I have to agree with John Stimson here. When Joe Weinstein suggested
that maybe someone should sweep the surface you were very helpful in
finding a list of numbers. And yet when Mark Mervich pointed out that
the sweeping was perhaps not as effective as originally hoped, you are
more or less telling him to shut up (in a polite, backhanded sort of
way), and casting doubt on his driving abilities as well.
Mark was only reporting that there was gravel present in the last run
group, despite the morning sweep. None of your suggestions to him are
really relevant to the discussion at hand, whether it is worth it or not
to hire a sweeper. It doesn't matter if he was offline when he spun,
there has always been a clean line at GGF. Personally I think the issue
of whether the first couple groups were improved is moot as well,
because the first group has always been the fastest at GGF, even when
the lot was not swept.
I ran in the fifth group after the break. At the noon coursewalk there
was a clearly defined line with gravel offline, it did not seem much
different than before. The course was blown clear with the billy goat
which seemed to help it for our group. And yet clearly by the last
group the gravel was back. The question of where all that gravel is
coming from is pretty much answered in my mind. The sweeper did not
make a huge difference in the characteristics of the lot from what I
saw, but I welcome the opinions of those who felt otherwise.
Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of John J. Stimson-III
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 9:50 AM
To: John Kelly
Cc: ba-autox@autox.team.net; Mark Mervich
Subject: Re: GGF track condition
On Wed, Sep 28, 2005 at 11:48:03AM -0400, John Kelly wrote:
> -------------------- Begin Original Message --------------------
> Message text written by Mark Mervich
>
> By the last run group, there was so much junk on the track I spun my
> car for the first time in my 3+ years of autoXing. Its not worth
> $500 to get it cleaned.
> -------------------- End Original Message --------------------
>
> Mark,
> It will be most helpful if you cound find SF Region another
> autocross site inside the Greater Bay Area.
John,
It is also helpful to keep the discussion in the context in which it was
started. Mark was responding to queries about the condition of the
course towards the end of the day, after Joe Weinstein asked people in
later run groups to comment.
The original discussion was about the effects of hiring a sweeper vs
using the "billygoat" blower, not about the suitability of the site for
autocrossing.
Let's not become a club that squashes people for providing honest
answers to honest questions. As far as I know, we don't have the
required secret police force to support doing that. KGB Racing doesn't
count :-)
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