Gainesville - I sucked this weekend

[chi town brat]

Wow for a course that looked so simple, and more than likely was, I could not get it.

I kept missing the left gate taking you into the first sweeper. :nono:

First time at G'ville where we are given 5 runs and I can't follow the course :lol: it figures.

Now the last part of the track with the solomn I had a blast on. I guess it was because the cones were in a tighter pattern that I could pick up on it.

There is always the next time and it was another lesson learned.

[Rosko]

I didn't expect to have such a good time at a Gainesville course. Like almost everyone I went because I thought most people would be reserving the day for SuperBowl activities. Typically I don't like to drive 1.75 hours for three runs, but was very happy to see five runs on an interesting course. I hope it stays this way.

The course was great, but yes, it was puzzling to me too. I'm accustomed to Brooksville and generally higher speed turns. This was low speed cornering in the first half followed by higher speed stuff in the second half. On my last run I beat my best time by 1.1 second, and I had a passnger in the car. I'm telling you there is something to be said for having another person for balance. I've seen this happen many times with other people too.

I also liked how well the grid worked. It was more efficient than it looked on the surface.

No lunch break? That's cool with me. Let's do it like this all the time. I'll eat a sandwich in my car while on grid! :)

Constructive Criticism: (read: No, I can't do a better job)
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The Driver's meeting was very short, but it seems like a lot of things were left unsaid that should've been said - stuff about alcohol, red flags, taking care of the site - I don't know, all the stuff that usually takes Tony about 15 minutes to say.

I can only vouch for this on heat 2, but there were a few unnecessary timing snafus probably due to inexperienced timing folks. They could've used some experienced supervision. This caused a total of about 20 minutes of lost time in heat 2.

It would've been pretty cool if someone would've printed out results after each heat.

Anyhow, great time, good event. I'll be back.

[Muddy]

On my last run I beat my best time by 1.1 second, and I had a passnger in the car. I'm telling you there is something to be said for having another person for balance. I've seen this happen many times with other people too.
I once got my fastest run of the day with Jeremy in the car and the a/c on! :lol:

However, I doubt having a passenger to "improve the balance" made the difference. You probably did something right on your last run that you missed on the previous runs. :D

[chi town brat]

On my last run I took Jim ( ? ) out to tell me "gate to the left, go left" i really should have had him in the car a lot earlier than that

[PseudoRealityX]

Constructive Criticism: (read: No, I can't do a better job)
-------------------------------------------------
The Driver's meeting was very short, but it seems like a lot of things were left unsaid that should've been said - stuff about alcohol, red flags, taking care of the site - I don't know, all the stuff that usually takes Tony about 15 minutes to say.

I can only vouch for this on heat 2, but there were a few unnecessary timing snafus probably due to inexperienced timing folks. They could've used some experienced supervision. This caused a total of about 20 minutes of lost time in heat 2.

It would've been pretty cool if someone would've printed out results after each heat.

Anyhow, great time, good event. I'll be back.

Point 1: I personally like a short driver's meeting with a more indepth novice walkthru. Stuff like red flag policies, taking care of the site, etc should be pretty common knowledge by your 5th event....or so I would hope. I've done my fair share of novice walkthru's, so maybe it's my fault? For guys who have been racing for awhile, sitting through a 20 min long driver's meeting is usually just a time to talk to friends and wait around bored.

Point 2: I was running heat 2...and I thought we were going pretty fast, so no idea what's up. I wasn't up at the tent, so I have no idea.

Point 3: I agree... not sure what happened there either. Sorry about that guys.




Ok, what'd everyone think of that lot instead of the typical gainesville track? Keep in mind that we thought there would be active construction on the west side of the lot, hence "wasting" a lot of space that could have been used for course.

I think we could have a ~50+ second course with some higher average speeds on that course without any problem, and with the dual gates, we can an even more efficient grid system that may possibly allow us even to get even more runs.

[chi town brat]

The parking lot was okay though I did hear some comments about dealing with traction issues due from going from one type of pavement to another.

[nunyo]

I need a pinch driver's meeting doer. (I guess some baseball analogies just don't work.)

The driver's meeting is one of those things that seems hard to hit the sweet spot on. Maybe in some spare time (bwaahahahhahahhhahahhah!) I'll work on scripting this a little better.

[jaball77]

I can only vouch for this on heat 2, but there were a few unnecessary timing snafus probably due to inexperienced timing folks. They could've used some experienced supervision. This caused a total of about 20 minutes of lost time in heat 2.

It would've been pretty cool if someone would've printed out results after each heat.


I don't envy the poor sucker that has to do the driver's meeting. Too long and the regulars stop paying attention and start talking over you, and too short and the newbies that missed the novice walkthrough don't know what to do...

The timing hang-ups are something we're just going to have to deal with for now... We need our tech people to be more strict with numbers and class designations! Several cars had duplicate numbers and no class letters at all... I know during heats 1 and 3 we were wrestling with that.

We were also dealing with mis-classed cars. Apparently an older file was loaded and some of the returning members' classes were wrong. So we had to try to re-class cars on the fly. Not fun!

We were also without our computer expert Jim! :-( Luckily we were able to get most of it straightened out by the end of the day. Well, except for Jesse being classed in STS, heh. Oopsie!


We really could use some more people familiar with the timing system. Hopefully we'll get some return customers and it'll go smoother next time. :-)

[Rosko]

You probably did something right on your last run that you missed on the previous runs.

Now that you say it, yeah, I remember nailing two parts of the course, as compared to zero parts of the course on the first four attempts.

Point 2: I was running heat 2...and I thought we were going pretty fast, so no idea what's up. I wasn't up at the tent, so I have no idea.

I was at the tent, just hanging out, watching. It was my off heat. There were some problems, but heck, there's some kind of slowdown at just about every event. I was just making an observation. Don't sweat it.

The parking lot was okay though I did hear some comments about dealing with traction issues due from going from one type of pavement to another.

I don't see this as too big of a problem really when everyone has to deal with it. The only time I really noticed it was along the straight heading toward the finish. It got slick and the read end came loose if I hit full throttle to quickly.

Ok, what'd everyone think of that lot instead of the typical gainesville track?

I've only been to the track once, but this lot was great. There's no chance of sliding into the grass - but I guess there's always the fence! The surface is acceptable if not optimal as Chi-Town indicated. It reminds me of the Porsche Club surface in Zephyrhills. The size of the site is great. And we have "Upgraded bathrooms" as you spoke of in the driver's meeting. Most importantly, five runs! I can't imagine that three runs gets anyone excited.

Oh, and when are the results going to be posted at cfrsolo2.com? I'm extremely interested in whether I finished last or next to last in B Stock!! :D

We need our tech people to be more strict with numbers and class designations! Several cars had duplicate numbers and no class letters at all

I couldn't agree more. I believe this is what caused the extended snafu in heat 2 combined with one of the Mini's driving past the finish line instead of through it.

[Sam_I_am]

On my last run I beat my best time by 1.1 second, and I had a passnger in the car. I'm telling you there is something to be said for having another person for balance. I've seen this happen many times with other people too.

I too ran my best time with a passenger, but I think it was due to what Muddy had mentioned (driving smoother).

[MrSideways]

In reguards to a short drivers meeting...

There is nothing wrong with that. I mean honestly who is that stupid that they need to be told that we don't condone Crack on the site?

Drivers meeting should be ONE SENTENCE.... "If you have to ask if it's allowed, It's probably NOT, Be good". DONE!

JD kemp the RE of Dixie region once said. "Why bother trying to make things Idiot Proof, Cause just when you think you've got something Idiot Proof.... GOD will Create a Better Idiot"

So IMHO , no harm done other then saved time in a short drivers meeting.