Roanoke Course Design

[BFisch06]

Anyone who attended the July 10 event in Roanoke was met with a disaster of a course. That was my fault, and I accept the blame that comes with failing to uphold the responsibility I accepted. I'm truly sorry it grew into the monstrous mess it was. There's a lot of things I think I do well within the club - organization, safety concerns, trailer maintenance - but course design doesn't seem to be one of them.

This was my second course design and I obviously need more direction & experience in this area. Various board members are sifting through data but suffice it to say the course was a failure. The generally-accepted non-mechanical DNF percentage is 5% on the first run and 1% on subsequent runs. My course had 46.4% on the first run alone. It didn't help matters that I eliminated a portion of the course very late in the morning. As a local Roanoker I'm happy Berglund decided to reline a good portion of the parking lot, but the new bright white lines meant flour lines failed to stand out and assist participants. I focused on bringing something new to Roanoke while maintaining a flowing course. I did NOT focus on the visual part of the course, and I realized it way too late.

I'm looking on the bright side: It was a single event and I'd rather be discussing course design versus injury to a participant or spectator.

Onward to Danville!

TL;DR - The course was a mess and I'm sorry

[diggles240]

Brad,

I would like to add my perspective to your post.

The layout itself was nice, but challenging, and a good flow could be achieved by drivers not getting lost on course - which I put down to the visual challenges.

I believe a similar course could be designed less the visual challenges. But, I do appreciate your initiative to bring something new to, what is definitely a challenging and 'tight' lot.

We all appreciate your dedication to organization, safety concerns, trailer maintenance and more. Your dedication to do whatever is need at each event is extremely valuable to all involved.

Also, I second your statement regarding the discussion of course design versus injury to a participant or spectator.

Kevin

[EcoRacerD17]

Hey Brad,

Don't be too hard on yourself! Granted I didn't drive the event, but watching participants for the last few hours, the course seemed to have a nice linear flow while making the most out of the smaller size lot. Technical course yes, but I would disagree that it was a bad course; it's kind of like when I started studying stats. Once you study it a bit more and have some experienced instruction, it all makes beautiful sense. To be honest, I really wish I had brought my miata down, as I think it would've done great with your course layout! Looking forward to seeing the next course you design, feel free to make it technical! Perhaps (if possible) we could schedule two novice walks next time to make sure everyone's on the same page!

[ndexengineer]

I don't think any apologies are warranted here.

Consider the facts:
1) Noone got hurt by the course design
2) Noone's property was hurt by the course design.

None of the issues that challenged the event were down to course design. And remember, there were 17 (!) novices that showed up.

I've been watching an increased number of FMod videos lately, and I think a large number of the courses that our region runs could use the occasional challenge. It seems like a lot of the regions to our west are running crazy multiple switchbacks and crossovers. Yes, it can make the logistics of the event more difficult and a longer day, but honestly I liked the layout. It was a challenge, and I believe it made me a better driver.

As for changing the last portion of the course at the last minute; It was a very minor change; It's not like every single cone had to be picked up. It was like, maybe 4% of all of the cones out there, and they were deleted rather than moved.

I'd say the course design was a success. My hesitance to put a full autoX setup on the Red Devil (understeer at AutoX speeds), in addition to these vapor lock issues I can't seem to recreate on my "test track", and locking my keys inside my own trailer for the 2nd time, and missing out on a half of a second from FTD is called a failure

PS: Thanks for the Hacksaw.