make the difference.

Don't get me wrong, there were a few things on each course that could have been better, but more so on the east.
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by thrdeye »

MARKP wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 4:11 pm

For Steve and Chris... where to run? I didn't feel unprepared for the west side and I ran locals and travelled to some national stuff. Maybe you guys got used to zmax? Our Bristol events typically have semi-fast to fast sweepers and some offsets. For concrete experience, you know I like Peru. For me, that is the closest grip we have to Lincoln. I never felt like Blytheville delivered on grip and I don't think Grenada does either but it was mostly wet when I ran there this year. Toledo was better on the old concrete we got this year. I have no interest in running on the newer lot where they park the Jeeps.

And now you have my $.02 which won't even get you a piece of gum. [emoji6]

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I think, even as weird as it is and completely the opposite of concrete, Zmax has to be some good training ground for whatever reason. Top AS drivers came out of there the last two years.
Chris Harp
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jcox07
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by jcox07 »

That slalom was 75 feet between each cone just an fyi
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by eunos735 »

I thought the courses were fantastic, well balanced and offered plenty of opportunities to uses the gas, pull some g's turning, exercise your brakes and offer some great challenges.

I don't think there was anything "tricky" about them and we were well over 60mph through the 7 cone slalom.

At 75 feet.....its about as open as a multi cone slalom will ever be.

On the east course we were on the limiter (76mph) before the first hard left into the 3 cone slalom, coming out of the 3 cone offset slalom going "up the hill" going into the left hand sweeper before the wallops and then again in the finish complex.......and we were still only a few 10ths raw time faster than a car with a 63mph 2nd gear.

Top speed isn't where its at......its top average speed over the shortest distance.
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steverife
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by steverife »

Luster was magnificent with the throttle, by the way. I bet a lot of AS probably used a lot more throttle and went a lot slower.
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by steverife »

thrdeye wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 8:48 am
MARKP wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 4:11 pm

For Steve and Chris... where to run? I didn't feel unprepared for the west side and I ran locals and travelled to some national stuff. Maybe you guys got used to zmax? Our Bristol events typically have semi-fast to fast sweepers and some offsets. For concrete experience, you know I like Peru. For me, that is the closest grip we have to Lincoln. I never felt like Blytheville delivered on grip and I don't think Grenada does either but it was mostly wet when I ran there this year. Toledo was better on the old concrete we got this year. I have no interest in running on the newer lot where they park the Jeeps.

And now you have my $.02 which won't even get you a piece of gum. [emoji6]

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
I think, even as weird as it is and completely the opposite of concrete, Zmax has to be some good training ground for whatever reason. Top AS drivers came out of there the last two years.
I hated that place for a long time, but I think it is a fantastic place for forcing you to address your weaknesses.
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ConeEater
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Re: 2019 solo nationals

Post by ConeEater »

steverife wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 12:06 pm Luster was magnificent with the throttle, by the way. I bet a lot of AS probably used a lot more throttle and went a lot slower.
This right there.
I enjoyed both courses. Opinions are where they are. None of them are wrong... They are yours and you're entitled to them.
I under drove the shit out of the West course. I liked it though and my driving was lack of trust and unprepared mentally not course confusion or bad visuals or anything.
East course was a hoot. The walls in the back and the run to the end had some pinches and you had to park it a couple times to be sure to get thru but whatever.

Is it cool to be able to mash the gas and have room to stretch they legs? Hell yeah, but aside from a few local sites and such I never see that anyway.
Power corrupts and can blind you for from the bliss of threading the needle and getting the car dancing around tight shit and so on.

While I love the new GS, I like my cars "skinny ass" comparatively.

Anyway, anytime u get to go to Nationals in happy. 1st world problems I guess.
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