Motorsports Event - Free Practice!

[Bryan Fargo]

What time will tech open and racing start/end on Sunday? Thanks!

[Mike Simanyi]

I now have a 10:30-12:30 opening as well.

Mike

[Mike Simanyi]

The flyer is (finally) live in our calendar: http://www.solo2.com/calendar.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sunday - our practice - will have Tech and Registration open by 7:15, a mandatory driver's meeting at 8:20 and first car out by 8:40.

Mike

[Mako Koiwai]

Using Name Your Price on Priceline.com we got Courtyard By Marriott Costa Mesa South for $45 ... probably have to add their parking fee on top of that. That was using 3 stars. Last time we used 2 Stars though and got this for $36 plus $12 parking ... across the street from the John Wayne airport ... 10 minutes from El Toro:

http://www.atriumhotel.com/

... Karen likes the Marriott ... complementary internet ... she needs to do some work out of the hotel room.

[Will Kalman]

Thanks to the event management on Sunday, particularly Mike Simanyi, for allowing my kids run during the lunch break, even extending the break a bit and allowing us to finish up a couple remaining runs during a worker switchover. This was my kids' first time out navigating a full-size course - and a typically large El Toro one, too! They did great, with only one spot on course causing them a little trouble - but in a visually difficult place where some adults were DNFing their first runs. Cyan stepped up the speed this time, too!

[Mako Koiwai]

Kids looked like they had a great time!

[Q V]

I had a great time as well! It was very fun seeing a lot of familiar faces & meeting new people as well.

I was feeling sick/miserable all week & started having a soar throat & coughing on Saturday. However, not a single cough during my runs - better than Nyquil, I tell you!

p.s. sorry to the workers for me wiping out in the first section BEFORE the sweeper - and thanks for the memento of the cone I completely destroyed, Jeff, haha.

[Brett King]

Big ups to Mike for the course... it was a BLAST ! Was cool to start to meet some people as well

[Mako Koiwai]

Course was basically Ian Stewart's design ... with Mike putting in some touches for Sunday. Another excellent course! It seemed like one was always finding ways to get a little more speed ... very technical.

Mike's Practice Slalom was also a welcome addition! It's going to be toughing going back to the Speedway ...

[Mako Koiwai]

Some of us were a bit worried that there were going to be a LOT of drivers/cars on Sunday ... considering we had 4 groups of 20 workers on Saturday, plus 16 Instructors plus all of the Chiefs and morning set-up/tech/gate/registration people. All of those people earned a Free Practice for Sunday. But for whatever reason, many didn't show up to take their reward?! On Sunday there was a San Diego event and a local BMW AX at CA Speedway, but still, we figured it might be a big turn out. So like the year before, everyone got a lot of runs on Sunday while still finishing up early. Might want to keep this in mind next year. A great Value.

[Bryan Fargo]

Thanks to all involved in putting on the Z Motorsports event. It was nice meeting you all as well- what a great group! I had a good time despite my small difficulty (my license plate stayed true to its name!). I made a whole half lap! Ill be back for more soon. Thanks to Mako for helping me out too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_EY2n5LGc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mako Koiwai]

Real shame on the eccentric letting go ... after your months of work and anticipating finally getting to unleash your Nova Beast Bitch! Nice of you to have those other Nova's come out to the event. Gorgeous workmanship on those restored and mod'ed Chevy's. (I wish I had taken some photos of them!) I was really looking forward to that dragster version going out onto the course! (The Red one behind No Go) }:)

[Chris Tran]

hey thanks for the awesome event Mike! Thanks for the great instruction Will. It was cool to meet some new folks out there.

[Ian Stewart]

Hey everyone,

Several of the instructors, chiefs, etc., attend the Z car show on Sunday, myself included,

Yet another reason for the low turnout, high lap potential for the Sunday practice, so tell your friends!!

Yesterday morning (Sunday) I was in line waiting to get into the car show and people were buzzing about the auto-x event and how much fun it was, so it looks like we got the big thumbs up from the entrants again.

Things went really smooth I think

I wasn't totally happy with the course, I had to make changes on the fly during setup mostly because I sized the site wrong and my course was WAY too long. I cut it down and still the TToD for the Zs was about 75 sec and average time was up in the 90sec range from what I could tell. Ideally, a TToD of 55 and average up around 70 would be best. This would increase the # of runs and improve worker coverage on course.

Also I should have adjusted around that shrubbery on the big right had sweeper since it was in the absolute worst spot, but it did give them the chance to practice snap over steer correction/recovery techniques I guess… }:)

The big sweepers were a little too big, several of the turns wound up being decreasing radius which I didn’t want, but all in all nothing too terrible and I chose to support getting the event started rather than making a perfect course. I plan to do a debrief with Mike to see what changes were made for Sunday

We got the course setup and dialed in a little over an hour once we got started, so not to shabby :king:

Some general comments for next year

First and foremost, this is a driving school more than an auto-x and the large majority of the participants only attend this event each year or have never auto-xed before. As such , the course layout must be BLATENTLY obvious and intuitive to someone who has never auto-xed before.(no visual tricks for funky gates, pointers, open spaces etc...)

Set the course line and push the cones on the outside of the corners way out to keep cone strikes to a minimum.

Course should be simple with one or two technical features for the veterans to chew on…

Improve grid management and policing

Recommend using a group format in grid (say four groups of 20 or 1 multi driver group and 3 single drive groups) and have each group get 3 runs in a row rather than cycling though 80 cars at a time.

Leave tech open longer, A couple of cars didn't get Tech Stickers

And I hate to say it, but set the course up Friday night as Mike prefers

So I had a blast on Saturday and would be glad to do the course design again next year or give someone else a crack at it since it’s just a practice and all…

Cheers,

Ian

[Mako Koiwai]

Basically an excellent course! I didn't drive Sat.'s course, but I think one of the main things Mike changes was avoiding that fun grassy area ... made for some nice shots of cars hanging it out! There were a couple of spots were the gap between cones on the outside was a bit too wide ... causing a few early Z cars to drive off course. Karen and I plugged up one such spot while on course shooting snaps.

A couple of cars didn't get Tech Stickers

? hmmm ... wonder how that happened? We didn't have the stickers when we started the day ... motorhome was off on course ... but I thought Will went around and got everyone. Perhaps some folks went to the far reaches of the paddock instead of gridding ... where Will was trying to get caught up. There were also a couple of cars that got sent to the parts store to get battery tie downs. Perhaps they got their cars fixed and then didn't return to Tech? I lent one fellow a bunji to help tie down his battery. Asked him to return it, but I don't think he remembered to to that. No big deal.

I think an improvement for next year would be to see if all of the participants could have their assigned number before Tech/Registration. Kurt was being pulled in all directions besides trying to match up cars/drivers to numbers ... so that we could tech them and get their number applied to window.

We should strongly remind the participants that their batteries MUST be tied down. There were at least four cars with NO battery tie downs!

I believe only one person had a Walmart $30 Special motorcycle helmet that was not event legal.

Will and Steve O. were a big help Tech'ing on Saturday. Irish and Kyle provided the same big help on Sunday. Especially on Sunday, Karen went around an teched a lot of cars scattered around the paddock perimeter so that Tech didn't get clogged up like on Saturday. We were surprised how early the Z people arrived for Tech! On Sunday drivers were dragging in all morning. I teched at least four cars after Tech was suppose to be closed. One had been set off to buy a battery tie down.

All in All I thought Motorsport Z provided a lot of people with two days of big fun! Looking forward to next year ...

[Ian Stewart]

Ahhhhhh...

Note to self, make sure the grid, tech and paddock equipment is out of the motorhome before it takes off to distribute cones... :ibrightdea:

anyway, did not intend to be critical, just logging comments to help for next year

what were the average times like on Sunday?

cheers,

Ian

[Mako Koiwai]

It was an unusual situation because the Z drivers were very diligent in arriving early. We were early and there was already a line of cars in tech!

[Bryan Fargo]

Real shame on the eccentric letting go ... after your months of work and anticipating finally getting to unleash your Nova Beast Bitch! Nice of you to have those other Nova's come out to the event. Gorgeous workmanship on those restored and mod'ed Chevy's. (I wish I had taken some photos of them!) I was really looking forward to that dragster version going out onto the course! (The Red one behind No Go) }:)

Thanks Mako. Im trying to recruit a couple Novas to come to some events. Even though I only made a 1/2 lap, that was still more seat time than I get on the drag strip in a full day!

[Q V]

Did anyone find an orange KTM tire pressure gauge during clean up on grid? I let one of the guys borrow it & forgot to pick it up after.

THANKS!
QV

[Mike Simanyi]

I don't recall if we found an orange one, but we have at least four in Lost and Found now. Hang your head in the motorhome this weekend and see if the orange one is there.

Mike

[KJ Christopher]

Did anyone find an orange KTM tire pressure gauge during clean up on grid? I let one of the guys borrow it & forgot to pick it up after.

THANKS!
QV

We have that one and Ron Flaherty's pressure gauge in the RV.

[Steve Towers]

sized the site wrong and my course was WAY too long

No such thing as "way too long". Just need a couple 80-85 mph sections!!!
Take advantage of the real estate. If you don't believe it, come check out some of the PCA-OCR Porsche courses at El Toro.

[Mike Simanyi]

Ian ,

On Sunday the fastest times were around 65 seconds, with the average times around 75. I don't think the course was too long at all.

Mike

[Ian Stewart]

sized the site wrong and my course was WAY too long

No such thing as "way too long". Just need a couple 80-85 mph sections!!!
Take advantage of the real estate. If you don't believe it, come check out some of the PCA-OCR Porsche courses at El Toro.

Hey Steve,

I was refering to the motorsport Z event specifically. Think of it from a time perspective and # of runs. We had 3 cars on course at a time with an average time for the Zs of 90 sec give or take so thats 30 seconds per car plus the 180 seconds to fill and empty the course per session so with 80 cars is 2600 sec which is about 45 minutes per run for 80 cars. we ran for 6 hours so best case they get 8 laps (which is about what they got.... If you do a 60 sec course thats 20 seconds per car times 80 plus 120 sec which is about 30 minutes per 1 lap over 6 hours gives a max of 12 runs.

Its a matter of percieved bang for the buck, and 12 runs for your 60-80 bucks sure seams a lot nicer than 8

and 80mph? Ken would have had a heart attack!!

For Sunday, it doesnt matter so much with fewer people and faster drivers

[Q V]

I don't know if this is doable/manageable w/ the Motorsport Z group, but perhaps some ways of making it feel "more bang for the buck" next time:

- Make it more like the autox school we had 2-3 years back:
- Groups separated out into 3 rotating parties
1) Slalom Practice group
2) Skid Pad group
3) Course group
- Or even splitting them into 4 groups of 20 cars each w/ 1 group always resting.

With the way you designed designed the course for Saturday, we had plenty of workers to cover the course, so a few moved over to man the slalom & skid pad practice wouldn't be a big deal.

The wait time vs run time for the Z guys would also be improved. This would of course require a lot more effort in managing & directing the groups around, but I think it would be worth it & really put the event "over the top".

More active promotion of cscc/scca autox during driver's meeting/lunch break/etc would also help reel in more Z drivers. I talked to a couple of them during Saturday & Sunday & a lot of them didn't even know there was an SCCA autox the following weekend in Fontana & how championships (w/ instructor runs & x-runs) work - of the 80 or so Z guys there, I'm sure a handful or so would want to do autox more than once a year.

Just some thoughts.