Spec Neon?!?

B

Butch Kummer

New member
I didn't want to hi-jack Todd's thread on the Mid-Ohio festival, but how many Spec Neons are out there? How many would be interested in showing up for the ARRC if invited? We're always looking for classes to help build up our SPU, ITT, ITU, SRX run group, so if there's enough (i.e. - any) interest I'd be more than willing to take the concept to the Committee.

Butch Kummer
2007 ARRC Committee Chairman
 
There are approximately 20 Spec Neon racers in the Detroit area. There are a handful of others that are racing SN with NASA around the country and it's gradually catching on, but the vast majority of the cars are in Detroit.

I would say that many of us would be interested in a trip to the ARRC if invited.
 
Greg & Toby,

In 2006 we invited GTP(into - a WDC region class) to come run the ARRC and had exactly zero (0) show up. I also had no response from my invitation to their spokesman (Bruce Shelton?) which makes me disinclined to invite them back again.

We've certainly got more than enough time before we submit the Supps for the 2007 version, so if you guys can give me some level of confidence that more than two Spec Neons would show up, I'll take it to the ARRC Committee at our March meeting. Worst case scenario is I'll have the Competition Committee add Spec Neon to our "catch all" ITU class, which would give y'all a place to run regardless.

I don't know that I'd be able to add SN to the Enduro classes, but you could run the ARRC sprint race (Saturday) in SN, then run ITU in Sunday's Enduro.

Take a straw poll among your buddies and let me know by mid-March about how many Spec Neons we could expect to have show up. Five (5) would be a good number for the first year. It'd also be good to have one person that can serve as a representative for the group to make sure we've got the correct set of rules to generate the maximum number of entries.

Any other well-subscribed "local" classes out there?

Butch Kummer
 
...if you guys can give me some level of confidence that more than two Spec Neons would show up, I'll take it to the ARRC Committee...[/b]
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If there's any doubt, then toss Spec Neon into the ITA/IT7 group and extend the invitation. If they show, great; if they don't, well they can play in their small local pond(s) in perpetuity.

With the realignment/re-org with IT, it's really where Neons belong anyway...
 
Butch,
I know it may not be popular here, but don't give up on the miatas just yet. I think with more people having the "new" wear off national racing you will get a bigger SM / SSM field. I also think that Sunday's Madness race was so new some folks didn't run in it because they were not sure what it was. I could see several MX5s (Cup) showing up next time. Saini's team alone can field several. I sure hope you guys give consideration to trying the Madness race (whenever) a second year. I know more new classes make things tough, but last year was fun time with all the miata races. If you can figure a way to have a place for those MX5 Cup cars to run against each other, I could see people that were not in the series trying them out at ARRC. (You really might be able to get some $$ from Mazda and/or Koni as this afterseason race might pump up their numbers the following season.) I would imagine lots of teams would rent cars since their season would be over. Just a thought.
Mac
 
Mac,

It's certainly still open to di$$cu$$ion :D , but right now I think the Miata Madness is toast. Miatas can run the Pro-IT in ASM or ITA trim, the ARRC sprint races in ASM, SSM, ITA & ITU, then the Enduro in each of those classes as well. It was an oversight in 2006, but we've added the MX-5 Cup cars to ITU for 2007.

We've made a commitment to Enterprises to give the FSCCA cars their own race (likely for 2007 only since we expect them to earn a Runoffs invitation in 2008), but it will be on Sunday replacing the Pro Shootout. We'll still keep the Enduro, but the rest of Sunday's format is still undecided. One thing I'm thinking about it to take the Enduro back to three hours, but only if we have less than 70 entries for the Enduro. If we have more than 65 (and would have had to send some people home in the past), we'd cut the Enduro to 2:15 and add a 20-lap "consolation race" for those that didn't make the cut for the longer race. Would you (that's the collective "you" as in y'all) be more inclined to hang around on Sunday if you knew you'd get to run at least some kind of race?


Greg,

I'd rather put Spec Neon in with the SPU, ITU, ITT, SRX race group since that has traditionally been our smallest group. If giving them their own class gets a number of them to show up, I'm all for it.

Butch
 
Worst case scenario is I'll have the Competition Committee add Spec Neon to our "catch all" ITU class, which would give y'all a place to run regardless.[/b]
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Butch,

I'll let the SN drivers speak for themselves, but certainly giving them their own class and the possibility of winning an ARRC Championship would be some incentive. Actually, there is no need for you to change anything to allow them to race though. A SN is a 100% legal ITA car, just not full prep. Kevin Fandozzi has brought his car down for the last two years. He ran it in SN trim in 2005 and converted it to ITA just before the 2006 ARRC.

The difficulty with attracting SN drivers to the ARRC is that it is a low-cost class. The cost to run the ARRC would likely equal their budget to run the rest of the season! Waterford Hills is a cheap place to race. (Sorry, another shameless plug :P ).

So far you have Toby saying he'll go. I'm sure Kevin will return. Not sure you'll convince Chris Childs to convert his ITA car to SN. Maybe others will join in the fun?

Ed.
 
Butch,
I'd be encouraged to run the enduro on Sunday at the ARRC if it were extended to 3 hrs., but at the current time length, running it only delays how soon we get back to Baton Rouge. Two hours just isn't always worth it. Particullarly when we've got a 6 hr. to run the next weekend.
 
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