Fast Duel 2015 post thread

[Solar]

Today was a very fun event, yes it wasn't completely dry, but who cares, it still was a very fun competitive event and even fun to watch as well. I really liked the course, wish there was away to duplicate that type of course to a regular event.

Hope everyone got or gets home safely, the Howard Franklin on the way home got a little chippy when a Target semi had to brake for some jackass and came into my lane with his trailer swerving a bit.

[twistedwankel]

Agreed.

If I'd stayed home I'd have just sat on my bum and read magazines all day. A crappy day to be home.

Crazy watching this all unfold. Sure weather was a factor. If it was sunny and 85F it would have been a factor too.

Nothing like losing your first run to a challenger seeded back in the pack. Great driving by Evan "the sleeper". Had to claw my way back to the finale after that thumping.

Ben and Evan made a great team beating both Jamie and I then misfortune of a tire sidelined their car. At least it saved Jamie and I from having to do an engine teardown protest later:)

Serious head to head competition and everyone I talked to enjoyed the day.

Great job by Trevor in that Mazdaspeed 3!! Will enjoy running in the dry against him someday.

The course was surprisingly drivable with not a lot of cones being hit by most people. Couple exceptions of course.

So if you stayed home watching reruns of Gilligan's Island or the 500's you really missed out.

A lot of the trash talk was valid!! Fun to watch too.

Doug

[Loren]

Great event! Thanks to everyone who participated.

The weather could have been better. But, it also could have been a lot worse! We've certainly had wetter events, and COLD wet events. This one was at least relatively warm. (imagine if it had been wet and windy 40-50 degrees!)

Results might take a minute longer than usual. I have to actually type them up this time! Getting started on that now...

[Solar]

Great job by Trevor in that Mazdaspeed 3!!

Yes ! Congrats to Trevor !

I had a pretty good view of the start/finish for the S Class and I saw some really great driving. Doug and the white Porsche was a great battle ! I was working the start with Matt on the start of the finals, when the they ran the first competition and crossed the finish line, Matt and I looked at each other and we couldn't decide a winner. It was a perfect dead draw, and they got a rerun.

[Carracer]

Pictures - Unedited and many images look like duplicates because, thanks to the rain, I didn't move around much.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z5doowq7ouoe ... 7bGDa?dl=0

Wow, that was fun, I was a little sceptical just how much different it would feel racing against a competitor instead of just the clock but it really added another level of fun. Every run was exciting, just knowing that it was make-or-break.

I was sorta wishing for rain because I really figured it would make my all-season tire, at the very least, closer in grip to the people running tires that aren't terrible. I have never had some much fun siding my car around! It was also weird watching my car slide around, I don't normally have a co-driver so it was nice finally being able to take pictures of my car in motion.

My final battle with Trevor actually didn't result in him lapping me Very happy about that. I gave it my all but a tail wag killed a few to many cones on that last exit. It was about as close I could have hoped for! And considering he went on to win overall I feel a little better about losing

[NervesOfThrill]

That is one helluva a cool event. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't do the Duel, but sure glad I did.

I was on quite the tear until I ran that dead heat with Doug, which was the highlight of the day for me. Then I pressed a bit on the next 2 runs and got out of the sweet spot I'd been running in and when you are up against Doug, any mistakes are fatal. Candidly I'm thrilled to be running anywhere near Doug to begin with, so the fact that we had to do a "best 2 out of 3" to see who advanced was truly an accomplishment for me.

I cannot explain the low attendance, but I'd love to do 2 of these a year because I'm convinced once folks get a taste it would just grow in popularity.

[Loren]

Final Duel Results

Thus spoke the prophet...

You look across the course at the starting line and SEE your opponent. No clocks, no looking at time sheets and numbers. Just look over there, and there he is looking back at you. When you reach the half-way point, you can look across the course again... and there he is! Is he ahead? Is he behind? It's often hard to tell. Did he hit some cones or go off course somewhere? You just don't know! Come around to the finish... there he is again... and you can see... you might just finish first! Or... maybe it's obvious that you won't? But, you still keep hammering away because you don't know if your opponent coned out or not! You can still win... even if you don't cross the line first. Happens all the time!

That is the Duel.

A gentleman always speaks the truth.

In close to 20 years of doing the Duel and its predecessors, several things have become clear. The biggest thing is that it is absolutely unpredictable, and that is part of what makes it so much fun! The drivers that you expect to win do not always win. The drivers that shine at the beginning sometimes falter at the end. The drivers that lose their first or second match sometimes make an astounding comeback and win. There are matches that are too close to call. There are matches where the driver that finishes first does NOT win because they hit more cones. All of these things happen. Every single time. That is the Duel.

This event was no different. There were drivers such as Drew Scoda, Denny Kort and Trevor Renson who just plain dominated all day, handily winning their classes undefeated. There were drivers like Jeremy Ogle, Doug Adams, Ron Rice and Philip Petrie who had an early misstep, but were otherwise ON FIRE all day. Especially Philip, who almost unseated the overall winner, Trevor Renson, with about half the power on all-season tires! There were people who shall remain nameless who nobody would have ever expected to be among the "2 and out" crowd (all were #1 and #2 seeded drivers!). There was the wildcard factor of a wet course that threw a lot of people off of their game, while teaching others that they were better at driving in the wet than they thought. All in all, it was a unique event in and of itself... and yet, it was everything that a Duel should be. Win or lose, all competitors enjoyed the thrill of one-on-one autocross competition.

Thanks for playing! And if you didn't play... we hope to see you at the next one.

[Inspecta]

Sounds like it was a blast!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NervesOfThrill]

Finally got around to uploading my videos from yesterday. My best run of the day was against Ben to my eye.

But the infamous tie is probably the one most want to see, see here it is for those that are interested:

http://youtu.be/ByCmkUXL1iI

The rest are on my youtube channel too.

[BigBlue]

What a great time. Even with the near constant drizzle to deluge levels of liquid sunshine, I don't think a single person regretted being at this event. If you didn't sign up, or decided to bail due to the forecast, you truly missed out. Kudos to Denny on a great win in Mod 2! (I at least have the satisfaction of making him work for it.) I can't wait for our next duel!

[twistedwankel]

Jeremy that was an interesting video. Were it not for that device blocking your view and playing that Freddie Mercury tune "Champions", you probably would have won (I fortunately left mine in the glovebox.) EVERYONE in S1 is a force to be reckoned with!! We all finish within .1-.4 seconds of each other and no one wins twice in a row. All in totally different RWD cars from 3 different SCCA classes.

"Philip" what can we say? Well done. This season he has emerged as the most entertaining driver of Eminence. Stone tires and no car prep yet he drives on the edge and never loses control. Always has that big grin on his face!! Always takes cool pix of everyone else. I do wish I had a video of his last run finish against Trevor. He pushes 321 Miata so hard he let the rear drift just a little too far near the wall and actually "launched" 4 or 5 cones into the air like a fireworks finale. No he never lifted and finished the run. Well done.

Philip has cool photo's of helmeted Evan (Mr. February) and Ben (Mr. May) shirtless for the 2016 FAST calendar from the last event. We'll have to get a pix of Philip for (Mr. July). You know the ladies will go crazy for it.

[twistedwankel]

Trevor's comment at the end of the day:

"I have to find a gas station fast. My low fuel light was blinking when I raced you." And then he took the title.

Good thing he's going to GA for the "Tour" in two weeks. He's calibrated his fuel gage AND is ready for the weird weather up there.

Well at least Brian and I have always known when we are 1/2 tanked.

[Loren]

This is a really cool video. A Duel match viewed from both cars! (Jeremy Ogle & Don Wright)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2PbLpYFLEI

[lddavis91]

Even with the rain, that was the most fun I've had at an autocross in a long time. I will be signing up for any duels that FAST puts on. Really kicking myself for beating myself in the race against Drew.

[Omnislashx82]

tons of fun even in my S5 class lol. cant say i would have kept it on the track with MY car since i cant seem to do that dry but had a blast and loren showed me how to drive the 3 a lot better in the final two runs of practice i got to implement the teachings and it was way better feeling.

[Evan]

Check out this sick gash I got in my tire for seemingly no reason at the event. If you tug on it a little, you can see straight into the belts!

After coming out of the far-end turnaround and heading towards the mini-slalom, I heard a big ol' thump and then suddenly found myself spinning. My reaction was neither quick nor professional and could only be described as complete confusion - I didn't attempt to recover the spin or even disengage the clutch until after the car had stalled. As I was spinning, I was just so incredibly baffled as to why this was happening; I was utterly certain I wasn't being stupid with my inputs at that point. Nope, just de-beaded a tire. No biggie. Hopefully I'll develop better habits before this happens to me on the street one day.

I'd like to offer a big thank-you to everybody who helped me out. Within seconds of the occurrence I had course workers descending upon me making sure I didn't try to drive back, I had people pulling off the wheel to replace it with a donut, I had people answering my state-of-shock-ignorance questions, I had people offering advice and escorts home and last-minute help... you guys are awesome

[Loren]

Evan, did you try putting air in that tire? I'm curious as to whether it's a slow leak (meaning it could have happened on your way to the event), or a big hole (meaning you somehow sliced it right there on that run).

[Lava Speed 05]

I think he's saying that's a big old hole now. I found a big flat chunk of what looked more like asphalt than concrete while we were tearing down the course but I can't remember where it was in relation to the course as the cones were already stacked.
I threw it next to the green storage unit but I wonder if that was the culprit?

[Loren]

I saw the slice when we took the tire off of the car, but I don't know how much of it went through the rubber under the belts. It could have still been a slow leak that didn't present a huge problem until pressure got low enough to debead the tire.

There are one or two pieces of cut-off rebar or bolts that stick up maybe 1/8" from the surface of the concrete out there, but they're way, way down at the far end. The only other thing it could have been if it happened on-site would be a sharp edge of broken concrete, or something that fell off of a car.

[Professional_Slacker]

I'm actually kinda sorry I missed a rain event. should have been a real game changer for sure.