Cal Club Autocross Forums

I hope this post inspires more people to create a course design. Even if you are unable to setup your course due to work, getting one down on paper could still help increase the variety and styles offered by our region

Attached is the progression from a line on paper to a full course. My goals were to first eliminate areas that cannot be used for course; 50' from all barriers and solid objects, 75' from paddock, and place the grid/paddock locations.

With that I created a path that used most of the available space. (If you look at the final course map it shows several pink dots, those are breakup areas and bumps that should be treated with caution)

Then using some of the ideas posted in Roger Johnson's course design handbook started developing the elements that would make up the autocross. This is designed as a guide, but when actually onsite, there will be required adjustments as needed. With that in mind I try and have a idea what a particular element is trying to express, so should safety say, for instance, that the direction of the course presents a risk, I can make a change that satisfies safety while still maintaining the goal of a particular element without ridgity.

Course design book here http://www.houscca.com/autocross/course ... Manual.pdf

Course design presentation from the 2019 convention
https://www.scca.com/downloads/43844-so ... 1/download
https://www.scca.com/downloads/43845-so ... 1/download

A few comments about the process.

1) The start was changed significantly between the paper design and the photoshopped one becuase after evaluating the safety distances I needed to eliminate the sweeper for something narrower.

2) the finish had to be changed significantly as well, but this change was made during the change over. As you can see in the last map there are a lot of pink dots in the exit path of the final corner. There is also a large bump. To avoid this we made the corner tighter and added a straight instead of the offset (the balance of the course was towards narrower cars, so my adjustments for safety or in this case pavement breakup would be changes that make the course more balanced towards wider cars) *** Read the rule book, it states "These events are run on short courses that emphasize the driver’s ability and the car’s handling and agility" it still should be balanced given the varies widths of vehicles present at autocross***

Well done Anthony. I assume you design for Sunday, then make adjustments to make it work for Saturday.

Rick Brown wrote: ↑Tue Feb 26, 2019 11:51 am Well done Anthony. I assume you design for Sunday, then make adjustments to make it work for Saturday.

Most of us will start with an idea for Sunday in mind and then will re-tool the start/finish sectors. If your design has good flow, then it should work well enough in reverse with simple visual changes to redirect the drivers' eyes.

Reed Gibson wrote: ↑Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:02 pm

Rick Brown wrote: ↑Tue Feb 26, 2019 11:51 am Well done Anthony. I assume you design for Sunday, then make adjustments to make it work for Saturday.

Most of us will start with an idea for Sunday in mind and then will re-tool the start/finish sectors. If your design has good flow, then it should work well enough in reverse with simple visual changes to redirect the drivers' eyes.

I do, and I also leave sundays finish chute setup as part of Saturdays start, there by reducing the amount of work needed for changeover.

Thats a lot of prep. My last course was at Norton(wow, that was forever ago) and I had just put squiggly lines down on a paper and Craig drove the motorhome along those lines as I called out on the radio (to the two guys in the trailer) when to throw cones out. I remember Bill Schenker moaning after his course walk about how it was a HP course, yet he won PAX.

Cool!