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Re: Course layout: careful cone placement

To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Course layout: careful cone placement
From: Smokerbros@aol.com
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 00:30:28 EST
Glenn writes:
I am hesitant to bring this up for fear of igniting a religious war on 
course layouts, but...

While emphatically NOT trying to get on anyone's case -- I thought 
yesterday's course was lots of fun, and after my course walks I had no 
trouble following it :) -- I did seem to notice a lot of DNFs and I 
think I can put a finger on a contributing cause.

In this region we often line courses with cones, producing a "road 
course" style; at other times (or in other regions) courses are laid 
out using isolated gates and only "safety" walls which are rarely on or 
near the part of the course competitors would actually drive on. 
Certainly this isn't always an either/or; the styles can be mixed.

Yesterday's course was a mix of closely-spaced cones lining areas of 
the course and very sparse cones or isolated gates in other places. I 
think either model can work (or at least I don't want to get into that 
argument right now!). But I also think that yesterday's mix, combined 
with enough rain to dilute the chalk linings, confused some drivers. 
For example the hard left turn near the bleachers was lined along both 
sides, 
Actually, no it wasn't.  The left (apex) side was only apex cones with 
pointers, the outside wall was consistent with other corners.

and then there was a wide gap before the two apex cones marking 
the right-hand sweeper before the hard left at the corner farthest from 
the finish. It seems that several drivers saw the gap and just drove 
through it :). They mistook the "inside" or right hand side of the 
course for the "outside" or left hand side.
Surprising, to me, since they had to drive on the wrong side of apex cones 
with pointers.
Also, after that hard left in the far corner there were some pretty 
wide open spaces and four cones making two gates in the middle of the 
near-straight heading back toward the pit area; unfortunately, the 
space between the gates was close enough to the space between the sides 
of the gates that competitors had to pick out the pointer cones (both 
gates used the pointers-on-each-side markings, sort of "|>A    A<|") 
markings) to follow the course -- which isn't impossible, but certainly 
created another chance for drivers to go wrong.

Anyway, as long as we are going to mix these lined-sides/gates+walls 
cone styles I think we need to pay particular attention to the 
transitions between the two styles so that we make the courses as easy 
as possible to pick out at speed.
I'll maintain that the course was pretty consistent with outside walls and 
pointered apexes.
A few concrete suggestions:

* pay particular attention to sight lines from corner exits -- in the 
corners is where drivers are most likely to be "looking down their 
hood" instead of looking ahead

* when switching from gates to lined-course-areas, try to widen the 
entrace (think funnel) or give other visual clues to exactly where the 
entrance is. This doesn't have to affect the line; to gain width you 
can make the "important" side of the entrace wherever you want (perhaps 
with a couple extra cones on the "outside"  to prevent someone 
mistaking inside for outside) and give people room in the other 
direction to go as wrong as they want :)

* it's fine if the line (and thus the "key" cones) are a bit subtle/not 
immediately obvious, but in/out of bounds should always be as clear as 
possible; this is a safety issue not just a novice-retention issue. 
When walking the course, if you can see where someone might get it 
wrong try to find a way to prevent their error

And now, to prove that I don't have it in for Charlie or the other 
people who worked on yesterday's course :): it was a great course -- it 
flowed well, had an interesting mix of elements, and I loved the 
markings toward the far end of the straight back toward the pits:  the 
course was quite clear but the line was non-obvious line and there were 
interesting decisions to make about where and how much speed to drop as 
you careened toward the left at the end. Thanks!
I was attempting to give SFR a "half step" toward courses they would find in 
other areas, including Nationals.  I think that a complete step in that 
direction would have resulted in more DNFs.  But I also feel that our "MRC" 
courses 
coddle the driver, and from what I can tell SFR is the only Region that uses 
them.  

Course designers are free to express themselves within the rules, and you're 
certainly free to design a course that expresses your creativity.

Charlie






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