David 2

I have too little experience in AX to give that task proper justice on my own and if doing something like this isn't a steering committee priority I'd be wasting their time and my time. Though, if the steering committee is interested in something like this they could call for an ad-hoc committee to get a few like minded participants to work up a recomendation to the steering committe, as you suggested. I'd be happy to be on that ad-hoc committee. Also, there may be other policies from the National SCCA on safety that prohibit chapters from developing their own safety protocols as there may be effects on liability and insurance issues. Or, National may already have a policy prepared. I am not privy to this information. To the point you make on me volunteering my time so willingly..... As is your time, my time is a very precious commodity. Safety is, however, very important and keeping quiet about it on a forum does not serve our chapter well. I did not write my comments with the implied expectation that "others" should use their time to take up the task. I'll leave the volunteering time comment at that.

The new concept recently started of having corner captains is a good start. For safety sake and scoring effectiveness, I think each corner captain should give a 2 minute run-down to their workers each time a group starts. And, that run-down should be standardized with the corner captain having a print-out of what they need to go over with their workers. For instance, I think the holding the cone over the head when a cone is going to count as a penalty and the clear horizontal wave of the hands when it is not needs to be drilled into people's heads. More than once when I've been on the radio I have to call out to a worker and ask them if it's a penalty as I don't want to "assume" either way. And, that distraction/interaction takes our attention off the next car that is coming our way. That can be usafe to the workers on the course and unsafe to drivers as we can be late on a redflag, etc. And, there needs to be a red flag protocol as part of that 2 minute rundown where the flag must be in someones hands at all times and unfurled and ready. We had an issue with this at the AX school where there was need for a redflag and nobody was holding it. That could have turned out poorly. We do NOT need a injury/accident out there from laziness/forgetfullness or lack of having a procedure that is done before each group starts. This can be dangerous business if practices to make is safe are not followed.

What a great event AZsolo just held for the autocross school! A big thank you is owed to Kei and all of the instructors and volunteers who gave up their Saturday to teach us up and comers and novices how to be better drivers. And, I owe a an extra thank you to Mark Shrivastava and Brian Peters who gave me great instruction today. And, while I wasn't able to put what you told me today into practice during the school event, I'll do my best to put those pearls of wisdom into practice soon. THANK YOU ALL.

I've gone both routes of using both Longacre alignment plates and a professional alignment. Regarding the plates, I agree with Scott. The algnment plates are all roughly the same. I bought Longacre to do the "buy the best and buy it once" routine as there has been too many times in my life when I've bought a cheap tool/part only to have to buy the good one later. With the alignement plates, I don't see how the less expensive ones will give you different satisfaction from the more expensive ones. Though, do check to confirm your tape measures are 100% the same. I'd suggest measuring first, swap the tapes, and then measure a second time to confirm that you are not picking up a difference between the tape measures. You only need to do that trick once but it is well worth it. My tapes were about 1/32nd different. It was not enough to affect things much but enough to tell me it is worthwhile to confirm your tapes are the same since it could have been more. However, with the alignment plates I find that the plates will get you within 1/16th of what a professional with a good alignement rack will give you. And, that is close enough for fun stuff. Though, I have found that with rear toe, that 1/16th borders on having a discernable affect on AX performance. 1/8th inch will REALLY make the car perform differently. On the front, I don't notice much difference with up to 1/8th inch. More than that and it seems to affect the car. But, each car/driver will be different.

Fantastic video. First class!

Great photos! I particularly like the Dave Bahl ones when he is in opposite lock to control that slide.

That pic has a solo driver. But that Manaco race is wheel to wheel. Try that turn when you are doing battle with another driver.....bad things can happen, quickly. Those drivers have *alls of steel. Still, driving a race car, even a stock class one, no matter the course, it is tons of fun no matter what the devious course designer throws at us. Sometimes my car isn't the best for a course, but, that's ok. I just compete against my class on those occasions. I am really looking forward to the 15th to see the new course. Hopefully, maybe, I can tame my overdriving instincts..........but it isn't likely.

I'm game to try it!! Though, it doesn't sound like it would be my favorite element. I've seen some videos of people trying different ways to do that fast. There are a few theories but I suspect it depends on the car.

Looking at the course map, I don't think any novice will be wrong on the best way to drive the optional slalom I see on this course map. But, I suppose there is always that one person.... In the course designer's defense, i will say the exercise of learning the right and wrong way to drive a course is part of the process of becoming a better driver. I recall not too long ago another optional slalom and having some internal debate about the best way to run it. I considered the pros and cons for some time about the tradeoffs. With a little hindsight and some more experience I now know there was only one fast way to drive it. But, the process of thinking about it at that time was helpful. To a less experienced driver an optional slalom makes one think about what can be done with a car, learning what can't be done with a car (pretty important lesson to be learned), getting perspective on distance versus speed, opening up and asking questions of more experienced drivers, developing theories and testing them, and ultimately learning how to be a better driver. In my view, optional slaloms are a great learning experience for novice drivers. Will it allow for the novice to drive quick times, well, maybe not for some on that particular day, but it may well improve their times in the next month by learning and experiencing the lessons an optional slalom can teach.

For sure!! Thanks Mark

Not even .001 of a second? 🤔 It can't be my driving!

I guess I should have picked up the phone. I looked on their website and didn't see anything about it. Thanks Scott.

So I intend to get a set of AX only tires and wheels that will never hit a city street. And, since my car (GR86) doesn't have a ton of HP, I thought I'd try and give it a little help with lighter tires. To do this, I am looking to find a tire shop that still shaves tires to remove several pounds of rotating mass per corner. Does anyone know of a shop that does tire shaving/truing?

That is a dream layout for getting in some slalom practice. Looks like a really fun track. I'm getting excited already!

Nice......... I've never seen one so clean.

Discount Tire will price match to pretty much anyone. They priced matched on tires for my Jeep that I could buy from Walmart online for about 20% less than Discount Tires normal prices. And, there was no way I was having Walmart mount my tires so it was a win-win. That being said, Discount will not pinch wide tires onto skinny wheels more than the tire MFR's recommended minimum wheel width.....for those of us who like to do that.

Sounds perfectly reasonable. They need to allocate their resources (labor being one of them) in the most efficient manner. And, yet they still give us SCCA a preference. Honestly, I was a little suprised they were mounting my Tire Rack bought tires for $25/each.

It's a good day for racing and drivers in Phoenix. I attended one of their 3 day courses this last spring. They don't hold you back and let you use the car to it's fullest (though, they did say that if I turn the nannies off their insurance no longer covers me...... but it was worth it!). Spending several days with one of their manual trans 700 HP Challenger wide bodies on their AX track and road course was a great experience. I learned a lot. This is the one I got to play with.

Thank you. AMP it is!

I do not.

I don't know of additional sites that have not been previously mentioned in the meeting such as : "Old Bondurant is $5500 per day, WHP is $6500 per day". I was suggesting that since there is a budget surplus and since we would possibly be space limited for the national event, if that space limitation occurs, maybe that budget surplus could be used to rent one of the larger/more expensive sites for that unique event. Such sites are too expensive for regular seasonal events but a national event may justify the additional expense. In case they have been overlooked previously, two potential sites are Phoenix Raceway and the Arizona State Fairgrounds. Both have sizeable parking lots that appear to be relatively free of light poles. Though, I'm sure those have been previously considered. There is also the Phoenix Municipal Stadium that rents a part of their parking lot out to a driving school. So, they are at least somewhat open to the concept. Lastly, Westworld?

I was at the meeting but had to leave before the National Tour topic came up for discussion. Is the plan to have a National Tour event in Phoenix on February Feb 23, 24, and 25? And, would that event have a EVO Phase 1/2 school associated with it? Another idea since we have a budget surplus and potentially a capacity issue for a national event, maybe we use excess funds to rent a larger facility for that larger event if AMP can't give a waiver for the attendance cap.

You asked Scott who had the issue. But, for me it worked in Windows 11 running an Edge browser and it worked without issue.

Scott, when I signed up, the website took me directly to PayPal to pay just like last month. It was from my PC. It worked just as you described as the normal process. I did not have to add a new PayPal app. That was about 7:05 pm last night.

Time for Craigslist or cars.com. No need to just give it away.