Kannapolis Aftermath - what went well, what didn't

[C4Shane]

Thanks Crash477!...that will help to have some additional timing support. When you register, just indicate that on your reg form and it ends up on our worker sheet

[slobra]

Me being lost on course, or off course as the case may be, is not anyone's problem but mine. I will use the excuse "The sun was in my eyes". Everyone else can come up with their own excuse. All in all, except for the heat that we cannot control, I had a great time and am looking forward to the next event.

[jbyrd]

soloracer said:

And some day I may Post the story of "Barney" crashing into the middle of a run

Really??

[markt]

Some I talked to said they had a problem visually coming up the hill before the finish and DNF'd as a result. I know I almost went left of that uphill gate on my first run and hence got screwed up finding the finish. I thought the course flowed fairly well but, it was bumpier than I remembered...that downhill slalom was every bit as rough as a Knights Xover.
Mark

[ROADBOY]

I agree with many of the statments here, especially PDawgs. Looking ahead in the course is what allowes you to plan your attack on the next turn.

[ROADBOY]

To do this you have to know the course. The only way to do that is to get it in your mind, WALK THE COURSE.

Some of you may have seen me jogging the course rather than walking, or walking fast. I do this so I can go through the course more times. I have always been bad with directions and get lost very easily. Thats why I have to "drill" the course design into my memory.

[ROADBOY]

Pertaining to this past weekend, even with my memory problems I did not DNF any of my runs. I credit it to walking the course. I walked from start to finish 5 times, if my memory serves me right.

[ROADBOY]

I have brought a number of my friends to participate in our autox events. All of them first timers.

I have found that newbies tend to see the course walk as a chore, something they don't want to do. I don't know how to emphasize the importance of it any stronger.

Just like car safety is important, driver safety is even more important. One thing is to make sure your car can stop and the wheels wont fall off. Making sure the nut behind the wheel knows what they are doing is just as important.

The driver has to know what to do. It is for their best performance and for their safety, not to mention the safety of all the poor corner workers on the course and everyone at the event.

[ROADBOY]

If there are any newbies out there reading this please don't take any of this in a bad way. I am not getting on anyones case.

Quite the opposite. If you would like some pointers or any kind of assistance, just ask. I'm sure that anyone that knows a bit about whats going on would be willing to help. We're a friendly bunch and we're here for the same reason, to have some fun.



Now I'll get of the soap box, back to our regular programing.

[damnyankee]

I can't agree more RB, as a newbie myself, I have found that the more I walk the course, the better I do on it. This past weekend, I was only able to walk the course 3 times due to committments at the tech tent. I DNF'd twice. 2 of the 3 times I walked, there was a crowd with me at the last U turn at the bottom of the hill. That's where I got lost.

[damnyankee]

I have also found that if I walk the course 4-5 times, I don't get lost.

I've only auto-x'd 4 times, and this was the first time I didn't walk the course 4-5 times.

I HIGHLY recommend that you walk the course!!!

[volksman]

Walking the course will always be good for you. The downhill part of the slalom was marked at the top with the pointer cones just fine. I think what gave people, especially new people the most trouble was the u-turn and the uphill part right after it. I understand that you have to look ahead, especially in the turns. I do it everywhere else and it makes a huge difference. But that turn sort of put the brain on freeze. It's tough looking ahead on such a tight part. When we set that turn up, there were about 7 or 8 cones marking the inside of the turn, in a "V" shape. When I did my walk through, they were gone and only two were left. Sometimes all it takes to make it clear is a couple of cones more than what's there, but there's no way to know until we're out there running.
I'm just hoping for some more definition on tricky parts so me and other newbies have a little easier time of it. I know figuring out the course is part of it, but lets make it a smaller part and make getting good times a larger part. Next time I'll walk it two more times than I did and really get it down. Still had fun though!

[autoxcrx]

Hey I've only been X'ing since the first of last year, so I'm still a lil new. When you are walking the course and see a spot that's a little confusing, and maybe another cone here, an extra pointer cone there, might make the course better, who do we need to make these suggestions to?

[smcorolla]

personally didnt have any problems but was wondering why no chalk was put down, that would have solved it.


rick
#15 SM Corolla V8

[autoxcrx]

Yeah, I miss the chalk lines too. They help out a LOT!!

[kentdavis]

I'll add in a few items here:
Once I got in the timing van for the 2nd run group, the timing delays were my fault, as I had some difficulty with the class designations and specifics of the timing program.

I believe that there were likely some people that were given DNF's on their runs because they missed/hit pointer cones. This is an incorrect call, and should be covered more thoroughly in the drivers meeting in the future.

Some cars have very inadequate class markings!!
#1 Some of the corvettes have extremely small class letters, that are very difficult to read.
#2 Most of the PRO cars don't have class markings! I find this unacceptable for the people in the pro class. It doesn't matter if they're paxed, the purpose of the markings is for timing and workers to identify the car.

Other than that, the event went quite smoothly, and the course layout made very good use of the site. (relatively small parking lot)

[C4Shane]

kentdavis said:

I'll add in a few items here:
Once I got in the timing van for the 2nd run group, the timing delays were my fault, as I had some difficulty with the class designations and specifics of the timing program.

I believe that there were likely some people that were given DNF's on their runs because they missed/hit pointer cones. This is an incorrect call, and should be covered more thoroughly in the drivers meeting in the future.

Some cars have very inadequate class markings!!
#1 Some of the corvettes have extremely small class letters, that are very difficult to read.
#2 Most of the PRO cars don't have class markings! I find this unacceptable for the people in the pro class. It doesn't matter if they're paxed, the purpose of the markings is for timing and workers to identify the car.

Other than that, the event went quite smoothly, and the course layout made very good use of the site. (relatively small parking lot)

Kent - First of all > Thanks for coming to the rescue on timing. Somehow we just ran out of folks who knew anything about the system for the second run group. Sorry to all that there was a delay - but if Kent hadn't jumped in, we would have been scrambling to find someone who knew how to use the system. We need a few more folks trained on it so that we have some backup on staffing the van.

Secondly, I would concur with some of the above comments regarding the use of chalk/lime to mark areas of the course. Several folks took a shortcut after the first big uphill turn and missed the hard right hander before the turn at the top of the lot.

But - It was still a blast!

[autoxcrx]

I actually thought that the course could have been longer, there was a lot of unused space in the parking lot, is there a designated length for the courses? I've noticed most are right at 1/2 mile.

[grey ghost]

I'll try to answer a couple of questions that have been brought up about the course design. when I got there Sunday Steve had the layout of the course done. I asked if I could Tweek the course and was told to go ahead. I know most novice drives look for more cones on the course, but what is true is that more just leads to a Sea of cones in which it is very hard to see the line. I use less is more theory when it comes to design. the pivot had been alot tighter to the point it was a pin turn, I opened it up to allow for sweeper. the lay down pointers I admit should have been moved back to allow this corner to be driven better,

I believe that in the past Kannapolis has asked us not to line the course. I went with that
memory and did not ask if it could be lined. yes it would have helped to the last two corners.

as to using more of the lot you could, but it would make for a slow 1st gear course fo most cars. that tends to take some of the fun out of it. the rulebook says that we should use the
lower gears. a dozen or so years ago the Seb hinted that most course should be driven in second gear. second if you used more ov the available lot we would not been able to get 2 cars on course at one time. I can remember I course we did in San Diego that had 5 cars on course at one time. the quicker you launch the cars the quicker the event runs. it is all about
getting the runs in. it does not matter wether the course is 25 seconds or 200 seconds it still takes the same time to run the same amount of cars., if the launch window is the same.

thanks Rob F

[grey ghost]

Hello Kent

#2 Most of the PRO cars don't have class markings! I find this unacceptable for the people in the pro class. It doesn't matter if they're paxed, the purpose of the markings is for timing and workers to identify the car.

I apologize I did not have them, in the rush to get to the event I left them at home, I got home after 11pm from teaching an Evo School in Atlanta on Saturday. give 50 lashes for my forgeting my number, Steve R came to some rescue.

thanks Rob F

[C4Shane]

Rob,
Good point on why the course was not chalked/lined....Iit may very well be that the Intimidators they do not want us to do that. Thanks for the note.

If that is the case - we should make a point of telling the competitors and esp novices that they should plan on extra "walk" time. Although it is the resposibility of the competitor to walk the course until it is programmed in their brain, it is also a matter of worker safety. Severla folks that I know of DNFed and didn't even have a clue as to where/how/why....So, they thought they had followed the course!

just a thought for future events at Intimidators. I like the location and had a lot of fun.

[jbyrd]

The white parking-space lines at Kannapolis are stark in contrast against the black sealed asphalt.

After the last event we had in K-Town, the autocross forum was filled with gripes and grumbles for 2 weeks about how the chalk lines mixed with the parking lines and confused people.

[autoxcrx]

In a situation where the asphalt is that black, 'at's what dem NASCAR boys usta call "Bear Grease", maybe we could get colored chalk that would stand out, (orange, yeller, even pink) whaddya think??

[m3]

jbyrd said:

...After the last event we had in K-Town, the autocross forum was filled with gripes and grumbles for 2 weeks about how the chalk lines mixed with the parking lines and confused people.

Ahhh, the ol' d**ned if you do and d**ned if you don't scenario........

As a non-newbie participant, I had no trouble identifying the course during the walkthrough, nor following it at speed. I thought it was well marked, but also avoided the dreaded "sea of cones" effect. I suspect that not looking far enough ahead was the main cause of problems for those who had them.

[jbyrd]

If you're reading the cones correctly, you don't even notice the chalk lines anyway. Once you've been in a few events, it shouldn't even matter to you.

We use flour as chalk. It's biodegradable and (usually) washes away more easily when it rains than chalk. I don't know if that is the reason, but it's hard to find orange or yellow flour.

[C4Shane]

Maybe we need to tell the indimidators we use flour...But orange or - gasp- yellow flour sounds vomitous.....Do you get yellow flour the same way you get yellow snow...would a PDawg know?

[autoxcrx]

Well ya could use yeller corn meal... aw jus do like JB said, look at da cones and drive, gas, gas, brake, steer, steer, gas, brake, steer, steer, gasssss!!

[lagunamiata]

I had one DNF on my first run and I blame it on not getting enough course walks. Becuase of tech and people showing up late, one after tech actually closed, I got 2 walks. Having 2 more would probably have avoided the DNF and throwing away my first run.

[caSSino]

This seems to be a consistent problem at K-Town as at last years event the first run group was stoped half way thru, for a course walk because so many people were dnf'ing.

[C4Shane]

autoxcrx said:

Well ya could use yeller corn meal... aw jus do like JB said, look at da cones and drive, gas, gas, brake, steer, steer, gas, brake, steer, steer, gasssss!!

Yeah...i did that and didn't get a DNF...but I think I woulda gone faster in the Fiasta if I had gone gas, gas,steer,shift, gas, steer, brake, gas, steer, steer, steer, steer (slalom), brake, steer, gas, steer, gas......whoa..check time....