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

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

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

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

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

Loren

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