S.A.S.C.
Solo => Other Events => Topic started by: Reijo on July 10, 2015, 11:20:28 AM
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A number of locals and Edmonton folks are going to be down there.
Test 'n Tune and welcoming party are today, Day 1 of competition is tomorrow - Sat. July 11 and Day 2 of comp is Sunday, July 12.
Here's the info you need:
Entries:
http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/event/event.status/uidEvent/C061470F-D2BB-EAD4-D1901AFA98177A1C#.VZ_5q_lrzD4
General information, run order, supps, etc.:
http://www.scca.com/events/1967592-2015-tire-rack-packwood-champ-tour
Live/continuously updated results:
http://sololive.scca.com/
Live streaming video:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sccasolo
Cheers,
Reijo
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What a show. Looking not to be DFL. Wayne and Sean and I have a nicely filled class.
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What a show. Looking not to be DFL. Wayne and Sean and I have a nicely filled class.
Yeah, pretty cool stuff, eh? Words cannot convey the experience, you have to go down there to see it all and experience it to gather it all in. Great car preparation, great way they run the event (big learning experience even there!), and some pretty precise driving I'm sure you will see!
And, then there is an event with almost 1200 entries ... :)
However don't let it all get to you! They are all people and not all are great drivers ... plenty of novices etc. You have done well locally lately and I think you can run with the best of them or close to them ... just pretend it is you and course ... nothing else exists! :) And have fun!
Looking and expecting some good results from you all! You CAN do it!
Reijo
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runs @10 am
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Video is actually here:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/solo-nationals-west
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video is here
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/solo-nationals-west
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Quentin managed to pull out a good final run after coning his first two for a 4th place finish for Day 1 - good enough for the last trophy spot. 1st place is a scant 0.359 ahead of Quentin (55.593 vs 55.952).... so the first 4 places are 1/3 of a second apart! Is that close or what? Wayne is about 1.2 seconds behind the leader in 8th place. He can easily improve since there are only 10ths between him and 5th!
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Quite a few of our locals are running right now after the break for the course walk after the 2nd heat ... 3rd heat running.
SSR - Ryan Clark/Cam Withell
BS - Murray/Jo Peterson, Tom Kerns (Edmonton)
DM - Alan Rae in his Caterham
SS - Jim Withlaws (Edm)
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Well done guys :D
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Looks like the guys are in good position going into day two. Keep it up tomorrow!
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Some frustrating close running.
Ryan and Cam fighting cones. I believe my raw times fast enough for first as well... But cones.
Jim lost first in the final run of the group.
BS very intense as well. Murray and Tom in a fight.
Good fun course though. If I can move up one spot tomorrow I'll be overjoyed.
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I am a solid .6 seconds out of the trophies, which is a huge deficit in this crowd. The course today (and tomorrow) is not AP1 friendly -- I only hit vtec once, and I was going through an amazing amount of the course with my foot to the floor. On the plus side, the weather is wonderful, the course is a joy to drive, and the beer is really good :)
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I am a solid .6 seconds out of the trophies, which is a huge deficit in this crowd. The course today (and tomorrow) is not AP1 friendly -- I only hit vtec once, and I was going through an amazing amount of the course with my foot to the floor. On the plus side, the weather is wonderful, the course is a joy to drive, and the beer is really good :)
In other words, you are inbetween gears without vtec? Interesting. I have noticed over the last few years that it seems that the SCCA has "purposely" slowed/tightened solo courses which has resulted in this scenario. The AP1 has been rendered uncompetitive by these "tight" courses and played exactly into the hands of the AP2's and Miatas which would geared almost exactly for these speeds.
Apparently this course was designed by Roger "the real" Johnson but he could not make it so probably Karen Babb laid it out based on Roger's design. I have noted exactly the same thing happen with Karen's courses: They are slower now than they used to be, say, 10 years ago. I have not mentioned this before anywhere, but have been thinking that for many years now; that there has been a conscious effort to slow the courses down ... which, ironically enough, has rendered the AP1 ineffective. That was not the purpose, of course, but perhaps one unintended consequence. Mind you, even in STR trim where you can lower the VTEC, the AP1 still cannot keep up with the AP2's and Miatas. Yep, time to retire it. :)
Perhaps, if you see Karen around you can ask about this course design philosophy? Sometimes I wonder if they buckled under to pressure to lower speeds due to being "politically correct"? Anyway, if you have a chance ... Wish I was there ... :(
Anyway, in any case, it is a fun event and worthwhile doing!
Reijo
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Q just picked up a 3rd place trophy - well done Q!
The rest are about to run now ... the streaming video seems to be working better today ... just finishing the course walk after the 2nd heat and about to start running the 3rd heat (BS, SS, SSR, DM are the classes for us to look for for local content). Jim Daniels is announcing (DP - Oregon).
R
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Seems like a lot of DNF's and cones again today ... must be running hot into a tight spot or something?
Does one of you have a course map to post or bring back with you. I'm curious to see what Roger Johnson cooked up for Packwood. The commentary has been that it is a really different course to anything they have seen at Packwood before.
R
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Jeez....Jim W., Jo and Cam have all DNF'd their first runs today! Some spot is catching them out!
I'm sure that will be corrected for the next runs! :)
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After 2nd runs Ryan Clark jumped into the lead! One run to go!
R
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Looks like Ryan got it done! 1st place at the Packwood Tour! Congrats dude! :)
Seems like Cam may have pulled back a bit to get a final clean run and ended up in 4th place ... or maybe an error on-course? He can tell the story at some time.
R
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Way to go Ryan, awesome performance!
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DNF'ed 3 of 6 runs!!!! And drove the other 3 like one of my grandmothers (who are both dead).
Re-group in Astoria for 3 days, before Helena next weekend.
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Here's the course maps in case you are interested (for the Packwood Tour):
Thanks Q!
R
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In other words, you are inbetween gears without vtec? Interesting. I have noticed over the last few years that it seems that the SCCA has "purposely" slowed/tightened solo courses which has resulted in this scenario. The AP1 has been rendered uncompetitive by these "tight" courses and played exactly into the hands of the AP2's and Miatas which would geared almost exactly for these speeds.
Apparently this course was designed by Roger "the real" Johnson but he could not make it so probably Karen Babb laid it out based on Roger's design. I have noted exactly the same thing happen with Karen's courses: They are slower now than they used to be, say, 10 years ago. I have not mentioned this before anywhere, but have been thinking that for many years now; that there has been a conscious effort to slow the courses down ... which, ironically enough, has rendered the AP1 ineffective. That was not the purpose, of course, but perhaps one unintended consequence. Mind you, even in STR trim where you can lower the VTEC, the AP1 still cannot keep up with the AP2's and Miatas. Yep, time to retire it. :)
Perhaps, if you see Karen around you can ask about this course design philosophy? Sometimes I wonder if they buckled under to pressure to lower speeds due to being "politically correct"? Anyway, if you have a chance ... Wish I was there ... :(
I don't think it is intentional in any sense other than catering to the majority. If the courses get much faster, all the Miata's, etc. have to use 3rd gear multiple times, and of course, they complain. Since they are in the majority, it's no surprise that they win the argument over time. I do admit that I am tired of fighting to do anything with a car that is so ineffective. Today's course was all decreasing radius sweepers that sucked out all my speed, and then I didn't have the torque to pull out of them anywhere near as fast as a car with lower gearing. I could have driven a bit better today, but I don't think I was ever going to do better than 6th or 7th place (I slipped to 8th). I was quite happy with my driving both days, especially yesterday. Fat lot of good it did me :( Time to start shopping for a different car. Not a Corvette though; never a Corvette :)
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That's what we all say, but when 6 out of the top 25 pax rankings are the same car it's hard to sound anything but jealous and resentful.
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Yeah, it feels like the SCCA is trying to kill off all the other cars :(
I was thinking about course designs last night, And I wonder if the change is more than just a change in speed. Think about the course at the last Fort Macleod event. It was highly transitional in nature, which allowed the S2000 and Miata to shine compared to the Corvettes. In comparison, this weekend's courses were all sweepers, braking, and acceleration. Heck, even the one slalom was not much of a slalom.
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Murray if you decide to sell your S2000 can you let me know?
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^^^
LOL... You just got a whole truck load of guys howling.
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Well done guys! Way to represent Calgary :D
I'm hoping to make it to this event next year.
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I had a good time at this event, my first Tour event. I finished the first day in 2nd, almost 9/10ths behind first and only 2/10 lead over third. Yesterday I finished in third overall. It was not a bad day for me, but I DNF the first run missing a gate that a lot of people missed first run out. So I was overly cautious on my second run. My third I pushed much harder and picked up a lot of time, but then gave it all back in a couple of slides.
Like Murray said, the layouts were mostly big sweepers, with really only a single slalom section. Big open layout with lots of room to hang yourself. It really forced you to know your line and drive to it. I think Sunday's version favored the higher power cars that had a couple of long open sections to put down the power.
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Well done Jim :)
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^^^
LOL... You just got a whole truck load of guys howling.
I guess so; it is certainly a competitive car at our local events. It won't be all that soon though, since Jo and I need to try out a few cars. I am really looking forward to trying Terry's MX5, and we need to go test drive a Fiesta (races great, but we need to try it out on city streets).
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Not mocking the S2000.
This was the first tour I raced in, and I had a great time. Sad to say it, but I don't think the local venues allow for a similar experience. The courses were a blast! The whole thing was exciting. I even thought that working was a rush.
...I learned a little about driving too.
Definitely won't discourage anyone from trying it themselves in the future.
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I wouldn't personally describe the courses as just sweepers. No more really than other courses on other massive venues. If you are going to use the space up, you are going to have to turn. Obviously compared to our runway venue and postage stamp in red deer...well, there are some big turns.
The first day's 'slalom' was really only a 3 cone affair with mostly a crooked straight after but on day two I feel it was a genuine 5 cone slalom (arguably 6) with a super fast entry...not sure what others are seeing. There was also another 3 cone slalom, a fast lane change maneuver, and some pretty massive transitions at day one end/day two start so in general a typical well balanced course?
That said, looking at PAX results the event definitely seemed to favor race tires besides a few anomalies.
Day 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szyRs8opJ84
Day 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSqGimShR7s
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This is Cam's dirty run on day 1 that coulda/shoulda/woulda been first in class by .5sec and 7th on index for the day...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6a3hs_J_kI
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I wouldn't personally describe the courses as just sweepers. No more really than other courses on other massive venues. If you are going to use the space up, you are going to have to turn. Obviously compared to our runway venue and postage stamp in red deer...well, there are some big turns.
Sorry, my habit of exaggerating got the better of me. Basically, in my torque limited car, I spent almost all of the time between sweepers with the throttle mashed to the floor. So, from my point of view, it felt like sweepers connected by straights, and nothing else. It was fun to drive, but not rewarding in terms of results.
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I wonder if you could've dumped it into 1st and just rev the heck out of it into 2nd at each turn around? Obviously the shifting would've had to have been very quick etc.
I watched some other videos (Miata etc) and it seemed like they just kept turning the wheel with the throttle to the floor ... e.g. crooked straights but this certainly was not the case in the Z06 etc.
R
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I wonder if you could've dumped it into 1st and just rev the heck out of it into 2nd at each turn around? Obviously the shifting would've had to have been very quick etc.
I didn't think of it at the time, but in retrospect, I should have tried it. At least three of the sweepers were tight enough to allow 1st gear to be used.
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Here's the official results from the Tour:
http://cdn.growassets.net/user_files/scca/downloads/000/008/240/2015_Packwood_CT_Final_results.pdf?1436798790
R
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I had a chance to look at my data from Sunday. On my last run, going into the third big corner about 2/3 into the run I was 1.5 sec ahead of my previous run. I lost it all getting sloppy and loose on the last section. Pushing too hard.
Regarding the layout, it felt to me that I spent most of the time in the big sweepers. As Ryan said no doubt a simple consequence of a big site. The slaloms were all quick 3 cone dodges effectively, not the kind where you can get into a rhythm. Not a complaint, just an observation. The layouts being quite simple, I found the technical aspects to come from the elevations and bumps, not navigation.