Da Groj

Nice run Ben.
- I didn't get any stickers today, but I stayed above the shame!

And I really did love the course; was a bummer to miss the afternoon session for the hairdresser's convention.

I really liked the course but I guess I couldn't drive it worth a anything. I knew the car had mid 41.5s but I couldn't get a good run. Late for days on every run. Almost 2 second out of P1 and almost a half second behind Ben in the Ford Festiva Superleggera. WD Preston, WD Ben.

So many fallen cones... I hit more today than I have in the last few months worth of Auto-Xes Including one munched on my best run
Nonetheless, I loved the feel of the course. Having the back slaloms offset seemed to mess with most everyone at one point or another. While I was on course work, it was a constant stream of stations, cars and cones over the radio at times!

Still flummoxed by slalom-intensive courses after a gazillion autocross runs and today didn't boost my ego AT ALL. The course had great flow, all the slaloms were friendly. I just couldn't make friends with them. Good times!

dan wrote:And I really did love the course; was a bummer to miss the afternoon session for the hairdresser's convention.

Oh, come on...there were a few autocross cars there besides ours (Martin SCC seemed to have a reasonable presence), Johnny brought the cool rally car out (with South Carolina sand still in the engine bay), and you got to meet a cool (if noisy) hound.

Really big shew today, and after a bit of a slow start, it ran quite nicely. Thank you all for your help and cooperation today - as you know, we can't make it happen without that "cast of 1000's" and that's YOU!

Bill's Coney Island lunch for the all-dayer's was quite nice, especially the wings!

As for my driving, what-the-what??!?? Plus FOUR? ahh, c'mon... Really?? Not one clean run for me all day, in two different cars. That's what I get [karma] for talking smack about folks driving slaloms...

Thank you, Bill, for the co-drive. It was probably more of a "do as I say, not as I do" kinda thing. Onward to the dogtrack!!

Ben - rock on!

What a beautiful day in Brooksville.

First I need to thank both Rob Ledwell on his way to grid for trying to jump start the Vette (with his also plastic Fiero GT) and then Mike Murdoch leaving grid in his Detroit Iron Shelby Mustang and finally succeeding on the second try it started. All because I left the ignition in the ON position for about 2 hours - so who knows what was running? I never did that before. Normally wouldn't leave the key in it. Oh well. Philip missed a photo op of a Ford Mustang jump starting a Vette. It can be done.

I had my best time on the first run but coned it away. After that I just kept making the same Ground Hog Day mistake over and over x3. The bright point of the day was that Mike Lawson who also captured FTD with his SCCA stock with a trunk kit 7" wheeled C Street/S2 FR-S in the morning. Co-drove my Stock Vette to a 41.5sec in only two FN runs in PM. That would have been good enough for 2nd place in S1. It's been awhile since I had anyone drive my vette so it proves as it sits it's still very competitive in BS with the right driver. Randy did very well nipping at the heels of Ken's S2K almost getting 2nd. Dat with his Miata and a trunk kit almost got FTD winning S1. So kudo's to Randy for mixing it up with three Nationally competitive drivers. Turns out it didn't really matter I drove so poorly and still ended up in 4th place. Not as good as a 2nd or 3rd but today's competition was fierce and David L was gone to no avail.

S2 Mike Lawson obviously took 1st and his wife took 2nd beating out Jason, Eva and Doug by almost nothing. That had to hurt. Kudos to them for staying so close to a national driver.

At the end of my first run I felt like I'd just done a real workout. Whew. Going out was fine just never got the return leg right. Clean but slow. I couldn't have driven the no power steering Fastiva more than once!! So I was glad there were only 4 runs. Also like to thank the course workers for not calling a downed cone on me when I didn't stop for it as was too tired for another run anyhow I was told once again I brought the wrong car but in the right hands it was plenty fast.

It was a beautiful day. Too bad my driving was so bad. Not one clean run. Mike Lawson killed it again. Would love to have you ride along and give me some pointers sometime.

Last run was going to be the run until I got the turn after the turnaround right. Then immediately blew the following slalom. Oops.

Thanks for letting me drive the Vette Doug! It felt surprisingly nimble for for its size.

I will be happy to ride with you some time Jason. I'm not much of an AWD guy, but I might be able to help.

The event ran great, as FAST events normally do. Tonda and I had a great time!

Fantastic event, y'all!
Results are up, of course.

Holy crap, Mike Lawson is fast!

Oh, and Ben was on fire today!

Wow, was it ever busy in the timing booth today. Don't think I've ever worked a course where there was such a constant stream of cones, DNFs, reruns, etc.

Jason, even though you didn't have any clean runs, you still beat up on us old folks even with your coned runs.

Mark seemed to enjoy driving my car today instead of his, we were very surprised at the amount of grip my car now has thru the slaloms.

those fun runs thought me sooo much as it served as a test n tune to driving my car without the rear sway bar. I was .6 seconds faster without it which would of put me about .4 behind Dat and .5 infront of Ken. I was laughing at bouncing off the Rev limiter in 2nd in the first half of the course. with some more tweeks I almost dare to say that I could of challenged for 1st.

lots of good fun, good company, the last slalom set had the station working overtime lol BUT let's not forget the Dodge ram that was comparatively gentle on the cones and was not the slowest. props! Special thanks to Steve for the coaching

Thank you organizers for another fun event!

Great course, very good experience for me as I need plenty of slalom help. Thanks to Steve for the coaching and for demonstrating both the Gulfenvagen's potential and the skill gap I need to keep workin' on.

That second to very last slalom cone....needs a day off





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If you look at the stats from this course (cone count and number of DNFs vs total number of runs), it would probably look like a horrible course. I really don't think that it was. It was mostly slaloms, and not at all difficult or hard to follow slaloms. The tighest of them was spaced at 50' (which is kinda tight), but was offset to the easy side by at least 4-5 feet. (You haven't lived until you've driven an 11-cone evenly spaced straight 45' slalom! Be glad I've never subjected you to that one.) No, I'm afraid a lot of us just suck at driving slaloms without hitting cones. I include myself in "us", as I hit a cone on two of my runs. On the one hand, if you're not hitting one every now and then, you're not getting close enough. But, some people were definitely hitting way too many of them!

The first slalom was stupid simple, starting at 50' and expanding by 3' per cone... and the 3rd cone in that slalom was one of the single most hit cones of the day! The second slalom was even more simple, starting at 62' for 3 cones, then 75' for two cones and 100' to the last cone. Should have been easy for most cars to accelerate through once you got past the first two cones. After the figure-8 turn-around, the first offset slalom was a "flyer"! It was set at 62', but it was easy-offset by about 3 feet, so it should have driven like at 75' slalom... which might as well have been a straight at the speeds we were going! The LAST slalom was a bit of a trick. It did require a slight reduction in speed to enter, but once in it, you could accelerate through it IF your inputs were not too late. And, I guess if you had a fast car, you might have had to temper your acceleration a bit. The trick was that it was 50' spaced, but you COULD drive it much faster than a typical 50' slalom. So, the "input density" was that of a 50' slalom, but it was faster... you had to turn the wheel QUICKLY, just not as much as you would for a normal slalom. Just a fast wiggle. VERY fun element!

Anyhow, I'd like to thank the following people for proving that it WAS possible to drive four runs on this course WITHOUT hitting any cones or going off course.

Drew Scoda
Phillip Russell
Eric Meucci
Barb Meucci
Mike Lawson
Toby Head
Tyler Swinehart
Michael Tubbs
Robert Ledwell
Dave Williams
Emily Couch

Pictures of the morning run group 2 ( and a few of run group 1 ).
https://flic.kr/s/aHskStWeMh

Loren wrote:Anyhow, I'd like to thank the following people for proving that it WAS possible to drive four runs on this course WITHOUT hitting any cones or going off course.

11 of what...96? Truly an elite group.


Thanks for the pix Philip!

First, thanks to everyone for another great day of AutoX. It's always a good time with good people.

Loren wrote:...it would probably look like a horrible course. I really don't think that it was...

I think the course was great. It looked so simple, but was deceptively challenging. There were no difficult elements, just so many variations on the slaloms that it was tough to shift mental gears to drive them the way they needed to be driven.

Loren wrote:Anyhow, I'd like to thank the following people for proving that it WAS possible to drive four runs on this course WITHOUT hitting any cones or going off course...

I may have technically made 4 runs without cones or DNF, but that was just dumb luck. I spun late into the second slalom and skidded backwards to a stop. I just happened to be facing in the right direction to re-enter the slalom in the right place. My spin wasn't caused by a problem with the course, it was a problem with the driving. And I coned my two fastest runs in Fun Run in the afternoon.

In other news, The competition is heating up in S5. Rob Ledwell whupped me again, this time by a mere .049 seconds. Sara Tinsley would have beat both of us if she hadn't coned her fastest run. Bill Lynch is getting faster with each event, and Ricardo would be in the hunt if he had a suitable car or maybe just better tires. I moved to S5 to get more experience, and the competition is driving me to push harder. Still need to work on sucking less.
Dave

Blue_Heron wrote: Ricardo would be in the hunt if he had a suitable car or maybe just better tires.

I haven't met Ricardo, but that dude is one of my heroes for autocrossing an eight-generation 'rolla with a bull bar on the front.

This is my first run, I haven't​ gotten around to editing my other runs. Definitely a fun course that bit you if you lost concentration.


https://youtu.be/W_MqUC5KRGg

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garage west wrote:I haven't met Ricardo, but that dude is one of my heroes for autocrossing an eight-generation 'rolla with a bull bar on the front.

The Areingdale brothers epitomize what "fun" should be in autocross.