GREAT Night Rallycross

[Heraclid]

Just wanted to say thanks again to Joe Black for a great rallycross event and encourage some of you other folks to get involved. Considering it was the first time we've done one of these at Fort Meade, it went very well (and ran ahead of schedule!). Visibility for the drivers was actually quite good, with glowsticks on each cone and a couple of reflective arrow markers. The glowsticks were meant more for the workers to help see if cones went down, but they were extremely helpful for driving. There were situations where, if it hadn't been for those, you couldn't judge how to handle those turns, avoid going too far inside or outside, and set up for the next course feature effectively. Without them a couple of places would have really screwed some people up, because obviously the course is twisty and you can't always have the headlights right where you need them (BTW, someone has a SUV out now with lights that read steering inputs and point where you're turning). Everyone got a few untimed practice runs in the daylight too though, so that kinda helped. All workers had radios and reflective vests. The VX was a thrill to sling around the hairpins as usual, and the stock lighting was plenty adequate (well, mine is sorta stock - running Silverstars in the lamps). I hit less cones in the dark than in the daylight, but after going a spell without hitting any I guess I was due. I was nothing if not consistent, running 2:07 in my last three consecutive runs! I usually improve with each run and would have liked to have done so again, but at least I avoided losing time. :-) Plus I easily won my class, being the only 4WD truck there. LOL!

Come to think of it, it's been a weird weekend with numbers for me. I ran 2:07 in three back-to-back runs, was behind two trucks with the number 666 on them within 5 minutes of each other when I was almost home, and when I took the last exit and stopped for the light, I was sitting at an even 69,000 miles on the odometer. Joe, maybe I'm the one who's supposed to win the lottery. LOL! But not to worry - if I did I'd set you up with one helluva tricked-out third VX! Then again, I can't remember the last time I bought a lottery ticket. But Amanda and I recently watched a woman buy $80 worth of scratch-offs.