This weekend its my turn... I'm letting my asst tech inspector do all the teching as I will be Event Master.

My local organization (www.spokes.org) is hosting the 3rd of 7 events this year, and i stepped up to be EM. EM's duty is to provided a course map, working in conjunction with the VP of the organization verify it is safe, set up the course and then present awards and trophies at the end of the event.

This event is being held at San Antonio Raceway, in Seguin Texas, there are directions on our homepage, if anyone is interested.

The course map:



note: on the map the cones are ~5' in diameter

 

Hey good luck with it. Looks like your job title isn't too bad.

At the events I've run so far I've tried to stay on schedule and not be a hard ass. But had to talk to a few people about their behavior outside the course - like driving fast and peeling out.

 

We ran the course this past sunday. It ended up pretty good, times ranged from high 39's to mid 57's. Which means that it was suitably challenging.

Remembering that the cones were ~5' in diameter, I did pinch the center of the optional boxes. The idea was for there to actually be 4 options through each box, and so what appears by pinching the middle section it does make it a choice, over the course of the day, it appeared that there were 2 preferred lines through it:

Some people managed not to push wide, and they were rewarded by a fairly straight shot to the entrance of the box turn... people who pushed out wide and chose to take the first single cone on the right side of the car, ended up with essentially a fast slalom.

The 90 degree left into the long left hand sweeper was slowed with a pinched exit cone to keep speeds down through the inner 'loop' of the course. It also allowed us to avoid some area where oil had soaked the pavement (its a drag strip pit area....) and we wouldn't tear it up. IMO it was actually TOO tight through there, but...it worked perfectly.

While I realize concern about a maneuver in the proximity of a light pole, the exit to the sweeper would have been at significantly reduced speed and ~60 ft away from the pole. Due to pavement/oil issues the tight turn out of the long left hand sweeper didn't materialize. It was straightened out slightly and the turn for home was made a bit tighter, which made the finish chute safer.

Pre-event complaints about tight mid-finish section (Corvette drivers!!) were changed to general pleasure after actually being on course. All told good course, good event, loads of fun.

I had the opportunity to drive an underprepped ASP '91MR2 Turbo in our "street tire" class. My review of the car is: Bad tires, bad wheel offset, no power steering, super laggy, and suspension badly underdamped. I'm used to some understeer in a car, but I might as well been plowing a field. I think I got the car to 26.2

Also I got to drive what is essentially a bone stock ITR (though it had upgraded brake rotors (?) and JDM recaros) in DSP. Even on 'crappy' R-compounds, it was uber-neutral handling. Being used to my 6700 redline, the extra 2K in RPM range was disconcerting to me, and it took some coersion by the car owner for me NOT to short shift, the brakes were embarassingly good, as at least twice I nearly parked it the first 90 degree right braking zone. I got within 1/2 second of the car owner, a 44.9 or so to his 44.5

I barely made the top 50% of the field on index, but really my heart wasn't in the event anyway, I went only because I had stepped up as EM.

 

Here are some videos from the event. This is the novice I was aiding in the MR2t. (Right click, save as)
Run #4
Run #7
He was behind the car alot, didn't really look ahead. The loud tire rubbing you here was explained before: bad ssuspension damping + bad offset wheels.