Observations Of A Corner Worker

When you participate as a competitor in an autocross, you do more than just compete (or “play”).  Part of the success of running an autocross is having the competitors taking turns to work various on-course positions.  These roles mainly consist of (in order of quantity needed) corner workers, grid area, in the timing/announcer trailer, & others.

Work assignment list per heat

At the 10-19-2008 SASCA autocross, this was my first time participating as a competitor.  The entries were divided into a more or less even quantity of cars (and 3 karts, this time) in their respective classes.  Since my class (G Stock) was going to compete in the second heat, I and approximately 1/2 of the competitors worked.  If you get in line early at the trailer you can pick & choose what to volunteer for.  I chose to work corner 2, with Robert, Dan & Eric.

East half of course

It was interesting to watch the different cars/drivers go by, to see how the drivers anticipated & reacted, and how the variety of vehicles handled the various portions of the course.  By watching these runs, before we had our runs, we felt we had a slight advantage.  We were able to get somewhat of a preview of what to expect in the area of the course we were policing.  Also, of course, we picked up & replaced the occasional hit cone.  It seemed there were consistent cone locations that would be hit sort of regularly, at least in the morning runs.

A variety of cars & their driving lines

Corner 2 looked like the apex was at the tight corner cone, but in actuality you were best to take the corner wide & early on that last cone, to cut it short before eclipsing the cone.  It surely was an education on how to properly read a course, and learn to drive a line the was smoothest/fastest, not that which was dictated by the specific cones’ placement. :-0

Racing Ready is looking for proper placement within the autocross/road racing market.

Dan