All last week everyone who had pre-registered for the 3rd Iowa Region SCCA AutoX Event of 2019 was keeping a keen eye on the forecast. With “Iowa summer” weather in full swing the weather channels don’t really know how to forecast so it’s a crap shoot either way.
The 3rd event of 2019 for Iowa Region SCCA was held in Waterloo Iowa at a Hawkeye Tech facility on June 23rd 2019. Hawkeye Tech has an awesome lot that we use multiple times during the year, the course designs vary greatly. There are no real obstacles to contend with and our Course Designers get to try out fun technical and high speed elements. Big pluses for Hawkeye Tech include the real bathrooms and shelter when the weather goes sideways.
40 drivers showed up in the morning to race, we had 75 pre-registered so many people got “wet feet” and chose to stay home. For the first few hrs of setup, course walk, tech inspection and car setup I didn’t blame them. I was soaked, but shortly after the driver’s meeting the rain slowed and shortly after stopped all together. After the first AM heat of drivers the course was basically dry!! With the low turn out we were able to do 4 AM runs in very quick order. Course design allowed two cars on course safely and we saw all 20 cars complete a run in under 10 minutes!
With the 2nd heat being dry the times started to drop very quickly, wanting to make sure everyone got their fair shake at the course in the dry the two PM heats got 5 runs each for a total of 9 runs!
The course design was quick but still technical, there were multiple elements that if you over slowed or didn’t slow enough they’d bite you, HARD. It was very common for people to over slow for two elements and then wanting to make up time go too hot into the final turn around. Without looking ahead it was very easy to push wide on the last turn around.
Once more videos and images from yesterday’s event surface I will add them to this post.
Big thank you to everyone who helped setup, work twice due to small turnout and tear down. This event ran very smoothly even with the small turnout. Big kudos to everyone!!
It’s safe to say everyone who skipped this event missed out on some excellent “Iowa summer” racing. Next Iowa Region event is on July 7th at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids!! Be sure to pre-register as the Hawkeye Downs events are capped at 100 drivers due to space constraints.
Side Note: Anyone that wants to compile a recap of their Iowa Region event with photos and/or video is welcome to send them to me on Facebook (Optional Slalom) I will gladly add them here. This site will be the unofficial Iowa Region event recap and archive.
