Finally.. an autocross in Austin! Anyone going?
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From: Austin
Finally.. an autocross in Austin! Anyone going?
So you don't have wake up at the crack of dawn and drive 2+ hours to autocross, I have heard there is one this Saturday (tomorrow).
I am interested in going but heard that it is a members only event (www.spokes.org)? Does anyone have details about this? All I know is that it is in Austin at the old Executive Airport, off of Dessau near Parmer.
I am interested in going but heard that it is a members only event (www.spokes.org)? Does anyone have details about this? All I know is that it is in Austin at the old Executive Airport, off of Dessau near Parmer.
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From: Austin
Dammit, I have company this weekend... figures!
Keep in mind that the head guys at Spokes are F body owners, so don't expect an exceptionally tight course... I used to run with the Miata club in St Petersburg, and they created courses that were perfect to a tee for little, precise handling cars like the S2000 and Miata.
I miss those guys!
Keep in mind that the head guys at Spokes are F body owners, so don't expect an exceptionally tight course... I used to run with the Miata club in St Petersburg, and they created courses that were perfect to a tee for little, precise handling cars like the S2000 and Miata.
I miss those guys!
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I see that there are a lot of misconceptions about the Spokes autocross club. (Yes, I've been a member since 1994.
) Let me try to clear some of them up.
- Point 1: The club is run by a bunch of F-body people so don't expect a tight course. I would take this as a positive. Most people actually complain about tight courses. What you want is a flowing course which has corners that connect well to one another. This way most any car will do well in it. Most Spokes courses are actually small tighter courses because of the limited areas in which the club is able to set up a course, ie Palmer Auditorium, Retama park, and Thunderhill. The club has had to be very creative in course designs to work with the limited size. The Executive airport is another challenge.
- Point 2. The club is run by F-body people. The President does have an F-body, but he has since stepped down due to not having enough time to run the club. The VP has a Nissan 240SX in DSP, the treasurer has a DP Miata, the secretary has an RX-7 TT & a Z06!, the novice chief (and last year's BSL national champion) has a Miata, the timing guy has a Camaro in CP, etc.. so it's a very diverse field. However, anyone can go and design the course. So the course design is not dependent on the people running the club at the time.
- Point 3: "their timing and scoring was unbelievably terrible". Timing equipment and software has improved tremendously. New software and new equipment. We even have an large LED display showing your time.
- Point 4: "they didn't have a workers policy". We have a worker chief now that ensures everyone works. This has been done since around '97 I believe.
- Point 5: "chevy-head who literally told people if they didn't own a Z28....". There were some definite personality conflicts with one of our former Presidents. However, we've had a couple of new presidents since 3 years ago. I've personally never had a problem with that President of old and he's always treated me with the utmost respect. When I took the S2000 out to its first autocross, he remarked how beautiful looking it was to him and how great the car seems to go around the corners.
The Spokes club is not the perfect autocross club, but the members definitely work hard to put on a race every month given the limited resources we have. I just wanted to offer some more data points in regards to the Spokes Club before you pass judgement.
Regarding the autocross this Saturday, here is the course map. http://osaka.home.texas.net/course030902.pdf
There will be extremely limited parking, so you may have to park elsewhere and walk to it if you want to spectate. Depending on how many people show up, they may let spectators park closer in after all racers have a parking spot.
If you'd like to race, I believe they are letting people sign up for memberships at the event. It's $30 for the membership. Non-pre-registered members have to pay the same price as non-members: $20. Pre-registered members only save $5.
http://www.ccsi.com/~vitek/spokes/clubinfo.htm
) Let me try to clear some of them up.- Point 1: The club is run by a bunch of F-body people so don't expect a tight course. I would take this as a positive. Most people actually complain about tight courses. What you want is a flowing course which has corners that connect well to one another. This way most any car will do well in it. Most Spokes courses are actually small tighter courses because of the limited areas in which the club is able to set up a course, ie Palmer Auditorium, Retama park, and Thunderhill. The club has had to be very creative in course designs to work with the limited size. The Executive airport is another challenge.
- Point 2. The club is run by F-body people. The President does have an F-body, but he has since stepped down due to not having enough time to run the club. The VP has a Nissan 240SX in DSP, the treasurer has a DP Miata, the secretary has an RX-7 TT & a Z06!, the novice chief (and last year's BSL national champion) has a Miata, the timing guy has a Camaro in CP, etc.. so it's a very diverse field. However, anyone can go and design the course. So the course design is not dependent on the people running the club at the time.
- Point 3: "their timing and scoring was unbelievably terrible". Timing equipment and software has improved tremendously. New software and new equipment. We even have an large LED display showing your time.
- Point 4: "they didn't have a workers policy". We have a worker chief now that ensures everyone works. This has been done since around '97 I believe.
- Point 5: "chevy-head who literally told people if they didn't own a Z28....". There were some definite personality conflicts with one of our former Presidents. However, we've had a couple of new presidents since 3 years ago. I've personally never had a problem with that President of old and he's always treated me with the utmost respect. When I took the S2000 out to its first autocross, he remarked how beautiful looking it was to him and how great the car seems to go around the corners.
The Spokes club is not the perfect autocross club, but the members definitely work hard to put on a race every month given the limited resources we have. I just wanted to offer some more data points in regards to the Spokes Club before you pass judgement.
Regarding the autocross this Saturday, here is the course map. http://osaka.home.texas.net/course030902.pdf
There will be extremely limited parking, so you may have to park elsewhere and walk to it if you want to spectate. Depending on how many people show up, they may let spectators park closer in after all racers have a parking spot.
If you'd like to race, I believe they are letting people sign up for memberships at the event. It's $30 for the membership. Non-pre-registered members have to pay the same price as non-members: $20. Pre-registered members only save $5.
http://www.ccsi.com/~vitek/spokes/clubinfo.htm
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Joined: Oct 2000
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From: Austin
I didn't mean the F body thing as an insult! I know the I guess now former president, and seeing as I like him, I wouldn't throw insults that direction. I was merely relaying on what I had heard and as such, what made sense.
It has been my experience that courses built for and by owners of cars like ours are tighter and many times, designed to optimize some of our cars' stronger points. I have been on courses built for larger cars with more torque, and my poor car never got to VTEC!
As for the rest of the stuff Vtecing mentioned, I have heard some of that (Z28 bias) from some very seasoned autocrossers in the area, so it's going to take some good PR to change that perception.
It has been my experience that courses built for and by owners of cars like ours are tighter and many times, designed to optimize some of our cars' stronger points. I have been on courses built for larger cars with more torque, and my poor car never got to VTEC!
As for the rest of the stuff Vtecing mentioned, I have heard some of that (Z28 bias) from some very seasoned autocrossers in the area, so it's going to take some good PR to change that perception.
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