irish44j
irish44j UberDork
11/10/13 8:13 p.m.

I don't post many vids, but since there have been a good number of rallycross threads recently, and others have posted up some great vids of your own local venues, figured I'd put up the two courses we ran today in our season finale for anyone interested in seeing why you NEED to come out next season to WDCR if you can!

For those who haven't run at Summit Point before, it is (IMO) about as close as you can get to a stage rally "feel" in RallyCross, since it is on hardpack, mud, gravel, and lots of rocky surfaces, with trees nearby (though the course is configured to stay away from them), and more of an "established course" vice cones laid out in a field. Anyhow, thought some might enjoy and/or get some ideas. I think WDCR organizers have done a really good job this year with course setups and they've been fast and fun.

So here's our final courses. Morning we did the "loop of death" (a double-loop at one end) and PM was the course reversed, but without the loop.

If you punch these coordinates into Google Maps it will show the course (and our other 2 courses next to it): 39.236882,-77.966035 (the big loop is at the southermost end). Total course length today was approx. 1.4 miles :)

Also if you see anything that you think would be a great idea for future course setups, feel free to suggest!

http://youtu.be/m-LtVanQ3io

http://youtu.be/KJThIR1caeQ

aussiesmg
aussiesmg MegaDork
11/10/13 8:33 p.m.

Don't you dare to stop posting these videos up.

irish44j
irish44j UberDork
11/10/13 8:47 p.m.
aussiesmg wrote: Don't you dare to stop posting these videos up.

lol....well, the season is over, so you'll have to settle for vids of me hooning my WRX in the snow, if we get any

Jerry
Jerry Dork
11/11/13 7:07 a.m.

Every time you're near trees it seemed like it was during a straight anyway. Looks like a fun course!

Adrian_Thompson
Adrian_Thompson PowerDork
11/11/13 7:16 a.m.

That looks awesome. As someone who's never done this I'm impressed with the impression of speed in the dirt, faster than I expected.

NGTD
NGTD Dork
11/11/13 8:12 a.m.

That course looks like it holds up well.

The course I used to run at had a very sandy base so it rutted up very quickly. The deep ruts are hard on cars.

iceracer
iceracer UberDork
11/11/13 10:17 a.m.

Ice racing season is coming up before long.

irish44j
irish44j UberDork
11/11/13 3:26 p.m.
NGTD wrote: That course looks like it holds up well. The course I used to run at had a very sandy base so it rutted up very quickly. The deep ruts are hard on cars.

yeah, it actually gets VERY rocky later in the day. Like washboard. Old e30 dashboard felt like it was gonna rattle apart, haha.

We have the red clay here, so when its dry it packs down into bumpy near-asphalt on this course. There are 3 courses there, and they all have varying levels of loose and soft stuff.

Also, we do use grassy areas off the packed course, and it ruts pretty quickly - especially with 55-60 car fields running at 20-second intervals or so.

This one got pretty deep and was re-routed a few minutes later. Luckily we have a lot of property to work with so once a rut develops they're pretty good at making a change between runs.

 photo ADSCF8092.jpg

irish44j
irish44j UberDork
11/11/13 3:27 p.m.
iceracer wrote: Ice racing season is coming up before long.

If only it wasn't 400 miles of driving to get to the closest ones from here

fidelity101
fidelity101 Dork
11/12/13 7:49 a.m.
iceracer wrote: Ice racing season is coming up before long.

Just got me some new blizzaks to prepare!

TAParker
TAParker New Reader
11/13/13 11:24 a.m.

Those video's are awesome....thanks!!!

paranoid_android74
paranoid_android74 HalfDork
11/13/13 1:04 p.m.

Darn it, now I want a rally cross car! Talk about automotive ADD- I spent my work day day dreaming about building a vintage road racer!

Thanks for the videos!

Brett_Murphy
Brett_Murphy GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
11/13/13 2:55 p.m.

Wait. You change the course as runs are happening? Isn't that slightly unfair to the people who went through the ruts? Half of the fun of rallycross is picking your line as the course changes.

I love ruts, myself. It slows down everybody that doesn't have the ground clearance I do.

NGTD
NGTD Dork
11/13/13 3:45 p.m.
Brett_Murphy wrote: Wait. You change the course as runs are happening? Isn't that slightly unfair to the people who went through the ruts? Half of the fun of rallycross is picking your line as the course changes. I *love* ruts, myself. It slows down everybody that doesn't have the ground clearance I do.

I used to have an Outback with a skid plates, so ruts didn't worry me . . . . . . . . . . .

Until I wacked the back end and tore off the ENTIRE exhaust from the first cat back. Then I had a 3 1/2 hour drive home. Deaf and gassed when I got home.

NONACK
NONACK Reader
11/13/13 3:54 p.m.
Brett_Murphy wrote: Wait. You change the course as runs are happening? Isn't that slightly unfair to the people who went through the ruts? Half of the fun of rallycross is picking your line as the course changes.

We change it between runs unless it's REALLY dangerous, so everyone finishes run #2, and before the first car goes for run #3, the course is changed. It's fair and keeps things interesting.

irish44j
irish44j UberDork
11/13/13 4:33 p.m.
Brett_Murphy wrote: Wait. You change the course as runs are happening? Isn't that slightly unfair to the people who went through the ruts? Half of the fun of rallycross is picking your line as the course changes. I *love* ruts, myself. It slows down everybody that doesn't have the ground clearance I do.

^^ what Chris said above. Typically it's when everyone is on the same run, before the next run. They don't change courses often though. Usually we only get ruts in areas that are "pinched" by other features that require a narrow set of gates (thereby not allowing much of "picking a new line"). In the case of the one in the photo above, what you don't see is that the property owner had dug a 30-foot long ditch about 2 feet deep (not sure why, for drainage, electrical line, or whatever) that we had to make sure to keep the cars away from. So pretty much everyone was taking the same line and once the rut started there was literally no way to avoid it in what was basically a loose slalom (see my vid).

That rut was deep enough that the M4 imprezas and stock-height e30s running in PR were drilling their skids on them and due to the speeds there was a good chance of cars on non-rally tires debeading. Nobody wants that to happen so on occasion a course change will be made to avoid breaking cars. But again, that happens maybe once per event at best. The change in this case was just to move the entire section over about 3 feet, and it didn't have any noticeable effect on times.

(I'll note that I love ruts. I use them. But I have rally tires, lots of ground clearance, and a burly skidplate. Stuff the stock-class cars don't have, typically).

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