Phil Ethier wrote:
> From: Matt Miller
> >With two exceptions, every single
> >incident I have ever seen at any autocross anywhere has always
> >been the result of transition maneuvers that were supposedly
> >designed into the course to lower speeds and increase safety.
>
> Exactly. If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times. On a
> site with runoff problems (and the FW site seems emphatically not to be such
> a site) there is no safe way to slow down a car that is going too fast. You
> must design the course so that the car never gets going too fast. Just as
> Matt points out here, the trouble starts when the designer wrongly tries to
> slow the car down instead of correctly preventing the car from going too
> fast. That's how we get these goofy problems at finish lines. Design it
> properly, and the cars can be freely accelerating through the lights. If it
> is done correctly, it is not only very safe for cars, people and timing
> equipment, it also feels good to the driver.
OK - here's something to consider:
How come we don't get roll-over incidents like autocross (e.g. I'm referring to
sharp and sudden transitions) roll-overs on road courses?
One of my thoughts was that on a road course, you know the corner is coming by
the visual cues. I wonder if some of these "unsafe" transitions might be made
more safe by adding cones (around the corner and maybe even before to serve as
braking markers) to make them more readily seen? In this way, people will know
that there is a corner at the end of the long straight and that they will have
to do some more serious braking than usual.
What do you course designers think?
I will experiment with this in our events (we have some higher speed events on a
road course and a very large lot) for which I will be doing some course design
and let you know what happens.
Regards,
Reijo
--
Reijo Silvennoinen, P.Eng.
President, CSCC, CSCC Nat'l Event Rep., Calgary, Alberta
Calgary Sports Car Club (CSCC) web site: http://bishop.ab.ca/CSCC/
(www.cscc.ab.ca)
Canadian National Autoslalom Championship (CNAC) list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solocanada
CNAC Web Site: http://CNAC2000.erc.bc.ca/
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