SCCA Solo II Event #1 - Pennington Motor Speedway 3/16/08

[Miatamoto]

Oops, forgot about the TX A&M event. Only had 1 clean run there too!

Make that 3 clean runs out of the last 4 events.

[jrj512]

My advice would be to take PMS off the venue list. Unless you want to run 25 second courses, there's no way to lay one out without an overlap which leads to 1-car-at-a-time syndrome.

The overlap is fine, but it is best to put it near the beginning in order to get the second car out earlier. The problem that we run into is that we have pretty much exhausted all of the designs (that we can think of) that have an overlap towards the beginning. However, I am drawing one up now that might be pretty good. Will someone be available the day before the event to help build the ramp?

[POS Racing]

I came in second off of my first run with 2 dirty runs after that (I'm starting to make a habit of that). I think I've had 2 clean runs in the last 3 events!

We were talking about that yesterday general consensus was you need to add a booster to your seat so you can see out the windows.

[Miatamoto]

We were talking about that yesterday general consensus was you need to add a booster to your seat so you can see out the windows.

ROFL! I hate you!

... still waiting!

[sammm]

We were talking about that yesterday general consensus was you need to add a booster to your seat so you can see out the windows.

Are you sure? The other leprechaun didn't have any problems yesterday!

[HudsonHawk]

Long day. I forgot to use my sun screen, again.

Thanks to HudsonHawk for helping with my tire change.

I had never seen three cones hung under a kart before, nice job miata_racer.

As someone said, it was the best autocross I attend yesterday.

Your welcome.

And the Cart was funny. I think he took out a dozen cones at the finish line. Got off his cart. Picked it up and pulled three out from under it.

I Had a good time, next time I would like to get a ride if possible. Think its something I could get into.

[jrj512]

I Had a good time, next time I would like to get a ride if possible. Think its something I could get into.

Don't ride -- drive. Come out to an S2000 event or a BMW event where you get 8 runs if you want good practice. ER events give you six runs, too. Then use the SCCA (and ER) events to really compare yourself to the top drivers in the area.

[Solo RX-7]

I'm not going to make any excuses for the slow start yesterday. We're (TXR BOD) all as disappointed as anyone that it had to happen that way. I will say that the TLinks were checked and tested before the event and we have no idea why they refused to work. Without the initial delay the large turnout would've been fantastic, offering more comraderie and competition. We can easily handle 149 drivers with 4 runs (or more).

Hopefully this isn't a classic case of one bad incident sticking with everyone and making them forget all the good stuff. If this was your first event with us we apologize for the slow start, but ask around and you'll find it's rarely like that at our events.

On edit: We do appreciate the feedback and take most of it seriously well, except the whiny stuff and the stuff we dont' like, and the stuff that jrj512 says.

[MadMonkey]

And the Cart was funny. I think he took out a dozen cones at the finish line. Got off his cart. Picked it up and pulled three out from under it

I saw that one happen, that was hilarious.

Even though I didn't run, I brought a friend out and he's VERY excited about bringing his RSX out next time

Have another friend with a Firebird who wants to start doing this too.

[Darron65]

Can't even blame my old tires... Sammy was a solid half second ahead of me as always. Dammit!

[Miatamoto]

Video of my 3rd run, fastest raw time for me

[ken o]

Help me with the math. How would moving the crossover closer to the beginning help? The course is only 33 - 45 seconds. You need 15 - 25 seconds between cars for chasing cones. Also having the crossover close to start really only helps to get the second car on course faster, right? With a bigger surface it would help, I think.

I agree with having an AM and PM session. This would require more core volunteers.

[Robert]

Getting only 3 runs was a bummer but I understand sometimes stuff happens. I forgot to turn off my stability assist on runs 2 and 3 which cost me a little time. I through I was making alot of little mistakes but turns out it was the car trying to help me drive.

With 160 cars we could have done 4 heats to make the time on course a little shorter.

+another 1 on the split day format I think that would be great.

[POS Racing]

What was the average number of cars per event last season??

I think the split day would be OK but I wonder if we have enough people attending events to pull it off.

[sammm]

Part of the problems yesterday were weather related. The wind kept blowing thru the lights, tripping false starts and finishes. That's why there were so many re-runs and other timing issues.

[modernbeat]

I'm having a hard time posting to the TexasSCCA forum, and there are obviously a few TR-BOD members here...

Somone added my email to the Texas Region email list. While I'm happy to be on that list, I'd like it to go to a different email. The instructions detail how to unsuscribe, but not how to suscribe to the list. Anyone want to fess up to putting me on the list so you can switch to my "list" email?

[Solo RX-7]

Moving the crossover would've helped a little, but not too much. A normal overlap interval for a local event is around 25 seconds. We were at 30 for most cars yesteraday, so with our 3 runs and 149 drivers (160 reg'd, 149 with times) that would've bought us a little less than 40 minutes over the day. Not insignificant, but not the real source of the trouble. The course length doesn't have any effect on how long an event runs other than the time it takes you to walk it and a few extra minutes to get your workers at their stations . It's all about the interval you can send cars. The course can be 250 seconds, and as long it's laid out so you can send a car every 25 seconds you can still hustle the same amount of competitors through as a shorter course with a similar interval.

Split day works fantastic if there's enough people, but we haven't figured out how to pull it off with the numbers we have. We looked at it hard in the off season, and our numbers aren't big enough (yet) to make it work safely and consistently. We averaged 135 per event last year.

There's another option to get the event moving in a situation like this. The old faithful stopwatch method is advocated by a few of the BOD members. Obviously not the preferred method, but it could've got us going sooner. So the question is, would you rather have one (or a couple) of your times done by stopwatch while we get another timer system in place, or wait?

[CosmosMpower]

Moving the crossover would've helped a little, but not too much. A normal overlap interval for a local event is around 25 seconds. We were at 30 for most cars yesteraday, so with our 3 runs and 149 drivers (160 reg'd, 149 with times) that would've bought us a little less than 40 minutes over the day. Not insignificant, but not the real source of the trouble. The course length doesn't have any effect on how long an event runs other than the time it takes you to walk it and a few extra minutes to get your workers at their stations . It's all about the interval you can send cars. The course can be 250 seconds, and as long it's laid out so you can send a car every 25 seconds you can still hustle the same amount of competitors through as a shorter course with a similar interval.

Split day works fantastic if there's enough people, but we haven't figured out how to pull it off with the numbers we have. We looked at it hard in the off season, and our numbers aren't big enough (yet) to make it work safely and consistently. We averaged 135 per event last year.

There's another option to get the event moving in a situation like this. The old faithful stopwatch method is advocated by a few of the BOD members. Obviously not the preferred method, but it could've got us going sooner. So the question is, would you rather have one (or a couple) of your times done by stopwatch while we get another timer system in place, or wait?

I would rather wait. The times for some classes (tenths or less) are so close that it'd be almost impossible to record correct times manually IMO.

[POS Racing]

There's another option to get the event moving in a situation like this. The old faithful stopwatch method is advocated by a few of the BOD members. Obviously not the preferred method, but it could've got us going sooner. So the question is, would you rather have one (or a couple) of your times done by stopwatch while we get another timer system in place, or wait?

I don't know squat about the timing stuff you guys have; but how much time had clicked off the clock before you guys drug out the old timing lights? Seemed like a lot of time was spent trying to resurrect the dead before "plan B" was brought into action.

Did you guys ever figure out why the new timing lights died yesterday? I don't recall them ever acting up last season except for a battery issue once and IIRC that was quickly resolved.

Also for the national SCCA event we are having here in Ft. Worth will the national office be providing the timing and scoring equipment?

[Solo RX-7]

how much time had clicked off the clock before you guys drug out the old timing lights? Seemed like a lot of time was spent trying to resurrect the dead before "plan B" was brought into action.

It was probably about 30 minutes when we decided to switch. That opened a new can of worms - based on how good the TLinks were working we had packed away the old system so well it took us another 20 minutes to get all the pieces located and fired up.

Did you guys ever figure out why the new timing lights died yesterday? I don't recall them ever acting up last season except for a battery issue once and IIRC that was quickly resolved.

Not yet. Tim B and Phil A will be digging into that this week.

Also for the national SCCA event we are having here in Ft. Worth will the national office be providing the timing and scoring equipment?

Nat'l uses their own stuff for the tours. We just provide the minions.