At the conclusion of our offical slalom today, we gave my proposed alternate run pattern a go to see how it felt. Due to time limitations, only one participant was able to give it a try...that was Gary Hagopian.

In the standard pattern, Gary ran a 40.8 today. His first attempt at the revised pattern was a slow one for familiarization. His second attempt...he got confused (Oh well!). On his third and final attempt, he turned a 43.4. This was pretty good considering it was his first try.

Gary said..."I like it, it's more interesting."

People at the slalom seemed to like the idea of an equal number of left and right turns thereby equalizing tire wear and any possible advantage a right hand drive car has over a left hand drive model with the current pattern.

The pattern is described fully near the bottom of the rantings and ravings thread. But in summary, you can just think of it as 2 laps...one hour glass and one oval, with a single crossover in the middle of each of these laps. This provides the same number of turns and elements as the standard pattern, but with 3 rights and 3 lefts, rather than 5 rights and 1 left as we have now.

Stevo

Submitted by warren.hansen@… on Tue, 06/17/2003 - 19:29

Steve & Stevo,

I'm glad you had a chance to give the new layout a short test at the JCSNE Slalom this weekend. Your report sounds encouraging, and I think the proposal has great merit. My one reservation about it comes from the standpoint of monitoring the runs for "Off Course," which seems to have been Gary's problem -- admittedly on his first attempt and probably without benefit of a walk-through. I just worry that the casual atmosphere of our slalom events is going to make it harder to observe the less straightforward pattern for conformance. Perhaps it will just be a matter of getting accustomed to it. At any rate, I'm looking forward to having a go at your variation!

Regards,
Warren

Submitted by GallantCSC@aol.com on Mon, 06/16/2003 - 14:10

"As I understand it, the pattern you are proposing is as follows:

1. Start at normal spot, do the first half of the bowtie.
2. After taking the curve at the end, do a cross-over.
3. After the cross-over, take the curve at the start end, then do the second half of the bowtie.
4. Take the curve at the far end, and do another cross-over.
5. Take the curve at the start end, then do the oval as usual, ending in the stop box."

You almost got it right! Here is the right way:

1. Start at normal spot, do the first half of the bowtie.
2. After taking the curve at the end, do a cross-over.
3. After the cross-over, take the curve at the start end, then do the second half of the bowtie.
4. Take the curve at the far end, DO THE FIRST HALF OF THE OVAL.
5. Take the curve at the start end, DO A CROSSOVER.
6. Take the curve at the far end, then COMPLETE the oval as usual, ending in the stop box.

Stevo

Submitted by NE52-32043 on Mon, 06/16/2003 - 10:06

Stevo,

Sounds interesting. We're running our slalom here in NJ at Jaguar HQ in Mahwah on Sat. June 28. I think we'll give it a try after the regular runs are over. Not sure where you are located, but if you can make it down, might be interesting to get more people trying it.

As I understand it, the pattern you are proposing is as follows:

1. Start at normal spot, do the first half of the bowtie.
2. After taking the curve at the end, do a cross-over.
3. After the cross-over, take the curve at the start end, then do the second half of the bowtie.
4. Take the curve at the far end, and do another cross-over.
5. Take the curve at the start end, then do the oval as usual, ending in the stop box.

If that's it, we can certainly test it at our slalom as well.

Again, thanks for the suggestion and look forward to giving it a try.

Steve Weinstein, JTC-NJ
JCNA Slalom Committee Chairman
JTC Slalom Chair
'72 E-type 2+2
'70 XKE FHC