A few items of interest from the annual meeting. These are only my inferences as an attendant of the meetings, not any kind of official announcements:
- We are no longer using NESCCA.com for event registrations, we're moving to motorsportsreg.com. I suggest you get an account set up and become familiar with the interface.
- Timing and Scoring at NHMS is moving from the Media Center to the main tower. This affects you in terms of manually timing your qually/race laps in cases of failure of the AMB system. As you pass along the front straight, you're going to be very close to the wall, and T&S eyes are going to be much further away. Having very good hood numbers will be paramount; if you don't you may not get lap times.
Check your hood numbers to ensure they're per the GCR size at a minimum and easily legible from the right side. You might even consider tossing on a roof number, angled to be read from the right side.
- NER needs to recruit a new scrutineering chief. Scott Dowd has a seasonal job in Maine which keeps him from being around during the year. While he's OK with remotely administering our scrutineering needs (and has been doing it well) he believes we'd be better served by having someone who can actively participate. If you have any interest, please do contact him.
- Credit card transaction costs for event registrations is rising as a significant expense. Each time we use a card it costs the region ~3%. As of right now there are no plans to charge a fee for use of credit cards, but if this trend continues that may change (or entry costs as a whole may have to be raised).
If at all possible I encourage you to write a check or provide cash instead of using a card.
- Overall, NER is financially sound. There were some program losses this year (Solo and Rally as the notable exceptions) but not as significant as one would expect, given the economy. We have good cash flow with minimal debts.
- No more Lime Rock National. I don't recall exactly why, it may have been costs, it may have been schedule conflicts. Jerry can step in and elaborate.
- No more NHMS enduro. Horrid participation numbers.
- Schools have been moved to the middle of the year. First event this year is a "Rational" (combo Regional/National) last weekend of April.
- Three triple Regionals this year.
- Palmer Motorsports Park. The private investor that the track committee has been working with over the last two years, the one that's been paying the monthly option-for-purchase costs of $5200, has apparently become unresponsive with the end of our contracts with him. As a result, the committee is continuing their search for new investors.
On a plus side, while it seems like we're back to where we were two years ago, there's definitely a silver lining. Yes, we've lost two years of development on this project, but this investor pretty much covered most of our costs including the monthly cash flow, all in the teeth of a very bad recession. Plus, he paid for a lot of the continuing tests/approvals during that time frame. Even if this person were to not come back to the table, if nothing else he bought us two more years, time we probably would not have been able to cover ourselves.
As a result, We're in a good financial position on the track, now we just need to find someone(s) with the capital to invest to move the project forward.
It was great meeting everyone, looking forward to a new racing year.
Greg
- We are no longer using NESCCA.com for event registrations, we're moving to motorsportsreg.com. I suggest you get an account set up and become familiar with the interface.
- Timing and Scoring at NHMS is moving from the Media Center to the main tower. This affects you in terms of manually timing your qually/race laps in cases of failure of the AMB system. As you pass along the front straight, you're going to be very close to the wall, and T&S eyes are going to be much further away. Having very good hood numbers will be paramount; if you don't you may not get lap times.
Check your hood numbers to ensure they're per the GCR size at a minimum and easily legible from the right side. You might even consider tossing on a roof number, angled to be read from the right side.
- NER needs to recruit a new scrutineering chief. Scott Dowd has a seasonal job in Maine which keeps him from being around during the year. While he's OK with remotely administering our scrutineering needs (and has been doing it well) he believes we'd be better served by having someone who can actively participate. If you have any interest, please do contact him.
- Credit card transaction costs for event registrations is rising as a significant expense. Each time we use a card it costs the region ~3%. As of right now there are no plans to charge a fee for use of credit cards, but if this trend continues that may change (or entry costs as a whole may have to be raised).
If at all possible I encourage you to write a check or provide cash instead of using a card.
- Overall, NER is financially sound. There were some program losses this year (Solo and Rally as the notable exceptions) but not as significant as one would expect, given the economy. We have good cash flow with minimal debts.
- No more Lime Rock National. I don't recall exactly why, it may have been costs, it may have been schedule conflicts. Jerry can step in and elaborate.
- No more NHMS enduro. Horrid participation numbers.
- Schools have been moved to the middle of the year. First event this year is a "Rational" (combo Regional/National) last weekend of April.
- Three triple Regionals this year.
- Palmer Motorsports Park. The private investor that the track committee has been working with over the last two years, the one that's been paying the monthly option-for-purchase costs of $5200, has apparently become unresponsive with the end of our contracts with him. As a result, the committee is continuing their search for new investors.
On a plus side, while it seems like we're back to where we were two years ago, there's definitely a silver lining. Yes, we've lost two years of development on this project, but this investor pretty much covered most of our costs including the monthly cash flow, all in the teeth of a very bad recession. Plus, he paid for a lot of the continuing tests/approvals during that time frame. Even if this person were to not come back to the table, if nothing else he bought us two more years, time we probably would not have been able to cover ourselves.
As a result, We're in a good financial position on the track, now we just need to find someone(s) with the capital to invest to move the project forward.
It was great meeting everyone, looking forward to a new racing year.
Greg
