I know most of you guys dont know my "racing" background but it mostly consist of alot of time at the drag strip when I was younger and about one season ago I entered the terminal world of Autox.

An interesting aspect of autox is the designing of the course...the fact that every course is somewhat different than the last, especially when you go from one location to another.

Well Ive always wanted to set-up a course but figured I should start at the bottom and learn from the veterans of the sport...so I show up to help at all the course set ups (barring the out of towners) for the last year and try to grasp what people are looking for in a kick-butt course.

I get the call a few weeks back that I'm setting up a course on the Aug 2nd...Cool beans I thought, finally.

My buddy John (First year autoxer) enlisted his help with putting out cones and generally a great person to help sort through some of my ideas.

Race day comes and to tell you the truth I'm a bit nervous having heard people complain about other tracks..."to many right hand turns, tracks to fast, corners are to tight" etc. etc.

...Anyways the racers were so happy with the course they actually went out to the local hardware store and picked up some spray paint after the race to mark each and every cone on the course.

My mentor even went as far to say that before the first snowflake hits he's gonna spray it again and then again in the spring.

It was terrific to get positive feedback from the rear wheel drive V-8s (and one rotary) to the front wheel drive folks and to top it off the kart guys loved it as well.

I guess generally I feel like "bragging" but thats not really it either...I'd say that once again H-T has proved itself invaluable...

 

Good course design is a very difficult thing to accomplish. I'm sure your local club will be putting you to work, a lot, very soon

 

Good for you.

 

I just raced on a course yesterday that nobody really liked. It was mostly just 180's. Long ones for the big turns, and then a bunch of close spaced ones to act as a "slalom". Just didn't really have any flow. Long, slow. Lots of DNF's, and reruns.

Good for you to make one that was so enjoyable to run on.

 

Thanks for this post!

I just found out our course designer is leaving and I may start helping our "back-up" so they have someone else just in case. I've always wanted to try this myself.

It's hard for me to judge what "really" makes a satisfying course. Although the course I ran this past Sunday had (3) 180s it was far from sucky... it was awesome!... especially considering the smallish space it was set up in.
http://www.nerdsracing.com/SJ/...3.jpg

Do you have, or can you draw up a diagram? Love to see it to get ideas!

Kudos to you.

 

Been helping my nephew with his car getting it ready for yet another year at college in Pensecola.

Anyways I just finished an ok map of the course then my photodraw crashed

Im getting a newer version probably Saturday and will try again on Sunday...no races close by .

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's hard for me to judge what "really" makes a satisfying course. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I feel that a course should be smooth as you take a test ride through it. Anything erratic at low speeds wont cut it at high speeds. Most folks I know in this area like an even amount of lefts and rights....not 50/50 but not 10/90 either.

I have a few tracks mapped out on paper and I try to put a "theme" to each track, this first track I wanted to incorporate the feel you get on a twisty country road.

Some fairly long straights (as autox goes) into some nice sweepers...but a completly fast track isn't fair to everyone so I added some very tight sharp corners to balance it out.

I actually incorporated an oval into the track that everyone loved right into a corner that a Miata would find tight.

Whats funny to me is how much you can change a track by moving a cone 6 inches. Sometimes you may find yourself moving alot of cones a half foot to make it just right.

I do think theres a time for a tight track or a fast track but generally a mixture of the two seems to be the answer around here.

I think I just wrote a bunch of confusing crap here but I will try to get a track made up and post it....

 

Very good.

Most autox courses I have designed include a pivot pylon somewhere. Somehow I don't get asked to design courses very frequently...

 

Pivot Pylons and chicago boxes =

Slaloms and "drift circles" = !