yes, many, many thanks to everyone who was involved in putting this on! I know it must have been tough being outside for so long today but we all appreciate it
Huge props for all the workers and event coordinators. I white knuckled the whole way to elk river, but I had a huge smile on my face the entire time:biggrin:. It was nice to not worry about a clock and not be afraid to try new techniques that could be otherwise costly in an actual rally-x event. I learned a lot!!! BIG THANKS!!!!!
Enough with the innuendo, children. :biggrin: But anyway, a big thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. I had a blast taking pics. And along those lines, everyone did a great job of tossing snow around for me at the pin (the one place I could take decent pics without icing my lens). I'll start uploading pics later tonight, and get a link posted tomorrow. Fighting the cold, wind, and ice, I only took 408 pics, less than half my usual amount for an all-day event, so I'm slightly disappointed in that, but it means you guys'll be getting them much quicker.
Thank you Mark Holden for all of your efforts to make today possible. You did an awesome job! Having not driven at a RallyCross since 2006, I had a lot to learn! It took me a while.....ok ok....a long time to unlearn and retrain myself. I felt like I was just sucking it up. Mark U thought something was wrong with me because I looked all crabbylike when I got out of the car each time. It was frustration. But, I really hit the first run of the long course. It made the day worthwhile. Thanks Brent, Mark, and Kevin for instructing. You guys did great! Thanks to everyone else who stood out in the cold so that we could play in our cars. Thanks to Eric Dahl who drove all the way up from New Prague to do tech for us! Thank you to everyone who came out and drove at this event. Given the weather conditions, it is impressive that EVERYONE who preregistered made it. I am sure I am forgetting someone...but Thank you to everyone.
thanks to all the ppl that where there giving me some pointers, i helped me a lot. i feel that i had improved greatly through out the day, even tho this was my first event! emily, ill take the cupcakes and it is good to see some of my old G20 parts still running around!!
Yeah, I agree. I finally hit it good on the first of my runs on the long course. It all fit together, like pieces of a puzzle. beautiful!
even though it was snowy I managed to bring back a ton of grass that was frozen to the car. It looks pretty funny right now:biggrin:
Right here: http://www.mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29795 Way to be impatient, jeez, Montana. I normally don't get them up until Wednesday, so feel special.
I'm still recovering I need to extend a HUGE THANK YOU to the volunteers who helped out at this event. Kerry Freund, Mark Utecht, Brent Carlson, Kevin Beck, Sara, and the other people who I ether never got the chance to talk to or managed to forget their names. The conditions were miserable outside yesterday, and you all went above and beyond. Thanks to everyone who brought and shared food also, it was almost like a potluck in there for lunch. Also thanks for doing a good job of cleaning up. Thanks to everyone who loaded my car at the end of the day. I probably would have spent an extra hour if I'd had to do it alone, just because I'd gotten so stiff and tired and plain worn out. And I'd also like to commend all the participants for the sportsmanship they showed, and the responsible way they handled themselves. It made the load lighter for myself and the other volunteers. To those complaining about the pin turn, I'll tell you what I told boomer. I didn't put it there because it was easy, I put it there because it's hard, and something that takes practice to master. I messed up every time I ran it too, until I took one last run at it after clearing the course after everyone else was gone (picked up a bunch of little orange fragments). I took one last try and nailed it. Of course, nobody was there to see it I saw some real improvements in some drivers yesterday, so I think that at least to some degree, we accomplished what I set out to do.
I can't speak for everyone but I didn't mean to complain about the pin turn. Just voicing my frustrations at my struggles with it. It's not the turns fault that I ran out of skill to pull it off well:laugh:
ditto! I needed to work on the pin turn. I think Mark did a great job designing a course with a variety of elements.
That pin turn was difficult, but it was the best part of the day. I learned a lot. I was wondering if someone who uses left-foot braking could break down the footwork of a pin turn a bit more, specifically in the case where you are also downshifting. Either the Corcoran or Pease site this year had a pin turn where I was downshifting from second to first. Can someone give a sequence of events as to what your feet are doing in those corners? For me, I was having a difficult enough time at those events trying to get the car around the pin turn and double-clutch revmatch into first for the exit (I have to revmatch to get my car to go into first when it's moving...). If I try to left foot brake as well, I'm gonna just screw it up I'm sure. Thank you.
If you are needing a downshift in the same braking zone, don't LFB. However, in this instance, you can use the downshift as a weight transfer spike. Get the wheel turned, make your downshift and come off the clutch pedal abruptly. That will give a spike of weight transfer to the front that will help to induce the oversteer. It took me ~10 years to be able to switch feet on the brake pedal in a single braking zone without upsetting the car. That is a very advanced technique. I will be happy to discuss it with anyone that has mastered LFB already. Anyone....Bueller...Bueller
The pin turn at Corcoran was a direction-optional one (but best taken counter-clockwise) and responded well to trail-braking according to Brent, who was driving Amy's WRX. I was using a pendulum turn there, but that was in the Sentra, and before I was using LFB. The pin turn at this event, like the one at the previous Pease event, was really what I'd call a very tight keyhole, with a non-optional direction (but this time you got to see it both ways). I didn't drive the previous Pease one, except laying it out in my truck. Funny how the course I have the least idea how to drive when all is said and done, is one I created.
Sounds about right. A lot of idling, going nowhere, and a lot of time hard on the gas when you were moving. My g went though a fair amount of gas yesterday, and I only drove the course a handful of times at any speed.
I didn't use the left foot braking throughout the small course. however, it seemed I could only nail that course when we started with the straight section into the left 180 degree turn.The few runs I did well only happened when I kept the car under control and took the inside line throughout the corner. Upon exiting the corner I remained on the inside line. At the same time I used acceleration to upset the car, which started my pendulum action. First the rear end would snap towards the outside of the course, then back towards the inside, then one last time towards the outside edge. Even though this was happening I stayed on the inside line, which allowed the car to stay close to the center cones while drifting around them. I don't recall using the brakes at all throughout the pin turn. IIRC it was all modulating the throttle and steering input. I definitely didn't use the e-brake. I'm too scared to use that with my high mileage transmission
on the small course i could not get lfb to work for me at all - i would just instantly plow. i think it was a combo of not carrying enough speed, having really crappy tires, and not timing/applying the right amount of brake. on the longer course i had much better luck with lfb getting the car to initiate. in fact, i just did everything better on the longer course - pretty much nothing worked for me on the short one. I did have one sweet pin turn but held throttle for too long after the rotation was complete so i ended up eating a cone on the exit
The long course was fun in the morning, in the afternoon it started to get really fast, it was still fun but I was getting paranoid of breaking something on my car so I backed off. Once I backed off a bit though my driving went to crap and I was really sloppy and late on all the corners, it was really strange. Anyway, the whole lfb thing is new to me, I had never used it before sunday. So, it's something I'll try to practice and hopefully I can learn when it's appropriate and when another technique is better.
Dave you nailed the pin turn by the end of the day. I had the same problem as Carl all day on the south course. Touch the brakes and plow. When Mark took me for a couple laps it was surprising how loose he kept the car at all times. Through every run the car was oscillating back and forth constantly. Even on the straight Mark kept the car "upset" the whole time. His inputs were much more aggressive than I expected. He explained that on the very tight stuff you can't hold enough speed to throw the car around without being very aggressive and staying loose. I think my issue was that every time the car would get loose I tried to settle it back down. Then when it was time to throw it around I had to upset the car again and by the time I got it to rotate I had blown the pin turn and was playing out in the deep stuff. I think the big Cannon Falls course taught me smooth is fast but I forgot that some spots need to be driven hard to get the car to rotate.
dan, after watching your runs, i came to the conclusion that we drive very, very similar. i think our problem was the low speed control - we're used to having a touch more speed where the small inputs yield big outputs. on the super slick, slow stuff it took really exagerated inputs to get the car to perform - i wasn't used to that at all and was very hesitant to follow through. the one time i did really put in what felt like way too much steering, the car actually came around. at least now i know what stuff i need to focus on (everything :laugh
I think you're right Carl. Without the added speed it was very difficult for me to upset the car. I wish I would have taken advantage of the time a bit more by changing my inputs a lot more and experimenting with different lines. I seemed to get stuck in a rut and made the same mistakes over and over on that section. I think you are right about our driving styles being similar. I usually drive with a bit less tail out action but the way we went back and forth all year seems to show the similarities.
From what i figured out on the long course: With our cars, the only time we need to LFB is when we need to slow down a lot. It's no good through the normal twisties if you've already got the car unsettled. Because you and I can stay floored quite a lot, we can keep the car controllably unsettled more than the turboz, and as such need not work so hard. A long straight to a small corner, though, and LFB makes it so much easier to kick the tail out and avoid the dreaded plow. Try finding a bit of a straight, then place one cone out and try to hit it. If you steer straight into it, than tap the brake while still on the throttle, you get a super sweet driftoro right past it.
LOL. My indoor parking at work is heated and it looks like yesterday I left four huge piles of dirty snow/mud/grass. :laugh:
Along the lines of LFB, it does take a lot of seat time to even become marginally good at it. I would assume it's just as touchy on dirt as on tarmac if not more so, and it took me months to get it down in the Talon.
I learned to LFB by forcing myself to use it every day while driving. Even normal stoplights are a great way to get the feel of braking with the left foot. Stop and Go driving is a great way to practice fine motor skills with the left foot. Yes an auto is much easier at low speeds, but with a manual you can practice foot movements also. Just ease into it, and you'll get the hang of it. The only time I don't LFB on a RallyCross course is when I need to shift into 1st to power out of the turn, and then it's just to move over to the clutch and brake with the right foot.
