[TR] Off-topic -deadly floormats?

[Mark J Bradakis]

Well, I don't know about the 'deadly' part, but a floor mat did kill my
shot at FTD during a VTR autocross.  It was at the Boulder convention
in 1990? when I had The White Car, a solid axle TR4A.  Those who
might have been there perhaps remember when John Lye and Bob Bownes
did the funkhana in that car, dressed in full regalia.  Shiners don't like
loud noises.  But I digress.

The autocross was held on a section of the Mountain View race track.
If memory serves me right, the amazing lack of organization when it
came to running that event was the main reason that VTR now has an
autocross advisor and a set of written rules governing the event.

So my turn in line finally comes, I roar off and head to the first turn.
A floor mat I had foolishly left in the car slips around and fouls the
pedals.  It takes me a second or so to recover, and I hit a few cones in
the process, ruining what would have been an excellent run based on
how it went after that.  So it goes.

As I recall, FTD was taken by a fellow who misunderstood what an
'optional' slalom was.  It means you can start to the left or the right of
the initial cones, your option.  He assumed it meant you could choose
to do the slalom or just roar right past all the cones.  Like I said, there
were some issues with how that event was run.

mjb.

ps: 100 AYI - meaningless to all those except the ones who were stuck
parading around that track at a REALLY slow pace.