I like what Darren had to say about ambiguous corner design with lots of
line options. And I really like the idea of optional sections.. Slaloms you
can enter different directions, turnabouts, etc. Those are elements I
haven't seen in my four SCCA and one NASA events.
I'm all for more challenging courses and for more variety of courses. I
think I was lectured on this very list recently about how something that's
not challenging isn't worth winning. Then again, I also know there's a
difference between challenging and having a lot of people (including
experienced folks) DNF three runs due to a misunderstanding of course
marking...
Catch me up, here. As for Rookies being discouraged enough to not return
after not doing well at their first events... Are there a lot of data points
to support this? I was an addict after my first event when I came in 8th of
8 in N3, and you'll never hear the last of me since I came in 8th of 9 in my
second. I'm thrilled at how much I've learned and how much fun I've had in
five autocross events. I can't use myself as a data point.
I'm curious as to what you'd expect a good rookie return rate would be.
It's not reasonable to assume that every person that tries autocross the
first time will want to do it again. Some people simply might not like it
for any number of reasons unrelated to a particular course, others might
have a reason to do one particular event (like a car club meeting at that
event, etc.) and still others may not be able to allocate whole weekend days
to the sport as often as we get together.
Is the core of this discussion a matter of wanting more people to show up at
events? Or of having more people show up more regularly? If that's the
case, perhaps we should look at more than just a particular corner on a
particular weekends course. What about (information) drives to increase
awareness? What about efforts to spawn autocross clubs at universities like
mine? I'm sure there are dozens of people at my school that would "live the
autocross way" if only they knew about it. There sure are enough modified
cars around...
Am I a crazy unenlightened newby? Give me the smackdown.
Jake
P.S. Frankly, what I'd get really excited about with respect to course
design is a loop. Or maybe a corkscrew. I guess that's impractical,
because it would be really hard to get the white powder to stay up there on
the sides of the course if it was upside down, and the course walk would be
traumatic. There's probably an SCCA rule about having inverted sections on
the course anyway. :)
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