Challenge Thoughts

AngryCorvair wrote: in '06 i ran my nearly-stock probe GT. since Danny Shields won many national events with his underskin-twin MX6, i thought it would be great to get him in the car. alas, he had back surgery shortly before the challenge and wasn't driving. so i had a non-Alan pro take 3 runs before having a staffer make a run. on my last run, someone pointed to Alan and said "get that guy to drive it". on his only run in the car, he went 0.8 seconds faster than the non-Alan pro, and moved me up several places on the board. later that night, while having a beer with Alan, i asked if that was a max-effort run, and he said "nah, there was another half-second out there. i never go 100% on my first run in a car." so if the stig dispenser is loaded with Alans, i can dig it. otherwise, i'll just wait my turn.

Unrelated: What class was Shields running that MX6 in?

GStock. Won nats by just changing 4 things. LF tire, RF tire, RR tire, LR tire.

Per Schroeder wrote: I'm more liking the idea of having a line for cars that need a driver, and then having a place for the drivers to stand. You don't pick the driver---you get the luck of the draw as to who is standing there. If I could get them all to wear tinted visors, ala TG's Stig, it would work better. Essentially, we need to build a "Stig Dispenser" Per

Why am I imagining the furniture cart dispenser at Ikea? Only it dispenses Stigs, not carts.

That was the image I was going for as well.

I'm picturing a PEZ dispenser loaded with Stigs. Stacked flat they take up less room.

Yea, if it was IKEA, they'd just give you a E36 M3ty little allen key.

Re: Pro Drivers.

Why not a Round Robin style? Rotate each pro driver in sequence, you get the next one up regardless who it is. He may be slower than your first choice, but he's faster than you!

That's what I was suggesting. You don't pick the PEZ that comes out of the dispenser...

Why not require that all cars running have two laps by a pro and three laps by a team member, best time counts towards the results. This way, there's no whining one way or another about pro drivers and the advantages they have.

how about a wheel "O" Pro's? you spin the wheel which has the actual pro drivers velcro'd to the board and where it stops is the driver you get

and if the pro hits a cone you should get to smack them around a little, maybe 1 cone = face slap, 2 cones = wedgie and so on

Pat wrote: Why not require that all cars running have two laps by a pro and three laps by a team member, best time counts towards the results. This way, there's no whining one way or another about pro drivers and the advantages they have.

I would actually rather NOT have a pro drive my car. At least not during the event. After, if it survived, that would be awesome, to get some feedback on what i could change that wouldn't be so challenge budget friendly.

Get rid of the pro drivers altogether and learn to drive your own car!!

Did someone say they needed a Stig dispenser?

Higher res version here: http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/4220/stigdispenser.jpg

In reply to Derick Freese:

That cuts into valuable painting time.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

Pat wrote: Why not require that all cars running have two laps by a pro and three laps by a team member, best time counts towards the results. This way, there's no whining one way or another about pro drivers and the advantages they have.

I would actually rather NOT have a pro drive my car. At least not during the event. After, if it survived, that would be awesome, to get some feedback on what i could change that wouldn't be so challenge budget friendly.

I've competed for 4 years and I've never had a pro drive my car. I'm just making the point that if the event is truly about the build and not about the driver, then the driver configuration (pros vs team members) should be the same. Any amount of practice, parade laps, scoring adjustments, etc. will still end up in a case of someone having issue with the set up.

Just make it the same for everyone..all pros, no pros or specified mix of pros/team member laps for each car.

In your case if you don't want the pro to drive your car and it set up to be three runs by a team member and two runs pro, then you get to run your three and that's it. If you don't want to drive your car and only want the pro to run, then your car gets two autox runs.

It's structured, and it's simple, and there is little opportunity to have the annual pros vs team drivers discussion.

But but but... i want 5 runs!

Zomby woof wrote: Some teams have professional mechanics, machinists, etc. on their team. See where I'm going with this? Some people win because they're better at certain things. That's how racing works. I like it that way.

this....

run what ya brung...including the driver

Not a rule change but y'all should give out name tags with space for your name and forum ID.

Per Schroeder wrote: So, here's a question—the pro drivers don't cost us a lot of money, yet they're pretty well regarded. Do we stop bringing them?

Please don't eliminate the pro drivers. Please!

SVreX wrote:

Per Schroeder wrote: So, here's a question—the pro drivers don't cost us a lot of money, yet they're pretty well regarded. Do we stop bringing them?

Please don't eliminate the pro drivers. Please!

Agreed. I can build a fast car, drive it in a straight line real fast and even handle some road course, but I have no business weaving through cones.

For what it's worth, Alan is a personal friend of mine, and he drove my first lap.

Per drove the next 3, and beat Alan's time.

Additionally, Per offered me a great deal more constructive feedback which was absolutely invaluable. Alan does the same thing, but he was pretty busy on Sat.

There is more than 1 good driver at the event.

If the selection of drivers becomes random (next in line, Stig dispenser), what happens on the second run?

Part of the opportunity of using the pros is having them drive it more than once.

If I take the random pro for the first lap, can I use him again next lap? Sounds messy.

I think it works pretty well as-is, with one exception. Alan was overloaded (and other drivers were under-worked).

This problem actually worked itself out a bit. I know the "Alan Line" was a little silly, but it sorted it all out a bit, and made some people (like me) decide there was no reason to wait in line for Alan.

How about reserving the right to GIVE an extra run to teams that choose NOT to use a particular driver? 4 runs if you use Alan, 5 if you don't (at the sole discretion of GRM).

SVreX wrote: Please don't eliminate the pro drivers. Please!

I agree. Heck if they do that then I'll just grow my "team" by one and bring my own ringer, I know a few that could handle it. But I'm a lousy driver and I know it. Having built the car my mind is always too focused on the "what's that noise", "why does it feel that way", "what if I break....?" Even in local autox I have a kid who drove my cars for me, because he is willing to drive anything like he stole it, he doesnt worry about what will break, what that sound was, or anything, he just drives. I cannot detach myself like that and appreciate the skills of those who can.

SVreX wrote: For what it's worth, Alan is a personal friend of mine, and he drove my first lap. Per drove the next 3, and beat Alan's time. Additionally, Per offered me a great deal more constructive feedback which was absolutely invaluable. Alan does the same thing, but he was pretty busy on Sat. There is more than 1 good driver at the event.

I'm surprised Alan came back after we thrust the Wartburg upon him. After his first run we asked if he wanted any suspension changes or other adjustments and he said, get me a rudder because this car doesnt roll, it lists. Sigh...swaybars weren't in the budget.

Please don't make me drive my own car-I have only done one autocross and it was at the challenge. I got lost.

MrJoshua wrote: Please don't make me drive my own car-I have only done one autocross and it was at the challenge. I got lost.

If it does come to that, we'll execute on our own ringer plan!