THSCC Forums

Interesting responses. Some I full well expected and some good ones with different ideas.

The 1/2 day thing I had heard about that being done in CA by I believe a PCA club. I will check into it and see if I can get the info on how they do it. After Alex moved out there she ran their event and said it does work and allows the 1/2 or 3/4 or do both. So for you AX die-hards you could conceivably do twice the AX'ing in 1 day if you wanted. Would that be so horrible...

The cone chasing was a personal thing and I did not want to just go off and do that behind the officers backs. I felt that was something they should tell me or anyone that is or is not acceptable to "pay a worker". We've always looked the other way that Patrice would work his wife's shift so she would watch the kids. There is nothing wrong with that. It allows them to get out there. So I figured why can't I do something similar.

I understand it is a volunteer club. In the past I have volunteered to do many things. I've worked the course, fixed the site, helped build courses, chair events, novice co-ord, and worked with Miles at one point to take over doing the "site guy" job. So please don't call me out for not... wait for it... volunteering....

To Jason's comments. Yeah I think you get where I am coming from. It is racing first and socializing second. The attitude of this is how it is take it or leave it just might have to do with reduced attendance. While the economy can be blamed for a number of entries. Maybe the product is just a bit old and tarnished and a newer approach or ideas might help. At the end of the day, racing, club, call it whatever you want. You have a product, it ain't selling anywhere near as well as it used too. So maybe just consider a few things different. Even changing the start time to earlier.

You've played with split and all at once run groups and it doesn't seem to have any affect on your numbers. That kind of surprised me. If done a bit differently that comes close to 2 x 1/2 day events. It doesn't have to be 1-3 or 2-4 shifts. It could be 1-2 or 3-4. And if you have 3-4 you don't need to show up until 2nd shift sometime. So you shutdown the course after 1-2 finishes for 30 mins for walks and drivers meeting. Heck the drivers meeting is the same thing over and over. You could just play a tape over the wireless loud speaker with it on and skip that. If you started an hour earlier then it wouldn't matter. The early birds can come at 6am and be home by noon. The late people can show up at lunch time. The social people can sit there all day if they want chatting and hanging out. Nothing is stopping them.

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http://www.greywinds.com

I remember having the current registration link bookmarked a couple of times for events in '03 or '04 counting down how many people had to cancel for me to move up when I was on the waiting list.

I can't think of an event last year that we needed the password (just based on the numbers), as I kind of agree that we want to make the registration as streamlined as possible to get people interested. The earlier they sign up, the more likely they'll make it out. Just my $.02

I'm sorry but I just don't see anyone saying that.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

FWIW, we've run a lot with SCCA in Atlanta the past few years, and they always run a split-day event. At the start of the year they create a class breakdown of two groups of classes. For 1/2 the events you have to run the morning session, 1/2 the afternoon session. They start at 10am first car off and 2pm first car off. There is a 2nd registration and tech opening up around 12:30, and a 2nd course walk somewhere around 1:30.

It is very nice to have a 1/2 day on Sunday to do other things while still having had an autox. It really opens up the weekend to other responsibilities and needs, especially those with families at home, etc.

They had to go to this format a while back to handle the number of entrants; however, in the events we attended last year the entries were between 140 and maybe 170. I don't think this format is easily workable with THSCC levels of attendance, and it would require another set of folks to step up to run the second half of the day lest a small group of members be expected to run the whole day's show which clearly can't happen. However, if enough were interested in making it happen, it might surprise us how many would volunteer to take on certain duties.

I'm with Donnie on start time. First car off at 9:00 or even 8:45, especially on days expected to be 98F with high humidity, would be great.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Here is the day of schedule for the

Atlanta SCCA

7:45 am - Gates open
8:15 am - Morning Tech and Registration open
9:30 am - Morning Tech and Registration closes
10:00 am - First car off for first half of morning session (including FJ)
11:00 am - Novice Orientation
12:30 am - Afternoon Tech and Registration open
1:30 pm - Afternoon Tech and Registration close
2:00 pm - First car off for afternoon session (including Novice)

Philly SCCA
1. Time Schedule

Registration will officially open at 8:30 AM. Registration for the AM heats will close by 9:30 sharp. However, everyone MUST sign the insurance waiver AS SOON AS THEY ENTER THE SITE. The waiver and wristbands will be made available at the waiver area as soon as setup starts for the morning. The waiver area is to be manned by an SCCA member at all times. If you are running in the PM sessions, DO NOT register during the AM registration.

AM Session Schedule:

8:00 Arrive
8:30 - 9:30 Registration / Tech Inspection / Course Walks / Competitors Pre-Grid cars
9:00 Novice Course Walk
9:40 Mandatory Driver's Meeting
10:00 First Car Off
10:00 - 11:30 Heat 1
11:40 - 1:10 Heat 2
1:30 Trophies

PM Session Schedule:

11:00 Arrive
11:30 - 12:30 Registration / Tech Inspection
12:30 Mandatory Driver's Meeting
1:10 - 1:45 Course Walks / Competitors Pre-Grid cars / Novice Course Walk
1:45 First Afternoon Car Off
1:45 - 3:15 Heat 3
3:15 - 4:45 Heat 4
4:45 - 5:00 Clean Up
5:00 Trophies

N.B. The Heat 3 and Heat 4 start times are dependent on the AM session finishing on time. The PM start times may be later, but will never start earlier then these posted times.

The course will be set up at least one hour before the AM driver’s meeting (8:30 AM) for course walks. Changes to the course made may be made during this time for safety issues only. If changes occur, an announcement must be made at least 15 minutes before the start of the mandatory drivers meeting to allow for revised course walks. There will be a 30-minute break between AM and PM sessions to allow for course walks, gridding of PM cars, lunch, etc. There will be no course walks between heats, only between sessions.

NASA MA

7:00am - registration & tech open for AM heats
7:30am - course walk for AM heats
8:00am - drivers meeting for AM heats
8:30am - heat 1 on course (heat 2 drivers work)
10:30am - heat 2 on course (heat 1 drivers work)
12:30pm - last car in / lunch

12:00pm - registration & tech re-open for PM heats
12:30pm - course walk for PM heats
1:00pm - drivers meeting for PM heats
1:30pm - heat 3 on course (heat 4 drivers work)
3:30pm - heat 4 on course (heat 3 drivers work)
5:30pm - last car in / cleanup


From memory it worked great as long as we had enough people to fill 4 heats worth of work assignments. Participants liked the option to only be there for half a day, although it made a very long day for event staff.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

BTW- I'm just posting information and trying to be helpful.


San Fran SCCA
http://sfr-solo2.org/solo2/Results/2011 ... _info.html

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Ryan, don't confuse this with being accommodating. The club is generally very accommodating to an individual's request. I might be wrong about this, but I don't believe that Graham presented this idea as a solution to his individual problem. Sure he might have this problem, but I think that he has identified what he believes to be an attendance issue in general. Not just specific to him.

Let's be honest for a second. None of the local autocross clubs are very innovative with their product. They've just been blindly following a formula that has worked for years. Look at how well received the night series was. IMO, that did more to foster membership and growth than anything I've ever seen from the autocross program.

It appears that someone has identified attendance as a problem. If you want to address that, marching on, business as usual, isn't going to do it. The club needs to do something to improve it's product offering.

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In need of car.

Look at the groups you are comparing to, they are a lot larger, so be careful comparing apples to apples. It is tough to compare San Fran, Philly and DC to Raleigh. Plus you need to take into account the location of the sites to the population.

Like I said before, we were seriously considering going to a split format when we were running 140+ participants. You will hear pluses and negatives of any format. Back then we were projecting 200 participants and would of had no other choice.

Imagine you only have 100 participants, split into two groups of 50. Now trying to get that split is tougher than you can imagine. You are running an event at Laurinburg or Sanford and need 8 workers stations. So you need 32 people shagging cones. Take 12 out for timing and scoring. That leaves 6 others to deal with all of the other positions. Can it be done, sure. Would it be very, very tough...yup.

As for starting earlier, I think a lot can be streamlined. I read driver's meeting. Those driver's meetings are long and boring. Do they need to be more than 5-10 minutes? There really is no reason you can not start an event at 9:30 in the morning. But do not compare it to national events. You arrive a day or more early and usually are in a hotel no more than 15 minutes from the site. A lot easier to roll out of bed and drive 15 minutes than having to driver 90 minutes to one of the THSCC sites.

Graham...I was not calling you out. Sorry you took it that way. I mentioned volunteering in case someone else was reading and thinking what can they do.

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

The person in Philly is telling me are only drawing 100-140 entrants.

Again, I am not advocating one way or the other, just gathering data for the officers to use. Plus I am just kinda bored at work

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

I am not saying it can not be done. Two questions come to mind:

1) What do you want the club to be? Driving around cones for a piece of wood or more of a social aspect. On average you will only have 10% of the novice class come back for year two. What are they coming back for? I don't have the answer.

2) Are you willing to accept 40 second courses at the likes of Sanford and Laurinburg? I never had an issue with a good forty second course. But the dominate view was anything at those sites less than 60 is a rip off. Just sayin'

Bored too

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

1- I'm just a member, not for me to answer
2- A good course is a good course, be it 40, 60 or 80 seconds long.

WOW, Dave Hardy in Atlanta tells me they are down from 240 entrants to 150 average and as low as 120 At these reduced levels it REALLY works their staff.

Still bored...

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Here is a twist, in one of the Alabama regions they give EVERYONE 3 timed runs, break for lunch and then its fun runs the rest of the day. They only run about 50 drivers (I mean it is Alabama)

I honestly have never really thought about how others do it and its kinda interesting.

and I am still bored but I am getting ready to leave work....

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

It's the price of tires. Its chasing everyone away.

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In need of car.

Ahh, the memories. The night series was awesome.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

I think that is part of it. Look at how big TIR was last year. Even though I'm moving to open I'm still doing it on the "wrong" tires.