May 12 SPC Post-Event

[rab]

Here's a video of my last and fastest run.
http://youtu.be/C7A7Lf5fH64

The car is finally starting to feel good. Dropped it down to 12" front and 12.5" back per Flyin Miata.
BTW... Thanks for the great deal on the wheels and tires Joe! I love em

[Charles]

You'll be wishing I played the home game when you get beat by 2 seconds next month when I move to M1.

You think you can keep that 240 running long enough to accomplish that?

Burn!

Oh...wait.....

[jev61]

Here's a video of my last and fastest run.
http://youtu.be/C7A7Lf5fH64

The car is finally starting to feel good. Dropped it down to 12" front and 12.5" back per Flyin Miata.
BTW... Thanks for the great deal on the wheels and tires Joe! I love em

Awesome video ... fix that camera mount! Glad you like the tires and wheels, they helped me a bunch.

[Loren]

You think you can keep that 240 running long enough to accomplish that?

Burn!

Oh...wait.....

[rab]

" ... fix that camera mount!"

The noise is actually in the camera weatherproof body. I have to tape up the buttons to keep them from vibrating!!

[Loren]

Here's a video of my last and fastest run.
http://youtu.be/C7A7Lf5fH64

The car is finally starting to feel good. Dropped it down to 12" front and 12.5" back per Flyin Miata.
BTW... Thanks for the great deal on the wheels and tires Joe! I love em

With the exception of one little chirp right at the finish, tire noise is conspicuously absent from this video.

Push harder.

[rab]

^^ I was working on form this month!!

[Native]

So I got a complaint from SPC about how the police course was set up. We DID set up the police course, right?

I wasn't there, so I need info so I can sound half-way intelligent when I call tomorrow to offer mea-culpas, or not.

So...a little help please.

[Loren]

It was set up. Looked set up as far as I could tell from the trailer area, not that I'm an expert.

And you almost HAVE to have someone who is an "expert" at setting up that course to get it all close to correct.

I'd take this as an opportunity to kindly request that they provide us with a high-quality map of exactly how they want their course reset. (or maybe complain that our course is never set up, and ask that THEY set OUR course up for a change )

I know there were 3 or 4 people out there working on it and they looked like they had maps in-hand. I can't imagine that it was TOO far off.

[Jamie]

There are also multiple sets of dots out on the pavement, so it's very difficult to discern the "right" setup. It's tempting to take a spray marker and shoot a mark under every cone removed during setup, but they'd probably grip about defacing their pavement

[rojeho]

When I did this a couple of months ago (my first time), it took us a while to get started and find an anchor point to start building. There are a lot of paint dots out there now....

[Native]

Ok, thanks.
I've complained about multiple sets of dots before and asked if we could mark them ourselves and they said no.
I'll see what I can do.

[rojeho]

Perhaps a compromise to an beginning/anchor spot. Either in the center to fan out both sides, or starting from one side to sweep across. Once you get the first element built and can see that this one is "down there but even with this row" it becomes a lot easier to figure out the multiple dots.

[Loren]

The problem is that they are intimately familiar with their "simple" course and can't fathom why we don't "get it". They see it all day every day 5 days/week, it's embedded in their brain. Tall cones go here, short cones go here, dirty old cones go over there... it's all very simple and obvious to them.

To us, it's just clutter in the morning and quickly removed... and then it's all a blank slate in the afternoon.

I think the trainers KNOW how difficult their course is to set up from scratch, which is why they want US to do it. Now they're just getting lazy when we don't get it 100% correct. They should plan on spending 30 minutes on Monday morning "fixing" their course from the weekend activities (us, other car clubs, motorcycle training, etc)... and they don't. When they have a class first thing Monday morning, they get caught off guard... and suddenly it's our fault that they didn't plan ahead.

[wrx-auto-x]

I was one of the people out there with the map resetting there course. It is very difficult to figure out at first because of all the old paint dots. But I thought we figured it out pretty well. Myself and one other guy did the west half of the course and following the map I thought we got it all correct.

I think we should settle this little tiff with them on the course. They come to one of our events and run against us. One instructor paired with a FAST member, they compete against each other (I mean for multiple instructors). The more FAST members that have faster times than them, we win. They stop griping about their course not being setup exactly perfect and fix it on their own that following Monday. We lose ..... well ..... we won't lose.

[Loren]

Right on, Dustin!

Back in the day, the SunRiders did the public version of their cop-training course. The last part of their course is "pursuit training" where you follow another car around their course. They let us do it in our Miatas with them leading in the police cruisers. Needless to say, we stuck to them like glue, and it was hardly any fun for us. Eventually, a couple people volunteered their Miatas for them to drive as "rabbit" vehicles. They were all pretty amazed and enlightened at how well a Miata handles.

But, back to reality... this problem won't go away. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don't. Sometimes they bitch about it.

[Jamie]

I think we should settle this little tiff with them on the course. They come to one of our events and run against us.

Hmm...we could throw Sam in as a ringer...he starts on the vehicle range this week. I think it's a standard course, so he'll be getting plenty of practice....

[snookwheel]

Lunch was great!!!!! Food Autocross Society of Tampa?

Thanks to everyone for a good time!

[quote="jev61" Thank you Rick for the food.

I said it to a few at the event, but I want everyone to know-- there was a random piece of crispy fried chicken skin in the box. I ate it. IT WAS AWESOME!

Thanks for the comps guys. John... I promiss to get more wings next time so that you can have some meat attached to the Fried Skin...

I had a great time and it was a wonderful coarse!

That was a GREAT lunch, Rick! The chilled watermelon was a touch of genius!

[Native]

Ok, thanks.
I've complained about multiple sets of dots before and asked if we could mark them ourselves and they said no.
I'll see what I can do.

Called 'em back today. They didn't return my return call. Will keep y'all informed.
Dustin - thanks for the details.

I must wonder if there was some other group there Sunday for whom we're taking blame...

[Loren]

Oh, that's right, our event was on Saturday. You're probably onto something there.