In a message dated 3/7/99 7:58:54 AM Eastern Standard Time, Ben Thatcher wrote
(abbreviated):
1. Make the course WIDE
2. Try to avoid turns more than 90 degrees.
3. Make slaloms with cones at least 20 yards apart
4. Concentrate on making actual turns rather than high speed offsets.
5. Design the course so the driver has to use his/her full complement of
tools. Acceleration, up-shifting, down-shifting, braking and picking a
fast line.
6. Make the exit of each turn so the car is obviously headed for the next
feature.
7. Put in a couple of nice straights
8. Put in a few quick sweepers
Ben Thatcher
Atlanta Region S2 co-chair
Good advice. I would like to comment on #2 above, though, because of my
experiences last year:
Last year, I ran 6 events against the same novice driver. I noticed that at
4 events I was significantly faster and at the other 2 (third and fifth), he
was much closer to my times. I compared other times at these events and
discovered that the same was true in several classes. There was a trend...
When the courses had several turns greater than 90°, the "Old hands" were
clearly dominant. When the courses were mostly or entirely made of turns of
90° or less, the novices were significantly closer... I quickly determined
that the natural tendency of novices to early apex corners put them on the
proper line for shallow turn courses, whereas courses requiring several late
apexes put them far behind.
Has anyone else noted this and does that still make avoiding turns greater
than 90 a good idea?
Mike McLeish Sr.
ES SC-2
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