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Originally Posted by tsxdriver
sorry but the weather yesterday was just too much to come out!!!
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Weather was bad but only in some pockets. Some us got sunburns! No joke.
And we were covered up due to the heavy rains. But it did clear.
Short breakdown of the day-
6am- setup crews working in moderate rain to clear parking lot and do early setup.
630am track course crews working to lay down cones for course in mild rain to drizzling mixed with moderate rain
707am All hell breaks loose- Actually we were fine- we felt the quake and saw the light posts shaking and then all the lights went out and the Stadium generators kicked on - the lights went on but then went out a short time later and remained off all day. We run our own generator and were not affected by any power outage except some of us were low on gasoline!
8am track ready to check for safety- drizzling rain
830am drivers meeting then walk the course in light rain.
930am Heat 1 ready to run in some rain to light rain. No standing water.
1030am Heat 2 ready to run in some light rain. Times improving a little
1130am starting to dry off and clear a little- mostly overcast with light rain at times.
1230- I switch my wheels from street "Rain" tires to R compound competition tires and cross my fingers for more clearing.
Lunch then drivers meeting
130pm Heat 3 ready to run under dry but cloudy conditions
230pm Heat 4 ready to run mostly dry with a little light drizzles.
320pm Fun runs begin - Fastest times all day done unofficially.
Basically as the day wore on the times were getting lower and lower.
350pm heavy downpours- so much for my tan.
4-430pm clean up and tear down.
97 total drivers (16 novice drivers) and a clean event- only a few spectators but we have a covered area for them in any case.
It was great to see our new friends from Kauai and two got to drive and the other two I took along with me on the fun runs. Mahalo to Keoni, Joshua, Douglas, and Justin for attending the Safety Steward training class. We need each to attend one more event before we can sign off on their applications.
Our course was designed for a wet day. Rain by itself is not a problem for driving. Poor visibility, active lightning in close proximity, or standing deep water leading to loss of traction would be reasons to HOLD competition long enough to stop the problem or if it cannot be resolved then cancel the event.
However I talked to those who have been autocrossing in Hawaii for over 25 years and we do not cancel autocross in our region much if at all. We do maintain a safe event and monitor for good conditions but we will allow the event to happen with a few adjustments.
Anyway the course itself was shorter and slower by design with some tight switchback turns heading out to a loop turnaround at the far end then tight evenly spaced 5 cone directional slalom then two long hard turns and a tight left to the finish. In the wet the slower speeds were fine.
We did have a few new drivers in the morning heats. Many did cancel and not as many registered as walk ups.
All in all a good day that was safer and much more fun than staying at home with no power.
Hey power was not restored to Oahu until about 155am this morning and there are still about 8 isolated pockets that are out.
I was fully expecting to hear the event was canceled, but man you proved me wrong! Props to the Kauai crew that showed up, too. Man, those guys are hardcore!!
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