2010 A/X Track Designs

[Amail]

I'd like to raise a glass to Don Auten.

Don has taken the track design bull by the horns and made it his bitch! I don't think he's borrowed much, if anything, from previous years' tracks. Starting essentially from scratch, he has come up with some outstanding courses. We've seen increasing and decreasing radius turns where off-camber is just as likely to help as to hurt. We've seen variably spaced slalom cones that reward those who are smooth on the gas or smooth on the brake, depending on the setup. There have been numerous "turns" which are cleverly disguised kinks, and straights disguised as rhythm sections, all of which reward looking ahead instead of picking out apex cones. There is the occasional gimick, some more successful than others, that at the very least prompt a lot of opinions! He has even come up with a system to rate track difficulty. I think it's more voodoo than science, but he's stuffed it into a spreadsheet and it spits out a rating.

The tracks evolve from month to month, each trying to incorporate lessons learned from the previous. He's managed to cater to both tail heavy and balanced cars. He has a design planned out well in advance, and there is never any scramble to "come up with something" at the last minute.

2010 will be a year remembered for its really, really fun tracks.

Bottoms up.

[mrondeau]

I'd like to raise a glass to Don Auten.

Don has taken the track design bull by the horns and made it his bitch! I don't think he's borrowed much, if anything, from previous years' tracks. Starting essentially from scratch, he has come up with some outstanding courses. We've seen increasing and decreasing radius turns where off-camber is just as likely to help as to hurt. We've seen variably spaced slalom cones that reward those who are smooth on the gas or smooth on the brake, depending on the setup. There have been numerous "turns" which are cleverly disguised kinks, and straights disguised as rhythm sections, all of which reward looking ahead instead of picking out apex cones. There is the occasional gimick, some more successful than others, that at the very least prompt a lot of opinions! He has even come up with a system to rate track difficulty. I think it's more voodoo than science, but he's stuffed it into a spreadsheet and it spits out a rating.

The tracks evolve from month to month, each trying to incorporate lessons learned from the previous. He's managed to cater to both tail heavy and balanced cars. He has a design planned out well in advance, and there is never any scramble to "come up with something" at the last minute.

2010 will be a year remembered for its really, really fun tracks.

Bottoms up.

+1 . Thank you Don for all you do for the club. (Thanks for the book. I'm really enjoying it. I'm about half way done.)

[lrayner]

Count me in as a member of the Don Auten fan club

[Jackie C]

Don is just Ducky. Great track, great AX team this year.

[donald.auten]

Gee Andy,

You're a fun guy when you get to kick everybody's butt!

Thank you kindly, indeed, for the hagiography but you know the truth ... Jerry and the track setters do the final tuning and make it safe. I don't think we've had a track yet that actually resembles the original drawing. But we continue to evolve.

Nice job out there, Andy. I keep thinking you must have taken a short-cut somewhere.

Mark, the best it yet to come!
And please thank Katina for the Ax Team. That was awfully kind!!!

Best to you guys!

R, Duck

[Dan Chambers]

Don is just Ducky. Great track, great AX team this year.

+1. He's doing a great job, and so are the entire driving-event volunteers (yes, Jackie; that means you and the Reg Team, too!). It's been a great year so far for AX's, and only seems to be getting better.

[Mmagus]

Mark, the best it yet to come!
R, Duck

That remains to be seen...because the October event will feature the first Mark Bray designed course , fortunatly I have Don to keep me "on track".

[Kim Crosser]

That remains to be seen...because the October event will feature the first Mark Bray designed course

Uh-oh! A track for a 924? It will be curious to see how he manages to make it all run downhill.

[stevemckay]

HOW ABOUT HONORARY A/X CHAIRMAN AND A 75% RAISE !!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BEEN A PLEASURE FOR ME

[Mmagus]

That remains to be seen...because the October event will feature the first Mark Bray designed course

Uh-oh! A track for a 924? It will be curious to see how he manages to make it all run downhill.

I tried for some interseting elements but actually its a pretty open track...hopefully I can run "flat out"!