To all, I beg differ about the optional direction slalom, as in the first
paragraph, i had to figure out the slaloms to go fast, isn't that the best way
to
learn about an auto-x course? if you think about it, there IS only one course to
choose from. Now from my point of view, i took the slalom on the right hand side
to see if it was faster and found that the left side was the fastest, and i
built
the %#@* course!
I'm not going to agree with Kevin because that can start something, but do
think
that the learning curve is much steeper if you have to think about which line is
faster.
When you get to chair an event, you get to build a course that challenges all
the drivers and there abilities. I hope in the future, the chairs can design and
build a course with out any feed back, which may hold back there artistic
abilities to design a fun course.
One of sunday chair persons. BEN
Smokerbros@aol.com wrote:
> Mark Watson writes:
>
> << "Just curious,
>
> In the optional direction slalom, what line do you feel was fastest ? >>
>
> My car owner (Mark Searles... Turnabout IS fairplay!) and I decided to each
> try it (the first slalom) differently on our first runs, and agreed that
> starting the second slalom to the left of the first cone was fastest. He
> reported no trouble staying inside of the first cone in the first slalom, but
> I decided to try going outside anyway, because I thought the acceleration out
> of the left hander before the first slalom would take you to the outside and
> that it would preserve speed. I found that 1) there wasn't that much speed
> to preserve, and 2) it was hard to get turn-in to the left hander between the
> slaloms from outside, even in Mark's '99 Miata on street tires, which has NO
> trouble turning in! On my second run I went to the left and never looked
> back. Clearly the way to go.
>
> Editorial comment: I disagree with optional direction slaloms. There were 4
> different courses you could have driven on Sunday. There should be one
> course for everyone. I disagree with Kevin that this is the same thing as
> line selection. This sport is difficult enough to get right when we're all
> going on the same side of the cones, much less to try to figure out which way
> to take the slalom(s). There are also slaloms where the proper direction is
> considerably less obvious than on Sunday, and that's where I differ even more
> strongly.
>
> As for shifting, we felt like there was a bog coming out of the first tight
> right turn, as well as the tight left 2 corners before the finish. So, we
> used 1st in both places. There was obviously more power between the tight
> left and the right before the first slalom, and as we applied power going
> towards the slalom. A very soft shift was required, though, to keep the rear
> end from stepping out on the 1-2 shift into the first slalom. Probably
> would've been less of a problem with "R" tires. The finish was obviuosly
> much faster in 1st.
>
> That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!
>
> CHD
--
BEN
DSP #60
Mercury Capri
-- Racing is life...all the rest is just waiting --
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