All runs on the same course, or minor course changes at midday?

[PedalFaster]

Historically, we've tried to make minor changes to the course at midday, so that the course we run in the afternoon is slightly different than the one we ran in the morning. The thinking behind this is to introduce a bit of variety and additional challenge from having to adapt to the changes.

While planning for this Saturday's event, it was pointed out that, because we're generally not able to re-walk the course, we're necessarily limited to making relatively small changes midday. This means that the morning and afternoon courses end up being fundamentally similar -- we're not really providing an experience analogous to a SCCA Championship Tour or SCCA Nationals, which feature very different and totally different courses, respectively.

Each person in the discussion had their own views and preferences, but collectively we realized that we didn't have a good idea of what the rest of the club prefers, thus this poll.

What do you all prefer? Identical courses in the morning or afternoon, or slightly different ones?

[94boosted]

Personally I like the change in the afternoon and would actually like to see it more pronounced, I'd also like to see 3 runs AM + 3 runs PM, any runs over & above those as fun runs only.

If you're fast time is on your 4th, 5th or 8th run that does you no favors for large US events.

When we ran events at YYC last year we often did have time after AM runs to do a course walk prior to PM runs. 

[MurrayPeterson]

I like the change of course midday, mostly because it allows the designer to make changes to elements that were awkward, or a bit too fast, or, well, whatever.

As for first three runs scoring, the software already does that.  All you have to do is ask to be added to the OPAX group at registration.  Or, it can be run to apply the 3 run limit to everyone.  Or a separate PAX scoring for OPAX. Club's choice.

[Wayne Dyck]

Current venues, along with venue time constraints, are not really conducive to mid day course changes with rewalks. We’re hard pressed as it is to get am / pm worker changeovers done with a short lunch break.

[Midnightsky]

I would say that on courses like YYC which easily allow for lunch time course adjustments and changes that we should continue doing so.  But as pointed out, some venues like Airdrie have such strict time constraints that making changes just isn't feasible.  Having a whole new course in the afternoon, as great as that would be, is seriously time consuming and requires lots of help to get it done efficiently.   At local events the majority of people will want more runs to get it right.  At YYC for example, having 4 runs morning and 4 runs afternoon with say a direction reversal in the afternoon is really good balance.  The people who are wanting a "new" course for the afternoon to help mimic national style events gain that exposure and experience while still retaining 4 runs for newbies and less experienced folks.  The small percentage of people wanting only 3 runs morning/afternoon I would suggest taking your talent and experience for your 4th run in a completely different car as a DNF run.  Hop into a rookies car or someone in the mid field and show them some better lines and smoother transitions.  Alternatively, we could do 3 runs morning/afternoon with fun runs at the end but with some kind of twist, old school Lemans start? A quick but massive variation of the existing course?  Ultimately tho I think 4 runs morning/afternoon is the best option for a local event setting.

[Reijo]

Minor changes can be done quickly and can make huge differences without course walks - ala SoloPro, Evo, and RASE schools.

You can do it if you want to.