On Tuesday, March 5, 2002, at 11:24 , Stacey wrote:
Good observations, Stacey! In general, safer is never wrong. I'm
thrilled to hear participants taking an active interest in the event!
Miscellaneous comments follow.
KeS
> 1) I got teched about 10:30 maybe not sure. But there was no one over
> there
> just 3 or 4 vettes that had been abandoned. I was not even sure
> if I was in
> the right place as I expected someone to be there, or a sign or
> something.
In general, driving off in an abandoned Corvette will get someone over
there immediately! ;) Generally there is a line, but the thing to look
for is the garage jack. Some events with dual grids will have tech on
grid - I'm not sure how you would know this other than by asking. Bryan?
> Also, a minute later, another novice first timer parked behind me
> and we
> asked each other if this was the place to get teched, neither of
> us knew
> the answer.
>
> A few minutes later 4 people showed up and did the tech.
> It was quick. Maybe too quick? I was not assured that they
> looked at enough stuff. For instance they did not jack it up.
> They did not check for loose wheel bearings or for oil leaks.
> And it was not obvious that they checked my tire tread.
> They also missed some loose stuff in my ash tray ( a mini-super
> ball)
> which I found before the run and removed.
> Later I was surprised to see that cars with items hanging from
> the rear view mirror
> like Pepsi balls on a chain were passed by Tech. And then there
> was the car
> that had a stuck throttle during my work shift.
>
> The only other tech I ever had for autox was at NASA but it
> seemed to be
> more thorough. The tech was done on grid and was easier to
> locate and required less
> car movement/traffic.
Tech on grid is only practical for the first run group or if there are
dual grids. The downside to TOG is that if a car has a problem that
needs to be fixed, you have to move a whole line of cars to get it out
of there.
NASA does a better job of teching cars in general, though it varies
widely on who is doing the tech. I've run with organizations that
simply checked the helmet and waved a cross at the car. ;)
>
> 2) I was surprised/shocked to see passengers running in the autox
> holding
> video cameras, recording as the car was on course. I thought
> that only
> fixed, properly mounted cameras would be allowed. When I was
> doing my work shift I saw at lease 3 different cars with
> passengers doing this.
> Is this permitted?
There is not a rule against it, and it is prevalent behavior in many
regions. I'm not totally comfortable with it either. Seems a large,
heavy, blunt instrument to be waving around the cockpit of a car.
> 3) I would have liked to have seen just a tad more spacing on the car
> starts.
> I worked in station 1B or is it 1.5 by the pole. By the time I
> watched the
> car pass and then go up around the corner at 2 and then head back
> to 1
> facing right at us and then spinning out in the sweeper another
> car would
> already be started and headed for us again with my back to it.
> It would
> have felt safer to have another few seconds so that the car was
> headed
> away from me before I had to worry about another car headed
> toward me
> from the start. I was the only one in this station for the first
> 10 minutes
> of my shift at the end of group 7. Once some other workers
> showed up we
> kind of took turns watching in both directions.
>
> I also did not like the fact that I was a Novice and was
> stationed at 1.5
> or 1 B or whatever you want to call it and I was by myself. The
> previous
> 3 people stationed there bolted as soon as I walked over from
> station 1
> where we had 3 people already swapped out. I thought that they
> should have
> waited for other workers to show up.
I think the base issue may have been you being there alone. It is often
not practical to work a station alone, particularly while working a
radio as well. A pet peeve of mine is people who do not work course
seriously, standing in groups or bailing altogether. With over 300
entries there is absolutely no excuse for not having plenty of course
workers to cover all the stations.
> Also at my station there was only a radio holder but no radio.
> So at the end of
> my shift, when the 8th group of cars started and 2 replacement
> workers
> finally showed up I got them a third worker from station 1A,
> which had 4 workers,
> and got them a replacement radio from the camper. I noticed at
> that point that the camper did
> a radio check with each station. We did not get one at the start
> of group 7,
> or maybe we did but since we did not have a radio so we did not
> hear it?
Thanks for your help. Radio checks should be done at the start of each
group, of course.
BTW, there was a thread last year about who in a team of two workers
should have the red flag (if only one), the runner or the radioer. I
said the radio operator, as they are generally watching what is going on
and more centrally located. Others said the runner, as they are nearer
the course. Well, sure enough, at the first SD event this year, I was
working the finish section with another experienced autoxer. A car took
out the finish, and my chaser hared off with his red flag to pick up
seven zillion cones, leaving me to try and jerk the ignition keys out of
the following car before it squished him. Ideally everyone has a red
flag, but I just thought I'd point out that once again I was right and
everybody else was wrong and if you'd all just LISTEN to me the world
would be a much nicer place. For me, of course. But I digress.
> I guess it should have been made more clear that there were
> additional work stations.
> Both Station 1 and Station 2 had two work locations. Maybe the
> others did as well but
> it was not obvious to the workers (at least us new ones). I
> guess a few more station signs
> would help this problem.
Perhaps, I'm not sure what you mean. A Station is a pre-determined
location to stage fire extinguishers, spare cones, and typically the
radio operator. The workers themselves need to deploy themselves
through the section where they need to be to retrieve cones.
> 4) I thought that the distance from the finish line to the stop sign
> and results person was
> too short. It would be nice to be able to go through the trap
> at speed and not have to worry about
> having to stop so quickly to avoid running over someone.
There is no time penalty for hitting the timing slip writer. I don't
understand the problem. ;)
Sufficient stopping distance is always a goal (in SFR, at least, down
here in SoCal they seem to delight in all sorts of gymnastics after the
finish). I suspect that the course redesigns for this event previously
mentioned may have contributed.
> 5) I noticed several cases when a worker was in harms way by the
> finish line on the outside
> of a turn trying to right a cone when the next car came by.
> There should have been another station,
> maybe close to the camper, on the correct side of the course.
> This worker had to come from
> some distance away and cross the line of traffic to right the
> cone. I think there could have
> been a safer way to do this.
See my point above. Workers need to be in a safe location where they
can quickly reach cones. BTW, course workers, when you're slouching
over to pick up a cone, think for a moment about what may happen if you
trip and fall, dropping your nice red flag in the process. Aerobicise!
> 6) I was not sure when to actually use the red flag. I know that if I
> see an unsafe
> situation that I should use it but I was unsure that if someone
> else was using one should
> everyone else also wave the read flag and stop everything or only
> the section that was
> having problems? I remember one case when there was a safety
> issue near the
> finish and no one was red flagging but the announcer said to and
> wanted the following car to
> be red flagged as well but none was given. Should we all have red
> flagged to try to
> get the cars attention?
Well, you don't need to red flag the car AHEAD of the car being stopped,
unless it will be coming back around in a loop or something, OR unless
you are requested by the trailer to red flag the course (that is
generally a global timing problem where they don't want drivers to gain
a competitive advantage). As to red flagging the cars BEHIND a stopped
car, to some extent it can be a judgement call based on experience. If
it seems the stopped car will get going and be safely finished before
the next car gets too close, sometimes you don't have to stop that next
car. However, that's a nuance. If you have to red flag one car, it's
fine to flag the others behind it on course as well, if you're at all
uncertain. Better safe than sorry. Don't let people give you grief
about it.
Here's when NOT to red-flag a car! When the upstream car has spun or
otherwise taken out a chunk of the course, but is proceeding at speed;
however, the course will not be completely stood up in time. This is
NOT a red-flag situation in and of itself. The following driver has the
discretion of stopping for down cones or continuing the run. In this
situation, you should be prepared to red flag if and only if:
- A courseworker is not getting clear. The courseworker should set up
as much of the course as they can, and then get OUT OF THE WAY.
Sometimes they don't and you need to be ready to stop the next car.
- Driver stops for down cone (or courseworker). Be prepared to stop
the FOLLOWING car. Wave the stopped driver to proceed - s/he will
remain stopped until signalled on.
- The course is substantively altered by the missing cones. A couple
of cones that nobody hits except the guy who spun is no big deal. If
there's a slalom cone missing, there can be a huge competitive advantage
to the next driver. Properly speaking you should red-flag them and call
in a re-run. I've let them go and called it in over the radio to keep
the event going, but that is a bad idea - the driver gets upset because
they either didn't realize the cone was missing or thought they'd gotten
away with something. ;)
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