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It's once again time for you to dust off those autocross vehicles and bring 'em on out to "test and tune" 'em for the new season! Your Event Chairs for this event are Miles Beam, Graham Jagger, and Rob Lupella. Event-Chairs-In-Training are Chris Overcash and Emmett Willis.
- This event will be limited to 80 participants. If you have preregistered and cannot attend, PLEASE, PLEASE REMOVE YOUR NAME from the preregistration file!
- This event will not be open to drivers who have run fewer than 4 autocrosses with Tarheel or some other club (i.e., no true novices).
- At this time, this event is open to members only. If you are not a member, but were hoping to come out and shake out the cobwebs, check back here closer to the event date. If all 80 slots have not been filled by THSCC members, this event may open to non-members.
- Remember that Laurinburg is not very close to gas stations, air,
food, and so forth. We ask that you not leave the site during the day unless it is essential. If you are not going to order lunch from Christine, bring a bag lunch.
- No overnight camping is allowed on site! Gates will open at 7:30a.m. on the morning of the event.
- There will be no need for numbers at this event and, obviously, no scoring.
- THSCC will be using "tiered event fees" for autocrosses this year. Please click the "Preregisterd & Prepaid" link above to read about how this works.
We return to the vast open runways of Laurinburg Maxton airport for the finest adventures in pothole dodging and cone smashing you can imagine! This year's Test-n-Tune is designed to provide ample opportunities for you to get plenty of seat time, and to do it on courses and course elements that can provide meaningful data for you. Your event chairs plan to set up a full course on the taxiways down by the Golden Knights area. We have never run on this area before, so this is really a big experiment for the club. If it works out, we will consider using it as a course area for a points event. The wireless timer will be used here. These plans are always subject to change depending on acts of war, decisions by the military, and unplanned events (such as airplane related incidents).
In the areas where we normally set up a course, you will find three elements set up for you to play with. These elements are:
- Sweeper practice in the "P": This is a great place to hone your driving skills as well as to experiment with car setup, tire pressures, and so forth. The sweepers will be fairly quick, allowing opportunities for you to hone your skills with 4-wheel drifting. If all goes according to plan, you will have the opportunity to run the sweepers in either direction.
- Skidpad at the big intersection of the taxiway and runway near the old mobile home site: A skid pad is basically just one big circle. We'll lay out the largest circle that area can accommodate. Here, you get to see how well balanced your car is -- is it too tight? or too loose? -- and have immediate opportunities to correct it and try again. Having a partner ready to time your laps with a stop watch can provide good information on how changes are affecting your "circle" times. You will be able to run this in both directions, though not at the same time. :)
- Timed slalom element on the main runway: Every sport has its basic skill sets and, for autocrossing, handling slaloms well is an essential and fundamental skill. Our goal here is to provide an evenly spaced slalom with a timer. The timer will record your time just through the slalom. Though you can have fun comparing times with your competitors, the real purpose of this section is to allow you to make minor changes to your driving style or car setup and get immediate feedback. We have often discovered that what feels good is slower than you thought; and what feels fast, just isn't!
LUNCH
We will shut down for lunch for about an hour. Christine Allen will be selling the usual yummy burgers and dogs for lunch. Christine has posted lunch details to the mailing list and on the forums. Lunch is NOT included in the price of the T&T. You will need to place your order with her before the event, and be prepared to pay during morning registration.
WORKING/RUNNING
We will have four heats, of roughly one hour to 1:15 each. Everybody will have to work twice, and will have two heats of driving. One heat will be on the "elements" and one heat will be on the full course. For each heat, all drivers will be split into two groups. One group will run the elements. One group will run the full course. If you ran elements in the morning, you will run the full course in the afternoon. You should have enough seat time to put significant wear on your tires! Dress your car appropriately! After all the organized runs are done, we'll see what time it is and if anybody has tires left for fun runs.....
ENTRANCE
For this event, the old Burch Industries entrance will be used. The other two entrances are not feasible since they lead into areas where courses or elements will be set up. Gate workers should be at the entrance to have you sign the waiver, and to provide handouts for the day's activities.
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