Patrick said:
One of the local autocross clubs runs a small lot with light poles within 10' of the course, and the asphalt has water coming up through in spots on dry days. I turned into the slalom one gate early and was staring at a pole. Bailed on that run right quick.
I've been autocrossing about 11 years, and have been chair of our local club's program for 5. We've not usually had access to great lots - when I started, they were running at an elementary school bus lot that was 130' wide by 300' long, fully surrounded by curbs. Later, after I took over, I got us a high school lot that was maybe 500' by 500', but with a lot of light poles and minimal runoff room.
I have seen incidents at SCCA events and at our club's, both before and after I became responsible for them. At our elementary school lot, a young driver got his feet crossed up and hit a curb pretty hard, doing front suspension damage. At another event, a more experienced Miata driver spun and backed it up on the curb. What made that one scary was that a corner worker was sitting on the curb and had to scramble (successfully) out of the way. Both those were when I was just a participant.
The other 2 incidents were from when I was autocross chair and primary course designer, and they were both from the same event a few years ago. I consider them course design incidents, with driver error as a contributing factor. It was a busy event, with not one but two visiting clubs (maybe 15%-20% more cars than usual), and a lot of novices or less-experienced drivers. This was at the high school lot, and I was trying to squeeze as much course as I could onto the paving. The finish was down the last double row of parking, between a string of light poles and the grass (no curb). I had a tight 120d left into the final chute, and as much wiggle as I could manage in the run to the end gate. There was plenty of shutdown room after the finish, but unfortunately the wiggle was enough to unsettle the car without being enough to make people slow down.
In the morning session, an older, more experienced 911 driver spun after the wiggle, and made light contact with the fence. I got on the PA and asked people to be careful at that spot, but there wasn't much I could change without redesigning the end in the middle of the runs, and there physically wasn't much else that could be done anyway.
Unfortunately, in the afternoon session, a young 350Z/370Z driver spun in the same place. He was way overcommitted, and not as experienced a driver to boot. He went through the fence backwards, across about 50 feet of grass / down a small bank, and onto the 2-lane public road adjacent to the site. Fortunately, the only civilian car on the road had plenty of time to stop safely, or it could have been much worse.
As course designer (and, by default, safety steward), I always lay the course out ahead of time, to scale, using aerial photography. In fact I even made a kit of SketchUp elements to help. That lets me know the distances accurately, and think through as many potential problems as I can imagine. But I underestimated the speed people would be able to make in that spot.
I never have the course pass within 25' of a hard object like a curb or light pole, and if the path actually points at the object, I make sure it turns off at least 75' away. I set up corner complexes so that light poles and safety stations are inside the curve but before the apex, so any spins will carry the car past the hazard. I try to make sure you can always see the next element to avoid leaving drivers completely at sea in the middle of the lot. I try to limit speeds. It's less exciting to drive, but I try to avoid balls-to-the-wall finish sequences, and I leave tons of shutdown lane, with a long chute (150' minimum) that tapers from a fairly wide, forgiving end gate down to a narrow exit point that usually involves a sharp turn to get out.
We don't have a novice class or program, but at the drivers' meeting, I always emphasize the point of driving within your ability and not trying to save a lost run. We also have one of the field designers or experienced drivers give a guided novice course walk before the meeting. At the meeting, I ask all the novices and instructors identify themselves, so we can pair them up by run group. I go out of my way to say that it's no shame to have an instructor along, and that even experienced drivers take one sometimes. It's not strictly a requirement, but we strongly encourage first-timers to take an instructor on all their morning heat runs at least, until we can get an idea of how they behave. And if we find a novice Roger Ramjet or Mr. Magoo, we do make an instructor mandatory until they can negotiate the course more appropriately.
We also highlight the responsibility of course workers for keeping the event safe for themselves and drivers. We encourage appropriate red flagging, and we warn drivers to be situationally aware and not target-fixated. E36 M3 is gonna happen... but planning for it and encouraging a culture of safety can go a long way towards mitigating it when it does.
Not as fast as staying in 2nd.
