Have any input on the $2014 Challenge?

I'd go, I actually enjoy the road trip to FL, but this would be a much more convenient commute from DC. There's a nice outdoor Kart track at Summit Point. I may be making things up, but I have heard people talk about how it has been configured as an auto-x course.

Finnerty wrote: I'd go, I actually enjoy the road trip to FL, but this would be a much more convenient commute from DC. There's a nice outdoor Kart track at Summit Point. I may be making things up, but I have heard people talk about how it has been configured as an auto-x course.

indeed it has....I used to run in my WRX with BMWCCA there..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjOrNkIbIO4

Granted since this video was made they have added more bumpers, berms, and tire walls for karting that make it a bit more sketchy for cars.

Note all the squealing. Those are freshly-shaved RE01R's on the car. It's a very slippery surface there. They used to use it for drift practice.

oh also....if it rains, it doesn't drain well. And it's like ice on the karting surface when it's wet.

Having the event considerably closer to me is a good thing, from a personal standpoint, but cutting a few months off of my build-schedule is a bad thing.

But that's MY problem. Hopefully I can at least get the drive-train swap on Project Yellowcake done in time to at least make my first appearance. Then I can develop the car later for $2015.

Just to give everyone a quick update, Debbie and I are going up to Summit Point , Mason/Dixon Dragway, and the host hotel this week to do a little recon. We will report back in the next couple of weeks on our plans for the $2014 Challenge.

I would like to suggest that if you make a "4-point" roll bar free in budget (bolted or welded) you go ahead and make it "5-point" which includes the bar going from the area of the drivers left shoulder to the area on the floor near the drivers left foot. This makes the car NHRA legal to 10.0. NHRA inspections are where you fall to the whim of host track so the "free" roll bar allowed should meet their requirements.

Edit: this isn't trying to argue for "free" roll bars, I think they should be in budget, but if "free" roll bars is the decision...

irish44j wrote:

SVreX wrote:

irish44j wrote: Would be cool if rallycross could be integrated one of these years if GRMC moves to Summit long-term. And it just so happens that Summit is one of the best rallycross venues in the country, and can accomodate a LOT of cars on our 3 courses :D Adding rallycross to the tarmac events would make a REAL "Challenge." Because of the different setup requirements for a fast rallycross, autocross, track, and drag car it would be a true test of how good of an all-around car someone could build that could handle all of those aspects. Yeah, yeah, I'll go away now before the concours-lovers attack me.

The GRM staff made it clear this week that rally cross will not be considered for the Challenge. It's not their demographic, and it is way too small a market. Not gonna happen. Sorry.

Calm down there.....the thread asked for input. I provided some input. Which GRM is under no obligation to implement, think about, or even read If nobody brings up anything other than the status quo, there's no real point in having a discussion about anything. I know it's not tenable this year or next year or whenever. But who knows if it might be in 5 years from now or something. "Demographics" change and rallycross is growing in popularity in most regions....never say never.

While it's not officially part of the Challenge, if you happen to sign up and run the rallycross course over on the other side of the venue, drive over to the Shenandoah circuit, swap on your Hoosiers, lower your suspension and run the GRM$C autocross with a car still caked in mud, you might make yourself an interesting story.

Just puttin' that out there. I don't know if the concours judges would react positively or negatively to a muddy car, but I know how I'd vote if it were me with pad and pen.

Alan Cesar wrote:

irish44j wrote:

SVreX wrote:

irish44j wrote: Would be cool if rallycross could be integrated one of these years if GRMC moves to Summit long-term. And it just so happens that Summit is one of the best rallycross venues in the country, and can accomodate a LOT of cars on our 3 courses :D Adding rallycross to the tarmac events would make a REAL "Challenge." Because of the different setup requirements for a fast rallycross, autocross, track, and drag car it would be a true test of how good of an all-around car someone could build that could handle all of those aspects. Yeah, yeah, I'll go away now before the concours-lovers attack me.

The GRM staff made it clear this week that rally cross will not be considered for the Challenge. It's not their demographic, and it is way too small a market. Not gonna happen. Sorry.

Calm down there.....the thread asked for input. I provided some input. Which GRM is under no obligation to implement, think about, or even read If nobody brings up anything other than the status quo, there's no real point in having a discussion about anything. I know it's not tenable this year or next year or whenever. But who knows if it might be in 5 years from now or something. "Demographics" change and rallycross is growing in popularity in most regions....never say never.

While it's not officially part of the Challenge, if you happen to sign up and run the rallycross course over on the other side of the venue, drive over to the Shenandoah circuit, swap on your Hoosiers, lower your suspension and run the GRM$C autocross with a car still caked in mud, you might make yourself an interesting story. Just puttin' that out there. I don't know if the concours judges would react positively or negatively to a muddy car, but I know how I'd vote if it were me with pad and pen.

interesting idea. Though Summit would not like that at all probably. They don't like cars out on the rally-x course unless there's a water truck handy to keep dust down, since it's right next to the main straight on Summit Main...

oh, on a related note that is irrelevant but a funny coincidence: our other WDCR rallycross venue (which we tried out for the first time this year as a non-points event).......yeah, it's directly across the street from Mason/Dixon dragway. hehe....come to the drag strip all muddy too? :)

Hopefully, by this time, I can fix the oil leak on the Saturn and talk my daughter into going this year. As far as camping goes, I don't have a problem with it. My wife on the other hand is a different story, maybe we can do both? Hope everyone had a safe trip back, I'm going back to Chicago tomorrow, as always a great time.

Alan Cesar wrote:

irish44j wrote:

SVreX wrote:

irish44j wrote: Would be cool if rallycross could be integrated one of these years if GRMC moves to Summit long-term. And it just so happens that Summit is one of the best rallycross venues in the country, and can accomodate a LOT of cars on our 3 courses :D Adding rallycross to the tarmac events would make a REAL "Challenge." Because of the different setup requirements for a fast rallycross, autocross, track, and drag car it would be a true test of how good of an all-around car someone could build that could handle all of those aspects. Yeah, yeah, I'll go away now before the concours-lovers attack me.

The GRM staff made it clear this week that rally cross will not be considered for the Challenge. It's not their demographic, and it is way too small a market. Not gonna happen. Sorry.

Calm down there.....the thread asked for input. I provided some input. Which GRM is under no obligation to implement, think about, or even read If nobody brings up anything other than the status quo, there's no real point in having a discussion about anything. I know it's not tenable this year or next year or whenever. But who knows if it might be in 5 years from now or something. "Demographics" change and rallycross is growing in popularity in most regions....never say never.

While it's not officially part of the Challenge, if you happen to sign up and run the rallycross course over on the other side of the venue, drive over to the Shenandoah circuit, swap on your Hoosiers, lower your suspension and run the GRM$C autocross with a car still caked in mud, you might make yourself an interesting story. Just puttin' that out there. I don't know if the concours judges would react positively or negatively to a muddy car, but I know how I'd vote if it were me with pad and pen.

There will be a sanctioned rally cross event happening during the Hyperfest/GRM Challenge/NASA track event as well??

westsidetalon wrote:

Alan Cesar wrote:

irish44j wrote:

SVreX wrote:

irish44j wrote: Would be cool if rallycross could be integrated one of these years if GRMC moves to Summit long-term. And it just so happens that Summit is one of the best rallycross venues in the country, and can accomodate a LOT of cars on our 3 courses :D Adding rallycross to the tarmac events would make a REAL "Challenge." Because of the different setup requirements for a fast rallycross, autocross, track, and drag car it would be a true test of how good of an all-around car someone could build that could handle all of those aspects. Yeah, yeah, I'll go away now before the concours-lovers attack me.

The GRM staff made it clear this week that rally cross will not be considered for the Challenge. It's not their demographic, and it is way too small a market. Not gonna happen. Sorry.

Calm down there.....the thread asked for input. I provided some input. Which GRM is under no obligation to implement, think about, or even read If nobody brings up anything other than the status quo, there's no real point in having a discussion about anything. I know it's not tenable this year or next year or whenever. But who knows if it might be in 5 years from now or something. "Demographics" change and rallycross is growing in popularity in most regions....never say never.

While it's not officially part of the Challenge, if you happen to sign up and run the rallycross course over on the other side of the venue, drive over to the Shenandoah circuit, swap on your Hoosiers, lower your suspension and run the GRM$C autocross with a car still caked in mud, you might make yourself an interesting story. Just puttin' that out there. I don't know if the concours judges would react positively or negatively to a muddy car, but I know how I'd vote if it were me with pad and pen.

There will be a sanctioned rally cross event happening during the Hyperfest/GRM Challenge/NASA track event as well??

I don't think SCCA has one scheduled. WDCR never schedules rally-x's on days of nearby stage rallies, and Susquehanna Trail Rally is that weekend too. A lot of the people that rally-x with us either stage rally, crew at stage rally, or work the rally so it would be a pretty empty rally-x otherwise. Usually hyperfest has the rallysprint course (different from the rally-x area) open for rally-car rides from stage rally cars/drivers. But not sure how that will work this time with most of the local stage rally cars off at STPR. Who knows.

In reply to wrenchedexcess: Will we see the return of the long haul Saturn next year?

I've been looking at track day videos on the Shenandoah course and it looks fun except for the entry into that carousel turn. I'm pretty sure my exhaust would get ripped off of my car.

hrdlydangerous wrote: I've been looking at track day videos on the Shenandoah course and it looks fun except for the entry into that carousel turn. I'm pretty sure my exhaust would get ripped off of my car.

it's not too bad, but it's pretty scary the first time dropping in, as it isn't a smooth transition by any means. I doubt you'd have any exhaust troubles though, you kind of "jump" into it.

That said, you can also take the flat area below the banking, and many people do. If you have a light car and sticky tires, it's pretty much just as quick. I must have made a dozen passes of slower cars on the carousel by taking the low flat area during Capitol Offense '13 (in an e30). A lot of people use it if you have a slow car ahead of you entering the carousel. You also get a better exit angle to the next turn if your car has good power to beat the car on the banking up the hill.

But if you take the banking, just make sure you don't get a wheel off the top of the carousel, because if you do, there is pretty much only one result

They don't have a schedule up for next year's Hyperfest yet, but last year they had a NASA rallycross going on all weekend. If that's open, just slap on some rally rubber and go for it.

I wouldn't condone just running the rallycross course on your own! I'm sure the track officials would frown on that (as would GRM).

While I haven't attended a GRM Challenge I do enjoy the coverage. I also like the idea of it being a self-contained event.

I didn't know what HyperFest was so I looked it up. Doesn't look like the type of thing I'd normally attend.

I do like the idea that the Challenge will only be 3 hours from home, and some of the local guys are now talking about going.

However I'm concerned that Challenge will loose its identity becoming just another "amusement park ride" at HyperFest.

Rob_Mopar wrote: However I'm concerned that Challenge will loose its identity becoming just another "amusement park ride" at HyperFest.

This!

The way I see it, it can be as seperate or inclusive to HyperFest as the GRM staff deems fit. Consider that the drags aren't going to be held anywhere near Hyperfest.

That leaves us one day on the Shenandoah circuit doing our own thing with the option for them to spectate. Spectators are important to the Challenge because it inspires more builds for interesting editorial content which, after all, is the reason for the event in the first place.

hrdlydangerous wrote: The way I see it, it can be as seperate or inclusive to HyperFest as the GRM staff deems fit. Consider that the drags aren't going to be held anywhere near Hyperfest. That leaves us one day on the Shenandoah circuit doing our own thing with the option for them to spectate. Spectators are important to the Challenge because it inspires more builds for interesting editorial content which, after all, is the reason for the event in the first place.

Agree. Summit Point is huge. We can be there, do our thing, be open for spectators, etc. while still not having to see David or Tom in the Daisy Dukes contest.

Pat wrote: Agree. Summit Point is huge. We can be there, do our thing, be open for spectators, etc. while still not having to see David or Tom in the Daisy Dukes contest.

I wonder if we could rig the contest to get JG into the finals....

Any chance of inviting the boys from top gear to bevin the challange withbthe stig as a guest concorse judge? What types of bribes would you get for the stig then?

Just a quick idea/suggestion for the $2014 Challenge...

Every give any thoughts to awarding points for being under the budget cap?

Maybe 1 point on the concourse score for every $100 below $2014, or something like that.

We used to have a sub-$1000 award, this would give a bit of a nod to those who have a really small budget.

Wow, Summit Point and Mason Dixon..... Looks like the Turbo Spitfire will be making a return visit after a 5 year hiatus! Andy Nelson left me a voicemail about it on Monday and I just got time to take a look tonight, this is sweet!

Guess I need to go back to the rule book and see what has changed since 2008. I know that safety equipment was removed from the budget so that should free up a few dollars.

Looking forward to this!

In reply to

The $2014 rules have not been finalized, but the rough draft appeared to be leaning toward most of that safety equipment (except seatbelts) being put back in the budget.

Standby.

SVreX wrote: In reply to The $2014 rules have not been finalized, but the rough draft appeared to be leaning toward most of that safety equipment (except seatbelts) being put back in the budget. Standby.

That would appear to put a damper on the previous announcements from Brock that there would be a Crapcan Class for OLOA.

Have Challenge car, make legal for OLOA, suddenly no longer legal (over budget) for GRM Challenge.

Sad trombone.