Well, let's see... After spending the better part of the last three weeks with final preparations, assignments, dealing with track officials and sweating the details, hoping that we present the best HPDE experience possible for 180+ attendees and maintaining our reputation as a class program, the staff and I finally get a couple of weeks' breather to attend to our personal life.
Time I checked in on this thread to see if we accomplished our goals, right?
Hmmmm....
Seems like there's a little frustration with us "underlings" who work the Club's HPDE program.
Just for the record, here's the list of the "Underlings" in our track program who donate their time and resources because they want to give back to the sport they enjoy:
Kevin Butler--Our #1 go-to guy who handles the heavy lifting behind the scenes. Signs, banners, helmets, setting up the classrooms, whatever needs to be done. Never complains, just gets the job done. (BTW, Kevin bumped himself DOWN to Blue Group for the VIR-North event to help balance the groups, despite being one of the faster drivers in RED!!!)
Stacy King--Director General who I know contributes 20 hours per week, EVERY WEEK, to assure we run the smoothest, most organized events around.
John King--Our tireless webmaster who keeps up with things despite running his round-the-clock business.
Marty Howard--Handling logistics for the season while taking on a full Instructor load at the track.
Brian Hobson and Brian Settle--You know, those guys who stand out in the hot pit all day to make sure you get out on track safely and who talk real slow if you are brought in after an off-track excursion? They find their track time whenever they can. And never complain if they have to run in a group below their experience level.
Ron Spencer, Karl Shultz and Chuck Hawks--Yep. Underlings. Who, by the way, are the lynchpins of our program. Their expertise in presenting informative classroom sessions and the interaction that they create among drivers helps set our program above the rest. We've all developed friendships with others in this sport which have started in the classroom. And if the air needs to be cleared, our classroom sessions provide the perfect forum.
Scott Lusted and Rob Harvey--Our Timing and Scoring team. These guys arrive Friday night before an event to set up the timing equipment, radios, and the other Blue-teeth-Ipod-microprocessor-dot-com stuff I know nothing about, other than it makes our life easier during the events.
Vincent Keene, Ryan Holton, David Spratte--All those pretty T-shirts, plaques, trophies and funky graphics appear out of the ozone, right? Well, these very talented "underlings" can't get enough thanks from me for all the stuff they accomplish on their own time to add to the overall enjoyment of a weekend on track.
All of our dedicated
In-Car Instructors--Without these folks, frankly, there is no track program. Their reward is watching their students progress through the ranks and the inevitable "Thank you's" they continually receive from former students for the part they contributed in building their driving skills.
And no one knows better than I how many hours
Sharon Mackey gives to the program both in document preparation at night, logistics and just pitching in at the track to keep registration, merchandise sales, sign-offs and a bunch of other stuff under control. Sharon could give a rat's ass if she ever gets in a race car again, but she enjoys the camaraderie and for better of worse, sees first-hand the hard work we all do to pull off an event that rivals those of the "For-Profit" programs.
So there you have it. A crew of dedicated folks who selflessly give their time so us track junkies can "arrive and drive" in a fun, SAFE environment. "Underlings"? Hardly.
Just ask them about the countless times folks stop them in the paddock just to say, "Hey, you guys are doing a heck of a job. Thanks for a great weekend!" That's what makes it all worth while.
How about
"Overlings"? I submit that's a more appropriate title.
Edit: On second thought, we aren't " 'LINGS" at all. We're folks just trying to do the best we can. Derogatory labels notwithstanding. Enough already.
See ya on track
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Not once, but twice. It wasn't intentional, as my driving skills are in no way on par with Randy Melton's, but I was able to implement correction and keep it on the track.
