At 10:04 AM 6/3/2002 -0700, Pat Kelly wrote:
>Joe, SCCA SFR sweeps the GGF before every event; it's been a custom for
>several years to do so.
excellent!
> However, the absolutely worst event at GGF was when the track management
>piled a bunch of sand in the NE corner by the maintenance buildings, and the
>wind blew from that direction (very unusual) directly onto the course.
>Speaking of Desert Storm!! :)
I remember the event, and I remember mistakenly leaving a window down while I
worked. The whole inside was dusted. At least the sand was evenly and
continually
distributed, so you could at least choose your own line, and the sandblasting
was
much less an issue than running your Hoosiers with a solid full-width pea-gravel
coating.
> Yet we came back, swept it some more (actually pay a full-strength
>sweeper) and it improved tremendously.
Again, cool. If you tell me when the sweeper is coming this time, I'll be down
there
with a lunch and drinks for him.
> I realize the search for the perfect surface leads us away from the Bay
>Area.
I don't necessarily agree...
> So what would you have us do, stage everything at Atwater? Would you
>be willing to travel to the eastern side of the Central Valley for run an
>autocross every Sunday?
I would happily chip in for a good sweep of any site before the event. I
would volunteer for a pre-race work assignment to be with the sweeper
and course map to ensure we get our money's worth of clean asphalt.
Joe
>--Pat K
>----------
> >From: Joe <joe@bea.com>
> >To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
> >Subject: Gravel at Golden Gate Fields
> >Date: Mon, Jun 3, 2002, 9:25 AM
> >
>
> > Hi all.
> >
> > I just ran in an all-day autocross with the PCA at Golden Gate Fields
> > yesterday and it was very irritating, almost to the point that I would
> > skip events there. There is so much loose gravel all over the lot that
> > the first group must have bead-blasted their undercarriages to clean
> > a line. The 'line' was essentially point-to-point because with no traction
> > that's the shortest way around. Even in the afternoon, this was a
> > 'drive-a-stupid-line-as-fast-as-you-can' event because any
> > attempt to vary put you into the drifts of displaced marbles. There was
> > a typical thirty-paces slalom where the cleared 'line' was precisely
> > straight from one side of one cone to the other side of the next cone.
> >
> > Have we ever paid someone to sweep a lot? I would gladly chip in
> > for this, rather than be chipped away by the gravel.
> > Joe Weinstein
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