Da Groj

It's funny how we can be short of course workers when we run 20-25 car groups... and yet, it happens.

We should have had 21 or 22 drivers in each group at this event. We had 6 workers and 6 corner captains allotted for our 5 worker stations. (extras to allow for the inevitable no-shows and to maybe allow for some workers to "float") Two timing, two grid, one starter and one instructor per group. That's 18 people accounted for. The other 3-4 would be lost to event chair, setup, tech, registration, and... no-shows.

What am I saying? Unfortunately, I'm pretty much saying that, as our "experienced corner captains", you're our eyes on the course and we need to you to a) deal with it or b) ask for help DURING the event, not the next day. As noted above, without begging for volunteers, we generally don't have enough extras to provide more course workers. So, all you can do is move your stations around as-needed, spread your station out, or pull an extra body from a less-busy or overmanned station.

So, Ron... you did all of that, and I commend you for it. If you still needed more help than that, you should have asked for it. Maybe we could have come up with it, maybe not. But, asking for it would have been the thing to do.

This particular course, while quite fun and challenging, had THREE distinct and recognizable slaloms, with some tricky gates in-between. That made for a lot of opportunity to hit cones, which puts a bit more load on the course workers. Good thing it wasn't summer.

Because I use the "no brainer" method of assigning tasks according to the simple format Loren gives me:

3rd heat: I can tell you we had 5 Corner Capt's and ONLY 5 Course workers as two were not there. One left after his runs and one never took any runs and left early so what can we say? Another timing person left early having taken two runs due to illness/flu = stay the hell away from me as my vaccine doesn't work for another 3 days. We also lost an instructor who took no runs. That left us a total of 4 workers short.

I filled the helper in the timing spot with me. I put an instructor with 2 newbies whom I could have put in the trailer so I could be an instructor myself? Kind of irrelevant.

In hindsight I probably could have pulled one of the grid people (questionable ability to run?) and sent them out on course?

We did pull the worker from station 2 later when requested (which didn't appear to be too busy later) which we hate to do.

I think all the stations (from the cone calls) got alot of action with a car every 25 seconds and the wind knocking over at least one cone frequently @ station 3 or 4?

The story Vivek imparts is rather disheartening. He did tell us about it immediately and I saw it unfold. The worker had his back to the cars wandering around looking for the box...moan. No one heard me call on the radio to red flag the whole course as I could see the situation developing from the trailer. I'm guessing the strong wind was making it hard to hear the radios. Fortunately Vivek used his brakes and the guy got out of the way. Like was discussed at the driver's meeting. So that part works? I don't think I had the good sense to even give Vivek a rerun which kind of says people do get tired by 4ish.

We have a big screen tv I wonder if we can make a video that plays for 15 minutes instead of leaving it up to a "reader"? I'm sure the old timers zone out during that speil. Maybe everyone does? I know I'm frequently criticized for taking too long with the driver's meeting so I tried to speed it up this last time by reading faster and minimizing additional comments.

I will always get older if not wiser!!

twistedwankel wrote:The story Vivek imparts is rather disheartening. He did tell us about it immediately and I saw it unfold. The worker had his back to the cars wandering around looking for the box...moan. No one heard me call on the radio to red flag the whole course as I could see the situation developing from the trailer. I'm guessing the strong wind was making it hard to hear the radios.

What? Where was the corner captain that was supposed to be watching that guy's back?

Well, it does happen. Driver's might not always see a red flag waving out of their line of site, but when there's a PERSON in amongst the cones that they're about to drive through, they should see it... as Vivek did. This is why we encourage (and should probably require) course workers to wear those goofy orange vests.

We have a big screen tv I wonder if we can make a video that plays for 15 minutes instead of leaving it up to a "reader"? I'm sure the old timers zone out during that speil. Maybe everyone does? I know I'm frequently criticized for taking too long with the driver's meeting so I tried to speed it up this last time by reading faster and minimizing additional comments.

Doug, I think you did pretty well this time. Pre-recording the driver's meeting is a sure way to get it completely and totally ignored. Not a good plan. We do need to make it a point to get the first timers to the front so that they can see and hear better, and remind everyone else to listen quietly and respectfully. Yeah, it's boring, yeah, we've all heard it before... but, it's a necessary evil.

Thanks for the info Vivek, much appreciated.

No problem Scott. I was going to tell you the truth about how I was dropping banana peels out the window at the turnaround to slow you down, but the Torsen story is much better

Doug: no big deal, if I felt I deserved a re-run I would have come to a complete stop and asked. The problem is I am just not that serious
The driver's meeting covers what needs to be covered, we can just emphasize that workers need to be looking out for themselves and each other. I am sure that those who do not notice a car coming one time remember to be more aware from then on.
Or maybe I need a louder exhaust? Open headers anyone?

I may be a little late to this party, but the discussion here is fabulous! Good solid critique, congrats, and teamwork (after the event!). Excellent!

Greg - nicely done! You're a force to be reckoned with. (Kurtis, you're doing pretty darn well, yourself, too...).

Doug and Brian - also nicely done! First car off was about 10:30 and even with the timing issues all went quite well.

Ian - tsk tsk. If you come to another event, please plan to do your work assignment before you drive.

As for my own driving, well, all I can say is, "damn cones."

Edit:
Just so's you know, if it's necessary to spread out workers as it seems it was this event, and communication is an issue, we have 11 radios and generally only use 8 at an event. So, ask for another radio.

And the drivers' meeting notes just keep getting longer and longer. I think we do a pretty good job of educating/warning people about the ins and outs of coursework. Unfortunately common sense is something folks will either bring along and use, or not. Maybe we should follow the meeting with a pop quiz once in a while...

Vz28 wrote:I am sure that those who do not notice a car coming one time remember to be more aware from then on.

This.

Great Course. That wind was crazy.
I was working as CC run group 3. Thank you to Station 4 who helped cover it. I think it was Tim at station 4 who seemed to have to replace the same slalom cone after almost every car passed.
Thank you to Evan N. for working two course assignments and helping me at station 3.

Suggestion for drivers meeting would be to call a car# and that person would read a section. Everyone may pay attention a bit more if they have to quickly read a paragraph.

BrandLoyal wrote:Great Course. That wind was crazy.
I was working as CC run group 3. Thank you to Station 4 who helped cover it. I think it was Tim at station 4 who seemed to have to replace the same slalom cone after almost every car passed.
Thank you to Evan N. for working two course assignments and helping me at station 3.

Suggestion for drivers meeting would be to call a car# and that person would read a section. Everyone may pay attention a bit more if they have to quickly read a paragraph.

That was me (Alex) who shagged the same cone no less than 25 times during run group 3 (at least I got to work off that pizza). I'm just thankful I remembered my windbreaker had a built in hood. Great course too! I would say in my almost 3 years doing autocross, it was one of my favorites. And if it hadn't been for a few cones, I would have knocked off 6-7 seconds between my first and best runs

snookwheel wrote:Video of Stalker run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi4YxjY5G6o

And a spin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BiTaWbFhQ8

That's a nice looking run, Scott. Nice and early on those slaloms!

AScoda wrote:Congrats to Greg for showing me how it's done today. And of course Jason Ball, who shows up now and then to pound his fist.

What happened to Chuck Ray today?

Chuck had to bail, some other obligation...

Now that I've finally replaced my 10 year old suspension and 2 year old tires, I look forward to doing some more pounding this year. Loren's next.

The car is definitely a different animal now... It will take some time to re-learn!

Jason

I've got a pretty good battle going with Jeremy now that we've finally got John's car dialed in. But, you're welcome to join the fray, Jason! After July, I'll probably go back to driving my beater Miata. I don't expect it will be competitive.

Thanks for a good event, everyone.

My dad was one of the missing 3rd run group course workers. I anticipated it and tried to get into the second run group to cover his work position in 3, but was told it would be okay. Sorry to cause extra work for some of you.

See you in March.

I met "That Guy SR."

A real gentleman who speaks very highly of "That Guy Jr."

Sorry I made him physically ill when he rode with me.

I really did warn him that riding is way worse than driving:)

At least he showed up. My only son stood me up twice at events so I wrote him off for all future events.

It's not for everyone.

It's something some of us do for a wide variety of reasons.

Mayor of Dougopolous

Great event. And thanks Doug for the insurance tip during the drivers meeting.

Slight revision to the results has been posted. I think Ron said there were some reruns toward the end of one of the run groups that were not handled properly. Only thing that really changed was Jamie's fastest time, which didn't affect finish position, but did move him up from 18th to 16th overall.