THSCC Forums

First off, I have to give a big THANK YOU to all the Tarheel folks who gave me both their understanding of the issues we faced, and their kind words about how we dealt with those issues. The responses I got at the event, as well as here in the forum have gone a long way toward helping me deal with what I had previously regarded as a total failure. Although I now realize that it wasn't a complete failure, the event was certainly not what I or Highlands had intended to put on and I think I owe you guys as much of an explanation as I can provide.

Setup Crew:
We started out with 5 people to set up and run the event. After having major car trouble on Saturday, 2 of them left. And although several other Highlands people who went only to participate pitched in to help fill in the gaps, we still had too many gaps to make up. We simply didn’t bring enough people.

Course(s):
I was my understanding that our President was working with Rob Faulkner on course design and would bring two well-planned-out designs that would be ready for cones the moment we got there. I still don't know what happened, but Rob and his crew canceled their registrations late Thursday and never showed up. When we started setting up the course Friday night, it quickly became apparent that our President was still putting together the course in his head. When we were finished, we had a course that I, along with many others, considered to be both unsafe and a logistical nightmare (course overlap, paddock traffic, etc). Unfortunately, he would not listen to anyone until Saturday morning at 8:something am when Anthony Hodges finally convinced him to change it. Sunday's course suffered a similar fate although thankfully the change was only very minor (lopping off the last turn) and came earlier in the morning. This was totally unacceptable and for that I sincerely apologize.

Workers:
After much though, I believe I have an answer for the shortage of workers at various points in the day. Since we had about 30 less drivers show up than the number who pre-registered, the run groups ended up being uneven, leaving some with a severe shortage of workers. I think we would have been OK if we had stuck to my plan of 4 rungroups but I was overruled by our president and we changed it to 5.

Communications:
We simply did not have the PA system required to hear the announcer in the paddock area. Although we did have an FM broadcast, the shear distance (plus the fact that most people don't hang out in the paddock with their car radios on) made this an ineffective solutions for hearing announcement which further exacerbated the problem with workers. As for times, we were completely unaware that using the wireless system would prevent use of our timing display. Fortunately the FM broadcast did work in the grid area (if you turned up the volume enough). We also designated someone to give times to drivers as they came off course but that unfortunately consumed another worker and two more radios, both of which were already in short supply. Finally, we failed to post printed times at all on Saturday because of AxWare problems (see below).

Wireless:
When it was suggested that we borrow CCR's newly purchased wireless system, many of us were skeptical about using an unfamiliar system at such a big event but those reservations were quelled by two factors: 1) Using our wired system would have severely limited course design and 2) CCR had just used the system at a hillclimb where the components were separated by over a mile of trees and mountainous terrain. The last thing we expected was to have problems on a completely flat piece of ground with distances of only 200 or so yards. Unfortunately there was no way to really prepare for this problem and it caused the most significant delay of the entire event. I guess you could say we were the guinea pigs for wireless at Danville.

Timing/AxWare problems:
While I have never been a big fan of AxWare's many idiosyncrasies, it always seems to get the jobs done. This past weekend was a major departure from the norm. I saw more than one occurrence were the software mysteriously reverted to default setting, including turning off AutoSave at least 3 times. I have never seen anything like this before and I swear I'm not making this up (I think at least one person can vouch for the self-changing AutoSave). When the computer crashed after the 1st rungoup, this AutoSave snafu caused us to lose those times from the computer, as well as some late class changes that plagued us the rest of the day. Yes, someone should have hit "Save" after the first group was finished but it didn't happen. The important thing is that NO TIMES WERE LOST because we had a work assignment dedicated to writing down times manually and we were able to put those missing times back into the computer Saturday night. This is also why no times were posted on Saturday. I posted Saturday's times as quickly as I could Sunday morning but there were still issues with a few times not showing up because of the late class changes that were lost. When we got those class changes sorted out, the data in the computer was re-associated with the proper car ID.

At this point I'm sure you're tired of reading what must seem like a bunch of excuses so I'll wrap it up. It is not my intention to make excuses. There were plenty of things we (I) screwed up this weekend and for that you all have my most sincere apology. There were also things that were completely out of our control. I thought everyone deserved the most honest and complete explanation I could provide for both. Again, thank you very much for your understanding and most especially for your kind words of support.

-Shane Eudy

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Highlands Sports Car Club

Thanks for posting Shane!

I'll be the first to admit that I was within ~30 minutes of going home on Saturday during the delay but, as with most, the heat was getting to me. Combine that with the fact that I was running on very little sleep on top of starting a new job on Monday (today) and the thought of spending Sunday lounging around the house was starting to look very appealing.

Needless to say, despite the issues, I'm extremely glad I stuck around and I wound up having a great time. I got a chance to work in the trailer on Sunday and you guys definitely had your hands full. I think we all owe you and the rest of the Highlands crew a big thanks for putting up with *us* and hanging in there.

Ultimately it turned out to be a great event and you guys should be proud of everything you accomplished.

Jim

All's well that ends well.

Highlands needs not hold its head down one bit, good job.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Shane:

I think once everyone got over their frustrations with everything given some of the obstacles you had (not excuses) don't consider it a "Total Failure". Even the folks that were really P*#@ed at things (including me) saw things a bit more cooly after a night in the AC. After all was said and done I can say that while somewhat frustrated (mostly over the fact that I drove poorly Saturday) I had a good time on the courses, and you all maintained a good attitude despite all the frustrations. It is hard to satisfy 130 people with a staff of 3 to 5.

Best of all, you and Walter made a really cute couple.

Thanks for all your hard work

Rob

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1990 Faded Reddish CSP Lite Miata
2002 Electron Blue Corvette Z06
2005 Mazda 6 Wagon
2003 Nissan Pathfinder DTV (Dog Transport Vehicle)

Hey Shane - I wasn't at the NCAC but let me tell you from my experience as a former THSCC president and my 4 years as Autocross VP -- Thanks for coming on here and humbly explaining your thoughts on all the issues from the event. I gotta tell you, I've "been there done that" on every one of those problems but not ALL at the same event!! I feel for ya!

Glad to see you're taking it in stride and treating everything like a learning experience. Only advice I can give you is to call every mistake or failure a fascinating opportunity to improve. Get other people in the club interested in the risks and problems and get them engaged. I think this is something that (and I don't know why) THSCC does somewhat naturally -- we always have had a great group of people willing to tear down problems "post partum" and come up with solutions. If you can find a way to foster that kind of culture it would be a big help in the future.

Good luck and let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Shane,
Coming here and posting after the beating you took on Sat and the enormous amount of work you put into before during and after the event shows just how big a person you are! The relentless heat we have been experiencing the last few weeks and especially on Sat shortened everyone's fuse much more than normal, heck hour+ delays for timing equipment issues is almost the norm at National events run by people who get paid to do it! All's well that ends well.
One suggestion for you is not to be afraid to ask for outside help from the other clubs when understaffed. Had you delegated some of the work to volunteers from other clubs rather than trying to do it all from logistically a great distance away with so few people it might have made it much more pleasant event for you. Had it been known that you were using unfamiliar equipment, I'm sure Tarheel would have been glad to bring our equipment and bus to the site as standby backup (redundancy is good!).
Unfortunately our bus was parked a 4 hr round trip away at the time.
I still think Highlands and you did a tremendous job, and except for the weather (tho it was still better than rain IMHO ) you handled everything that was thrown at you without losing your "cool". As at the awards presentation I again publicly thank y'all for a much better than just "good" event overall, you have nothing to be ashamed about!

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

Shane, you are a stand up guy and I respect you for taking responsibility. Your perserverance in the face of adversity is admirable and appreciated. You could have given up and then NCAC would have been a total failure. You guys didn't and in the end it was all good.

I didn't realize there were so few Highlands people working the event. The cancellations, heat and some of the problems were out of your control. We all have had timer issues and worker issues.

Don't be too hard on yourself. We appreciate your effort and determination. Autocrossers have a lot of time to find fault and complain between runs. I think most of us are satisfied with how it worked out in the end. I had a great time.

Do you need another hug?

Hey Jeff, great photo!

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Rubbin' is Racin'