Photos of DE on May 12th

[Mike]

Here are the photos my friend Chris Bockus took yesterday morning.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbockus/se ... 209415568/

We're lucky to have 3 talented photographers covering our events!
Chris it was nice to meet you at the Q.
Hope you join us again, I think your action pan shots are very cool.
Thank you.
Chis's shot of Pete at speed!

[Curt Yaws]

Mike:
I couldn't agree more on that swale crossing. Even after we changed it, the normal line would take you to the left side and there was just too much dip there. I had to give up speed and take the middle of the track to avoid crashing my front end, but it was slow.

We will cure that south swale crossing for the next DE.

Anyone else have comments on Friday versus Monday for DE? This would probably be just once per year. Either works for me, and we can just try to get a consensus. Please vote early and often.

[mrondeau]

As a rookie AX'r, I would vote for different weekends for DE/AX events. I would also be interested in DE's for novices with Friday night instruction/Saturday driving and I would be willing to pay a little more for it. I think I need 6 AX events before I can DE. If I do May, June and the Parade AX, I'll be ready for the next DE at the end of July. Please reconfigure the south swale section that some of the others mentioned so that I don't hurt my little SS Boxster. (my wife would frown on me spending any money to fix my car since I told her that this was just for fun and would only wear out the tires)

[Irksome]

Also a soon-to-be novice DE'er speaking up. I need one more AX to qualify for DE, and I love the idea of an extra cost/extra instruction DE.

I'm not so sure about weekday stuff, I tend to travel a lot for work and it would suck to plan on a weekday event only to be called out of town. But absent travel requirements, weekdays would work fine.

[Zulu993]

Ted / Greg nice photos! Thanks to your passion we can all enjoy looking at ourselves (behind people we don’t want to follow and others we quickly speed by ).

[twitte]

Thanks.... I feel frustrated because I bought a new camera and can't get it to do what I want. My camera class starts tomorrow night so hopefully next time I'll have some better photos. By the way, there are videos posted in case you haven't seen them.

http://www.pcasdr.org/img/2007/video/2007AutoXVideo.htm

My son said my videos are normally boring and I need to post video from inside the cars (which would be nice if anyone wants to share their video or let me put my new video camera into their cars for a few laps). It does high definition but I'm not sure how to post a high definition video on the web at this time. Still learning on that camera too.

[Pete Millikin]

Double headers don't work for me - too many other demands.

Monday DEs - this was tried a few years ago. Good attendance but the stadium received noise complaints and took that option off the table at the time.

If we want to promote the DEs more I reccommend having two a year and really promote it at the autoxes. I believe the safety rules keep people away just figuring out what they need to do. No advocacy of safety changes here, just advocating people can get a fast definitive answer. Advising the DE chairs or their designates as a source to clarify safety requirments would help.

Finally, I'm not current on the open car rules but it seem that arm restraints have been an issue. I'd consider having the club invest in a a few sets for members use on a first come first serve basis. The club already has liability associated with loaner helmets so this doesn't appear to represent any additional liability.

[richard]

My vote is for more DEs and fewer autocrosses expecially since time trial sites are moving further and further away (2 at Spring Mountain this year.

Would definitely attend Monday or Friday DEs-prefer Friday.

[Pete Millikin]

Mike - Thanks for the pic/post and thanks to Greg and Chris for the pictures. We all appreciate your efforts and the time you put in.

P.S. I omitted Ted Witte and his great pics and cool videos in my orginal post - apologies and thanks

[Curt Yaws]

OK, people have spoken, and we have listened. No double headers. Now the bad news. There is a scheduled July 21/22 DE/AX weekend double header. We booked this in January and had a fight for dates with the other car groups. Should we cancel, and try to get 3 dates in the fall? Or just DO IT? Your vote counts!

[Dan Chambers]

OK, people have spoken, and we have listened. No double headers. Now the bad news. There is a scheduled July 21/22 DE/AX weekend double header. We booked this in January and had a fight for dates with the other car groups. Should we cancel, and try to get 3 dates in the fall? Or just DO IT? Your vote counts!

Sell-off the AX date to any other car club that wants it .... give me a DE!! If you guys do run both, I'll skip the AX and run the DE.

"I want my...
I want my...
I want my Q-DE"

[Irksome]

I KNOW I like autocrossing, not sure if I like DE. So, I would prefer not to 'lose' any autocrossing days...

[ronaldtrotter]

Curt and Chuck, you guys did a great job on Sat. You are also doing a great job polling the participants. As to getting rid of the July DE or AX My thoughts are we offer both. The AX is a points event and I believe that more people participate in that then DE's or TT's. I think we offer both with a cut off date like we did this DE. If it is not cost effective to do one or both then we cancel the date(s) that are not $ effective. Also having more then 2 DE's a year is good for those individuals who want to step up but are not sure.

When we meet in June to schedule dates for the Q we will do our best to get two dates for DE and make sure they are on different weekends then AX.

[mrondeau]

I vote for AX. I'm not sure about DE's yet, but I do want points for AX.

[Mike]

I say do both that weekend.
In the summer heat a DE at the Q is the only place to race.

The AX program is down on dates this year I expect you'll have plenty of demand for an AX that weekend too.

A weekday DE sounds fun but not always easy to get off work.
I'd expect turnout to down 20 cars or so.

Interesting concept the first timer's DE with classroom time.
That really could get into a bigger project kind of like an advanced PDS.
Would it include trail brake and heal and toe instruction?
A topic of interest no doubt for our SDR Board and CDIs too.

Thanks for the video links. Your middle of the track location made for great engine sounds and close ups. My in car video always looks slower (than I think it is) but your video looked pretty fast and busy with traffic.
I'd be thrilled to carry your camera on my roll bar mounted camera mount.
If your camera is in my car I'd have to start behind Kris U with my sticker tires on.
You can record in HD but I'm not sure you'll be able to play it back in HD on the net. When you figure out how to play it back in HD on the net please tell me. I've played it back in HD on the laptop and it looked awesome.