Cal Club Autocross Forums

My thanks go out to many, many people for all the help in making the Endurance even run like a finely tuned, turbo charged Swiss watch:

John Stewart, not only for asking me to be Director, but for his patience with a rookie
Ian Stewart, for his guidance and stepping in when I had to be two places at once
Renee Angel
Bob Jardine
Aaron Goldsmith
Mike Lawler
Mike Moyer
George Schilling
Kurt Williams
John Fendel, for his course design and patience with questions and minor changes at the last minute
Dan Cain and his flagging crew
Lisa Severy, Rick Brown and the timing and scoring workers
All the CSCC workers who worked course and helped with setup, change over and tear down
and last but by no means least,
Marshall Grice and Christine Berry, without whom things would have been much harder, taken longer and probably driven me insane

If there's anyone I've forgotten, my apologies!

Thank You!

:Cross post from 'Volunteers' thread:

I had lots of fun today! Thanks Christine, Gayle, Maggie, Bob, George and everyone I forgot for working their butts off all week. I didn't know what to expect, but I'm pretty sure I'll be back next year.
Side point: I REALLY liked how we did the auditing at this event. I'm wondering if we should integrate that into our regular schedule. Just bring the radio workers in the STV after the run group and have them run through it really quick with the auditor. It'd save the auditors lots of time and get the results posted a lot sooner. Just my $.02
Thanks again for the fun times, good conversation, and the K1 tickets.
Mark D.

I missed last years event, but did the first two. This year's event really seemed smooth.

I was disappointed by the small field. The bad economy is affecting a lot of things. The teacher in me thinks Formula SAE is one of the most powerful learning experiences I can imagine. So many lessons out there. The kids may not even understand them all now, but I think they will benefit from them in the future.


Oh yeah, and announcing this was a total kick. Especially, announcing the Endurance. Thanks to Rick Brown for letting me convince him to drag the speakers back out again. I had an idea how I might be able to do it and it seemed to work. I have a couple of simple ideas to make it better next year.

From my poerspective, it looked like another flawless event. Great job to all the volunteers.

After visiting the event to check out the action, Mr. Berry mentioned that Mama Berry is insisting they volunteer next year because it looked like so much fun. They're right. When we gave out the rewards of K1 and movie passes, many said thank you but insisted it wasn't necessary they had such a good time. But it was a nice bonus. If you need a place to do some "giving back", consider doing this next year. It's a very rewarding way to serve.

-George

As volunteer labor I can tell you that you will work hard, have long, uncomfortable days, and when it's all said and done, you'll feel good about what you did. You'll remember the teams/cars that did well, and you'll feel bad for those that had problems. Without us, these events can't happen. These events need to happen.

Just don't forget the Ibuprofen, sunscreen, headgear and lots of water. And, don't trust that the provided lunch will be your friend. ;)

Additionally, I'd also like to give a big atta boy/girl to the folks mentioned in the first post. Certainly a number of others made this event go, but the folks mentioned need to be applauded.

Things definitely get better each year as we learn. Excellent job by new Captains Bob and Lisa.

Tremendous effort by Christine and Marshall, there Thursday, Friday and Saturday and from what I saw, working nearly every minute on something, their job or not. Plus Christine put in a ton of work pre-event getting the workers lined up.


Steve doing announcing for the autocross and endurance was a big plus, too. He put in a lot of effort before hand to have good info on the teams. Hopefully some of the teams took advantage of the FM broadcast, too. Nice job, Steve.

Yeah, I'm tired and sore and definitely glad there is a rest day to recuperate before having to go back to work, but I will be there next year without question and encourage any of you who haven't volunteered in the past to do so in the future.

For those of you who didn't go this year, you did miss a great event! We could not have asked for better weather - not too hot/not too cold. This event is always full of "the thrills of victory" and the "agony of defeat". I am always amazed by the cars that the students put together and impressed by the teamwork displayed as they work together to get their cars through the competition. You can't help but cheer them on and feel a twinge in your heart for the teams whose cars broke during competition. The students work so hard putting the cars together. School pride, personal achievement and passion all run high.

The volunteers we had this year did a fantastic job. Every year the event gets better and better. It is great to have the experience of the Cal Club Solo community to lead the other volunteers - this year was no exception. Thank you to Karen Stewart, who did a great job helping to recruit volunteers at our events and who, along with Maggie Jardine, worked long hours at Registration getting everyone checked in and answering countless questions!

I do wish we had more from our organization show up. We barely had enough workers on Saturday and did not have enough to rotate workers out for any length of time above a quick "bio-break". I am not sure what kept so many of the other "usual suspects" away. I agree with George - it is rewarding to be a part of it and this is a great way to "give back" to our sport. I hope whatever "forces" prevented participation by more "Soloers" this year will not interfere with more of you coming out next year!

Thank you to all of those who worked hard and made the event a success! I was very nervous about being a "director", but the experience of the key people and all the support I received from the Cal Club Solo volunteers (and other volunteers) made it a great experience. Everyone did a great job and almost everything ran smoothly! (The notable exception was me not knowing to turn on the generator in the borrowed motorhome to keep the clocks running for skidpad -oops!) Special thanks to Jo Ann Lynch and Loren (FSAE) for running the clocks/computer for skid pad and reconciling the logs before lunch on Friday! Communication between the radios on course and those on "master radio" in the motorhome during the autocross and endurance portions was exceptionally good and the logs were in agreement. This is a real achievement for the endurance portion - considering we had as many as six cars on course and there was passing!Reconciliation was smooth and efficient. One of the indicators for success I use is the number of "protests" lodged. This year, it is my understanding that there were no protests for either skid pad or acceleration and we only had two questions regarding the endurance portion - of which only one was related to "cone count". This was quickly resolved.

Thank you again for a fun and successful event!

Thank you to everyone! I was actually able to watch some of the action this year instead of being busy solving problems.

Last year we had 35 teams attempt the endurance and 21 of them finished. This year we had 46 teams attempt the endurance and 19 finish.

I saw electrical problems, overheating problems, a thrown chain, a blown head gasket, a clutch worn out in 1/2 a lap, an axel tri-pod pulled out of it's housing, an exhaust falling off for 2 laps, broken suspensions, a bad wheel bearing, a bolt that clearenced itself on the inside of a wheel, a locked up brake system, a de-beaded tire and many cars that just simply wouldn't re-start. The motto this year was "To Finish First, First You Must Finish"

The team that won the endurance (22 laps) only beat 2nd place by 3.5seconds. And the team that won the entire event only won by 60 points (there is a potential for 1000 points).

There was also some insanely bad driving. One guy got cheers from the crowd and the course workers when he finally made it around a certain corner without DNF'ing and hitting cones, all the while doing about 10 mph. We did keep the endurance open as long as possible so that any team that managed to pass tech had a fighting chance of making out to the endurance, even if they only managed to pass tech on Sat at noon.

We were also informed that FSAE International commented that this year was our best effort to date.

I believe that you should all be getting an email with this info, but I figured I would pass it along anyways:
All of the volunteers are invited to attend the Wrap-up celebration at 11:00AM, 10 July at Honeywell Turbo Technologies in Torrance. Your wrap-up comments and feedback will be requested in that meeting. Mark your calanders!
(as a plus, there is a K1 location in Torrance if you haven't already used your gift cards!)

Thanks again!

Christine Berry wrote:... a bolt that clearenced itself on the inside of a wheel

Ah, we were wondering where the aluminum curlicues that we found came from.

Christine Berry wrote:There was also some insanely bad driving. One guy got cheers from the crowd and the course workers when he finally made it around a certain corner without DNF'ing and hitting cones, all the while doing about 10 mph.

Did anyone figure out what the deal was? He was literally driving straight over the top of apex cones with the steering wheel almost dead straight and at a pace you could run alongside! We figured there was an issue with the car (steering radius, failing part, steering too difficult to steer) but the second driver - other than also being *very* slow - had no trouble navigating the course at all. Weird!

Will Kalman wrote:

Christine Berry wrote:... a bolt that clearenced itself on the inside of a wheel

Ah, we were wondering where the aluminum curlicues that we found came from.

That was the Puerto Rican car (Blue, ran in the afternoon) The driver stopped twice in station 1 and the left front wasn't turning and he was frantically moving the wheel side to side to get the bolt head "unstuck"

Christine Berry wrote:

Will Kalman wrote:

Christine Berry wrote:... a bolt that clearenced itself on the inside of a wheel

Ah, we were wondering where the aluminum curlicues that we found came from.

That was the Puerto Rican car (Blue, ran in the afternoon) The driver stopped twice in station 1 and the left front wasn't turning and he was frantically moving the wheel side to side to get the bolt head "unstuck"

One of the SAE officials found one and gave it to the team in case they wanted a souvenir.

Are results up yet anyplace? I can find Michigan and last years, but not the FSAE West 2010 yet.

Steve Ekstrand wrote:Are results up yet anyplace? I can find Michigan and last years, but not the FSAE West 2010 yet.

Not the official results. Wichita State took pictures of the results sheets posted in the registration garage.
http://s775.photobucket.com/albums/yy32 ... /?start=80" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One guy got cheers from the crowd and the course workers when he finally made it around a certain corner without DNF'ing and hitting cones, all the while doing about 10 mph.

I was working that corner when all that occurred. It was a slow "S" turn into a right sweeper. For the first 5 laps the driver drove between cones to cut off the top of the S. On lap 6 he did it right. Cheers and applause from all. 7 & 8 were just like 1-5. On lap nine I went out and pointed him around the corner and he got it right. Again cheers from all. Lap 10 I went out to point him around and he cut off the S again, driving in my direction. Lap 11 I stayed behind the barrier wall and sure enough he cut it off again. He had to work pretty hard to drive between the cones of the boundry. It was very strange.

They did take the front body work off and examine the front suspension/steering. I didn't see if they did any work to it.

Are results up yet anyplace? I can find Michigan and last years, but not the FSAE West 2010 yet.

Not the official results. Wichita State took pictures of the results sheets posted in the registration garage.
http://s775.photobucket.com/albums/yy32" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... /?start=80

Is there a overall results page. I couldn't find one.

Kathy

Christine Berry wrote:

Will Kalman wrote:

Christine Berry wrote:... a bolt that clearenced itself on the inside of a wheel

Ah, we were wondering where the aluminum curlicues that we found came from.

That was the Puerto Rican car (Blue, ran in the afternoon) The driver stopped twice in station 1 and the left front wasn't turning and he was frantically moving the wheel side to side to get the bolt head "unstuck"

Someone suggested they strongly consider safety wire next year. ;)

Kathy Teulie wrote:

Are results up yet anyplace? I can find Michigan and last years, but not the FSAE West 2010 yet.

Not the official results. Wichita State took pictures of the results sheets posted in the registration garage.
http://s775.photobucket.com/albums/yy32" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... /?start=80

Is there a overall results page. I couldn't find one.

Kathy

Results will eventually be here:
http://students.sae.org/competitions/fo ... s/results/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
They have been getting better over the last year or two. A couple of years ago you had to wait something like 3 weeks to see the official results online.

Ah Ha! Found out what caused Missouri to not make it past the driver change:

The +12V wire for our Main power relay had been ripped off during the driver exchange.

And this is what one of the Concordia guys had to say:

Our drivers reported 240F water temperatures at one point, cooking the oil and clutch, but managed to limp it home. Looks like the engine is done, as it did not fire once back in the paddock. We'll be back next year at least 100lbs lighter.

Official Results:
http://www.sae.org/students/fsaew2010results.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;