Ascutney II 2010 An Old Man’s Perspective

[Number_5]

Two great days of racing. It seems since I sold my car, NEHA has had dry weekends. It wasn’t as warm as it could have been but the motors were happy. I worked on check # 7 where I witnessed some very good driving from all the competitors. The first day I was blessed with a guy who had a large thermos of very good hot coffee. Thanks Dave.
I witnessed a team of people with wanting to provide a good weekend of racing and togetherness, and they did just that. The chairs, the wire crew, the equipment people, the control crew (bottom, top, checkpoints), were all top shelf. A lot of those jobs and much more were done by the same people. There were people that broke out or had a car problem that just jumped in and worked. I was impressed with the spirit. One fella that had a car problem was just in everything, corner worker, equipment, everyplace I looked, there was Mike.
I believe we had 5 runs on Saturday and 6 on Sunday, unprecedented. Nice work.
There was a show of less than adult behavior at the end of the day on Sunday that saddened me quite a bit. I believe it was fueled in part by high adrenalin and the excitement of the chase. I am sure that by now the event has been evaluated and a plan is in place to bring a healing to an unfortunate happening.
I will let others speak to the racing times and tribulations.
Thanks for a great weekend of entertainment and camaraderie.
John Marsha #5 Retired

[scottyballistic]

Thats where my Coffee went .. LOL At least someone got to enjoy it

I would also like to thank everyone for there hospitality and letting me hang and shoot the shit with them Friday night Everyone was great . It was my first time doing a Hillclimb event . I auto-x and instruct with Sccnh at NHMS .

I would also like to thank Dave E. for letting me use the little car that could the White CRX . I guess I was labled the "dumbass" by some because it has a few issues. I did what I was asked to and that was to drive it hard and find its weak spots . For a car with 190k on the motor and 5 years of racing in its history on that motor. I say we did not do bad at all for being the 90hp weakling and suspension sprung for a car twice its weight . I beleive we ran our best of 3.28 on saturday which I was happy with for my first time and lack of power. I chose not to push the car anymore and granade the motor on the coarse and posibly indanger myself or others. The car did leave under its own power I can tell you I was soar the next day .But Dave will be back with it next year with fresh power under the hood and better tuned suspension

I too will be back with a few more cars and drivers to have a great time with all the new people I met . Cant wait till next season , you guys have gotten me addicted to another motorsport

[walterclark]

I think this Ascutney was the best I have attended... Best weather, best run, most runs, safest drivers and least on-hill mechanical issues.

The volunteers all were top notch - starting and ready early both days, and on top of and resolving any issues. It was too bad that some of the best of them were subjected to the unfortunate incident at the end. I feel bad for that and want them to know that I REALLY appreciate the experience they bring and the work they put into this event.

As one of the wrecker crew I appreciated how well the drivers stayed withing the limits of the machines and themselves and ran fast times to boot. Any time we spend running up the hill with the wrecker is time we all cant be racing. We didnt have to fish one car out of the weeds during runs and only had a couple mechanical issues to respond to.

I had personal best runs both days with a 3:05 on my final Sunday morning run - not the one where the stealth spoiler deployed. With a 3:06 the run before I know it wasnt a fluke but I am still trying to figure out where they came from since recent previous events had me in the 3:13-3:15 range for best times.

[DaveEstey]

I had a great time this weekend.

Things started well with the wire crew showing me some of the ups and downs of prepping the course Friday, certainly an experience I won't soon forget. Dave, Doug, Drew, and George are all masters of their craft, which is drinking beer and pounding in signs while cussing out George for struggling with the damn electronic throttle in the truck which made keeping constant speed up the hill damn near impossible.

I'd like to thank Scott for ragging the hell out of the CRX. This was a litmus test for the car and now I know what changes need to be made to help it better pull double duty of AutoX and Hillclimb. It will return in 2011 with revised suspension, a new powerplant and even less weight.

John, it was a pleasure working check 7 with you and Mike. It's nice to get a different perspective on the hill from a guy who has been running it a while.

I think all the volunteers did a great job, and we need to remember that they're VOLUNTEERS, not paid workers, who are doing this because they want to see the events succeed. We need to keep that in mind as we move forward.

And the novices! What a group! I hope you guys all come out again.

[rabbithead]

I think this Ascutney was the best I have attended... Best weather, best run, most runs, safest drivers and least on-hill mechanical issues.

The volunteers all were top notch - starting and ready early both days, and on top of and resolving any issues. It was too bad that some of the best of them were subjected to the unfortunate incident at the end. I feel bad for that and want them to know that I REALLY appreciate the experience they bring and the work they put into this event.

X2 I think this event was well planned & was great all the way around! Great weather, good driving and had 6 good runs in by 3:30 PM on Sunday, Starting the Fam run @ 8:30 is probley a record....

[jkale]

I had a great time during the limited runs I got(due to my mechanical issues).. and indeed do feel pretty badly about how quickly the few questions we asked control at the end of Sunday turned into a heated arguement.. It started with simple questions from the drivers to Drew and the responses we all recieved were nothing but sarcastic and smart-assed...

There has been much discussion between a bunch of us for over a year now about how alotted time on the hill at Ascutney is never fully used...not sure how to go about fixing this because we approached Dave about it at Ascutney 1 and he had absolutley no response to our questions... nevertheless, it should have been discussed at a separate venue..

[shelbyeast]

Hello all, Lets think about workers for a minute. A worker is someone who comes to our event spends their own money to get there and to stay there, do a job and sometimes not in the greatest conditions. We as competitors are very lucky to have them and should thank them at every opportunity. It is good for us they like what they are doing and like watching us do what we do. Workers should always be given respect. Without workers there is no event simple math. A few years ago we were always short of workers lately we have had enough, now hasn't that been nice. Now lets do what we need to to keep them.

Now to comment on Sundays problem. It seemed to be aimed directly at the control and wire crew. There has been discussion about Ascutney closing early and having fewer runs. Well that is probably true but lets look at some reasons. Especially fall it gets darker earlier, it takes cars a average of 40 seconds longer to get to finish then at Burke or Okemo. The wire crew are the first ones on the hill Friday and the last off the hill Sunday. They get up at 6AM to make sure things are working and the road is ready to go. I think they deserve to be able to pick up and leave the hill before dark. If a competitor has a problem with the operation of a event he or she should go to the chairman of the event he or she is in charge not a worker. The decision to close after two runs after lunch was decided by the chairperson and was posted at lunch. No one should have gone to control with the problem let alone several people. Especially considering we had a full 6 runs in at that time a damn good day i think. Drew Young, Dave Valliers and Doug Valliers have been the wire crew for as long as i can remember which i hate to admit is at least 25 years. They deserve way more respect then they got on Sunday. It was really nice to see Doug running this weekend.

Well i have carried on long enough Lets make sure this does not happen again. Thanks once again to the workers. Don Taylor

[Mopar 151]

Some things that folks would do well to take notice of....

It was not all that long ago (to an old fart like me..) that getting 2 (TWO) runs in a day was a mighty acheivment. Our "standard" was a 3-run, 30 car day - 90 runs/day! 180 runs/day, as was done Sunday, is now routine. It's taken decades of dogged effort by a dozen or so folks behind the scenes to acheive this, and a good deal of resolve (and $$$)by all the workers and club members.

Yes, there was an Ascutney hillclimb a few years ago that was shut off too early, among it's other issues. Many of the issues leading to that debacle have been addressed, and revisiting the anger involved does little good in the here and now - especially when implementation of some of the solutions are what led to a 6- run Sunday.

There are not many "Controls" capable of production at this level, with our safety protocals - I count 3 active just now, and they all require therapy after. None of them deserve to be haraunged about event schedules, or much of anything else, after a day doing Control.

[honda#72]

I think this Ascutney was a great event, runs went smooth and drivers did a good job of staying on the road. Besides Philo , I can not remember a event where I was back in line ready to go, so quickly, even with the few electrical issues I had. I even got home in time to watch the Patriots get killed by the Jets , Big thanks to the Crew and workers. One more run was no big deal to me as I didn't even have enough fuel to go again. I would say the event went off very well.