It is easy to complain. I complain but in the end I really don't car that much. If you care that much then join the club and get involved. I am in the process of deciding exactly which club to join and to actually put some time in other then course work. I am very busy now but I think its the best way to insure the ongoing success of the group/groups I relie on to race. I also saw some things that bothered me. I am not going to post them because in the end I really dont care. Its just a race and if I take it too serious it ceases being fun.

 

He clarified the cone in the drivers meeting. I heard it clear as a bell. "That cone doesn't matter just don't hit it."
As far as the course is concerned your car is too low. The course is not great but it is what we have. Its also racing. Part of racing is having a car that is set up right for the courses. Thats life.

 

ok..

1) i came off a little hard the other day b/c i was tired and very irrated. i don't have any hard feelings on anyone.

2) i wasn't complaining about the course as a thing that someone can fix. i was just saying, it sucked scraping the gound

3) if i missed the statement about the cone during the meeting, then i did, and that's my fault. but others there too, including the guy on the computer and bobby in the porshe (911?) didn't hear it either.

4) if you take it too seriously, then yeah you won't have fun. but for the ppl that were waiting in line, or working the course for 2-3 hours, that doesn't seem too fun either does it?

5) i maybe could right a program if i knew how the timer inputted info into the computer. I FORGOT TO SPECIFY that the program they were using was a DOS program. using excel and a separate timing system if can work so much better. maybe sometime i can show the organization what i mean. for now though, w/ my street car, i dunno how much i want to compete at fentress. i still do drive the same car and tires to work/school/etc. but maybe we can set up something w/ the organization and i can show them. how would i do so.

 

I am getting a little tired of spending all day at the event also. That is why I am looking at picking a club and running on a 2X a month basis. It gets frustrating to see time wasted that could be saved if things were done better. I keep reminding myself that everyone is wanting to race and go home. They have been fine tuning this stuff for a long time trying to make it better. I am sure if I ran things I would make mistakes and people whould be posting about that also. It is hard to keep that perspective on things. Dave, you really should join a club and after getting to know people offer to help with the timing and program writting.

 

Sorry, i was at school and rushed my post. thanx for the props. i can't wait to get my new motor in there. more 'butts' will be getting kicked, hehehe


and yes, if i ran things, i would make mistakes also, but i would also show the ppl out there that i'm trying to get things better, and proving it. but i didn't see much iniciative from the group in the trailer. at one point, after the realllll long delay. i sat there for 5 minutes while they were just shooting the shit, and i was like, "are we ready to go yet?" and they're like "oh yeah, send 'em off." It just didn't seem like they were 'caring' enough. of course, that's just the vibe i got.

beno, once again, if i have my idea for a method, how do i let them know?

 

The person you want to contact is Curtis Staples. He is the club president of TSCC. I PM'd his e-mail address to you. Tell him your ideas and how you could help. He is very receptive to people wanting to help out.

 

I've got a few comments to add to the pot here...

First off, if you have comments about the club, leadership, or the way things are run, please feel free to speak up. You can tell me, you can email me, you can email the club mailing list (if you are not on it, hit the web site or tell me). What I would not suggest is flamming. The club is run by volunteers, many of us put in a fair amount of hours.

So, I'll start with a few comments I read. Lightningd: The software we run is called Accucros. There are a few reasons we run it. It run's in DOS mode for a reason, because DOS allows applications to have better control of the system clock and is not a multitasking software like Windows. If it ran under Windows the timing would not be as accurate as it is. The software also allows us to do things like run two cars at once and multiple laps (both of which we've done before). You're idea of Excel and a timer has a few functional problems with it. For one, pax'n it would be a pain, plus you add another point in which human error could come in to play and that would be recording scores from the timer to the spread sheet. It really would make it a bigger pain in the ass. Most of this weekends issues were caused by the person running the laptop at the time. That is definatly something that needs to be addressed and I mentioned it to Curtis this morning. Part of those issues were compouned by the fact that the machine being used wasen't the normal machine we use.

The site: Compaired to ACU4, Fentress blows ass. But it's in about the same condition that Pungo is. They are both WWII era concrete. I can tell you why your Accord bottomed out, you slammed the shit out of it! But you are right, the site is not the best. But it's better then nothing, which was the case last year when us, ODR, and BCC had no place to autocross. If you have some ideas about alternative sites, let me know, I have an information packet already to go to present to the owner of the site. Sites are really difficult to come by. (and this is not a slam session on you, I'm just trying to answer questions).

Organization: Yes, Sunday was more unorganized then usual. I've spoken to a few people about that and we are going to change a few things. I'll outline them after the business meeting. I've been asking the question for a while now why the hell we don't use the radio WE ACTUALLY HAVE. They are in the damn trailer! There's 8 of them!! I think I'm going to make a point of personally bringing them out at the next event.

As for results being posted late. This is usally do to the fact that someone has to go through by hand and double check all the information. There are always atleast a dozen people that signed up with one class and ran in another for one reason or another.

I think that was the majority of the comments. If you have any more, I or Curtis (as well as the others) will be more then happy to hear them and discuss them.. There have been a few changes based on my suggestions, etc.

Last thing in this marathon post..

There is no real membership to TSCC. The membership drive we do is basically this: You pay for the autocrosses upfront and you get a perment number plus a break on the cost. That's it, there are not any real dues. You can show up to the business meetings reguardless. The business meeting is probobly the best place to bring up suggestions comments. I'm usually there, Curtis is there, Bill, Zig, and Bridget.

Okay, I think that's it. Sorry for the book.

 

I think we all appriciate the effort everyone from both organizations put into these events.
Fentress kicks the shit out of the stoplight assassin bullshit we were all doing before we got into autocrossing.

 

Yeah, but the stoplight assassin thing was fun the other day. In a rare evening outing in the Talon the other night I had a Jetta try to take me at a light. bad move

 

I will tell you that what you have suggested we had before. I have been around since we timed mostly by stopwatch (or an analog clock and a tripcord like used to be used in full service gas stations). We have been through many revisions. I wrote a couple of the previous versions of timing and scoring software, and Tom upgraded and revised them along the way. The current system is a little cumbersome in my opinion, and I just don't like the results output (Of course the output from my system was perfect ) but it does solve a great many problems. I think we are at a point to where if we set up a LAN at an event with one node for timing, one for registration, one for scoring/printing it could be a great system, but something like that usually falls on its face when the one or two people who have taken the time to really get to know the system are out of town. I have just always avoided getting to know the current system for some reason, but I am sure everyone has been at an event where we had to hold up the event because we had a databse problem that nobody except Chad understood, and he ran to McDOnalds or something to grab lunch.

Make suggestions after/between events. Comming to the meetings are great times to do this, but follow it up in writing with an email to Curtis or whoever. Don't go shouting out ideas in the middle of a momentary crisis at an event. When those happen extra ideas are usually more of a distraction to the people trying to solve the problems.

Accept that there are times that there are problems that you may not see. Often it seems like everyone is standing around BS'ing, but there may be a problem in the timing truck and they are just pushing buttngs getting it all ready. Just be patient. I know it is hard when it is 20 degrees outside, or 100 degrees, or it is looking like it is going to start raining and you want to get this next run in just before it rains, or whatever..... Trust me when I say that when it looks like nothing is happening.... there is a problem that is being corrected somewhere. Sometimes it is Chad has not gotten back from lunch, or there is an entry card that is lost and must be found before the timing truck confusion starts. Just be patient. The more uptight you get about it the worse the next run is going to be.