Da Groj

Course God.
I like the sound of that.

I didn't even see Amy go off course, I was driving that run group. One person can't see everything. That is why we say, "see something, say something." Safety needs everyone's eyes and ears.

We also might want to consider only running one car at at time when the course is that wet. Lots of sliding around and cars may slide farther than we think when it's wet. Barring a frontal boundary, Summer rains are usually afternoon and likely the last run group(s). Won't push the whole day back.

By the way, if we neglected to tell you with all the rain and commotion, your car is too loud. Need to get it below 96 dB.[/quote]


How loud was it....it has full exhaust I don't think I have a leak any where but I can double check underneath and make sure .......you might be confused should I say even a little scared with my deep manly rumble.

It's possible. I've been confused before. I could be thinking of a different Mustang.

One of them was very loud.

CaptainSquirts wrote:Sounds like we need a new course worker roll, "course god". One person, overseeing the course itself. If car goes off, people diddle daddling around and one station is only red flagging, the course god tells everyone to red flag. If he sees a station knocking over cones a lot and another station none. The overseer tells someone from the non busy station to move over to the busy one. Etc etc

Obviously we have an all day volunteer here.

With PCA there is an awesome guy named Candy who is the "official" starter for years. His Son kicks ass. He starts everyone. It's a profession. "God of the Autocross". Nothing happens until he waves the green flag.

Loren wrote:It's possible. I've been confused before. I could be thinking of a different Mustang.

One of them was very loud.

Honestly I think all the newer Mustangs anymore have serious loud issues like bleeding ears bad. It doesn't seem to make them faster either.

CaptainSquirts wrote:Paying attention isn't usually the problem, it's initiating the action.

Paying attention is always going to be the problem. Forever. Text me

wanna say thanks for the safety discussion. I'll try and take the corner captain training thing to heart.

Please feel free to call me out / remind me about anything I forget. It is appreciated!


edit: I also appreciate Doug's comment about hold starts as I was once involved in a sticky situation where I wished I called one. fortunately, the driver was on the ball and nothing came of it. I now try and play it real safe if I'm on station 1 or 2.

yamaha731 wrote:Me and Amy talked about that she said she thought she was going to get stuck and she panicked and me yelling in the passenger seat did not help (I'm a terrible passenger). She said next time she will bring the car to a complete stop and avoid the race line on the way back.....
In here defense that car was really hard to drive with those slicks on it.

Hey! Y'all told me that was a different black Mustang...

Loren wrote:

CaptainSquirts wrote:Sounds like we need a new course worker roll, "course god". One person, overseeing the course itself. If car goes off, people diddle daddling around and one station is only red flagging, the course god tells everyone to red flag. If he sees a station knocking over cones a lot and another station none. The overseer tells someone from the non busy station to move over to the busy one. Etc etc

Technically, this is Drew's job as "Safety Chief". But, it's really hard for one person to be monitoring that closely all day.

So... this really isn't a bad idea. It would be yet another course work position that we'd have to fill with an experienced... and not just experienced, but VERY experienced... person. No free lunch.

In a way, timing sort of does this, as well. Especially when there are sharp and experienced people in timing, like Ron or Soroya. They're going to see things happen and take action.

It's not necessarily a separate position. Pick one "highly experienced" corner captain, and give them the added "duty" of monitoring the entire course - not just their station. ALL can see a car go off, and that one Course God (or whatever) can take the lead for all from there. They can monitor which stations are cone-busy from radio calls if not eye-sight, and rearrange workers if needed as well.

The Starter will always be the "Course God". Only as good as his information, attention and hearing.

mymomswagon wrote:It was good to see Steve grab an M4 first in the wagon. Though he mopped my floor with my car, it was satisfying insofar as my car setup is not holding him back from winning.

The back was a challenge for me. Good post by Joe B for me to think about. Turarounds usually give me issues but think I did okay. Going out seemed okay though I think Steve did a better job post-wiggles.

It's always fun. It's gonna rain now and then

I may have mopped - but you were the only one in M4 who got no dry runs at all. Yep, a little rain must fall...

CaptainSquirts wrote:Sounds like we need a new course worker roll, "course god". One person, overseeing the course itself.

Loren wrote:In a way, timing sort of does this, as well.

twistedwankel wrote:The Starter will always be the "Course God".

Yes. After lining the next car up and a quick check for belts and helmets, the starter's whole purpose is making sure the course to it's safe to introduce another car. That's why we put an experienced person with good judgment in the starter's position. And between timing and the starter, that includes talking to the workers out on course. We don't need another person getting in the way of a good starter.

^^^ also true.

I like Steve's idea of declaring a particular Corner Captain as "boss". But, the more I think about it... it's really just a matter of making sure that at least ONE really experienced Corner Captain is out working course at any given time. The experienced folks generally automatically take care of what we're talking about. Whether we tell them they're in charge or not, they tend to "do the needful".

And sometimes it's raining and it's just hard for EVERYBODY to keep up with what's not happening right in front of them.

Oh come on, 48 thousandths?! Can't we just call that a tie?

I thought the rain was going to help me out but I guess not! I'd love to know if Philip's run was wet or dry...or maybe I DON'T want to know...

Native wrote:

Loren wrote:

CaptainSquirts wrote:Sounds like we need a new course worker roll, "course god". One person, overseeing the course itself. If car goes off, people diddle daddling around and one station is only red flagging, the course god tells everyone to red flag. If he sees a station knocking over cones a lot and another station none. The overseer tells someone from the non busy station to move over to the busy one. Etc etc

Technically, this is Drew's job as "Safety Chief". But, it's really hard for one person to be monitoring that closely all day.

So... this really isn't a bad idea. It would be yet another course work position that we'd have to fill with an experienced... and not just experienced, but VERY experienced... person. No free lunch.

In a way, timing sort of does this, as well. Especially when there are sharp and experienced people in timing, like Ron or Soroya. They're going to see things happen and take action.

It's not necessarily a separate position. Pick one "highly experienced" corner captain, and give them the added "duty" of monitoring the entire course - not just their station. ALL can see a car go off, and that one Course God (or whatever) can take the lead for all from there. They can monitor which stations are cone-busy from radio calls if not eye-sight, and rearrange workers if needed as well.

I suppose you could designate one corner captain as Course Captain. Usually the starter has control of the course, but his back is to the course when he is pulling up the next car, so he is always going to miss things but he always scans the course before releasing the next car. Timing has control also,but then again the timer is distracted from the course when he/she is trying to read car numbers, verifying that the finishing car is the one that just got the finishing time, verifying that the car on course is the correct number, verifying the run number, having people walk into the trailer and cause a distraction, having people stand in front of the trailer, all kinds of distractions for timing. So I think it really has to be some one out on course. And it needs to be everyone.

jbrannon7 wrote:So I think it really has to be some one out on course. And it needs to be everyone.

Leaving a duty to "everyone" is going to make everyone (except the really experienced) think someone else will do it(I know they shouldn't, but they "WILL" have that mindset). If you have a very experienced person that makes calls then that's fine, people will follow his lead, sometimes(I've red flagged but nobody else did, in hindsight I should've radio'd them to also). But if you don't have that one person, then we get what we have today. Honestly if you want change, you gotta do something different, add a roll or whatever that has someone focusing on that type of stuff. You can preach all you want during the drivers meeting but at the end of the day, it won't change anything.

okay I've been a starter a few times but haven't really been coached beyond corrections and advisement on timing of sending out for particular course. what else do I need to know?

not complaining. don't want to miss anything.

Man what a fun track. I can't believe Phillip was able to pull out the S4 win on a wet or raining track, you really are a freak of nature . The return side was so easy to get behind on. It just begged to be attacked but made you pay the price if you took the bait, which I did every run. I felt really fast going out but could never convince my peanut brain to set up early for the last element.

Here is my fastest run, on dry concrete, perfect conditions, yet still a loser.

https://youtu.be/M-lpqW96zQU

Adding my 2 or 3 cents... FAST has been safest club that I’ve been personally part of. Over the 8 years I’ve been enjoying these events, no significant issues from my perspective. Factor in the number of first timers and novices, it’s actually quite impressive. The wet conditions I’m sure uncovered a handful of moments that appear to cause concern, but like mentioned earlier, one car on course would address it if needed. In this scenario the started releases cars as he/she sees fit. Course work isn’t difficult, just requires everyone to pay attention and be willing to stop cars when a potential risk takes place. Several years ago I through a red flag, maybe I didn’t need to but also mentioned earlier, sometimes you need to hit the pause button to let everything settled back down. I don’t see anything wrong with it.

Ok, that was more like 5 or 6 cents.

For those wondering--the 1st run group in the afternoon had 2 wet-but-drying runs, 1 mostly dry run, 1 dry run, then wet again for the last run. Not sure if anyone got their 5th run before it started raining again. 2nd run group had all 5 runs in the soaking wet. Faster times in the afternoon came from those mostly dry and dry runs.