Well, that was interesting.
First off, many thanks to the THSCC officers who remained professional and courteous throughout the whole ordeal. It was pretty obvious that there were a couple of prime instigators, a bunch of "Yeah, what HE said!" background types and then the officers who politely held their ground and made a good decision. Thanks.
Second, rule 7.2 of our bylaws states we follow SCCA classification, so adding L, CAM etc class designations is supported by our bylaws. Insurance may have the last laugh regarding junior karts, so blame Cline and his industry for that
Third, there are no meaningfully effective NCAC bylaws anymore (at least given the fluidity of Club Cup rules since I first started going to NCAC in 2010, so whoever mentioned that was misinformed). Everything up until 2012 or so has been loose collection of "hey, let's get everyone together and have a big autocross and a good time." That may change now for a couple of reasons. There is a growing contingent of SOOPER SRSBSNS drivers in CCR, which I think is a net benefit to the area, and they have sky-high expectations for events. Additionally, they (CCR) have been trying to show that their region and ZMax could and should support a Tour event of some kind, (despite Sunday quiet hours) and have been progressing towards running their events in a similar fashion. They are quite good at it, it shows in how they perform as a group at Tour events, and I think they derive a sense of pride in that accomplishment. Well played, hat tip, etc.
Naturally, they expect everyone else will be on the same page and will follow suit, and that expectation was not well-communicated to anyone. Instead, they chose an adversarial, confrontational and unpalatable means by which to voice their expectations in a very accusatory tone on our FB page. Not terribly surprised by that. Even though the means of that expression was ill-conceived, we now know the level of expectation.
Where do we go from here? Well, it seems to me NCAC could become its own entity, directed by a small group of representatives from the clubs that want to participate. Club hosting should go away, as there is really only one site in the state people will drive to (even MCASCP was inconvenient for our friends in the Queen City), so why not make it official and keep it at ZMax?
Should the course be lined? Yes--maybe CCR could bring theirs to be used. Should the course maps be published? Of course. Should the FB presence be closed? Definitely not, but it should be moderated.
In regards to Andrew's comment...I understand that sentiment exactly. But I still go to Zmax events as there are some nice people to catch up with, the surface is great and the courses are enjoyable. I have a sincere desire to improve my driving, so I make it a goal to get close to 100 competition runs a season. This (combined with increasing frequency of work-and family schedule conflicts) requires me to be more of an autocross nomad, and so I go to a bunch of CCR Triad and NCR events as the opportunity allows. It's a good thing, and gains me the opportunity to know other folks in different clubs--or if I just want to focus, drive and go home I can do that too (as an introvert this works well for me.) I am too much of a coward to track days (Lack of budget and presence of family notwithstanding) so this is my only gig until the drama llamas drive me out.
Apologies for the long post.
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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at
http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86