Wowee, we get to play at a new venue - the Santa Anita Raceway in Arcadia. On top of that, Jason has volunteered to do the course design with the following criteria - straightforward for novices, drivers will probably be in RWD vehicles with about 300+ HP, the course should flow clockwise and have a showcase turn for spectators in the NE corner.
Jason puts together a great course using some simple elements and on paper, it looks like it will be fun. However, without an accurate map that is to scale, we aren't sure of actual spacing and how the elements will actually fit together. After talking about it, we know that adjustments will most likely need to be made the day the course is set up.
The lot is not available for set up the day before and Jason recruits several volunteers from the SCCA to help set up the course. We show up at 6am and it's raining. Where did the rain come from? The forecast doesn't say anything about rain. In fact, it says that there is a 10% chance of precipitation. I think they forgot the extra zero on the end to make it 100% chance of rain.
Anyhow, we've committed to this course and people are showing up as we get to work setting up the course in the rain. The course is not as cone intensive as traditional BMW events and as a result, takes about an hour to set up and tweak. At last, Jason is satisfied that the course looks good and should be straightforward to drive. The course has a mix of high and low speed sweepers, tight elements and fast elements, decreasing radius turns, slaloms and other elements. All in all an interesting course - simple enough for beginners and enough room for experienced drivers to be challenged.
We know that this layout is different from what the regulars are used to seeing. As a result, Randall agrees that we can do a course walk instead of a parade lap. This allows us to explain the nuances of the track to everybody. Steve Abbott who was supposed to do the track walk for the drivers is AWOL and I take everybody around.
The rain is beginning to stop as the first drivers get going. The first part of the morning is spent hopping in students cars to show them the course and how to get around it in one piece. It's fun watching drivers as they get the feel for what their car can do.
Jason took a run when it was partially dry and didn't enjoy it. The tail was hanging out through a lot of turns as a lot of gravel was now on the driving line. Fortunately, as it dried out, the line also cleaned up - so much so that if you went off line, you went for a nice little ride in the wrong direction.
It was challenging driving the course in the morning. With the rain, none of the cones on course were chalked. As a result, workers had no idea where to put the cones back if they were hit. The course evolved quite a bit in the morning - a little like a rallyX.
By lunch time, the students were getting the hang of the course and driving around. The instructors get to play a little in their own cars. Then comes a lunch break and the SCCA volunteers go back out to re-set up the course and course workers come out to chalk the cones. Now we are ready for timed runs.
The timing lights are placed in a spot where you have to turn around to see your time after you cross the finish. I wasn't paying attention at first, but was having a good time running in the 56 second range. On my last timed run, I run a 56.04x and Jack and others are excited. I'm told that I've just laid down a faster raw time than Michael Oest in his GT3 on race tires. I find that hard to believe, but I didn't get to see the times he was running. It's exciting nonetheless.
However, at the end of the day, the results show that Michael did beat me - by 0.03 seconds. I'll take that and I'm happy with the results. Darin wasn't going to run his Civic because of an oil leak, but ends up taking his car out and lays down a smoking 55.3 - we need to race in the same car Darin!
At the end of the day, the event appears to have run smoothly for the most part. Randall takes a quick poll to see if the drivers like the current format for the course and it appears to be positive. They may try this type of course again later in the year. Anyhow, it was a fun time and the course turned out to be really fun to drive too. Nice work Jason - on your first course design!
Thank you to the SCCA volunteers who helped with all aspects of the course from before the event all the way up to event day.
No comments:
Post a Comment