Wichita Region's River Festival Solo II began life as a street solo. The
first one was downtown on a wide street in front of the Century II
convention, center -- one of those streets designed more for attractiveness,
with alternating sections of brick and fairly smooth concrete = poor
traction. the course slalomed down this varying pavement, then around a
traffic island which had asphalt pavement (sudden traction!) around it. So
setting the tires really soft to try to get a grip on the brick and
concrete, suddenly there was *ample* traction for the 180 around the island.
Felt like the car wanted to bicycle, but fortunately the speed was way slow
there so there were no untoward incidents. A cop got out his radar gun and
shot me at 54mph -- more than double the speed limit.
It was really a fun and memorable event, with entry limited to experienced
drivers. A couple of later events went up a downtown side street (off the
no-traction pavement), and indeed a couple of curbs were nailed, before the
event migrated to a college parking lot (entry open to anyone) for most of
its 20+ years.
--Rocky
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dick Rasmussen" <rasmussend@mindspring.com>
To: <Smokerbros@aol.com>; <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 2:33 PM
Subject: Re: street solos
> At 02:56 PM 2/15/2004 -0500, Smokerbros@aol.com wrote:
> >San Francisco Region ran The Vallejo Grand Prix from '84 to about '88, I
> >think. It was invitational, and I think we had atleast one car into a
> >curb each
> >year. Toward the end we had one where Pati Park nailed a mailbox, Bill
> >Madamba
> >hit a tree, Brian Hobaugh got a no parking sign, and there may have been
a
> >couple of others... The event was just too scary to continue...
> >
> >Charlie
>
> Definitely scary. I remember being on the rev limiter in second gear in my
> Lotus Europa on day one and thinking overnight that I should shift on
> Sunday. Walked the course Sunday morning and decided that 55 or so was
> PLENTY fast with curbs, light poles, buildings, and wandering drunks close
> by on each side of that course segment!!!
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