anyone attended a NE-SVT autox?

[dkois]

Hey all.  First, thanks to everyone that made yesterday happen. Great event!

As a near-novice, and one with a different car than last year, I'm looking to gain as much seat time as I can. I'm wondering if anyone has attended any of the NE-SVT autox events that they hold at Devens. Open to all cars.

The upside seems to be that they use the whole airfield (~1.8 miles) so course is long, and they limit each event to 55 so I'd presume there'd be good seat time. Only downside I can see from their site (a study in minimalism, that...) is that the posted videos make the course layouts look dull as dishwater (basic slalom after slalom...). May be other downsides.

Any thoughts from experience or hearsay on the group, event, quality/safety, or general value of going to one or more of their events this summer would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance! Dennis

[Forcednduckshn]

Never ran an NE-SVT event.  However, I have ran the BSCC event there.  I have also ran with MSNE at Meadowlands.  I have heard great things about NE-SVT.

Keeping things extremely to the point:

Positives - A TON of seat time.  You will typically get 3 times as many runs as a typical SCCA event. I got over 15 runs at BSCC. Very long courses, and in some cases a bit higher speed.  I never felt any course I ran at was unsafe.

Negatives - I have heard that course designs from Non-SCCA clubs can sometimes lack the creativity, technical challenge and fun factor of SCCA.  That being said, both BSCC and MSNE had fantastic course designs!  Again, I have no experience with NE-SVT specifically.  I have heard great things about them.  They may very well offer fantastic course designs as well.

Advice - Just treat the event like a big test and tune; not a competition, and you will have a blast.  Car classing can be extremely "unrefined."  For example, at BSCC, an E-Stock Miata would be in the same class as an SSP Corvette.

[NERDY]

Never ran an NE-SVT event.  However, I have ran the BSCC event there.  I have also ran with MSNE at Meadowlands.  I have heard great things about NE-SVT.

Keeping things extremely to the point:

Positives - A TON of seat time.  You will typically get 3 times as many runs as a typical SCCA event. I got over 15 runs at BSCC. Very long courses, and in some cases a bit higher speed.  I never felt any course I ran at was unsafe.

Negatives - I have heard that course designs from Non-SCCA clubs can sometimes lack the creativity, technical challenge and fun factor of SCCA.  That being said, both BSCC and MSNE had fantastic course designs!  Again, I have no experience with NE-SVT specifically.  I have heard great things about them.  They may very well offer fantastic course designs as well.

Advice - Just treat the event like a big test and tune; not a competition, and you will have a blast.  Car classing can be extremely "unrefined."  For example, at BSCC, an E-Stock Miata would be in the same class as an SSP Corvette.

I would tend to agree with everything Nick says above.  I have been to several NE-SVT events.

They are great for seat time.  You'll get a lot of runs on courses that are almost 2 minutes long.

The courses are, in my opinion, fairly bland and tend to be fast and flowing to the point of monotony.  There are few, if any, sections of the courses that require skillful braking or allow for experimentation of different lines.

I wouldn't say that the typical courses they run are unsafe, but there is less emphasis on safety in that club and I have witnessed a few incidents that could have had an unfortunate ending.

My biggest gripe with the club, aside from the classing (which greatly favors a few cars), is the work assignments.  They run the ~1.7 mile loop around the site with about 15-16 course workers to shag cones.  If you are in a busy spot you will spend a lot of time sprinting after cones with little reprieve.  For a couple events in a row I got stuck working the same slalom by myself and i found myself sprinting from one side of the slalom to the other with a great frequency.  It caused me to take a year hiatus from the club which i only broke following an offer to drive a certain ~360whp CRX. 

-Bryan

[pzahornasky]

I wouldn't say that the typical courses they run are unsafe, but there is less emphasis on safety in that club and I have witnessed a few incidents that could have had an unfortunate ending.

My biggest gripe with the club, aside from the classing (which greatly favors a few cars), is the work assignments.  They run the ~1.7 mile loop around the site with about 15-16 course workers to shag cones. 

Something to think about - 16 course workers over 1.7 miles means there is an average of 500 or so feet between workers.  IF something happens, how long before help arrives?  How long before an extinguisher arrives if there is a fire? (I am assuming they don't have one every 500 feet)

I've never run one of their events, but these are thoughts that spring to mind.

[madame_toussleau]

While Nick talked about BSCC, I can tell you that the core group setting up for TrackUSA, NE-SVT and BSCC is basically the same, so you get a very similar type of event if you attend any of those 3.

-barbara


 

[dkois]

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. Much appreciated. Mostly confirms what I'd been thinking. I think I'll give it a try (thinking of it as a big test and tune, which is great advice) and see how it goes. And frankly, the exercise from shagging a zillion cones would probably do me good...

I'll report back to the group after trying it out!

Best,
Dennis

[greenmaxse]

I have always enjoyed their events.  I think you will too. 

[konaforever]

I had fun at the BSSC event a few weeks ago. We didn't do the 2 mile layout, just the 1 mile. I got lots of seat time though, and gained good experience! Also they had some technical things I haven't done before, like a slalom going diagonally, which was cool!

[ACM]

The Ford/Corvette/whatever (you know who you are :-)  are great events to run !   Do not even THINK of running A6s - you will destroy them in a single event.   That caveat aside, they are great events.   They are less fast autocrosses, more slow track events, so approach them accordingly - if you take that on board you'll love them.

They are the absolute opposite of the old Miata events - which I loved for the punishing precision required, which made SCCA events almost easy by comparison...Sorry Rob - I loved your courses of old   I love your new courses too, but your old courses more so !  I would go home with more bite marks than...

[Gus Heck]

I have been to 1 @ BSCC, 2 @ NESHOC (which merged into one of these, I forget which), 1 SVT, and 0 TrackClubUSA (signed up once but it got snowed out). They are generally the same crowd, and generally similar events, with a few permutations. One thing I didn't like was with the 2mi course, one of them (I think SVT?) had this "no course walks" but a course Drive through... allegedly for time reasons, but I just don't like it anyway I greatly value the opportunity to read the course and try to understand what it is I need to do out there.

Also, It seems to be the case that all of my "worsts" for safety are at the above events... my worst spin (4 tires in the grass, backwards, off of the fastest part of a neshoc course the rain), and the time I got to the finish only to see a porsche sideways in the stop box without having been red flagged. Luckily I was looking ahead. 2 out of 4 events have had an issue. vs 1 of 5+ events with bmw, and zero of 30+ events with ner/renegade.

The courses do tend to be longer, faster, and less technical, and seat time is definitely higher.

They are more laid back, and they are nice folks, and I may well run with them again, but I favor BMW, Renegade and NER for safety and consistency reasons, and if the next few times I run with them also have incidents of concern, I may eventually not be going back. Right now, I consider the sample size too small for a conclusion, but I'm paying attention... If I wanted danger, I'd be at track events.

[bruiser]

Their courses are not technical in any way however you will get plenty of high speed seat time. Be very careful if they use the long loop as that is where more people have had problems going into the grass or the parked police cars (BMW Club). Unlike NERSCCA and my Renegade Club safety issues are not watched.