At this event, the course designers took precautions to assure a safe, but
fast, fun course....Anyone who knows Tommy Saunders, knows that to him,
bigger is usually better! And he, along with Roger the real and a few
others, set out to prove it...The course, when set up Thursday evening, was
longer and faster than the finished product...To witt: Kurt Janish was not
entered in the event, but he was chief of course, and as such, did a lot of
the grunt work in getting it on the ground, marked, lined, and ready for
competition. He also got the privilege of driving the course a few times to
test if for limits and times. Driving it several times, he put Roger the
real's S2000, on street tires, through the cones at a best of 1 minute, 58
seconds. Using a radar gun, the fast section most folks were talking about,
was actually slowed down, from 76mph to 69 mph, by adding a looooong three
cone slolam. After reviewing the final count, and finding we were about 30
short of last year's attendance, it was decided that in it's current design,
it would require at least two more work stations. Friday was spent removing
a section, a tad bit more than a quarter mile, which also removed two
sweepers, and helped reduce the speed in the "fast" section. It was still a
hike to walk it, but, as Andy Hollis stated, it was an autocross visual
dream, easy to read, with pointers only in the right places, and as few
pylons as necessary, and all the runnoff necessary just in case...There were
no "near misses" that I am aware of, and off course excursions were mostly
due to getting off the line and into the marbles. The finish, while fast,
had plenty of stopping distance built in, and the only problem I saw was
with the driver who forgot where the black boxes were, and kept his foot in
it longer than he should have. Even at that, there was plenty of runoff
beyond the exit cones...
I have to say that in my opinion, it was the longest, fastest, safest, and
most fun course I have EVER run on in my 16 years of dodging pylons...
Phil O.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark J. Hirt" <nxracer@mediaone.net>
To: "Mailing List, Team.Net" <autox@autox.team.net>
> I understand the powers that be are concerned with "speed creep" at
> national type events but I have seen little change. So far this year
> all of the Tours have have put "stock" classed cars into the third
> gear zone with no problems. Before we say, so what, no problem wee all
> need to
> remember.
>
> It only takes one incident to badly damage a car, get someone hurt or
> take a life. This could change our sport forever so lets not do it
> violating our own guidelines at an event put on and/or blessed by the
> National office.
>
> Please READ rules 1.3 and 2.1. Stock classed cars doing 70 at the
> finish violates these guidelines.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Mark J. Hirt
>
> nxracer@mediaone.net
> http://people.ce.mediaone.net/nxracer
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