Autocross 4/21/2013 Results

[martinreinhardt]

Below are today's results. Let's not repeat this track and less cones please . But thanks to everybody for all your hard work. It was a busy event to run.

Autocross Results:
http://results.pcasdr.org/event_standings.php?time_format=0&database=&event_date=2013-04-21

BRI Results:
http://results.pcasdr.org/event_bri_standings.php?time_format=0&database=&event_date=2013-04-21

[Greg Phillips]

Yes, too narrow and too many cones for my 928

Photos are up on Picasa
https://picasaweb.google.com/1057760116 ... directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/1057760116 ... directlink

Greg

[c4s4pcs]

Martin -

As usual, thanks for the extremely timely posting of today's results.

I must agree with you on the number of cones. While I did have a great time today driving, I do think that there were way too many cones - I am sure that at least 1/2, and perhaps up to 3/4 of the cones could have been eliminated and still have had a well-defined course. In parallel and in addition to the number of cones, I felt that some sections were quite confined - a small error (or a different choice of line) could easily pick up several cones. It felt in some ways more of an SCCA AX than the more open courses that I have become used to with SDR.

Again, small quibbles - congratulations to the entire AX crew for putting on another outstanding event.

Phil

[Cajundaddy]

Wow, looks like a fun day with a good turnout and a nice variety of cars, drivers, and classes in the top 10.

Nice drive by Jim Binford for TTOD, and Adam for top BRI. I think somebody likes their new Boxster track toy.

[Sawfish]

Great day, I for one liked the track very much lots of cool twistys. Nice to see it mixed up a little.
Thanks to the whole AX team,
Chris

[ttweed]

Nice drive by Jim Binford for TTOD, and Adam for top BRI. I think somebody likes their new Boxster track toy.

Holy hair-on-fire! Adam won CC04 by almost 4 seconds and the BRI by nearly 2 seconds on indexed time!?!?!? What kind of a stealth overdog machine is this new Boxster of his? I don't think I've ever seen that kind of winning margin on the BRI.

TT

[jenniferreinhardt]

Thank you for all the hard work everyone.

Although some may have liked the track, I heard many more people who were vocal about being frustrated about the track, and some were actually nauseous during the day. I hope our PDS Students come back to try again so they can apply what they learned from the School next time.

It’s all a learning experience for us to do better. We need to have a challenge and have it be fun, not frustrating. How did the actual track vary so much from the one posted? Were the Boy Scouts responsible?

[AGill]

Nice drive by Jim Binford for TTOD, and Adam for top BRI. I think somebody likes their new Boxster track toy.

Holy hair-on-fire! Adam won CC04 by almost 4 seconds and the BRI by nearly 2 seconds on indexed time!?!?!? What kind of a stealth overdog machine is this new Boxster of his? I don't think I've ever seen that kind of winning margin on the BRI.

TT

Dave - Thanks! Yes, the boxster and I will get along just fine

Tom - Nothing stealth about it, just a bone stock 1998 boxster with 108k miles on it...not even a track alignment! I ran a square 235 setup on it with some old/worn Nt01 tires that I had used on my now retired 993. Once I figured out where I needed my tire pressures it was an absolute joy to drive and did pretty much everything I asked of it. Coming from a 993 that was a handful to drive fast on an AX course, the boxster feels like I'm cheating Took a little getting used to of course to figure out how to drive a car with 200 HP and no LSD but I'm very happy with the results, especially having never really driven a boxster before!

[LUCKY DAVE]

I too am with the "didn't care for the track layout" crowd. To be fair, I have a turbocharged car which is a "fish out of water" in the tight stuff, and most cars aren't turbos.
We have a huge amount of space that we have used to lay out fast flowing tracks that virtually everyone raves about (several of Bill's tracks come to mind). I love those tracks.

[ttweed]

Took a little getting used to of course to figure out how to drive a car with 200 HP and no LSD but I'm very happy with the results, especially having never really driven a boxster before!

Happy with the results? OMG, I guess so! Your first time in one of the weakest Boxsters ever made with no prep, on old tires, and you score a 9th TTOD, beat Carl V. in a CC06 2006 Boxster by 4 tenths, and Gary S. in a CC09 2013 Boxster S by 1.3 seconds? What's going to happen when you really get it dialed in?

TT

[Sawfish]

When the top 20 cars representing 15 different classes are 3.9 seconds apart seems to me that might be a good thing in terms of competition.
Chris

[Bill]

As a relatively new AXer I thought this was a good change of pace from the usual tracks. It encouraged precise driving and certainly discouraged the typical ‘almost out of control’ driving that usually happens on more open courses. It was interesting when I was corner working in the first sessions cars in the faster groups were consistently mowing cones down on every practice run. By the timed trials, they had figured it out and the same drivers that are fast on the open tracks were fast on this one, e.g. Jim Binford, Kinningers, et al. , without knocking cones down. I understand it was a hard course to drive (Jim commented afterwards he had never worked so hard) but this is a good change of pace. The complaining suggests some were out of their comfort zone, less able to rely on the brute force of their cars, and forced to concentrate on more precise driving. I view that as a good thing. We should have at least one of these course designs every year.

[mark k]

I got a bit used to driving a narrow car and forgot how to drive one with a big rear end. Clipped a few cones during the day. My apologies to the corner workers. This time it was up to Ryan to beat my a-- in my own car. Still had fun despite getting motion sick from the track. Mark Kinninger

[JB987]

While I would prefer to never see such a tight course again, I would agree it does provide challenges.
One afterthought I had was that, regardless of the construction of the track elements, we should strive to have the overall lap time approach the one minute interval.
With some lap times approaching 2 minutes, it makes it very difficult to move so many cars through the course in a reasonable amount of time.
Additionally, the narrow course was in some ways improper, as we do have a well defined minimum track width measuring device, that was clearly set aside for yesterday.

In any case, thanks to all, for the kind words, after my wife and I announced our plans to move to Austin.
It has been a true pleasure getting to know members of the club, and sharing the sometimes unexplainable need to think and talk about cars and make 'em go faster!

Cheers,

JB

[martinreinhardt]

The complaining is definitely not just from the struggling drivers. I finished 2nd overall / TTOD and still didn't like this track layout.

The real problem was: the basic autocross track design concepts were ignored. It lacked in rhythm, flow, was too narrow, the start was uphill and most important it was NOT fun to drive.

An autocross track is supposed to be FUN, not trying to trick the drivers to make a mistake or hit cones. We had cars hitting 4,5,6+ cones during the timed runs. During the practice runs while everybody tries to find the limit it can happen, but by time of timed runs everybody should have figured it out. If more than 10-15 cones are taken out in one entire run group during timed runs, then something is wrong with the track design. There were also way too many cones used to mark the track, most unevenly spaced, not in line, and many were not even marked down.

As for the track width we used to use the rope which is (should be) in the trailer to set the PCA-SDR standard track width, but I think it has been forgotten.

Also there is no reason to post a track map if the track will be completely different on the day of the event.

PCASDR has a history of running excellent events, we need critics to improve our events.