A few thoughts about Nats

In the end, it really is just another autocross, especially if you're not a contender for the jacket or trophy. I think, like many newbies, we took it a little too seriously and it really hurt our times on the first day. I would be a little looser and less strict with myself in the future. I would probably be a little more social in the evenings instead of worrying about getting to the venue so early each morning.

For preparation, do what you would for any event, but...

- Ensure that you car will pass tech before leaving home.
- Buy and scrub a new set of tires.
- Make sure you have rain tires, even if it is just your normal street tires with good tread.
- Make sure that your alignment is correct.

I had enough of the place in the time I was there, so I would not plan to ever stay there the whole week.

YMMV

Sounds pretty accurate to me. The only thing I would say is take the course walk very seriously, know the course back and forth and be able to drive the whole thing your head with your eyes closed. I thought it was a fun overall experience and will try and make it to the new venue next year.

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Originally Posted by CosmosMpower

The only thing I would say is take the course walk very seriously, know the course back and forth and be able to drive the whole thing your head with your eyes closed.

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Agreed.

For the most part the events that are held in our area have anywhere from 3-8 runs per day, yet most of the events that I have been able to attend lately have 6 or 8 runs per day.

I learned that I have to take the first three runs at any event and treat them like they are my only three runs. I found myself not pushing hard enough in the first run this week.

Thanks to all of the local drivers for the advice this week. I asked a lot of questions and got very good information from other STS drivers as well as other Texas Region Drivers.

Ohh yea, and I learned to take deep breaths when driving through Kansas and Oklahoma.

Other lessons learned:
Do not travel through Oklahoma City in a rain storm two hours prior to kick-off for an OU home game.
Heavy rain does not drain off in one lane construction zones.
You can catch a 1500 Silverado with trailer when both hydroplane at 45 in said construction zone.
Wife will be very awake and talkative after such a skiing event.
Sometimes the gods smile on you and you will wake up to the flat trailer tire instead of experiencing it while on the highway in the rain.

It was a fun event with disappointing results. Lincoln is a great site with relatively easy access but lack of 93 octane. Even my slightly dated in truck guidance system, Wife-Wife, could handle the directions to the site.

Locals were very welcoming and having room for a practice course all week is a plus. In my opinion 5 days is the minimum length of stay for Nationals. Too much to do and too many people to meet.

Courses were fun, fast and challenging. Compared to past Nationals the folks from Topeka left the event organization at home. Tech & registration windows were narrow and in my opinion tech was not up to the scale of our local events. Must have been a dozen people standing around, shooting the crap, doing one car at a time and looking at nothing. Watched a car in front get teched with the the entire interior filled to the roof. No one looked under our hood or even bothered to yank a tire.

Safety was non-existent in grid with kids running around, cars exceeding 5mph and open fueling without fire extinguishers. Constant issues with timing and scoring were strange as there have never been such consistent problems in the 10 years I've attended. Impound was a marathon and in one class they neglected the escort the cars selected for impound to the tech area resulting in some rather late arrivals.....

It was good to see a few new faces among event chiefs but some of the old *ssholes that live their lives to be rude still remain.

Good to see SCCA taking a little more interest in random compliance checks. At least one car got a free ride back to the shops in Topeka. Too bad they did not do 5 gas testing in STS. I'm sure the results would have been a hoot. They still have a way to go in stock classes to police them.

We'll go back next year to fill the bottom of the field again.

Agree with a lot of the comments above. This is our first year at this site and I think Topeka staff did a great job! I'm sure they will make some improvements for next year.

One observation that I made was how different the courses were from what we practice on most weekends here in North Texas. The best way I can say it is we practice on Putt-Putt Golf courses and then show up to Lincoln to compete at Augusta National.

Course Length - At approx 60 seconds, the courses were longer, faster, and much more complex with more to remember.

Speed - Speeds were higher just about everywhere. There were several 50mph sweepers and high speed offsets and slaloms. I hit the rev limiter 3 times on the East course with one switch to 3rd.

Grip - Maybe the biggest difference, the grip is so much greater at Lincoln than anything we run on locally. Pennington isn't even close IMO.

Fingers crossed that we can get onto a larger site in 2010. Concrete would be a huge plus but just having larger, faster, more complex courses will help a bunch.

While the grip, IMO, wasn't as good as Forbes Field, it's obviously much better than HPT, but I did drive first heat TW, so no rubber was laid down.

60-second courses do require multiple walks. I used to be just a 3-walk per course guy at Nats, but learned a few years ago from Bob Tunnell to walk it until your feet bleed. Know every section of the course like the back of your hand. If you think you know the course after only 3 runs, think again. I've gotten into the habit of slapping a video camera onto a car. any car. upload it to a computer ASAP and study it over and over at speed. rewind certain sections that seem difficult, check out braking points etc. Even if it's on a car that is taking crappy lines, you'll see it on the video and you'll know what people are doing wrong and how to correct it.

Lastly, go to the SoloPro course discussion and/or the Evolution. I didn't read the SoloPro notes on the west course until after I had ran and smacked my forehead for not knowing how to do a particular section properly. no, it wouldn't have been the difference between first and second for me, but it was easly .3 - .5 which was the difference from last year's nationals.

study, study, study the courses. walk walk walk.

d