Texas Region Event #7 Sunday, September 26, 2004

[POS Racing]

There was also some seriously sloppy corner working going on. Lugnutjon and I watched part of Heat 2 from the fence line, and we saw five cars get redflagged because of one car that got lost and took out two cones in Corner 5. The workers on that corner were moving so slow that literally the last car to be flagged left the starting line well after the initial cones were hit.

We saw that from Corner 2, they just stood around looking like they were waiting for the cone fairy to come on place the cones back in the boxes for them. We would let the cars pass then they would get red flagged further down the line..... The other problem was the kids who were red flagged would go like 3mph to get off course instead of proceeding safely off course at a reasonable speed which stacked everyone up.

Hey Altian do you guys check the numbering on the cars when you inspect them? We had a couple go by us that I had no ideal what they were trying to convey for numbers or class. Which was causing the course workers some grief trying to call in the cones. This is corner 3 we have on cone on Zeta Beta Lambda Stock!

[altiain]

Hey Altian do you guys check the numbering on the cars when you inspect them? We had a couple go by us that I had no ideal what they were trying to convey for numbers or class. Which was causing the course workers some grief trying to call in the cones. This is corner 3 we have on cone on Zeta Beta Lambda Stock!

I always check the numbers on the cars that I tech, but with 4 people doing tech I only see about 1/4 of the cars that go through. Sad thing is, JG occasionally makes some poor bastard double up on the tape on the side of his car "because the numbers aren't a legal width" ( ), even if they are high contrast and you can read them perfectly well from a distance, yet we get cars like the black G35 Coupe yesterday who had black numbers with a very thin white outline on a black car. I never saw that particular car in Tech (must've come through while I was walking the course), but I sure as hell wouldn't have let him runwith those numbers.

Of course, Tech would also go smoother if the damn newbies would learn to pay attention and bring their cars to Tech with the numbers already on. At every event we'll have 20+ cars show up at Tech with no numbers, then they hold up the whole line while they go looking for tape to apply in the Tech line.

Somebody remind me again why I go to SCCA events?

[POS Racing]

I always check the numbers on the cars that I tech, but with 4 people doing tech I only see about 1/4 of the cars that go through. Sad thing is, JG occasionally makes some poor bastard double up on the tape on the side of his car "because the numbers aren't a legal width"

Well he missed a few of those cars yesterday!

Somebody remind me again why I go to SCCA events?

Man that’s a darn good question!

[Ataim]

I was working the first heat filing out the waivers and noticed that the gird had plenty of cars, the course had workers but they did not start racing for at least 15-20 minutes. Why??? did any one notice what time the first car rolled out. also, when the cones near the finish line got hit the corner workes would trip the timmer and SCREW everything up. I wonder how many reruns were made because of that??

Paul

[POS Racing]

Something that may help the new kids would be a "novice/getting started" link from the SCCA website to this page http://autocross.com/autoc/started.htm.
It covers pretty much everything one would need to know for an autocross.

[Majik]

Well he missed a few of those cars yesterday!

He was checking the trunk for the battery....

[general default]

Something that may help the new kids would be a "novice/getting started" link from the SCCA website to this page http://autocross.com/autoc/started.htm.
It covers pretty much everything one would need to know for an autocross.

Well sad to say it is on the website already. No one reads the website.
Now I admit the classing stuff on the SCCA pointy site might be bad.
They might look at pictures...


Getting Started

SCCA Car Classes
FAQ of Autocrossing
Solo2 Novice Handbook
SCCA FasTrack
Street Modified Rules
Working The Course
Some Car Setup Tips
Dictionary of Racing Terms


2004 PAX

2004 PAX index
Understanding PAX Factors

[rx7gslse]

wow, overall doesn't sound like I missed all the fun afterall...

What was the reasoning for only 3 runs this time? how many etries and what time did y'all get outta there?

[brock]

wow, overall doesn't sound like I missed all the fun afterall...

What was the reasoning for only 3 runs this time? how many etries and what time did y'all get outta there?

over 200 entries and we had to be done by 5:00

[altiain]

wow, overall doesn't sound like I missed all the fun afterall...

What was the reasoning for only 3 runs this time? how many etries and what time did y'all get outta there?

over 200 entries and we had to be done by 5:00

Well, let's be honest. We did have over 200 entries, but the reasoning behind only 3 runs was because if we weren't out of there by 5pm, we would have had to pay the track EMTs double overtime.

Of course, we were done by 4pm, and Solo II is the only part of Texas Region in the black this years, so it's not like we couldn't have afforded to run a little late...

I got an email from Tom Ramey today asking me if I intend to be on the BOD again next year. I haven't quite figured out a polite way to phrase my response yet.

[Kestrel]

"JStankus I'd love to see the spreadsheet I appreciate the offer!"

You don't really need a spreadsheet -- you could just compile it yourself from the results that are posted.

"Is there any talk of going to 100% on line registration..."

There are a number of people -- most noteably John Garcia -- that are vocally, almost violently, opposed to on-line registration. They say it's been tried before with poor results, and that there is no need to change to anything new at this time.

[tailchaser]

I've moved most of the non event-specific discussion to the Autox rules & nitpicks forum where it belongs...

http://forums.dfwmiata.com/viewtopic.php?t=1099

If you posted while I was moderating, I apologize.

[brock]

Progress is most often hampered by people in authority unwilling or afraid to change.

Maybe a seed needs to be planted in a way that the idea belongs to someone else later on. I have found that sometimes this is the most effective method of change with highly resistant individuals.

[general default]

Results or you can go here to the main page and see the pax and season points after 7 events.

[Kestrel]

Thanks for the link General.

Any idea why it took them well over three weeks to post results? The ER guys (not to pat myself on the back ) get results up in 3 days or less. OK, so the SCCA has 30% more entrants. I'll even give the SCCA 30% more time to finalize and post results. They still should get them up in less than a week.

Or maybe it was that daggone 3rd heat computer operator that really screwed things up...

[Treibenschnell]

Is SCCA leadership listening to this stuff? Are they willing to make changes?

[Kestrel]

"Is SCCA leadership listening to this stuff? Are they willing to make changes?"

Some are. JStakanus has been a VERY active participant in many discussions regarding the SCCA on this Board. He's asking for help, since he knows he's not likely to affect positive change alone. But he is listening, and he's apparently "battling"...

[Treibenschnell]

"Is SCCA leadership listening to this stuff? Are they willing to make changes?"

Some are. JStakanus has been a VERY active participant in many discussions regarding the SCCA on this Board. He's asking for help, since he knows he's not likely to affect positive change alone. But he is listening, and he's apparently "battling"...

[JStankus]

Thanks for the compliments.

I think the problem with getting results up for this one, was due to things crapping out at the end of the event. I believe Thad had to reconstitute things from the tracking sheets. This goes back to the discussion we had a bit ago about cooling for the computer and storage in the trailer.

I won't get in to the reasons for some of the failures of the system this year, but suffice it to say, we had a registration system that was not optimized for how we were running the events.

I am always open to hearing ideas for improvement of event operations, unfortunately a lot of folks would prefer to go off into their little clique and complain about how things are being done without making suggestions on how to improve things. THat is what is nice about the miata community, folks are willing to think about the problem, and put forward ideas to make the events better.

John

[POS Racing]

Is the rumor true you guys got some newer computers for timing and scoring??