What I learned at autocross today: Regional #2 - St. Lac

[AlienDNA]

1) Four hours of sleep is not enough.

2) The best laid plans of mice and… My plan for domination of CS this year did not account for Steven Tong showing up in a Miata.:eek:

3) Picton is probably my favorite stop on the regional tour. In fact, I’m looking for a house out there so I can go to all the St. Lac events. Great weather, great lot (even if it does eat tires), great course, great logistics – great job!

4) If you can’t seem to seat your streets on the hub properly, check to see if the centering ring from your race wheel is still on the hub.:rolleyes:

5) Subway kicks ass for lunch.

6) I did learn from my first “What I learned…” post and stopped myself before putting my Pirellis on directionally backwards.

7) Pitting on grass between the porta-johns and the start line puts you close to everything on a soothingly soft carpet – it’s like autocrossing in your living room!

8) You don’t need a motorsport club card to participate in regionals – if you drive a Lincoln, your yacht club card will do.;)

9) Autocrossing a lowered Subaru Forrester is Andy Kaufman:cool:. Autocrossing a Pontiac Vibe is just Andy Dick.:p

10) Attention Tony George! Nobody gives a crap about the Indy 500 anymore!

[Suzie]

11) Even if one drinks enough to ensure regular trips to the portapotties, one still gets dehydrated on sunny autox days

12) St Lac provides good porta potties - even with hand-washing water!

13) Joe T seems to REALLY like having a camera crew follow him :)

14) The tanney who's not a tranny has a very heavy foot (actually learned on the way home)

15) Cheap, small town hotels really are both of those things, but work out just fine just the same.

Suzie

[AlienDNA]

Originally posted by Suzie
13) Joe T seems to REALLY like having a camera crew follow him :)


Did he hum his "theme music" for you too?:rolleyes: :D

(I hear he's trying to get SPDA to pay to record a laugh track, too)

[holliko]

2) The best laid plans of mice and?E My plan for domination of CS this year did not account for Steven Tong showing up in a Miata

I guess your lucky I wasn't there either it would have made you feel even worse finshing no better than third......hehehehe :p :p

Congrats Steven on your Miata see you guys next weekend....

Robert
72 CS Black Miata

[AlienDNA]

Originally posted by holliko
2) The best laid plans of mice and?E My plan for domination of CS this year did not account for Steven Tong showing up in a Miata

I guess your lucky I wasn't there either it would have made you feel even worse finshing no better than third......hehehehe :p :p


Yeah, I'm real scared of a guy sitting at home on his couch...:rolleyes:

[holliko]

Originally posted by AlienDNA
Yeah, I'm real scared of a guy sitting at home on his couch...:rolleyes:

sorry, i've been lounging.... Couldn't get out of vacation mode and at midnight when I finally decided to go I knew there wasn't a hope in hell of being sober enough to drive to Picton let alone AutoX.... Drinking and Driving hurts everyone.....
Robert

:cool:

How'd you finish????
Robert

[gatherer]

I learned that I can drive fast. I kept up witht he Best of them in H Stock .. Crongrats Simon and Mike...

The Third regional should see me in the top 3 at least. (Hopefully at the top but who knows)

[Piotrov]

I learned that if the car doesnt want to turn then use the hand brake ;)

[spoonie]

i learned that r-compounds are totally different to drive on— so i have to learn how to drive all over again.

[Wedge]

I learned the value of getting one good, fast, CLEAN run, BEFORE trying to push really hard!

[andrew1984]

i learned my street tires allowed me to lose 1st place by .004 seconds ;)


awesome event.

[Logan]

I learned that fun runs are for fun, and not for setting a personal FTD, that should be done during competing runs.

[ShaneG]

#1) I learned that the car won't rotate when you disconnect the rear sway bar.

I knew this going in...but in the heat of battle could not, for the life of me, understand why she dinna' wanna turn.

-remembered while packing the car...think I scared Tony K. when I yelled out "S#!t now it makes sense":D

#2) I learned that Marsh's race seat fit me real nice! I learned that his dash is real high...or maybe the lesson was that I am too short...nah! ...high dash:D

#3) I was looking forward to Eric's "What I learned at autocross today: " on the way home...these lists are addictive

#4) I love the sense of history I get from the trip to the picton airport :cool:

#5) my car is capable of doing the speed limit, and does not always have to be 10-20K over

#6) the big bridge over Hwy 49 only LOOKS like Evil Knevil's launch ramp. I am not so good with heights, so the first time I saw it I had to take an extra breath.

#7) I should have written this in reverse order!

[JoeT]

Fun event (as always) but:

#22) Turning the wheel of a land-barge from full lock left to full lock right, while crawling around a corner, is a workout.

#23) Power steering pumps do not work as fast as the driver want's to turn.

#24) No matter how many cars have driven on the track, picton airfields little gnomes always seem to put more there.

#25) Driving the course with a camera hanging outside the passenger window and a mic taped to the steering console is distracting.

I was amazed that even at the end of the day during the fun runs, there was still lots of debris on the track. Lots and lots.

Here's a little report for your viewing pleasure.

http://spda-online.ca/modules/news/article.php?storyid=21

Woohooo, pictures are online!!! Thanks to Navigator!!

Click below for a slideshow of all the pictures.
http://spda-online.ca/modules/xoopsgallery/slideshow.php?set_albumName=album40
:D

[Suzie]

Originally posted by ShaneG


#4) I love the sense of history I get from the trip to the picton airport :cool:

Of what era would you say those buildings are? I thought they were cool too :)


Originally posted by ShaneG


#6) the big bridge over Hwy 49 only LOOKS like Evil Knevil's launch ramp. I am not so good with heights, so the first time I saw it I had to take an extra breath.


That must be the bridge that I thought, until I got closer, was an open drawbridge! If I hadn't seen cars coming over it towards me, I would have been terrified to go over the summit, assuming there was nothing on the other side!!

Suzie

[Greg F]

Originally posted by Suzie

That must be the bridge that I thought, until I got closer, was an open drawbridge! If I hadn't seen cars coming over it towards me, I would have been terrified to go over the summit, assuming there was nothing on the other side!!

Suzie

Haha, I thought it was an open drawbridge too! It was FUN to go over it though. I wonder what the "scenic" route would have been like.

[Suzie]

I sort of slowly peeked over to make sure there REALLY was a bridge on the other side!

Suzie

[AlienDNA]

Originally posted by Greg F
Haha, I thought it was an open drawbridge too! It was FUN to go over it though. I wonder what the "scenic" route would have been like.

I've taken the scenic route back from New York. You should try it sometime - it's really scenic!

[blur]

Originally posted by Suzie
Of what era would you say those buildings are? I thought they were cool too :)


Suzie

The buildings are WWII era. It was one of the many training bases for airmen that were part of Canada's war effort.
It's used for movie sets now (I believe part of "Dieppe" was filmed there)

BTW, this weekend there is a huge motorcycle meet there with aerobatic jumping, supermotard races, show'n'shines, demo rides, blues concert etc.

[blur]

What I learned on Sunday was that when you're one of the event organizers and people have problems with the event, you should lock your car and keep it in sight or you may find it vandalized by cowardly characters with spray-lube cans.

BTW, If I find out who did it, they may discover it is hard to drive without kneecaps.

[spoonie]

that's awful to hear. was anything permanently damaged?

you'd think our small community was better than that :(

~spoonie

[J.C.]

You sure it wasn't something done by accident? I find it odd that someone would do that on purpouse in our comunity. :confused:



P.S. What possible problem could there have been with the event everything ran well?

[Marsh]

Originally posted by blur
What I learned on Sunday was that when you're one of the event organizers and people have problems with the event, you should lock your car and keep it in sight or you may find it vandalized by cowardly characters with spray-lube cans.

BTW, If I find out who did it, they may discover it is hard to drive without kneecaps.

Let me go on record now to say that although I had some big problems with the event, I would never stoop this low and if I hear anything about who did I'll pass it along.

[soloZ]

Originally posted by blur
The buildings are WWII era. It was one of the many training bases for airmen that were part of Canada's war effort.
It's used for movie sets now (I believe part of "Dieppe" was filmed there)

BTW, this weekend there is a huge motorcycle meet there with aerobatic jumping, supermotard races, show'n'shines, demo rides, blues concert etc.

Ah yes a friend in my ASEP class was telling me about this Bike thing.

Oh and I am extremely sorry to hear about your car I hope there isn't anything severly wrong with it, we are a close group(or should be) and we shouldn't have to worry about are cars when we are away from them. I wasn't there so I can't say how the event went but I really missed going there I love the drive and the scenary is second to non.

[blur]

Originally posted by J.C.
You sure it wasn't something done by accident? I find it odd that someone would do that on purpouse in our comunity. :confused:



P.S. What possible problem could there have been with the event everything ran well?


It's possible, but it didn't look like an accident, the passenger side of the car was pretty much covered with what looked like WD40-like goo sprayed over it. As the window was open it was also sprayed into the interior over the seats, door and headliner. Still stinks a bit but I don't think it'll stain the leather. It happened sometime between last run and fun runs. (I think)

There aren't any competitors that I know that I think would do this. I'm at a loss.
I know some people didn't like the course, but that's hardly a reason. Perhaps they just don't like Porsche's?:confused:

[Suzie]

Oh that really sucks! I hope it was someone who did it accidentally - I know I'm clumsy enough to do things like that, but I always 'fess up right away when I screw up! It would be even more horrible if someone really did that on purpose :( (And how could anyone NOT like Porsches?!?!?!)

Suzie

[J.C.]

I can't say I blame you for being upset as I would also be angry. Glad to hear its not a permanent thing and should all clean out. :(

[Greg F]

There were a few no-goods that showed up I think later in the day, but they left alone the cars at the far end. You were parked towards the action, correct? It seems likely to have been an accident.

[tanney]

Burl, like I said on Sunday, I can't see anyone in our fairly close knit community doing something like this.

If it was indeed done on purpose and the person is found out, you can guarantee that I will have some words (and give them some formal documents) with them. And they probably will not be competing at the regional level in Ontario again (at least in the next two years)!

Besides, the course wasn't that bad.......:o

Who was the car in front of you on the last run? Any chance they were ejecting fluids on the launch?

If anyone did witness this incident, please drop me an e-mail at solo2guy@sympatico.ca

[Logan]

I don't understand why people were having issues with the course? I thought it was great!

[blur]

Originally posted by tanney
Burl, like I said on Sunday, I can't see anyone in our fairly close knit community doing something like this.


Who was the car in front of you on the last run? Any chance they were ejecting fluids on the launch?

If anyone did witness this incident, please drop me an e-mail at solo2guy@sympatico.ca

Thanks Wes.
There isn't much chance of it being from the car in front of me unless it snuck up when I wasn't looking and sprayed stuff through the passenger window. Plus, the pattern on the drivers seat indicate nobody was sitting there.
Luckily it cleaned up so I'm not nearly as pissed as I was then.

[tanney]

Luckily it cleaned up so I'm not nearly as pissed as I was then.
I can definitely understand why you were pissed. I would be and I own a POS Honda, not a 911!

If you remember which vehicles were parked on that side of you, let me know and I can talk to them and see if they happened to notice anything (or did anything by mistake).

[AlienDNA]

Originally posted by Logan
I don't understand why people were having issues with the course? I thought it was great!

Ditto.