What did you learn at Mt Washington?

[sachilles]

If and when they have this event again, I thought it might be nice to have a place to note some of the special things you might have learned, while fresh in your mind. Worker, driver, crew etc.
Happy with your tire choice?
Equipment you wish you brought?

From the worker standpoint:
You can never have too many rain suits, or too many layers. Nice warm waterproof gloves are also nice. Even if you think your shoes are waterproof, spray them down with waterproofer. Wise to bring multiple pairs of boots and shoes. Chair with a mesh bottom doesn't pool water for you to sit in later.
There is a super wal-mart in Berlin that has a particularly big camping section, should you forget something.
Legends pub at the thanksgiving restaurant(Royal Inn) in Gorham, has the biggest damn $.50 wings you'll ever see.
Sides to canopy, awning or the like can prove to be valuable. The rain tends to move sideways up there.
Leave a spare key to your camper....outside your camper. Fortunately, a screw driver works in a pinch.
If you are a non ham worker, I think a mobile scanner would be put to good use if you had one. Sometimes it was tough to hear what was going on.
According to my wife, the view of the racing was better from the worker camp area near the pond, than in the grandstand, as it allowed you to see much further up the course.

And who can tell me what happened on the first bring down on Sunday. Just below 28, I heard higgins lock up the brakes, and I saw the fiesta sort of sideways as well.

By way of feedback to the event itself. I thought it went pretty well considering it hadn't been done in a while. I realize they didn't want a ton of individual campfires, but it might have been pretty cool to have a salamander or two in the big tent to help folks warm up. I was lucky enough to be in a camper, but the poor folks in tents did not appear to be enjoying themselves. Might bring folks together to make a more social atmosphere as well. Loads and loads of work for the volunteer workers, and a smile from everyone, job well done.

[1450Racing]

I learned that next time I'll bring a spare engine with us....

No seriously, I had a great time. Tim Mather did awesome, placing first in H3 and really tearing it up in the low visibility and slick conditions. Not bad for an 8 year layoff from racing.

My other friend I crewed for, Duane Foley from PA in the 1971 Opel Ascona, dropped a valve on the second practice run on Friday. We called a favor in to a friend, and packed the car on the trailer at around 3:30 PM and drove to Unity NH (3 hour tow), removed the engine, built a 'new' engine from leftover parts (thank you Jim MacMahon, fellow Opel racer in SCCA ITB), and installed it. At 3:30 AM we finished but the car wouldn't start, everyone was tired and grumpy, so we packed up and drove back to Mt. Washington. I got back to my hotel at 7 AM Saturday, and crashed out until 4 PM or so. With a fresh set of eyes and clear head, we quickly saw the problem and remedied it, and fired the car. Duane then got to run the car up to the top of the hill twice on Sunday, albeit with about 80% less power than before and some less than optimal carb jetting. But he earned his bumper sticker at least!

Bob

[MX5 Driver]

And who can tell me what happened on the first bring down on Sunday. Just below 28, I heard higgins lock up the brakes, and I saw the fiesta sort of sideways as well.

We heard Higgins put on a show for the spectator area at Craigway.(sp?) He did a few donuts which backed up the line a bit.

[sachilles]

And who can tell me what happened on the first bring down on Sunday. Just below 28, I heard higgins lock up the brakes, and I saw the fiesta sort of sideways as well.

We heard Higgins put on a show for the spectator area at Craigway.(sp?) He did a few donuts which backed up the line a bit.

This was well above cragway, about 6.5 miles up, above the dirt section.
Higgins was the last in line, and almost hit the car in front of him, well above cragway.

[Rabbit Farmer]

What I learned... Don't drive the car that I am racing up the hill at 25 mph...

[walterclark]

Lessons.

Take more time to reccie. More trips and more notes. Note not just turn rates and crests but cambers - especially off camber which is common in turns that curve toward the mountain and not always easy to spot since there is no reference for level. I understand these are done for drainage. Dont reccie the race car, bring a sedan or small crossover with all season tires. I scared myself silly on Thursday driving the GTI on my old hard and worn rain tires up and down the dirt part - extremely slippery - no traction.

Scrub in tires BEFORE Mt Washington practice. I kept them new so I could groove them more easily and with less damage to the iron. The tires I crashed on had .5 miles on them when I entered that off camber turn and the rear end passed me on the outside. Next time the tires will all have at least 2 trips up a NEHA hill or equivalent before any use or custom grooving at Mt Washington. I will make a decision on how to groove them earlier and do it. Having brought 2 sets of slicks I could have cut both rain and dry on Thursday, but I followed Don's lead and did neither until Friday late afternoon and early evening - when I should have reccied the top when it opened up (but until way after dark i didnt have a decent set of tires to reccie the top if it was at all damp).

I wont try to also work at tech next time. They changed the schedule so part of my reccie day on Thursday had to be spent at tech instead of just Wednesday (over half the cars waited until that short window on Thursday afternoon to tech). Not a problem for Don because he is an old hand there and knew what to expect on the hill but I really needed more time to prepare.

Sherms tip to bring a parka was excellent. I also threw in a rain slicker and a couple bottles of water. I will also add my small tool pouch. I didnt need it but I saw where others did and I realized a simple problem could end the event due to a simple issue without a few hand tools available.

[Robevo]

i have learned , never under estimate the US event organizers anymore. I see the light from now on. I have been some events in the past 2 -3 years and i am being honest, i was kind of disappointing at the events.
So far all of them looked like a heavy or rather light practice day. Felt like that anyway for me. Which is not bad , but hardly can compere to a race day in EU.

This was the very first event /i have been at RA events too/ felt like there is more involved at the events , to make it complex , and interesting even for wife's or kids. There for, i had a home feeling
Only thig is still missing the nice girls in the show ... LOL

I liked the events orgenizers and the competitors too! Every single one of them were nice and open !

Thank you guys !!


Rob

[sdwarf36]

1:You can use shaving cream to keep visors+ glasses from fogging. But it doesn't help visibility out at all if its still foggy out.

2: it takes 20 minutes in a commercial dryer to dry out a seat cover. (Nomex is less-and don't do your arm restraints-they make too much noise.)

3: If you are gonna steal a golf cart, make sure there are no witnesses.

4: Dont look at your gauges in the last mile. It doesn't matter-you gotta go for it. (15 psi of oil pressure at 11k? )

5: If you borrow a car from someone that looks like this -> you are gonna have to put gas in it.

6: Make sure your on-board camera is empty before you do your best run of the weekend.

[3rdgendennis]

5: If you borrow a car from someone that looks like this -> you are gonna have to put gas in it.

LOL

[Rabbit Farmer]

My first guess is that was Josh.... my second guess was Josh, also.