Hey guys, just wanted to know if anyone has done an SCCA PDX event. What's it like? They have almost no information on their web site but from what I can gather it's not really like an open track day format. It doesn't appear that they have different run groups for skill levels or even a solo group at all. There's an event coming up I was thinking about going to but I'm not sure I want to based on how little info they publish about the format.

Thanks!

 

Hey Matt, I know the Alabama SCCA chapter has one that is basically like a normal track day, but they are a AutoX chapter mainly that puts on this event at TGPR at the end of the year for their members and SPICcmnFD said it's tons of track time.

I've done a couple and both have been kind of different compared to what we are use to. I did one at Road Atlanta back in July that was only 2 sessions and it was during quite hours(luckily I didn't get blackflagged, but they did yell at me a little when I came off the track). They pulled us onto grid... as in all three run groups at one time and would not let us leave the grid for accountability purposes. They also teched us on grid as well. We completed one session and immediately pulled right back around to grid and parked when we came off(with less than a lap to cool down). I asked prior to about pulling back into the pits to cool my car off and explained why I needed too. They just laughed and said no. I'm guessing you and I have the same opinion on SCCA. Love the organization and they put on great AutoX's. They also have a top notch club racing program, but their program for people looking to get into the track scene leaves something to be desired.

BTW, what video editing software are you using? Everything I try seems to give me issues with my A-HD+. I read on the website Nero 9 is suppose to work. How's the engine?

 

Hey Brent, thanks for the info. I think I'm going to give this one a pass and instead focus on getting the car ready for next season. Going to send the motor out for a rebuild and probably get the turbos rebuilt at the same time. Also going to address some minor maintenance things (oil pan baffling, fuel pulsation dampner, etc.) and this may be year I get some suspension mods!

For basic cuts, I'm using freeware VirtualDub. With the right codecs installed on Windows, it can open the A-HD's files without any conversion and export them to just about any format (I use DivX w/MP3 audio). For more advanced editing I use Adobe Premiere Elements. The latter leaves something to be desired in terms of output format support though.

If you grab this codec pack, the CoreAVC is the one you want. It will allow the A-HD's videos to be played in any directshow-compatable player or editor (Windows Media Player, etc.):

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/codec.htm

 

Matt, thanks dude!!! I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to this stuff. Look forward to seeing the monster back on the track next season!

 

The format for the PDX seems to vary widely by region. It really depends on who's running the show and what their goals are. I've been to a few here in the NC region which is a group heavily biased towards club racing. For a while they were really trying to figure out this whole HPDE thing and why anyone would want to do that rather than club race. Their first PDX reflected that - it was run in conjunction with a racing weekend and there was a heavy sales pitch about "yeah, you can get experience here and then of *course* you will want to go on to wheel-to-wheel".

As they came to understand their audience better, they adjusted and the later PDXs were organized much more like HPDEs.

I would expect an Auto-X specific region to have similar issues.

-bill

 

Hey Bill, that seems to be the case here in WDCR as well, according to B_Hydra who did attend the event at Summit:

Maybe I'll give it a try next year to see for myself. Some extra racing education wouldn't hurt.

Got a new motor lined up so should be back in business shortly!