Cal Club Autocross Forums

I agree with Fred that this format for practices works very well. I really like having a set number of runs and some flexibility. Wish the car did not break so we could have run more than one group. Oh well.

Sunday the second run group.... was that the longest run group ever? Not too sound too complaining... but if I had know it would be close to two hours on course, I would have brought more water. I am still trying to rehydrate. I need to get a camelback thing. That seems a good idea.

Really enjoyed the courses on both days. A good mix of things.

Randy Chase wrote:I agree with Fred that this format for practices works very well. I really like having a set number of runs and some flexibility. Wish the car did not break so we could have run more than one group. Oh well.

Sunday the second run group.... was that the longest run group ever? Not too sound too complaining... but if I had know it would be close to two hours on course, I would have brought more water. I am still trying to rehydrate. I need to get a camelback thing. That seems a good idea.

Really enjoyed the courses on both days. A good mix of things.

That was a lot due to some timing problems we had during that group and a whole lot of reruns for either, people stopping for downs cones, people catching people or Timing errors. Unfortunately, with the course, sending people every 20 seconds ended up not working, faster cars/drivers were catching slower ones and everyone was hitting cones so the course workers couldn't get the cones back up in time. Had everything run smoothly with everyone doing it in 3 runs that group should have taken about an hour max.

Working that back section, it was just a lot of real estate to cover. Now throw in an old dude with a heart condition, in the heat and no water... in a very fast section of the course... there were times when I (and others too) just could not get to the cones fast enough to set them up. Oh well... probably worse since we worked for two hours on Saturday. It just kicked my butt. Good think I can rest at work.

Randy Chase wrote:Sunday the second run group.... was that the longest run group ever?

Third group was pretty dang long too. I think it timed at about 1:50 and I didn't see much timing downtime or more re-runs than were par on the day. But we had the advantage of ton's of workers (third group workers = 2nd group drivers). I had more than enough in section 4 where I was able to team a newbie up with an experianced worker for proper training.

Jay W

I worked grid for the second run group. It was a challenge for the following main reason: There were three lines of multiple driver cars. That, coupled with four other single driver lanes, made for an interesting session!

There were many re-runs (downed cones, timing issues, etc.). There were also a large number of instructor runs (I bet George's hip is aching him today....we had him running!).

I felt badly, as it was hard for any of the drivers to get into a rhythm for their three runs. Also, not a lot of tire heat left in the tires after such a long wait.

Long course.......difficult course......many downed cones......re-runs.......shortage of workers.....long run group.

It still beat mowing the lawn.

The 3 morning groups were all about the same size, 50-55, definitely larger than usual. Afternoon groups were mid 40's.

We should have used the foam coolers we had in the CTV to have water out there at the stations, that's what they are for. But if the Chiefs aren't noticing the need to get water out, anyone on course should take the initiative to call in and ask for some.

thanks for a great event. My first time at El Toro, and my first day on R comps. Little Yaris did pretty good.

I realized out there I didn't have water (worked the after lunch group 4), and I didn't want to trouble anyone while the course was hot.

I am re-hydrated today, whew... great day!

Rick Brown wrote:The 3 morning groups were all about the same size, 50-55, definitely larger than usual. Afternoon groups were mid 40's.

We should have used the foam coolers we had in the CTV to have water out there at the stations, that's what they are for. But if the Chiefs aren't noticing the need to get water out, anyone on course should take the initiative to call in and ask for some.

I was not in yelling distance of the radio guy. He was pretty far away. I once tried to walk closer to yell something and then someone tagged a cone at the far end of my area. Could not get back in time.. thankfully Kenny covered it. Anyway good point about water. I did not it was a possibility that someone might bring more out.

55 cars sound right. Add in maybe 10% reruns and you go from 55*3 or 165 runs to 181 runs, and if you increase the interval to 35 seconds or a bit more and you are almost to 2 hours. I swear the first group when I ran seemed to not be that full. But maybe times moves faster in the car... Randy's Theory of Relativity.

One thing that is just one of those things.. we often had an unfortunate sequence of slow cars and fast cars. Novice that spins, followed by the SS Camaro... rerun. This also increased the intervals. I have worked starter and it just sucks when you have that.. but what can you do?

Providing water is something new since I started in the sport six years ago. I got into the habit of freezing a dozen or so waters the night before and set them out to defrost as needed. When I worked course I bring 2-3 with me and drank them as they defrosted. Folks from Arizona said they don't provide water. I'm not making a plea one way of the other, but why take a chance that the hosting club will provide it. You know it's going to be hot, bring some water.

-George

When you have unanticipated really large run groups, what would you think about having the grid guy split the group into two. Run 1st drivers and half the single drivers until their runs are complete. Then the other half. All the cars are still on grid...not talking a worker change or anything like that. Just keep the number of running cars to a manageable 25-30 so we don't have single driver car guys waiting 30 minutes between runs. Neither helps nor hurts the course workers. Overall time will be unchanged. I just think it would make a fun day funner, and let the single driver car guys run with some heat in their tires.

George Schilling wrote:Providing water is something new since I started in the sport six years ago. I got into the habit of freezing a dozen or so waters the night before and set them out to defrost as needed. When I worked course I bring 2-3 with me and drank them as they defrosted. Folks from Arizona said they don't provide water. I'm not making a plea one way of the other, but why take a chance that the hosting club will provide it. You know it's going to be hot, bring some water.

-George

From my point of view, the issue is not who provides it. The issue is that not knowing a run group could last two hours (I have never experienced that before) I only brought out one bottle. Now knowing this, I will bring more. As I said, I am looking into a camel back as it seems (dorky!) to even be a better idea. Hands free, no empty bottles to deal with, specially in the wind.

Your point though is well taken. Supplying water was not normally done but is seeming to be more commonplace. Back when I started autocrossing, as Bill said to me this last weekend, when we used to use rocks instead of cones.... local events did not have water.

Bill Martin wrote:When you have unanticipated really large run groups, what would you think about having the grid guy split the group into two. Run 1st drivers and half the single drivers until their runs are complete. Then the other half. All the cars are still on grid...not talking a worker change or anything like that. Just keep the number of running cars to a manageable 25-30 so we don't have single driver car guys waiting 30 minutes between runs. Neither helps nor hurts the course workers. Overall time will be unchanged. I just think it would make a fun day funner, and let the single driver car guys run with some heat in their tires.

I like the idea. If you have 3 full two-driver lines, one could easily just run them until they were done and then run all the other cars.

Really shaky video from Practice and Champ. Practice time was 79.7xx, while champ time was 81.7xx:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYH3pyUzgJM

Great, fun, and challenging course. Thanks!

Here is the course map that was posted on the motor home (since I can not post it over in the results thread, and I have not seen anyone else post it):
Edit: Just noticed that section #3 was extended to the left with a slalom inserted in each direction... and the 3 people working it in the last group got to run a lot to pick up all the cones that was hit... and one of those 3 told us he was just coaching his girlfriend that was participating for the first time... I wonder if she will ever come back out...

Great course, indeed. Here's the video of my 2nd run. My last run was quicker but it was dirty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAStYbsDwhU

Oh...and here is my spin from the 1st run, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouBlkoCQ8Tg

Here are some pictures from Sunday. Click on the + (All Sizes) to see the larger image.

Man, this modern technology is cool! ... I need to learn how to do that!

Awesome pictures Mike. Thanks!!!

It's always nice to see people pictures, we should add more of these kind of pictures to the main page.