Re: March 18 @ SPC - The "After School" Autocross

[Gerry]

Highlight of the day: when Tony in the Neon turned around, got out of his car, and helped reset the wall of cones he took out! LOL!!!!

[Loren]

^^ The computer had him registered as number "03" but he had "3" on the car, which was the issue.

Actually, that software is smart enough to recognize that they're NOT the same number. Think of car numbers as a numerical "name" if it helps you. They're not numbers, they're "characters". The software will accept 0, 00, 000, 01, 001, etc all as different "car numbers".

Our registration system (and our feeble brains) will NOT accept such things, however. So, we don't normally use them.

[Loren]

Ya'd think I would have had amazing times for all the extra practice that I got, but ... NOT!

You did say you wanted more practice opportunities.

[twistedwankel]

The 10 most common reasons I have gotten reruns in my life at various events.

10. Stopped for a downed cone.

9. Red flagged due to stalled car or course destruction (or both).

8. The battery went dead on the timer mid run or the generator ran out of gas.

7. The computer program spelled out $&^^(*T^%^*%%^&**&^%.

6. The Timing staff decided I couldn't run that fast compared to my "other runs".

5. The Timing staff decided no one can run faster than Joe Smo their idol.

4. The Timing staff decided someone tripped the finish lights prematurely.

3. The Timing staff used to be disk jockeys during Payola.

2. The Timing staff accidentally tripped the reset button while reaching for a donut.

1. Gerry Herandez was running the computer program

[Loren]

Mmmmm... Donuts

[Greg]

School
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgUus_1eJBQ

Race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfnRIlA0 ... e=youtu.be

[Loren]

I must have left some mojo on those tires, eh, Greg?

[twistedwankel]

Greg,

I'm trying to figure out if I beat your time by 0.03 seconds or you beat me by 0.77 seconds? You RULE either way!!

Great job of driving. You make good movies too.

[Jamie]

Driving after working. This is just a simple matter of me absolutely not paying attention to how it was previously done. It matters not to me whether I work before or after I run. (When I was a newb, I liked to work first so that I could WATCH what the fast guys were doing in critical areas before I drove) Anyway... y'all know me, sometimes little details like that get by me. My logic for Work-before-Run was simple: If the next heat's drivers are on course and know that they run next, we don't have to track them down!

When you were a newb, you were living somewhere it was still 40 degrees in March.

I've written this before, but if we have a weak spot as a club, it's a startling lack of empathy with people not as fit or heat tolerant as those of us who've been doing this long enough that we're used to it or don't care. At the worst, it's a safety issue, albeit an outlier. But it's also not a way to get newbies back, either.

Inexperienced tech: That was a strange situation... rather unique, I'd say. The two guys who showed up were indeed "old school" SunRiders Autocross guys who used to run with us regularly 6 years ago. VERY enthusiastic guys. They showed up, said "we're ready to do tech", expressed their experience and Dave/Ron sent them on their way.

They did a fine job...it was just a disconnect between what they "knew" and what everyone else "knew".

Corner captains... How can you attend 4+ FAST autocrosses, listen to the typical driver's meeting where the whole worker process is explained every time, work a corner right there WITH experienced people for all those events and NOT understand how to do the job? This ain't rocket science. All I can say is: PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE!

Oh, you believe they're paying attention...?!

Half the confusion can be avoided if we can just be left alone and remain antisocial. LOL!

Be grumpy. Simply tell them to go away, because you're busy trying to keep up with timing/fix timing/control the urge to kill them.

And now you know why naturally bad-tempered people are attracted to timing duty...it gives us license to behave normally!

Question -- when will we get a new timing display? I think it will avoid a lot of congestion and talking around the trailer if people can see their times as they drive by the trailer. And for all the reruns, it will be obvious if there are 00s on the display. Seems like there was some additional effort spent on managing reruns because drivers did not know they had reruns until after they were already parked in the grid.

Ideally, cars don't go right back out for a rerun, anyhow...they get a couple of minutes to cool off. Timing should be communicating reruns to the grid, so the person running the grid then tells the driver and works out when to get them back in. What has to happen to make that work is that drivers need to stay in the grid area near their cars...or at least be aware of what's happening around their car (like the grid guy bellowing for them). The display will help that, since drivers won't have to run over to the trailer monitor to check their times, but keeping 'em in the grid area (especially the social butterflies) is always a challenge, unless you get hardcore and charge a missed run for not being at the car.

Of course, if Kenny Gardner were still here, we'd end up with a remote wireless monitor for the grid....

It was brought to my attention that some of the folks who were camped out inside the gate watching our event had a toddler with them, and that at least one point in time, that child almost stepped out into my active grid... 20 feet from my starting line. This is absolutely and completely NOT ACCEPTABLE.

We need a sign to hang on the gate -- it's just too easy for people who don't know better to slip in.

[Loren]

I've written this before, but if we have a weak spot as a club, it's a startling lack of empathy with people not as fit or heat tolerant as those of us who've been doing this long enough that we're used to it or don't care. At the worst, it's a safety issue, albeit an outlier. But it's also not a way to get newbies back, either.

Good point. (again) Related anecdote... the recent PCA event that I attended they ran two run groups. (really 4 run groups... but ran them in pairs, so the workers were out there for "two groups" worth of runs) They royally screwed their own pooch by sending all the "Porsche" guys out to work first while the "other" group ran. Those guys were out there for a good 2.5 hours! When we went out, we weren't out for nearly as long.

So, at least FAST is a little better organized and fairly consistent. Given our current "too damned many people want to register" problem, we MUST be doing a thing or two right.

All I can say is: PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE!

Oh, you believe they're paying attention...?!

I just hope that maybe they'll absorb something by osmosis!

Of course, if Kenny Gardner were still here, we'd end up with a remote wireless monitor for the grid...

We've talked about doing something like that. A bit more money than we want to spend for wireless VGA of adequate range.

Buuut... our new digital time display will be wireless. And I foresee it being normally placed where it can easily be seen by cars returning to grid and all the drivers in grid. Being able to see not only your time at the end of a run, but those of your competitors WILL reduce a lot of traffic back and forth to the full results display. Of course, people with poor short-term memory like me will still wander over there to look, anyway. What were we talking about?

We need a sign to hang on the gate -- it's just too easy for people who don't know better to slip in.

Yes, indeed, we do! We've talked about that before, and Eric was going to make us a sign. It got forgotten somewhere along the line. But, we do need it, and we need to close the gate at least far enough to prevent cars from driving in while each run group is actively running.

But, none of that will stop people like this. You know people don't read signs any more than they listen at driver's meetings! We (every single one of us) need to be vigilant about looking for out-of-place things, like children anywhere on-site, and either handling it, or TELLING SOMEONE so that it can be handled.

[Loren]

Thanks for your patience, everyone, here are the Results.

Ron manually hacked the time-shift error into submission and is about 95% confident that they are 100% correct. (which is marginally better than being 100% sure that they are 95% correct!) If you see problems or have questions, let us know. (keep the BS "I was sure I had FTD, there must be an error" comments to a dull roar, please)

Ron is also going to consult with the software author to see if they can explain the problem, and perhaps "properly" fix the data and verify that everything is correct.

[blacksheep-1]

Good job on the computer crap, you're a much better person than I am (see all computers must die post)

In other news, a top 10 for the horsey car, that's my best ever.

[nc4me]

Congrats Rob on your first top ten.

Ditto for Gerry Hernandez and Chung kuang Chen.

[Gerry]

Chris, thanks for all the help! Loren, same to you!

I'm ecstatic about the top 10 finish. Probably won't happen again any time soon, so I'll enjoy it while I can. My heart was pumping HARD on that last run, and it was worth it. I'm really happy with my car right now, too, which surely helped. Let's hope I can carry this luck speed through to the next event!

[shakedown067]

We need a sign to hang on the gate -- it's just too easy for people who don't know better to slip in.

Yes, indeed, we do! We've talked about that before, and Eric was going to make us a sign. It got forgotten somewhere along the line. But, we do need it, and we need to close the gate at least far enough to prevent cars from driving in while each run group is actively running.

I'll put that on my list of things to do. I can get it printed directly on a PVC substrate (about $40-50) so it'll be good for years. We just have to remember to grab it off the fence before we leave.

[Loren]

I'll put that on my list of things to do. I can get it printed directly on a PVC substrate (about $40-50) so it'll be good for years. We just have to remember to grab it off the fence before we leave.

That cost is no problem, just run the design/text past Steve or me before printing.

Somebody always has to close and lock the gate, so we "shouldn't" easily forget to grab the sign.

Thanks, dude!

[Jeremy]

I guess there are no complaints on those results so it's safe to tally the championship points?

[Loren]

I guess there are no complaints on those results so it's safe to tally the championship points?

I think that's a safe assumption. Ron is still trying to figure out what happened so that it won't happen again. But, he's confident in the results and nobody's pointing out errors, so...

[Loren]

Hey, Jeremy updated the Season Points! He's cool like that.

[anachostic]

Has anything come from the photographers that were on site?