Registration is on myautoevents for the 24 hr autocross and Steve will have it on the website shortly. We are taking some steps to make it go smoother this year. The course will be more free flowing and will be able to have 3 cars on it at the same time. Grid will be monitored more closely this year and 2 driver car drivers will be phased in so that everybody in line will get the same number of runs. A couple of options were mentioned for the carts and we will decide on that later, but they will not be running as often as last year. There will be 5 official runs during the event. There will be no special time set aside Sunday AM for those that do not have their runs in. It is your responsibility to get your runs in, so do not wait for the last minute. Workers positions will be spaced out so that we can get coverage for the whole 24 hrs. Remember we need workers at night to be able to run at night!! Lets sign up and plan on having fun at the event. Thanks, Dave.
How this event works
Sign up for the first 12 hours (noon to midnight), the second 12 hours (midnight to noon), or the entire 24 hours. You must work 2 hours for every 12 hours you sign up for. The rest of the 10 hours you can run your car as often as you want. Cars will be running continuously during the entire event, so you can get back in line anytime you want. At the start line, you can declare a run as "official" or say nothing and it will be a practice run. Every driver gets 5 official runs, do not wait until near the end of the event to get all official runs in!
Registration Saturday - Primary Registration from 9:00-11:00am, then open for 1 hour at the following times: 3:00pm, 7:00pm and 11:00pm
Tech Saturday - Primary Tech from 9:30-11:30am, then open for 1 hour at the following times 3:30pm, 7:30pm and 11:30pm
Novice Walk - 11:00am (Saturday)
Drivers Meeting - 11:15am (Saturday)
First car off - 12:00pm (Saturday)
Cost Non Members: $40 for 12 hours / $50 for 24 hours SCCA Members: $30 for 12 hours / $40 for 24 hours Membership Cards Required for Discount $5.00 additional charge for onsite registration
Directions: Take I-77 to Exit #1 in North Carolina (Westinghouse Blvd) Go west on Westinghouse, Cross railroad tracks, then go right at light onto Granite St, take first road on left (Continental Blvd) Continue on Continental Blvd until you see the paddock area on the right, just before main entrance to the plant.
sleeper God Southern Shift Racing member is offline
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 1,437 Location: Charlotte, NC Karma: 53
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #1 on Aug 5, 2008, 10:27pm »
Dave addressed the primary points of the event, as you guys all know, a lot of preparation and organization is necessary to make sure the event runs smoothly and everyone gets as many runs as they want.
One of the most CRUCIAL issues is making sure we have enough workers from 2am to 6am. In other words, if you sign up for the second part of the event (midnight to noon Sunday), don't expect to sign up for work from 12am to 2am, as that is by far the most popular work assignment. We really need workers from 2am to 6am, or cars won't be able to run!
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 4,506 Location: Granite Falls, NC Karma: 130
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #2 on Aug 6, 2008, 7:48am »
Just a reminder - we will be doing sound control at the 24hr. The final db reading will be posted in the next few weeks, but expect 95db. If your car is over the limit on two runs you will have to quiet it before making your next run.
Joined: Apr 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 742 Location: Charlotte Karma: 13
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #3 on Aug 6, 2008, 10:50am »
Is the course already designed and tested to support this claim of 3 cars at once? Reason I ask is because based on the other events we have had there that would be sending a car every 10-12 seconds.
the course had a 18 to 20 second cross over, the second car should have been started as the car on course was leaving the upper left for the two cone chicane,
Having been a Operating steward for Nationals, starting a Car every 15 seconds is very hard on the workers to keep up and not very safe to do with inexperienced course workers, the best that we could hope for was 20 seconds
just my .02 worth,
And the other question is will we have a person on time slips to track official runs? I know Sept 4, 2007, 10:31pm, autoxdad wrote:
As far as not knowing how many runs an individual has, I can't see how anyone can not remember up to 6 runs!!
it seems illogical to ask this but I would prefer having something from a worker position to confirm or deny any official runs.
Your now cheaper gas has cost you 1,000 tanks or 350,000 miles driven give or take a few gallons. And to avoid being a complete downer, the upside is strippers are now cheaper in Canada!
sleeper God Southern Shift Racing member is offline
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 1,437 Location: Charlotte, NC Karma: 53
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #4 on Aug 6, 2008, 11:22am »
Is the course already designed and tested to support this claim of 3 cars at once? Reason I ask is because based on the other events we have had there that would be sending a car every 10-12 seconds.
The course last year had a crossover which severly limited the number of cars on course.
2 years ago the 24hr was also at Conti and it did not have a crossover, and it was designed so you could very easily and safely have 3 cars on course. This is the kind of design that is planned for this year.
Joined: Apr 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 742 Location: Charlotte Karma: 13
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #5 on Aug 6, 2008, 12:20pm »
The course 2 years ago was still in the mid-upper 30second range, 3 cars on course would have been launching less than every 15 seconds. The turnout was not much different either over last year because I know there were drivers last year with zero official runs but made plenty throughout the day.
If you can breakup the grid into two sections you can avoid problem number one from last year which was the bottleneck at the island. Then get rid of the 2-driver line completely. Makes no sense to devote an entire line to a small amount of people. The people only running 12 hours as a 2-driver car could split up their work assignments to each work different times, that would account for 1/3 of their run time leaving the other 2/3 to eat and hang out together along with making any setup changes they may want.
Here is a simple picture for grid running 4 lines per grid at 12 cars per line, covers a total of 96 cars and only requires 2 workers.
Launching every 20 seconds would send one line of 12 every 4 minutes or 16 minutes to clear each grid.
Then to get the little extra space for the course to help support the quicker launches, move the trailer out to the first few spots by the stop signs. Then you can post official run times for people that all spectators can see, sign up workers without having them cross the street/entrance and course, and have your PA closer to where the bulk of the people are.
Other benefit to this is you can have your timing person on the side window to log cars who want official runs into the system and the announcer at the window facing the course to report on the action.
EDIT*** Thanks Matt, I knew I forgot something in my picture.
Your now cheaper gas has cost you 1,000 tanks or 350,000 miles driven give or take a few gallons. And to avoid being a complete downer, the upside is strippers are now cheaper in Canada!
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #6 on Aug 6, 2008, 1:02pm »
I was going to post something similar about grid, but Rob beat me to it and even had visual aides. It was very frustrating waiting at the very back of grid last year when they were calling for 2-driver cars only to be prevented from moving up due to being blocked by the other lines of cars. I was running 45 - 90 minutes between runs in the 2-driver line, so it was very frustrating.
Also, for non-Formula Jr. karts, do we really need to shut down the rest of the event for them to run? It would make a lot of sense to fit them into the normal flow of cars (though it would make sense to not have them *on course* at the same time). This is for adult karts, kid karts would be similar to how we've run them in the past. Could always paddock karts where grid is run for normal Conti events. National and other events use this arrangement quite successfully.
No crossovers is a very important change! Kudos for that.
I appreciate that something is being done to alleviate the problems of last year's event.
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #7 on Aug 6, 2008, 1:49pm »
How about taking 2 runs at a time like we have done in previous years? Last year, with 90+ minutes inbetween runs, it was impossible to keep any heat in the tires.
How about taking 2 runs at a time like we have done in previous years? Last year, with 90+ minutes inbetween runs, it was impossible to keep any heat in the tires.
Good point, however, if everything goes according to plan, cars should be moving much quicker than last year, so taking 2 runs at a time will likely not be necessary.
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 4,506 Location: Granite Falls, NC Karma: 130
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #9 on Aug 6, 2008, 2:38pm »
Unless we go with the wireless we can't move the trailer... the trucks will destroy the CAT-5 cable. The wireless batteries are supposed to last over 24 hours, but if something happens and the trailer is across the road and we'd have to switch back to the wired connection, we'd be screwed.
But it is a good idea... Maybe we can work it out.
Unless we go with the wireless we can't move the trailer... the trucks will destroy the CAT-5 cable. The wireless batteries are supposed to last over 24 hours, but if something happens and the trailer is across the road and we'd have to switch back to the wired connection, we'd be screwed.
But it is a good idea... Maybe we can work it out.
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #12 on Aug 6, 2008, 7:58pm »
I've always wondered what good is the wireless timers when they spend most of their time somewhere other than start and finish. Even more so when everything grinds to a halt waiting to fix timer issues which almost always is a problem with the cat5 cables. As for grid, last year we somehow assigned grid workers who were clueless on how to work grid. Some just stood around under the trees smoking. My car was in grid or on the course from noon to midnight and Rob and I had to come back on Sunday morning to complete our timed runs since we did not get enough runs that counted during the 1st 12 hours. I think I got a total of 4 or 5 runs in the 1st 12 hours while some got over a dozen.
Unless we go with the wireless we can't move the trailer... the trucks will destroy the CAT-5 cable. The wireless batteries are supposed to last over 24 hours, but if something happens and the trailer is across the road and we'd have to switch back to the wired connection, we'd be screwed.
But it is a good idea... Maybe we can work it out.
Ummm, got any spare batteries for the wireless?
All 3 T-Links are rated at over 24hrs of continuous use. Unfortunately the batteries are built in and any time the charger is plugged into them, all other electronics shut off so you cannot run them via a heavy duty extension cord. Given the fear of batteries I am guessing the club went with the most basic setup that does not include the 4th unit aka a backup.
Really what I think all of this boils down to is all the small parts. Everyone can toss suggestions about the course design itself with no crossovers or whatever but it has nothing to do with cramming 3 cars on course at once. Last years course was the least of the events problems when you really look at it. Launching 3 cars per minute would be 180 per hour, or over 4000 runs in 24hrs. We arent going to see a 60+second course on that lot without lapping to support the basic idea as suggested for safety from someone with years of experience. So thats something we cannot really control due to the environment. Perhaps focusing on the smaller things that all add up, things that are within our control, we could see the event run smoother.
Your now cheaper gas has cost you 1,000 tanks or 350,000 miles driven give or take a few gallons. And to avoid being a complete downer, the upside is strippers are now cheaper in Canada!
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 4,506 Location: Granite Falls, NC Karma: 130
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #14 on Aug 6, 2008, 9:05pm »
I'm not going to go into the purchase of the TLink and what the club did or didn't buy... It's just not worth the expected argument.
That said, last year we did use the TLink wireless until the charting circuit in one of the units rolled over and died. All three have been upgraded, so we should be good for the event to use them.
The wireless system has been at just about every event this year. The course designers haven't seen the need to use the system so far. If the course designer wants the wireless system, it will be there.
How about taking 2 runs at a time like we have done in previous years? Last year, with 90+ minutes inbetween runs, it was impossible to keep any heat in the tires.
Good point, however, if everything goes according to plan, cars should be moving much quicker than last year, so taking 2 runs at a time will likely not be necessary.
I'm not so sure that even a perfectly smooth, quickly run event could put runs close enough together to help tire heat. In previous years, even when the event ran well (like at Dixie), we did 2 runs back-to-back.
Of course, I'm not saying to literally do the runs back-to-back. You would just get back in the "running" line one time before you went back to the long line. This way you'd have a few minutes between runs.
Joined: Apr 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 742 Location: Charlotte Karma: 13
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #18 on Aug 7, 2008, 7:37am »
Rich I dont know who holds the key to the wireless but maybe some testing could go on in the up coming weeks. Just let the system run from say 8am to 8am and see what type of draw there is on the battery units and monitor it during the day. That may help get a feel for the indicator status bars. The other thing is maybe run the two cat5 lines during setup and leave them coiled at the nearest light pole in case there needs to be a switch. I know its been said that the roof of the trailer is not designed to put things on top, but something like an outdoor umbrella base with a broomstick or something in it could work and then tape the wire up higher on the light pole. That should get you the 14' clearance you would need for semi's.
Your now cheaper gas has cost you 1,000 tanks or 350,000 miles driven give or take a few gallons. And to avoid being a complete downer, the upside is strippers are now cheaper in Canada!
And the radios? I was working start at the end last year and had to shout to the van for each car. I don't think we were getting all the cone calls in that last hour, either.
And the radios? I was working start at the end last year and had to shout to the van for each car. I don't think we were getting all the cone calls in that last hour, either.
We've got 14 radios total. At some point we could easily recharge half of them, they charge very quickly. Then charge the other half. Timing needs one, starter, four worker stations and grid, that's seven total.
More info really needed « Reply #21 on Aug 7, 2008, 7:11pm »
Hi guys, Are we really only getting 5 or so runs??? Will we be waiting an hour between each run??
Every year I go to Road Atlanta for the AMA superbike races and this year I've told my family no since the 24 hr & point’s race is the same weekend. (After Thursday Knights race I'm headed to Danville to VIR for the AMA motorcycle races--3 days of motorcycles...don't get much better then that...sorry you 4 wheel lovers but 2 wheels is my first love!)
After reading these few post it appears we will only get a few runs. Surly I don't want to miss motorcycle racing for just a few runs. Please, someone email, call me with what to expect. I got over 15 runs at the Test N Tune in Feb (my first event) and about the same at the 12 hrs that was cut to 8 hrs. So, if I'm only gonna get 10 or less in a 24 hr and have to be up all night....bye-bye...I'm going to Atlanta.
Just a Thought as a newbie: Since this is a Charity Event and the object would be to raise money, I had an idea. Instead of $50 or whatever for the entry fee, make it $20 or so and charge $5 per run. Sell tickets at the "booth" and the starter must collect a ticket for you to run. That way you are paying for the privilege of waiting in line and the runs and it really does become a Charity event.
Re: 24 Hour Autocross 8/30-8/31 - Registration/Inf « Reply #28 on Aug 13, 2008, 2:57pm »
I'm interested in bringing some Formula SAE cars to event, so I've got three questions for you:
At what distance will the sound be measured?
Does my car need to have headlights and/or taillights?
Will we be able to mix in with the regular cars, and not run separate like the go karts?
Our FSAE rules give us a sound limit but its 120 db @ 2 feet. We've never tried it at 50' or 75', but we can test it before we show up, and I want to do that rather than waste a bunch of money and effort by getting kicked out after 2 runs.
I'm interested in bringing some Formula SAE cars to event.....
Our FSAE rules give us a sound limit but its 120 db @ 2 feet. We've never tried it at 50' or 75', but we can test it before we show up, and I want to do that rather than waste a bunch of money and effort by getting kicked out after 2 runs.
Note: This is just an opinion.
At FLR, one of our sites was Rochester Institute of Technology parking lots and RIT usually had 2 FSAE cars. So, we almost always had FSAE cars at our events. I can't recall the FSAE cars ever having a problem with sound and FLR uses (for many years) 95db @ 75'.
I still haven't decided about entering, but is anyone interested in a co-driver? Several anyones? If you're interested in testing setups or anything like that, I am fairly quick and somewhat consistent. PM me if you're interested. The more cars the better!!
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