WOSCA June 29th Organizers report.

[Marsh]

I would like to thank everyone that attend today for the great event. We had just the right amount of volunteers for course marshalling and I don't think one WOSCA member missed their run slot. Fortunately the rain held off until the end, so 5 runs plus 30 minutes of fun runs in the dry.

Just to ease some concern, the print outs we were displaying did not show the correct fastest time for most people. This is due to a software problem that we solved half way through the event (thus only runs in the last half of the day got counted as fastest). But don't worry that software has nothing to do with WOSCA scoring. Excel pulls the raw run times out of the timing data base, then the WOSCA results are calculated in Excel.

Results will be e-mailed to me shortly and I should have them up around sunset.

Several people were asking about the camera man that was present. He is an independant producer with Global. He had heard about us through a friend (that is a neighbor of a member) and decided to come check out the event. He shot some mixed footage that he will use to pitch the idea to his producer, and plans to come back on July 6th for the regional. I don't know what the plans are, but I should be hearing from him this week and will fill everyone in when I know more.

As for marshaling: We tried something different this time as an experiment. We've been looking for a way to encourage more volunteers without forcing it and this occured to me on Friday night (after going for way too long without sleep). It seemed to work very well. So, for those that weren't there, her is how marshaling will work for the regional. Timing permitting fun runs are $1 each. However, if you do at least one marshaling stint then, for you, fun runs are free! This seemed just the right amount of motivation to get the extra 5 or 6 marshals we needed to keep things flowing. Thanks again to those people that helped out this was by far the easiest event to run this year.... Sorry about starting late, that was my fault.

Oh, and one last note: The display is back to it's designer for some fine tuning, it should be working again for next week (with a new black background and a sun shade). For some bizzare reason (that we think is software related) it would not display new times and would show one time for several runs. :confused: Oh well that's why we keep an electrical engineer in the club! ;)

[Suzie]

Thanks, Marsh - I had a great time as always!

I'd say I'm looking forward to seeing the results posted but, well, when times are as bad as mine, there's no rush :p

Suzie

[superdave]

Originally posted by Marsh

Oh, and one last note: The display is back to it's designer for some fine tuning, it should be working again for next week (with a new black background and a sun shade). For some bizzare reason (that we think is software related) it would not display new times and would show one time for several runs. :confused: Oh well that's why we keep an electrical engineer in the club! ;)

I knew when I got into the stop box that time was wrong. Down to a 43.3 (or something) form a 46.4 the previous run...:p

That sun shade and black background will help. The only time I could read my times all day was the last run... when the time showed 43.3 for several people ;)

BTW I loved the course today. I wasn't running that fast but it was fun anyway!

[Tony Kloosterma]

Marsh the event today was great as usual.
the course was very good and I hope you don't tighten it up too much. 40 second runs were good and I think that by starting the second guy after the first has gone through the choice box (I don't know what the real term for that is?) would speed things up quite a bit. As it was we had 5 runs in by 340 after a late start.
It was real nice to have a wide open slalom for a change but I did notice that a lot of guys got caught up on the last gate as it was a good 8 feet shorter.

For those of you who doubted Marshs comments about the number of people to run this event, there were 3 marshalling posts a start box person and someone on the computor. No one needed at the finish as it was plenty wide enough with enough room to go through on either side.

Should be a great event next weekend.

Tony

[JAYh]

It was real nice to have a wide open slalom for a change but I did notice that a lot of guys got caught up on the last gate as it was a good 8 feet shorter.

Oh, is that why I kept hitting the bloody thing then?

- J

[Marsh]

Results up. Sorry for the delay.
http://www.wosca.com/Event_Results/Summer-2003-Event-3-Results.htm

I'm aware of the "subaru mazda miata" typo. If you see any other's let me know.

[gatherer]

thanks for the "thinking" mans course Marsh,

having to decide whether going left or right for that optional section made for a very very interesting course walk ... it was tons of fun.

[mike_moss]

Great course!

All issues that I could think of (and even some I didn't) have been addressed/resolved already in this thread. I had a great time and it was one of the best WOSCA events put on so far (excluding the Winter Series, of course).

Thanks!

[Marsh]

Originally posted by gatherer
thanks for the "thinking" mans course Marsh,

having to decide whether going left or right for that optional section made for a very very interesting course walk ... it was tons of fun.

I don't think I'm going to use the option box any more in my courses. No matter what I try it's always obvious which direction is better, and I never catch anyone out trying the other direction. That one wasn't bad at 9:45, but then I tightened up the "thread the needle" gate because it was flat out on my test drive. Once I did that then suddenly there was no temptation at all to go left. It just never works out the way I want it to, so I'm giving up on option boxes.

[gatherer]

did you close your eyes alot ??:p I caught about 3 or 4 cars attempting left... while I will admit I stayed right there were a few cars going left (I think they entered that section too hot and couldn't turn the extra distance to enter the right side) I think it was a clever and interesting little quirk to have been added.

[JAYh]

Marsh, a small correction...
Renato was running a late-model Celica, not the Corolla GTS.

I liked the idea of the option box too, although I ended up going right the whole time also. If one way is slower that's not neccessarily a bad thing, adds some "think ahead" skill factor to the course. :D

- J

[Suzie]

Haha - I'm so indecisive that I'm always afraid the option boxes will make me stop dead while I think over ALL THE POSSIBLE positives and negatives about each way :p Because of this, I try to make the decision on the course walk and pretend there's only one option :)

Suzie

[Marsh]

Originally posted by JAYh
Marsh, a small correction...
Renato was running a late-model Celica, not the Corolla GTS.


Ooops, fixed. Fortunately both cars are the same class.

[ChrisM]

That was one of the best events I've ever attended... not that any others were bad... :)

I loved the course, nice and fast! My RS has tight gearing and I'm often caught in between 1st and 2nd gear and planning gear changes is tougher than finding the right lines.

I'm finally geting the hang of the infamous decreasing radius turns you guys put at the end of the lot, and it gives me the perfect amount of time to get back into 1st gear.

The last slalom pylon made for some very interesting entries into the stop box. On my fourth run I went in too hot and had to hit the brake... bad news when the wheel is turned, I can't believe I made it in the box without tagging a cone... The spinout's there were entertaining, especially the forester, and the 240sx (because I was the passenger :) )

I got to take the 240sx out on a fun run and the course was even more fun in that although less drifting would have given me a better time :)

Congats to WOSCA for a great event, see you at the regional.

[Gord]

Yes, I will echo other people's comments; Thanks to Marshal and the other WOSCA guys for a great event! Definitely the highlight of my weekend in the GTA.

My only complaint is the wicked sunburn I got. I gotta remember to put the goop on BEFORE I leave for the event, or I'm gonna forget. Damn redhead curse...

I was pleasantly surprised with how well the family hauler got around the course on the stock OEM EcoPlus tires. For a 360 treadwear rating and only 195 width, they didn't complain too loud moving 3400 lbs around in anger, and I wasn't at the very back either. Too bad I hit that cone on the last run (major brain fade), as it could have been an even better finish.

And I discovered something new: having power on a solo course is cool! I've never solo'd a car with more than 90 hp til now, and man do you ever get moving when the boost comes on! I could get used to this.

Hmmm, maybe I should get R's for this thing and run it instead. Joe would be proud. ;)

Thanks again for the opportunity for another "away" event.

-Gord