GRM post part III

[ralexander03@snet.net (Rick Alexander)]

Neal,

You are absolutely right. However that is not the majority of my experience.
Here in New England space is at a higher premium. Even the events held on
airports seem to be tight. I wonder if that is just habit of the people
setting up the event?

We simply got caught with the wrong tires. Poor planning I guess. Too many
things to remember and every day less brain power to remember. Don't get
old!

BTW, The Buccaneer division ran our event and neglected to hold a tech on
the morning of the event. NHRA had teched the cars on Friday morning. Is
this a normal practice in the south? My club (CART http://www.cartct.com)
always holds a tech on the morning of the event even if it is a two day
affair.

Rick Alexander

----- Original Message -----
From: "Neal Tovsen" <nealtovsen@yahoo.com>
To: "Rick Alexander" <ralexander03@snet.net>; "The list"
<scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: GRM post part III


> Glad you all had a good time in Gainesville! I'm sorry
> that I had to be running another event in Orlando
> (literally...I was one of the people in charge). :(
>
> If you & Brian need any help at next year's event,
> send me an email as much in advance as you can. I'll
> make sure my schedule is clear, and I can be your pit
> crew or whatever else you need. If you can find some
> wheels that are at least 13x7 or so and ditch the
> 10.1" brakes (you don't need 'em anyway), I'll hang on
> to a set of autocross tires for the car. That will
> help your situation immensely! I sent Brian an email
> offering some tires a few months ago, but never heard
> any response.
>
> We (Central FL SCCA) do run autocrosses ourselves in
> Gainesville, and it is a great site.
>
> BTW, the focus of autocross should NEVER be to confuse
> the driver in a sea of cones or cause "cone
> blindness". That's even in the rule book! However,
> some tighter courses still end up that way, whether
> intended or not. At national-level events, courses are
> more similar to what you experienced, but many local
> clubs cannot get sites big enough to create that kind
> of course. Gainesville doesn't have that problem, as
> you found out. :)
>
> Neal
> Tampa, FL
>
> --- Rick Alexander <ralexander03@snet.net> wrote:
> > Part III
> >
> > Before I proceed to the Autocross (used as loosly as
> > was done by GRM), I
> > must comment upon part II.
> >
> > I'd never done a drag and neither had Brian. We
> > prepared things as best as
> > we thought we could. Brian climbed in and I snugged
> > up the 5 point harness
> > for him. He (we) was so anxious to go that he gets
> > the first spot in the
> > staging lanes. He's all set so I wandered over to
> > the stands to get some
> > pictures. Wow, there he goes. "Rattling since day
> > one" Flowmaster not
> > sounding as bad as it does inside the car. Run over,
> > I walk all the way back
> > to our pit. Ok, here he comes, look at that, is that
> > his toothy grin
> > sticking out both windows at once? Yep, it was and
> > there he goes right back
> > to the staging lanes. I wander back to the stands.
> > Another run and back to
> > the pit. He drives right by again! Back to the
> > stands and right back to the
> > pit. There he goes again!!! ALL DAY LONG this went
> > on. I was so busy running
> > back and forth from the pit to the stands and back
> > that I never had time to
> > put on the sun block. Big mistake. Anyway, late in
> > the day I did take three
> > runs. Two red lights, Brian is way better at this
> > than I am.
> >
> > Autocross... not by my book. It was more of a road
> > race. By my definition an
> > autocross is a series of tight turns involving cones
> > and the distinct
> > ability to get lost or suffer cone blindness. This
> > was a test track, three
> > skid pads linked by asphault approximately 24' wide.
> > A nice new surface with
> > no elevation changes. All of the track was cambered
> > like a street. It was in
> > a highly manacured field of grass. You just could
> > not get lost, in fact the
> > only cones were the two slaloms.
> >
> > Start to finish it went like this. 75' of straight
> > leading to a 250' skid
> > pad. Left arround the skid pad for about 180 deg.
> > Immediately transition to
> > another skid pad to the right for 270 deg. This
> > ended in a hair pin 180 deg.
> > left hander. This was tough as the car was heavily
> > into the left front when
> > it needed to be braked hard and completely shifted
> > to have all it's weight
> > on the right front. 75 yards or so later there was a
> > four gate slalom. These
> > gates were lined up with each other but the distance
> > from gate to gate was
> > diminishing. Interesting to do but not all that
> > hard. Hind site tells me
> > that maybe I didn't push this enough. This led to
> > another skid pad. This one
> > was different, it was a consistent radius for 90
> > deg. then had a decreasing
> > radius for the next 90 deg. It was full throttle
> > throught the first part
> > then trailing throttle for the second part. With no
> > straight it went into an
> > immediate left, right, left chicane. A 150' straight
> > to another slalom. Four
> > gates in line with diminishing depth. This was hard,
> > due to the car set up I
> > found I was hopping the rear around the cones. Scary
> > since I'd seen a 6K
> > mile Focus go over this summer doing just this.
> > Timing light and run off.
> >
> > All thing considered it went well. We were
> > underpowered and I had terrible
> > tires. On the front I had my Michelin Pilot road
> > racing tires and in the
> > rear some very worn, "hard as a rock", dry rotted
> > Continental touring tires.
> > Damned it was oversteering like mad. I'm used to a
> > slight push so this was a
> > whole new experience for me. First run was :59.6 and
> > I had gotten it down to
> > :58.116 but took out the last cone on the course. My
> > best keeper time was
> > :58.446. FTD was :48.825 but after the afternoon
> > session, Tim Sudderd's (GRM
> > Publisher) 10 year old son took his kart out and
> > turned three laps at :46
> > and change. That kid never even came close to
> > looping it. I was very
> > impressed.
> >
> > After the kart demonstration, the course was opened
> > for fun runs. Brian took
> > the car out and asked me to ride along. Well that
> > toothy grin almost pushed
> > me out the passengers window. He went right back to
> > the start and didn't
> > even let me out. I did manage to escape before his
> > third run though.
> >
> > We had a great time, I could not have asked for a
> > better team mate. Before
> > we even got out of Gainesville we were doing the
> > imagineering for the 2004
> > Challenge. Brian want's to run his '88 and I want to
> > enter the Baja. Maybe
> > Brian could be my partner with the Beetle and I
> > could be his with the
> > Scirocco. I can't wait!
> >
> > Rick Alexander
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
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