June 16th Father's Day Eve was pointless:)

[twistedwankel]

Yes it really was pointless but we knew that going in. Not a points event.

I met some new to me nice people today. And familiar faces were also well represented.

I used the sunscreen and still sweat away 3 or 4 bottles of liquid. The morning went fairly smooth other than my slight brain boil from standing on that new black asphalt that was generating some serious heat. My car gauge said it got to 87F in the shade. I made some shade with an umbrella in grid. Somehow I got brain fade and the 4 2driver cars were behind one run. No idea how that happened. No harm they took their runs in quick fashion.

I got a call from Matt S on the way to the event asking for a ride as his car melted a wire while stopped for gas. I only had 2 seats and wife was in one of them so he rode home in a flatbed. I have been to 3 of these events and must be bad luck as every one someone needed a tow for a weird reason. Matt is the first one to not even get there?


First the course was too fast so they added a much more interesting slalom going out and a field goal attemp near the finish which was a buzz kill for me who wanted to try a drifting finish:( It still worked well and everyone figured it out.

We had a great cool lunch/salad which my wife particularly loved after sitting in the hot car for a couple hours. I don't think she ever got out of it once. I started the car and AC at lunch and never turned it off the rest of the day until home.

So I got to use my 30% tarp quite successfully and nothing got wet other than my spirits. You guessed it the rain started almost immediately on and off. So I only got wet runs which I thought were quite smooth until the lake built up along the return so I had to hug the cone walls to stay out of the field which was really the only buzz kill other than the dirt on our cars which sort of looked like I just finished a rally cross instead of an autocross. So I got two timed runs and I think that was all as two never registered? Just as it started to dry up lightning came in and we had to stop for 15 mintues in the dry until it went away so save the workers lives. When it started to rain again hard I decided to pull the plug since it was all ready 3pm and now I had to wash the car + take a shower when I got home.

So I don't know what happened after I left but I assume Loren, Steve and Drew all refixed the course and saw to it the folks got their 6 runs safely. No harm no foul as I've gotten quite good at racing in the rain on even bald tires so today with some tread it was almost awesome. The lightning was a bummer. We've been lucky with that for along time. It had never rained about 3 miles into Dunnellon and people were still swimming in the river there. We drove thru 6 storm cells going down Rt41 all the way to Brooksville where there was no evidence of any rain. Can you believe that? Anyhow the Funometer worked just fine once again.

Don't look for results early as Loren and Steve won't get home until after 9pm. Very long day for them.

[aw614]

The results are up!

I took US41 home instead of i75, its a much nicer and relaxing drive, but it feels twice as long as taking i75 since I got home at 6:30, the flip side, is I didnt have a bunch of cars wiz past me at 80+ mph since I keep it at 75mph b/c of my gearing and Florida drivers are well Florida drivers .

Onto the event, I like the mixed surface compared to brooksville, it seems my car is a lot easier and funner to handle on those surfaces. Still was in shock how much standing water there was on course after the rain. And it seems work station 3 where I was at sat lower than the other side, my feet was soaked.

Watching my videos, the end really got me a few times, I should have turned in a lot earlier, I thought I could carry more speed and do a late turn, nope!

Thanks to Dan for letting my drive his Mazda, did a 46.550 in his car, Im interested to see how it would drive in brooksville, it was tail happy on full stiff, but really manageable to drive it on course.

My fastest run at 44.297
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T949t3P ... e=youtu.be
I let Dan drive my car, he got a 48.847, excuse the commentary on the video lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_XOOus ... e=youtu.be

[Loren]

The results are up!

Uploaded them while I was waiting for dinner.

Well, the weather sure made for an "interesting" afternoon. But, we persevered. Huge thanks to the workers who diligently worked course in the rain. (of course, they were the lucky ones when it came to driving... they got 6 dry runs!)

While we're talking weather, the questions were asked in one form or another: "OMG, there's lightning within 10 miles! What are you going to do?" and "Do you guys know about the Weatherbug app?"

Well, yes, we know about Weatherbug and several other weather apps that can give us all sorts of details about the weather, including lightning. What do we do about lightning within 10 miles? NOTHING. We don't notice, and we don't sit and monitor for it. Why? Because even the US military doesn't worry about lightning unless it's within 3 miles. I used to work with explosives attached to nuclear weapons, and we didn't stop working unless there was lightning within 3 miles.

Lightning within 3 generally gives you some signs. You're going to see a flash here and there, and be able to count that the thunder is within 3 seconds. When we start noticing that happening (as we did toward the end of our lunch break), we start taking a close look at the weather to see what's going on. So, yeah... we're slighlty old-school. We rely on our senses to tell us when weather is coming, and then we use technology to get the details.

As Doug noted, this is the first time we've had to do a lightning delay in quite some time. But, it was far from the first.

I'm a little tired of rainy events. We've had our share over the past few months. We're due for some dryness!

[twistedwankel]

I really wish that enough FAST regulars would sign up for Dunnellon so it could be a legitimate "CLASSIC" event instead of a break even event.
I know I could have gotten at least 2 dry runs if the experienced group were there. Maybe 3. Damn, I only need one dry run.

The 3 surfaces when totally wet were totally grippy with any tread at all. My RE71's are 2 years old and nearly to the wear bars. Geesh. That's a decent surface(s) guys. My wife's neck and back didn't hurt on it either. I did hear a rumor about Farm Truck tho' in a borrowed car

Maybe we can have a separate Classic Points Tee Shirt to get people off their asses and have fun with consequences?

[twistedwankel]

Andrew I nearly took a nap in most places where you had a clean line and I had to struggle to stay out of the field The fact that you were shifting constantly would have cost you the loss to me who only shifts ONCE EVER rain or shine Good to see you again.


I think the 121.8 run of mine must have been my course walk?

Interesting fact I finished 31st in OA and PAX again. Must be an omen?

Guess I should have hung around and let my wife kill me later? Nah. Wasn't a points event.

[AScoda]

Steven Frank--44.868 in the rabbit wagon!
WAT?!?!
It's just a harmless little bunny!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg

[Loren]

So, who ran in the wet?

42.562 M0 1 Drew Scoda
42.705 M2 109 Ryan Sauer
44.482 S0 78 Joe Brannon
46.124 M1 10 Phillip Russell
47.797 S1 9 Doug Lofreddo
47.906 S0 99 Brian Bombassei
48.634 M3 133 Justin Tilus
48.729 M4 3 Loren Williams (Coned away a 46.4 )
49.079 M2 36 David Martin II
49.588 S2 616 Nickolas Lehman
49.696 S1 20 Steven Brand
49.819 M2 196 Orlando Fernandez
50.301 S3 29 Gregory Zollo
50.817 S1 19 Doug Adams
50.895 S0 966 Mark Wild
51.885 M3 41 Eric Orr
52.350 S1 44 Glen LaFlame
53.403 M2 96 Samantha Argus-Bolyard
54.582 FN 73 Carl Nyman
58.580 M1 12 Lelwani Acquaviva

[twistedwankel]

Steven Frank--44.868 in the rabbit wagon!
WAT?!?!
It's just a harmless little bunny!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg

Drew is a funny man. Go Drew.

[mymomswagon]

Steven Frank--44.868 in the rabbit wagon!
WAT?!?!
It's just a harmless little bunny!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg

My plan to get Steve to stop sandbagging me , by talking talking trash about him in the pre-event thread really paid off! [emoji41]

Seriously good driving Steve.[emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

Great course for us first run folks. Creative use of the site and fun to drive.

[SlowMiataDrew]

This course was fun, even after the changes. Dad came out and had some fun too! Maybe he'll start to be more of a regular Had trouble not finding cones up until my last run which was good enough to steal 1st place. I would post some video but it seems the files are corrupt Fun as always, just wish the rain wouldn't come down all the time.

[Jamie]

Had trouble not finding cones up until my last run which was good enough to steal 1st place.

I saw that!

[Native]

It was a good day - many thanks to those who participated, lent a helping-hand, and worked in the rain. And everyone did a quite nice job minding the airport's rules and procedures - the airport director paid compliments. You all rock!

The rain has been a bummer, hopefully we'll get it out of the way and the rest of the summer will be hot and dry instead of hot and humid... ...and even-out the competition.

I'm pretty pleased with the time I put down ( and Drew and Bill, y'all are just hilarious ). I like the way Bill's got the car set up right now. He's got some secret-weapon pieces to install, though, so soon there will be another learning curve...lookin' forward to that!

[AScoda]

Phillip Petrie also ran in the wet. He was listed in the 1st run group, but ran in the 2nd.
I think everyone got a couple of dry runs at the end after the course dried some.

[Loren]

Yep, Philip did. And I knew that. And I thought I put him on that list! Musta got distracted while I was putting it together and forgot to follow through with that thought.

We got some "almost dry" runs late in the afternoon. But, it was never fully dry. Always a wet spot, or damp streak somewhere.

[Native]

^^^ and the course was easier after we had to redo it...

[twistedwankel]

So another option?
Why can't the Dunnellon Airport events simply be a points event OPEN? Same rules but with lunch. I certainly would have stayed in S1 with 12pts at stake. If the people can't come then that's what the 3 event drop is for. Dunnellon is kind of growing on me like that very rare (anymore) Martin event at Tavares or (Orlando Convention Ctr). I REALLY like running with my competitors in the same conditions a few times a year.

Having a Pro/Classic points t shirt works too also because I would still get to run with all my equal competitors under the same conditions and still swap cars (as wanted) for fun the last 3 runs (when allowed).

BTW: I won my class the very first run while others got reruns to get their crappy first times and failed to be clean.

[Loren]

I don't want to punish people in the regular FAST championship for not wanting to drive 2 hours to an autocross. FAST has always been a "local" club, and our Dunnellon events aren't quite "local". One of the reasons we started doing Dunnellon was to try to build a market for autocross in that area. There's autocross in and around Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville... but not much in the Ocala/Gainesville area.

Having an extra "backup autocross site" is always a good thing. That's the other big reason for running there.

Maybe now that we've started learning the site and how to use it effectively, we could consider doing maybe one Dunnellon Open event next season. I wouldn't want to do more than that. People have lots of reasons for using their dropped events. Work, school, illness, vacation, family stuff, etc. I don't want to force their hand by "making" them take a drop for a Dunnellon event that they can't get to. I certainly wouldn't want to take away more than one of their drops for that. We really do have a lot of people who have commitments and use their drops for personal reasons... THAT is what they are for.

But, we're still learning Dunnellon... hard to say what we'll end up doing there in the future.

[AScoda]

^^^ and the course was easier after we had to redo it...

Phillip took a run in someone's s2000 in the dry and I asked him about that. He seemed to think it was slower after the re-route around the great Dunellon chasm.

[Native]

Yeah, I asked a couple-three folks in the afternoon group about the re-map and they all said it was fine.

And by the way, just in case whoever you were are reading this, Drew and I are sure you had great ideas about fixing the course, but, time was of the essence at that point, and course design-by-committee just doesn't work. I hope I didn't come off as rude...

[jbrannon7]

^^^ and the course was easier after we had to redo it...

I think it was more difficult after the rain. The waloms were offset more to avoid the bumper crushing lake.