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Message text written by "Boris Elpiner"
" And to make it a National level course the lines have to be outside of
cones. (Hi John:-))))"
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There's NOTHING in the National rules or previous Supps which spells out
the exact location of the lines. Having seen National courses lined on the
inboard side and the outboard side in the past, I'd say you have to be
ready for whatever happens.
As for lines outboard, I still vividly remember when one designer
put his lines four or five FEET outboard of the course on a right-hands
turn. That single pylon there looked for all the world like a lost child.
The reason for this was the designer was so pooped after setting up the
course, he sat on the back of a pickup and trailed the marker device. The
turn was tighter than the pickup truck could make. So they just let it fall
whereever it went.
We have come a long way in National course design despite some
folks wanting to re-invent gymkhanas. Despite that, there was a glitch on
last year's North course that was a trap for a beginner and he flipped.
That part was a fast section followed by a three-cone slalom. And there was
a bump at the third one. He flipped his E Stocker on the third one. Don't
look for this on the map as the course was changed to solve another problem
and we got the flipper deal instead. The good news is the driver was
uninjured.
Just because National does something does not make it right, IMHO.
But then I remember when the wobble rule for pylons was once in effect in
other parts of the country. (If you THINK you saw the pylon wiggle, you
send in a pylon count! The good news is we now have the all the way down or
out rule now but it took a long time to convince our friends this was the
way to go.) Gradually, our National courses have been improving, a lot,
especially since the beginning. And even in the past 15 years.
--John Kelly
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