Six CDC Autocrosses at Summit Point in 2009

[echan]

We have secured the following dates at Summit Point's New Autocross Site (Triple Skid Pad). The dates are as follows:

Saturday April 18th
Saturday May 9th
Saturday June 13th
Saturday July 18th
Saturday September 19th
Saturday October 17th

Because the lot is much more expensive than our normal lots, we may have to charge a little more for entry fees (like $30 or $35), but should be able to offer 8 runs for each participant.

We will also be securing other locations and will post the information as it becomes available.

Ed

[saint_foo]

I've seen the lot and it's VERRRRRY nice! Fingers crossed for good weather no drama.

-Ed O'Donnell

[Wade Chamberlain]

Ed - that's fantastic news!

[Dan133]

Great news, Ed. Really looking forward to it!

[FredK]

Cool, can't wait.
Mr. January

[mla163]

this is going to be great

[FredK]

O.K now that I'm excited, is it to early too talk about payment with registration( I really mean run rain or shine , whatever, no overbooking), and maybe a timing display for those that can't hear over their exhaust noise?????
Mr. J FredK

Not to get too radical, but maybe a pay for the year program?

[echan]

O.K now that I'm excited, is it to early too talk about payment with registration( I really mean run rain or shine , whatever, no overbooking), and maybe a timing display for those that can't hear over their exhaust noise?????
Mr. J FredK

Not to get too radical, but maybe a pay for the year program?

Because the rental price is so expensive at Summit Point, we may have to do pre-payments with registrations. The problem with paying for the season is that we never know the exact number of events we end up holding in the season. Typically, we get several dates around the January/March time frame for event dates up thru the summer. However, we don't get additional dates for the Fall until the end of the Summer. We also have problems getting dates well in advance when we deal with the high schools. Even when we get dates, we've had problems each year of the lot owners cancelling on us for many reasons (construction equipment and gravel on the lot, crafts fair, rescheduling of ball game, football game, paving, etc.).

CDC has always tried to host as many events as possible so that our members have plenty of chances to participate (we typically hold more autox events and TNTs than any other local club). Having a season pass may make the number of events more restrictive.

What we really need is to have our own lot, so that we can hold events every weekend!

[AJ_RDR_Civic]

wow that's great we have a place like Summit to run at now. Longer drive for me but it's a nice drive. I'm extremely excited!

[Jim Harris]

Very cool. Count me in.

Kudos for this initiative, guys.

Jim
2008 Bullitt

[ProDarwin]

This is awesome!

Can we do a real grid now please?

[echan]

This is awesome!

Can we do a real grid now please?

Although BSR (Bill Scott Racing - Bill Scott as you may know owns Summit Point), has already held a drift event there, Jens Scott (Bill's son that pretty much runs Summit) is still working on the facility. Right now there is no parking lot for staging and only one access road (basically a driveway from the road to the Jefferson track). Constructing a parking lot may be too expensive and putting in another road at the other end is almost $200K. In addition, on one side of the track is a drop-off which could be bad news if a car flew off AND there is not yet a level area for the timing tent or spectators.

Jen should be addressing the landscaping challenges, but a lot for participants to change tires and grid may not happen right away, as well as a access road on the other side. So without an access road on the far side, a car would have to be sent out then loop back in towards the start.

This pattern makes it difficult to use the entire lot, while still running mutiple cars at the same time. If we run multiple cars at the same time we would have to not use the middle portion to ensure enough separation of the cars going out with the cars coming back towards the start. If we run one car at a time, we would not be able to have a large enough field to even pay for the lot. Both issues are challenging, but we have some creative ideas on how to address it.

However, it looks like we will have to grid the cars on the first skid pad and also use the first skid pad to allow the participants to park cars, change tires, etc, basically elminating a semi-circle of the first skid pad from an autocross course.

The other challenge is that our wireless timing system has a range of about 300 feet. If the timing tent is in the middle on the ridge (assuming it's levelled off for spectators), the distance to the start sensor would be about 700 feet. Joe Seward is now working on a new wireless system using WiFi. In fact, Ted, Joe and I went up to the facility last month to test the WiFi range and verify our current range. We found the WiFi range to be adequate to cover the entire lot.

So in 2009, we plan to be using a newly modified timing. Joe's plan to to also incorporate a bar-code system. One bar code for the driver and one bar code for the car. A worker/organizer will scan in the driver and car at the grid, and the information would be sent on the local area network. This new method should allow the participants to switch cars more easily and make it less important to keep all the timesheets in order as the grid is formed for each heat, reducing the time spent between each heat.

Ed

[NAautoxer]

sounds like an incredible year for advancements. that's awesome. i'm only 30 minutes or so from summit, so i will definately be attending no matter what. hopefully i'll be able to attend plenty more events.. and if you guys need help for the events at summit, let me know. i'll see what i can do.

[BugBomb]

I put together a simple comparison of some familiar venues.

[Dan133]

Are these diagrams close to scale? I wouldn't have thought that Harry Grove would be that big in comparison to Bowie.

[BugBomb]

They are pretty close. I used satellite images from google maps, scaled them in CAD according to the scale provided by google, and then traced the outline of the lot. It's not perfect, but it works for visualizing the lot sizes. Harry Grove is actually a decent amount of pavement for one lot. The light poles just limit what you can do with it.

[wrathe74]

All sweet news! Sorry I missed the early conversations...just got back from Vermont...it was cold!

So for now, for the Summit Point events, should we plan not bring family members/spectators due to space and liability concerns?

I know this is jumping the gun, but, any chance that we could get Summit Point to hold a "Local Club Shoot-out" event coordinated with a few clubs from around the area - maybe toward end-of-season?


The new timing/barcode system sounds exciting! Tons of possibilities to include that into automatic website updates, driver/car profiles, and an online registration payment system.

[Jim Harris]

One possible solution to the space constraint at Summit.....

Use the Autocrossers Incorporated event format, where drivers sign up for either morning or afternoon heats--thus having half the field on site at any given time (rather than the whole field in the AM and most of it after lunch).

Drivers would either run/work in the AM (heats 1 and 2) or run/work in the PM (heats 3 and 4). Drivers would also drive all runs at once (however many) rather than split them between AM and PM.

Just a thought....Trying to be helpful here.

Jim
2008 Bullitt

[Beepbeep]

Just found out about this and it is a very exciting news indeed. Can't wait already, I will be attending as much as I could for sure.

Kodos to you Ed and your team.


P.s. if you need extra hand with anything, please don't hesitate to ask.

[Dan133]

Wow! The track at Summit is HUGE! That will be amazing. And no light poles to dodge...

[Jim Harris]

Woody Hair of BMW Club fame provides this video of a recent test session. It's wet, but you can see the possibilities:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyl5vQZS5YA

Enjoy,

Jim
2008 Bullitt

[mla163]

cool, that run was about 1:15 all second gear.

[DrSeuss]

Maybe I'm a pessimist but 1:15 runs with 1 car at a time does not sounds like a lot of fun. If you have any sort of crossover, I imagine it's going to be hard to run multiple cars.

[FredK]

It was wet.

[Tedzilla]

I was there Sat morning for a couple of hours before BMWCCA got there. It was wet, just above freezing and very dirty. There's a lot of work that needs to be done. It's not ready for autocross but it should be by April 18th.

Ted