Veloce Raptor

This is why we decided to go green on the outlap.

ervtx

Which helped immensely, and demonstrates that volunteers were doing things to alleviate the issues in real time.

TXE36

That single decision gave the DE folks an extra green flag lap in the same session time as sessions with the standard double yellow out lap. HUGE difference and given the scheduling issues, very big bang for the buck.

I also think adding passing zones would not have helped much. I wouldn't want to see results from late passes in T2 leading into T3 in the DE groups with the carnage that T3-T4 have reputations for creating. There really weren't any better places to add passing zones.

For DE, you almost need "pass anywhere with a point", but then you would need more advanced drivers than I saw this weekend. I've never driven pass anywhere with a point, and I'm not sure I'd like to try it the first time for my first time at COTA.

-Mike

EPM

To all DE Folks,

It was my accident that caused the cancellation of the last session, and for that, I truly apologize. I was also really looking forward to the last session. I was very fortunate in that the only thing hurt was my ego and I was equally shocked at the damage to the Armco that my hit caused. The DE guys are no different that the CR guys - PCA doesn't pay for it - I got a bill from the track today, which I expected.

I hope everyone got home safely,

Pierce

Coco_951

I'm glad you are ok, accidents happen on the track to all drivers.
This was a big event and I want to thank the hosting organizations. I had fun and accomplished the only goal I had which was just to experience COTA.

Bryan_H

The Stewards did not/do not dictate the schedule if you mean by that what time things happen after the event starts. That is indeed incorrect information. That is normally negotiated on the fly with the DE leadership in control when bad things happen. In this instance CR groups were cut short all weekend when things happened simular to what apparently happened to DE. The exceptions would be the red group sprints where time just worked out and all of the enduros. The 10 lap races for the white group were about 24 minutes rather than the desired 30 due to a tight original schedule. We tried to run 12 laps in the last one but an on track incident prevented finishing on time so we shut it down at 10. The enduros on Sunday ran right on time except the last one which finished under full course yellow resulting in a 4 minute impact to DE. That next session was when the wall post was broken in DE.

I guess you could say we dictate the advanced schedule since we do approve it to make sure we have scheduled time to do the race groups within our normal event parameters like the 4 session first day, realistic practice time and the need for 15 minutes or so over race length to get the cars on and off track and clean things up. With those requirements the regions determine the number of groups etc.

When things happen late in a session that create a clean up you cant move time backward so the delay has to come out of subsequent sessions.

I am seeing DE complaints that they NEVER got in a complete session but on Friday they were first up so there was no CR before them to impact the schedule. The last sessions of the weekend should have had prety close to 2 hours to run. That shut down was not cause by CR.

I miss spoke in an earlier post. I do have the DE logs except for the last session. I did not know I had those. Sorry.

Bryan

951and944S

Might be hard to facilitate, but would it be possible in the future to have rental transponders that could be temporarily fixed to DE entrants...?

Fastest cars line up at the head of the grid just like racers.

With a lap as long as COTA, even at a 30 sec/lap differential, it'd take the faster cars 6 laps to catch the back.

T

Misdirection

I'm but a lowly DE-er, but I for one had a blast and I don't plan to complain. My view is that this was a first-time event on a very different track/scale than is typical, and if somehow it turned out to be imperfect for certain folks in some way (shockingly!), that's to be expected.

Do I have opinions? Sure. But this isn't the time to complain. I'll focus on being thankful, and hopeful that we get this opportunity in the future. If that opportunity does arise, then I'm happy to offer some very constructive criticism about how it could be improved.

Cheers to all; I know it must have been a monumental undertaking to pull it off.

TXE36

One thing that didn't help was getting started 15 minutes late on Friday. Cars were gridded up before 8AM but we sat on the grid to at least 8:15 IIRC. Given how the weekend played out, that would have been our longest session. I don't know what happened. New event, new venue. The rain? I thought we prided ourselves on racing in the rain. In any case, that particular delay wasn't caused by DE or CR participants.

I think the bottom line is the schedule was just too optimistic for the number of participants and the length of the track. The organizations are used to TWS. The configuration at TWS is very efficient for getting cars on and off the track both in terms of its shorter length and the pit-out/pit-in configuration. I saw this personally in March at TWS when I paused at black flag to check my gas cap for leaks after the checker to ensure an earlier problem had been corrected. I pull up to black flag and stop. Cars following me leave the track. As soon as the last car cleared the hot pit, the next session was spilling onto the hot pit. The configuration at COTA prevented efficiencies like this.

I have no doubt that if we get another opportunity at COTA that the event will be better. There is a learning process here and a lot of volunteer effort was put into this.

-Mike

Doug007

There was some pretty serious lightning over the track Friday morning which may have been the reason for the delay. Shortly thereafter, the lightning had let up and it was just rain. That's about when they let the DE group out.

Gridding on the pit exit end might work better next time. Unless the track has some rule against that. I know lots of racers wanted to check tire pressures/temps so you would have to allow cars to do that in the hot pits and exit at the far end but for a DE you could eliminate this overlap in the future.

jabo

Pierce,
Glad to hear that you are ok!
Despite our disappointment with a shortened session, I will say that it was great driving with you guys and getting to meet all of you.
Chasing Pierce in his GT2RS was fun, but he's gonna want some stickier tires for next time.

Cheers,

JB Smith
#157 Boxster Spyder

Frank 993 C4S

Glad you're ok! That's all that really matters.

Sounds like complete overkill and one additional complication that DE events don't need. Just think about the army of volunteers needed for just staging something like that. Let's not make the DE experience more technical and difficult especially for novice drivers to master.

From my experience, once you are in a run group where people get to know each other over time, the speed differences sort themselves out very quickly.

What has seemed to happen at COTA was a new track with a lot of new people and a very ambitious race/DE schedule. Sounds like the organizers did a fantastic job keeping a lot of ***** in the air at the same time.

Frank 993 C4S

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txhokie4life

Double Ouch!

Glad you are ok -- hope your car and your wallet mend quickly.

Q: Does anyone know if track day insurance covers track expenses for what you hit?

Mike

jabo

From the policy I had, it seems the car itself is the only thing covered.
No medical coverage, or site damage coverage.