The background for this one becomes more important to understanding than what happened at the event.
This is the first of the big clump of events in the schedule for Family Arena parking lot. It is still not repaved from the damage done by the tornado debris and mulching from last year, and the pavement was pretty bad before that happened. So we have a 10-15 foot wide path of good pavement between the holes that can be safely used. Course layout is very limited and the worse the pavement gets, the more our courses lean toward abrupt and erratic movements instead of nice flowing ones.
The course lining machine has had a flat tire for about a year now, and has not been a priority for the people in charge of the equipment or those in charge of spending money for that task. The last three events I tried to take down as many notes on tire size, continuing to find I was one number or detail short of finding the right one from the half dozen sizes available. Someone pointed out the flat was on the wheel mounted to the spreader mechanism, so strategy changed to finding a inner tube and not un-mounting or replacing the wheel. Then searching out an inner tube and finding one at Harbor Freight.
So I showed up Sunday morning with a new inner tube. I was informed that unless some third person got flour, we did not have any to line the course... I started out trying to get the inner tube into the wheel of the line machine. Not as easy as a bicycle tire. I got the outer edge of the tire off the rim, cut the valve out, got the new inner tube into place, and struggled for quite a while trying to get the tire back onto the rim, without damaging the tube inside. I then received some unwanted help, and someone offered a hand, grabbing the screwdrivers and stabbing beneath the tire like one inmate shivving another inmate in the exercise yard. A little "Hey, you know there's an inner tube in there and it would be nice if it didn't have a hole in it by the time we were done.", and my helper left me alone. Another trip to the tool box and the pry bar turns out to be a better tire tool.
Time to put some air in, the electric pump doesn't seem to fit the inner tube valve. The bus air compressor is not doing it. Time to take the tire loose again. Wow, look at that big screw driver hole!
So, no course lining.
Sunday's course was described as "technical". Most of it was deep offset slaloms. Take a straight line of slalom cones, then move each cone you have to go around farther over to make it more difficult, and put a line of pointer cones on the inside to exaggerate the torturous appearance. Between the deep-offset-slaloms, it was basically would be like "travel to this point and execute a turn and proceed to the next point". They said the CP guys were not going to enjoy it because there was no place to use lots of horsepower. Only the AWD guys would enjoy it because they could say in the gas while cornering. Everyone else would be complaining.
Lots of obvious problems with places to get lost or confused, miss sections of course, or accidentally go across to the wrong section. Direction changes at or just past the crest of a rise. Then lots of Nerf walls and lines of pointer cones to prevent that from happening. And no lines.
And lots of new drivers to be subjected to a moderately advanced course with lots of places to get lost.
Rich started out with a DNF. Heck, everyone started out with a DNF, and a lot of people DNFed their first three in a row. Rich got down to a 65.7. There was a pretty colorful 360 degree smokey burnout in there somewhere.
I DNFed my first run. I got down through the first line of deep offsets to the blind right turn, started looking for my braking point, glanced to the left and saw the inside apex cone I was supposed to go around. No eyebrow at the crest of the hill, it looks like you are supposed to go to the middle of the bunch only to see you should have gone around the bunch when you get right in to the middle of them...
I managed a 63.3 on my second run. Good news, I caught Rich (and I had not been optimistic about achieving that). Now to work toward something of a more respectable time for someone doing this for years driving a car in a modified class...
It was warmer. Despite all the people saying what beautiful weather we were having, I was uncomfortable, and several people were retreating to the AC in their trucks. But it was hot enough to get the tires to start sticking, for the first time this year. The year-and-a-half old V710s thawed and were picking up rocks like a fresh piece of duct tape. I took a gamble and started left-foot-braking. I couldn't stand on it and brake steer, but it was letting me get away with a little without spinning.
A 63.0, and I started pushing harder and calling out my turns like they tell you in driving school. Then I started catching cones. 60.6 and a cone. 61.2 and a cone. End of the day. Sure would have liked a 60 or 61 without a cone penalty...
I wonder if Harbor Freight will exchange this inner tube with a screwdriver hole in it???
This is the first of the big clump of events in the schedule for Family Arena parking lot. It is still not repaved from the damage done by the tornado debris and mulching from last year, and the pavement was pretty bad before that happened. So we have a 10-15 foot wide path of good pavement between the holes that can be safely used. Course layout is very limited and the worse the pavement gets, the more our courses lean toward abrupt and erratic movements instead of nice flowing ones.
The course lining machine has had a flat tire for about a year now, and has not been a priority for the people in charge of the equipment or those in charge of spending money for that task. The last three events I tried to take down as many notes on tire size, continuing to find I was one number or detail short of finding the right one from the half dozen sizes available. Someone pointed out the flat was on the wheel mounted to the spreader mechanism, so strategy changed to finding a inner tube and not un-mounting or replacing the wheel. Then searching out an inner tube and finding one at Harbor Freight.
So I showed up Sunday morning with a new inner tube. I was informed that unless some third person got flour, we did not have any to line the course... I started out trying to get the inner tube into the wheel of the line machine. Not as easy as a bicycle tire. I got the outer edge of the tire off the rim, cut the valve out, got the new inner tube into place, and struggled for quite a while trying to get the tire back onto the rim, without damaging the tube inside. I then received some unwanted help, and someone offered a hand, grabbing the screwdrivers and stabbing beneath the tire like one inmate shivving another inmate in the exercise yard. A little "Hey, you know there's an inner tube in there and it would be nice if it didn't have a hole in it by the time we were done.", and my helper left me alone. Another trip to the tool box and the pry bar turns out to be a better tire tool.
Time to put some air in, the electric pump doesn't seem to fit the inner tube valve. The bus air compressor is not doing it. Time to take the tire loose again. Wow, look at that big screw driver hole!
So, no course lining.
Sunday's course was described as "technical". Most of it was deep offset slaloms. Take a straight line of slalom cones, then move each cone you have to go around farther over to make it more difficult, and put a line of pointer cones on the inside to exaggerate the torturous appearance. Between the deep-offset-slaloms, it was basically would be like "travel to this point and execute a turn and proceed to the next point". They said the CP guys were not going to enjoy it because there was no place to use lots of horsepower. Only the AWD guys would enjoy it because they could say in the gas while cornering. Everyone else would be complaining.
Lots of obvious problems with places to get lost or confused, miss sections of course, or accidentally go across to the wrong section. Direction changes at or just past the crest of a rise. Then lots of Nerf walls and lines of pointer cones to prevent that from happening. And no lines.
And lots of new drivers to be subjected to a moderately advanced course with lots of places to get lost.
Rich started out with a DNF. Heck, everyone started out with a DNF, and a lot of people DNFed their first three in a row. Rich got down to a 65.7. There was a pretty colorful 360 degree smokey burnout in there somewhere.
I DNFed my first run. I got down through the first line of deep offsets to the blind right turn, started looking for my braking point, glanced to the left and saw the inside apex cone I was supposed to go around. No eyebrow at the crest of the hill, it looks like you are supposed to go to the middle of the bunch only to see you should have gone around the bunch when you get right in to the middle of them...
I managed a 63.3 on my second run. Good news, I caught Rich (and I had not been optimistic about achieving that). Now to work toward something of a more respectable time for someone doing this for years driving a car in a modified class...
It was warmer. Despite all the people saying what beautiful weather we were having, I was uncomfortable, and several people were retreating to the AC in their trucks. But it was hot enough to get the tires to start sticking, for the first time this year. The year-and-a-half old V710s thawed and were picking up rocks like a fresh piece of duct tape. I took a gamble and started left-foot-braking. I couldn't stand on it and brake steer, but it was letting me get away with a little without spinning.
A 63.0, and I started pushing harder and calling out my turns like they tell you in driving school. Then I started catching cones. 60.6 and a cone. 61.2 and a cone. End of the day. Sure would have liked a 60 or 61 without a cone penalty...
I wonder if Harbor Freight will exchange this inner tube with a screwdriver hole in it???
