Excellent Memorial Day Weekend Format

T

TimM ITB

New member
OK, I have to admit that I had a great weekend results-wise, but I wanted to start this post to see how many others out there LOVED the format of this weekends' qualifying / race setup? I know that for my money, the more RACING that we get to do, in lieu of simply practice or qualifying, the happier that I get. So, the format that our Racing Board put together of a qualifying session Saturday morning, followed by a Sprint race Saturday afternoon, and the BEST TIME being the criteria for grid position for Sunday morning's race, then followed by Sunday afternoon's race based on the best POSITION from Sunday morning's race (I know, I know, I get a headache just typing it!) - well it all boils down to 3 races and 1 "normal" qualifying session. For me, this beats hands down 2 "normal" qualifying sessions and 2 Sprint races every time. More racing. More fun.

I don't know if, under the SCCA rules, etc, that we can go to this kind of program for other double race weekends, but if it isn't a problem there, I would love to see this used for the Pig Roast and Cheat Date weekends.

Anybody else feel the same?

Tim M
#86 ITB
 
:happy204: :happy204: :happy204:
May I be the first to congratulate Raymond on his 2nd ITB win on Sunday afternoon. He proved that he and his crew's perserverence was well worth it.
And to Stephen, for enjoying the heck out of racing even if the car DID have issues.
And to the RST Performance Racing Team.....you showed that you can work hard and still have fun with it all....especially the OLD MAN -- Randy!
Good job, guys.

Now to NER...I brought my landlady up for Sunday mornings races and she was most impressed with the wonderful family atmosphere, the willingness of people to let her look at their cars up close and personal, and the incredible volunteers that make up the backbone of NER. No matter how I explained it all, seeing it in action made all the difference. She is spreading the word about NER and still talking about the races! :D :D
 
Sorry, but I have to disagree with the format being good. I thought it stunk. Being one of those people who has to work on Saturdays, that insured that I had to come up and go straight to the back of the pack, in a race, with no chance to warmup or shake the car out. Which would be OK in a perfect world, with a perfectly working car.
And when we found that we had some issues to resolve with the car, cramming two days into one pretty much gauranteed that we didn't have time to get it properly sorted out for either race. How can you check what you did if your only on track session is in a race? I would bet that your opinion would change if you had been trying to get your car working properly, and weren't given the chance to get mechanical issues straightened out.
And, you're saying you're supporting a format that gives us LESS track time? Sorry, but I don't support that for one minute.
Practice & qualifying are for more than grid positions. So for the money, I found this format to be a lot of aggravation without the fun. <_<
 
I agree with Steph (she told me to say that), it was rough to sort things out with little or no practice. And for 2 drivers one car, it was expensive, we paid $210 each for our 1 day regional, you guys paid $260 each for a 2 day, 3 race deal. Yeah, I know, if I had the 2nd car running I might feel different, but Steph still has to work most Saturdays, so would have been the same thing for her.

On a side note, does the club or racing really benefit from these performance driving days? Has anyone any good data (not just gut feelings) about how many participants go on to become racers?
 
On a side note, no THIS club has no data on Performance Driving events....

But.............

One only has to look at NASA, BMWCCA, PCA, PDA, POC...should I go on??? to see the logic and success.

I don't think we need data to spot the elephant sitting in the yard...it's pretty obvious.

The club, like any business, needs to invest in it's future.
 
StephF & Ed Funk,

Maybe one way to assist those that can’t make all the “races” and need time to shake down the car would be to use that “hardship” practice like they have done at Limerock.

That would only take about 30-45 minutes out of the day’s schedule (one open wheel session and one closed wheel session?)
I think that would still allow all of the scheduled “races” and give a hand to those that want/need the shake down sessions.

This is just an idea. Because I love the idea of more races and less qualifying (even though I didn’t even finish one race last weekend)

Matt Bal
 
I thought the format was great. I wish we did more events like that. The fact of the matter is we all have issues that may interfere with our racing desires and therefore results....but that's why we don't get paid to do this. Working on Sat. would definitely be a hinderance to performance and oucomes, but for the average folks who wait around all winter to RACE (not qualify and practice) this is the most rewarding type of format.

The turnout for the Driver's Event was about 55 students. I feel this shows real interest given the lack of significant advertising. I think the HPDE was a success and is beneficial to the region. Activity is the key to envolvement.

Great Weekend NER :happy204: !!!

R
 
What a LONG LONG weekend!!!!

As for the Format, I loved it, but I think to address Steph and Ed's issue.... I think that all the races could be based on time rather than finishing position... But in honesty, that doesn't reward those who work hard all weekend as much ;) I am in favor of either schedule. Personally I would prefer the following format:

Saturday:[/u]
~ Qualifying
~ Race - Based on qualifying time

Sunday:
~ Race - Based on finishing position from Saturday afternoon race
~ Race - Based on times from morning session

This would resolve Stephanie’s problem...
A) She can’t race Saturday so the points/positions don't matter, they are a "drop."
B) Sunday mornings session (race) turns more into a qualifying session for her and again this race could be "dropped" as she prefers it not to be a race anyhow.
C) Sunday afternoon she gets a fair shot at winning at least one race!!!


As for Tim Mullen and his domination... Well Deserved CONGRATS :smilie_pokal: Job well done :) You drove amazing from all of my views... I was awfully bummed Saturday when I lost the Alternator belt, I think we would have had a great race in the end :) Sundays afternoon race was a blast, I think we ran clean and gave each other plenty of "racing room" even though others in ITS feel that we shouldn't be doing that... :unsure: (personal joke).

Matt- Thanks for the scare... next time just face it, I am going to beat ya!!! :cavallo: JK, hope you have the car fixed for the next event!!!

Mom- Thanks for the kind words... I did win 1 race, but the real person who did a great job was Tim Mullen.

Tom Kelly- Slow down... you are way to fast in a Golf with an old motor and no Quaiffe!!! How the heck are we going to stay up with you when you make those upgrades???? Nice car, one of the nicest I have seen in all of IT IMO. :035:

Bob Smart - Northeast Tire (The HOOSIER Man, SMARTY) - HUGE thank you for all the help that you did on Stephens car... I can’t say enough about what he did. Stephens car was a bit "tired" should you say, and the sub frame pulled out of the floor on the passenger side. We were up till about 1:00am at the track on Saturday night building a new floor so that he could run on Sunday... Stephen met "Smarty" at 7:00am Sunday morning to do the welding.... "Smarty" did an awesome job and while we missed the first race the car was ready to go long before the afternoon race and the car is better than it ever was!!! Thanks again Bob for your hard work!!!

Ok and now in my long review... Monday, the PDX event:

What a GREAT event. I don't think that the two stewards (Kathy Barnes, Peter Roberts), the stewards in training (Jason Benagh), and all of the workers could have done a better job. The event went without flaw and I did not talk to one person who was upset in anyway about the event. Everyo9ne was very very happy!!! I look forward to being a part of future events!!!

We had my Audi running with two drivers and we had a VW Golf Rally car running with one driver. It was a long day for me as it was driving, riding, riding, driving, riding, riding, etc. but I think Monday was more fun than the entire weekend, not to mention we may have a new ITB competitor... I told him that he wasn't allowed to build an Audi though as I think he was as fast as I was with only 1 session in the car!!!

And last but not least.... HAPPY 40th Birthday Randy!!! (Randy for those who don't know is our 22 (?) year crew member who has been through the good and bad of it all since we started :) ) Thanks for everything;

Raymond "over and out" Blethen
 
Raymond, you are right....Tim DID do an outstanding job. And watching the two of you duke it out was most exciting. I think that between you, Tim, Stephen, and Tom Kelley, ITB is going to be THE race to watch this year. However, Tim and Tom, know that I'm going to PRAY that the Audi's beat :bash_1_: you every time....(Mother's perogative) :rolleyes: Again, outstanding performance by all of you.
 
The format that was used at NHIS seemed pretty cool to me! I hate having to take a day off just for qualifying and practice session. To me, there is a huge difference between practice sessions and another race. If I'm looking for lapping time, I'll go instruct at a HPDE.

I'd be interested in seeing some other fun stuff done this year.

Oh, it was awesome seeing Eric Curran and teammate get another GrandAm win! Cool stuff.
 
Raymond and all;

I think that the format you laid out would also work, and solve the problem for people who can only come on one of the 2 days of a "double weekend." The point is, more racing, less practice and qualifying, whenever possible. So, NER board people if you're listening, I think what you're hearing is a large majority of us are interested in trying formats that work toward this goal.

The PDE event - an outstanding job by NER in my opinion! This was our first PDE? I don't think you would ever have known that by the way it was organized and the way it ran. I had 3 students, 2 of them from marque clubs, who had NEVER been to any SCCA event of any kind. Talk about dispelling myths! One of my students, with a brand new "track day only" car, told me that - unlike what he had been led to believe by people in his marque club, that everyone he met that day had been "very friendly, helpful and went out of their way to make me feel welcome." The last question that he had for me was, "when is the next one?" This could be an excellent avenue for adding new SCCA members directly, and maybe just as importantly, indirectly spreading the word amongst a bunch of car-loving speed junkies in these marque clubs who may have the wrong idea about the SCCA. Anyway, I heard that we were hoping for 50 entrants, and got 55? Even if this was a "break even" day for the club monetarily, with the word-of-mouth advertising combined with a few "real dollars" spent on advertising with the marque clubs and elsewhere, I'm sure the turnouts will continue to grow. As will NER new members as a result! Question - did we give monetary consideration to SCCA members who entered the PDE? In other words, is there an incentive to join SCCA and get a "break" on the cost of participating in the PDE? If not, we might want to consider that for the next one?

And thanks for the kind words about the results - as for the racing this past weekend, well, it don't get no better than that! Side by side with Ray through turn 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9!! And earlier side by side with Tom Kelly through 9 and 10!!! I don't know if this ol' heart can take that again!!! I'll have to check on ebay to see about a few good used pacemakers before the next race. Are those legal in IT? (couldn't resist)

Your comments about clean racing were right on the money. Hard racing, enough room, no bumping (and I saw your video, you COULD have taken me out coming onto the front straight a couple of times, but you lifted and avoided the contact - nicely done) just a blast, lap after lap. Can you imagine if that ITS car had not held up Paul and Tom? The 4 of us all at the same lap times? The kind of racing that makes all the dollars and time and sweat seem well worth it. OK, OK, at least bearable!

Now, I wait for the Pig to arrive!! (Sorry, but LRP in June is probably out for me!)

later,

Tim M
 
I proposed that the Cheap Date weekend run with the same format, but possibly with the south chicane.

Kathy Barnes said that the only reason it was liked by people was because it was different, and we would not use it again this year. That killed that discussion.

What Kathy wants, Kathy gets.

If you don't agree, tell her directly, please.

Email: Kathleen Barnes
 
It was liked because it accomplished what we all want - more RACING.

Now a lot of people don't like the Chicane - Chicane format so to have 4 sessions of that, I don't know. I would be all for it.
AB
 
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