5/8 Sunriders Wrap up

[4wdFury]

Had a blast out there today. Definately worth paying the extra money for the school. Had so many runs I actually got physically exhausted from driving so much(almost fell asleep on the way home). Also wanted to thank all the instructors who critiqued my driving and helped me get the bes time I could. Can't wait til primus next month! :D

[Chin]

Damn you car! but yeah I still had a really good time. Thanks everyone who let me drive there car, it was fun!

[Loren]

Glad y'all enjoyed it.

Just finished typing in all the results, they're on the SunRiders Autox website (http://www.sunridersautocross.com/).

FYI, for the student times, I just took their first 4 runs to show a baseline, and then their last 4 runs (minus any DNF's)... and if their best run wasn't in the last 4, I put it in there, too.

Looks like most of our students (except for car-slut Matt) all showed a solid improvement of at least 2 seconds. Wish I could have done that!

[Chin]

ggrr, dammit jonas you did it now. The 42.050 is my time loren...I forgot which car it was in though ahahaha. But yeah, we need more people who know timing, so times dont get messed up. feel free to change that :-D and yes im a car slut.

[Loren]

Are you sure the 42.501 wasn't yours, Matt? It was a later run, and I don't think he took many more runs (if any) after you drove his car. I'm not going to change it, anyway. Doesn't matter. :cool:

BTW, I'll try to get the complete student times into a spreadsheet and email them to the students just so you can see all of your runs. (or at least the ones we got times on)

[aphxero]

That was alot of fun. I probably could have improved my times but my car kept sliding...err...yeah

Sunriders are a great group of people. Props to them :)

[4wdFury]

ya there was a 42.050 and that was possibly matt. I had a damn good run but the timing people didn't get it and it was around there. Oh well I still had my 42.355 sometime in there.

[Nole99]

I had a great time today, and I finally got my brother to try autocrossing. He had a blast! I don't know anywhere else you can get 6-7 runs. The only complaint is the "frickin" heat. I am cooked...well done! I vote we move these events to Tropicana Field or the Ice Palace during the summer months!
See you at Primus next month.
Scott

[Muddy]

I had a good time. After the first few runs many of the students told me they did not want me to ride with them. :dunno: So I spent the rest of the day instructing Denis O'Donnell, who had a 4 second improvement for the day. I spent some time with Billy Young as well, who had a 3 second improvement on the day and was just a few tenths behind me at the end of the day.

My fast time was a 41.2. I suppose I could have made it into the 40s if I had used first gear on the decreasing radius. I certainly would have helped me make that first turn after the slalom that I always pushed through. :D

[Loren]

Originally posted by Muddy
I had a good time. After the first few runs many of the students told me they did not want me to ride with them. :dunno:
About half of our 10 students were there mainly just to get some extra seat time, which was fine. I never bothered "asking" if they wanted me to run with them, I just hopped in when I felt like it! After the first run group, I was a little more casual about it and didn't try to jump in on every run, just popped in from time to time to see how people were improving and if there were any lingering problem areas I could help them with.

So I spent the rest of the day instructing Denis O'Donnell, who had a 4 second improvement for the day. I spent some time with Billy Young as well, who had a 3 second improvement on the day and was just a few tenths behind me at the end of the day.
I rode with several other people, too. It was fun!

My fast time was a 41.2. I suppose I could have made it into the 40s if I had used first gear on the decreasing radius. I certainly would have helped me make that first turn after the slalom that I always pushed through. :D
2nd gear worked for everything. The entry to the slalom was all about swinging wide after the 90 and braking early to set up for it and not accelerating (or braking) until you got past the 2nd slalom cone. I only downshifted back to first at the end of the slalom... and I think if I'd found the perfect line through there, even that downshift was unnecessary.

It was definitely a challenging course from both a driving perspective and a visualization perspective. You really had to be on the ball to get through it.

[4wdFury]

you can tell comparing novice students to novice going in that the times were definately better. Also just from the first run group, I had the fastest time there and I can definately attribute that to loren's walkthrough. Way more thorough and informative. First time I ever took a course the first time around having a good idea of what to do on every part of the course. Definately good for a challenging course like this one. Primus here I come!

[Loren]

Originally posted by 4wdFury
Also just from the first run group, I had the fastest time there and I can definately attribute that to loren's walkthrough. Way more thorough and informative. First time I ever took a course the first time around having a good idea of what to do on every part of the course.
Thanks, dude. I always feel like I'm just babbling when I do a walk-through like that. I'm never sure if I'm saying too much or saying the right things or if people are even paying attention to what I'm saying. And, of course, I'm always in a rush without enough time to ask for feedback. Good to know that it helped you!

[Muddy]

Originally posted by Loren
About half of our 10 students were there mainly just to get some extra seat time, which was fine. I never bothered "asking" if they wanted me to run with them, I just hopped in when I felt like it! After the first run group, I was a little more casual about it and didn't try to jump in on every run, just popped in from time to time to see how people were improving and if there were any lingering problem areas I could help them with.
I told them to flag me down if they wanted me to ride and I didn't worry about it. ;)
I am not sure what the best line through the end of the slalom and entering the decreasing radius turn was, I know I never found one that worked well in second gear. I either entered too fast and experienced lots of understeer and/or I was too slow to properly accelerate in second, or I spun.

[Jonas]

Originally posted by Chin180sx
ggrr, dammit jonas you did it now. The 42.050 is my time loren...I forgot which car it was in though ahahaha. But yeah, we need more people who know timing, so times dont get messed up. feel free to change that and yes im a car slut.

i did what i was instructed... take the car number for each car that passes the finish line and write down their time... how would i know if it was you driving or mickey mouse!!! and even if i did look over to the start line i wouldnt know if other drivers are driving other people's cars... i felt obligated to get EVERYONE elses times that passed the finish line rather than taking time to see if certain people were driving certain cars... sorry pal

[Jonas]

anyways, i had fun at the event... it was my first auto x experience... i got a little carried away on a section of one of my runs.... but one of the instructors kindly came to my car and asked me to tone it down... i complied and respected his concern for everyone's safety :-)... anyways i really had fun and i cant wait for the next one!!!

[Loren]

Jonas, you weren't the only one to get "a little carried away". There's a fine line between "incidental drifting" and "outright drifting". A properly executed drift is sometimes necessary at an autocross. Doing a "combo" out of a slalom is not.

Anyway, in addition to the safety of our workers (and the drivers), we have to consider the trend that allowing such antics could lead to and also how we appear to anyone who might be watching. As the DG Trials folks found out the hard way, the SPC folks just don't "get" drifting. It has the appearance of being unsafe and out of control, so that's the way they see it. So if we allow folks to blatantly drift at our autocrosses, then more people will want to do the same... and they might not be capable of carrying a controlled drift without an ugly spin, making things that much worse. Not worth losing the best available autocross site in Pinellas county over.

It's a slippery slope, one that we're not interested in climbing.

[Jonas]

Originally posted by Loren
Jonas, you weren't the only one to get "a little carried away". There's a fine line between "incidental drifting" and "outright drifting". A properly executed drift is sometimes necessary at an autocross. Doing a "combo" out of a slalom is not.

Anyway, in addition to the safety of our workers (and the drivers), we have to consider the trend that allowing such antics could lead to and also how we appear to anyone who might be watching. As the DG Trials folks found out the hard way, the SPC folks just don't "get" drifting. It has the appearance of being unsafe and out of control, so that's the way they see it. So if we allow folks to blatantly drift at our autocrosses, then more people will want to do the same... and they might not be capable of carrying a controlled drift without an ugly spin, making things that much worse. Not worth losing the best available autocross site in Pinellas county over.

It's a slippery slope, one that we're not interested in climbing.

gotcha, is there going to be a schooling in the next auto x??

[Loren]

Originally posted by Jonas
gotcha, is there going to be a schooling in the next auto x??
No, the school thing is something we normally do once each year. It used to be done as a separate event, a dedicated school event. This year, it didn't seem that there was enough interest in doing that, so I decided to roll it into a regular event. I think the 38 drivers who ran the regular autocross are glad that we did it that way because they got to play, too.

So, no school next time... but there are always people such as myself around who will be happy to ride with you when they can and help you learn. Remember, always ride with other people and have them ride with you as much as possible. Riding with others is always beneficial. Even if they are no better than you, you can learn from their mistakes and avoid making them yourself.

BTW, the next SunRiders autocross isn't until July. We're doing a track event in June.

[4wdFury]

ya, primus baby!

[markzeronine]

cant wait.. the drift event was fun, im sure the auto x their(primus) will b 2

[SlowerThanYou]

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