Craig Blome wrote:
>
> Looking at the results in various classes, I'm curious what folks who
> ran thought of the statement Jean Kinser relayed from BSP that "south
> course was car, north course was driver." I went home thinking both
> courses were "car" to some extent, but fooling with some of the numbers
> at <http://ponycar.net/Solo2.asp> has me reconsidering that opinion.
I think both courses were car and driver. But, the South course was
horsepower and braking and how well your car could do fast
offsets....and driver. The North course was smooth arcs and technical
and how well your car transitioned and torque and driver.
>
> The main thing that I thought affected the south course was the tight
> turns followed by long straights. In C Stock where I ran, this tended
> to favor the MR2 a little as that car can pivot, hook up, and GO
> somewhat more than the Miata can.
Agreed, but it favored the 924S cars even more. Helps to have 168hp vs
my 130hp. In CStock, I think a lot of the position changes were the
Porsche drivers moving up. I think the job that Andy Hollis did on the
South course was awesome in that regards.
> The north course had a few more transitional elements but still
> required the ability to accelerate hard out of tight corners (and the
> brainpower not to go in too fast! :)
Exactly. And the brainpower to not hit cones....and the brainpower to
not shift to 3rd in the slalom. Argh..
In addition, having three 180
> degree turns placed emphasis on steady state g-forces. I heard several
> people call this more of a "driver" course, yet I didn't see a whole
> lot of reshuffling in results as classes went from one course to the
> other. Did both courses favor the same type of car, or were both more
> or less car neutral? I haven't seen enough evidence to conclude one or
> the other, but my gut feeling is neither was really biased.
I agree.
>
> What's the consensus here? Should the courses be more "equalized"
> among different types of car, or were this year's courses more
> equalized than they looked at first glance? I want to mention this in
> my evaluation form, so I'd appreciate hearing some more viewpoints
> first.
I think between the two courses, you did have a good equalizer. I was
pretty happy with them in that regards, at least for C Stock. I would
have been happier if I didn't wiggle that last cone on the North course.
Having all 3 runs dirty does hurt your times.
>
> BTW everyone deserves a round of applause for making the largest BY FAR
> Nats ever go off so smoothly. I hope the banquet ticket issues will be
> fixed next year
What were the ticket issues? I had to leave before the banquet to get
home. I thought from my perspective, that everything went very well as
far as overall event management.
Randy Chase
'91 MR2 CS
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