THSCC Forums

gee guess which shirt i wore to work today

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I think that is a great idea. I read this yesterday and was thinking this morning that a great thing could be for us to produce a video and host it on YouTube. Basically it would be a novice guide to your first THSCC autocross. If I was doing it, I wouldn't try to cover every single detail, but I would hit the high points...

* Car prep prior to event (air in tires, check your oil, remove extra crap, etc.)
* Signing the waver
* Typical event layout (parking, grid, bus, course)
* Checking in it at the bus
* Car tech
* Novice meeting
* Drivers meeting
* Walking the course
* Work assignments
* How the grid works
* Riding with an experienced driver, and having them ride with you.
* Focus on being safe, having fun and not putting too much pressure on yourself.

It could be shot at an event and illustrate an entire day from start to finish. You could also directly address some of the things first timers notice (and generate negative perceptions) such as the hectic pace and potential standoffish nature of people who are focused on getting stuff done (changing tires, course walking while mentally focusing, etc.)

If you wanted, you could even go as far as illustrating how to be a good course worker (or in my opinion make that a separate video). The course working video could focus on stuff like...

* Understanding why you need to work.
* Be proactive and get familiar with the part of the course you are working (i.e. when a cone gets knocked out of it's box, actually knowing where to put it back).
* How to call in car numbers (watch the car approach, make a mental note of class and number "before" they hit a cone)
* Cone and DNF rules
* How to stay safe (watch/be aware of cars, don't sit down)
* Be prepared (hat, water, etc.)

I could see videos greatly helping the job of the work the novice coordinators do on site at the event. And of course the same thing can apply to rallycross and HDPE

Richard[/quote]

This is a great idea. This would have really helped to prepare me for my first event!

@ Steve Carter. Maybe we can do it with a hip-hop beat. I'll see if I can get Julie to be the Videographer.

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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)

I am so. down. with. that.
y0!

I only do crunk, BTW.

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

If we do a video, we should get footage of each type of event we do. I have some in-car videos of rallycross, I know Scotty Bradford has some and I think Charlie and Pete have some, too.

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2004 Subaru Forester XT
1992 Sunburst Mazda Miata
1990 Mazda RX-7 (work in progress)
2000 Xterra SE

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BenchWarmer Motorsports

another one of those damn LeMons heads

just another Chump

we are an Autocross Club Dammit............

I've been thinking about this and trying to puzzle out why we aren't friendly? It seems to me that we are more helpful to the new folks than we have ever been. Could we do things better? Well there is always room for improvements but I think we do a good job of providing information to the novices. A video on Youtube would be helpful but I'm not sure it makes us more friendly.

I think one of the problems is we associate being friendly with teaching novices how to autocross. Being friendly isn't about efficient delivery of information it's more about being welcoming and happy to see the new folks. It's talking to people and listening to what they say.

As a club, when do we have a chance to be friendly at an autocross? Well there is registration, the novice meeting/course walk, there is the drivers meeting, an announcer during the event, and then if they stick around the trophy presentation. I haven't been to a novice meeting in forever but I'm going to assume it's reasonably friendly. I think it's everywhere else that we are less friendly. Most registration is done online now, check your name off the list and get off the bus, the drivers meeting gets presented with a sort of "lets get through" this attitude, we don't use announcers any more and most people bail before the end of the day.

I'm trying to remember back to when I started and try to figure out what made the club seem friendlier then and the one thing I remember was the announcer. Back then they were the "voice of the club" during the day and the club was lucky enough to have some folks on the mike that did more coldly read off the times. They filled up the dead air time with jokes about people, pearls of autocross wisdom, they would announce the logistical information for the event and give you explanations about why worked they way they did. It just gave the feeling that the club was constantly talking to you.

I dunno? Maybe this impression of being unfriendly is just a symptom of our modern world?

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OK so I'm back in. Now which tire should I buy??

I have wanted to be an announcer. I always enjoyed it when Marcus and Van announced. Yes, that is a great way to establish the right "feel" for an event.

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

<flame suit on>I think it's because they have no way to talk to us BEFORE the events...

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In need of car.

It is actually fairly hard to find people willing to announce. I'd say close to 1/2 of the announcers this year were brow beat into doing it. That said I'm pretty much always willing to do it and I'll likely be running in a class by myself so run group order doesn't matter too much.

Agreed

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2006 Civic Si - #24 HS for 2015

2005 GMC Sierra
1991 318is Garage Ornament

Facebook group can be used by anyone who wishes to communicate with the club, member or otherwise, before any event or to ask other general questions.

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

I don't see a link to facebook from our website?

I do see a link directing visitors to our visitor forum to asks questions, but that doesn't seem to work.

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In need of car.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/19618301777/

550 members!
Maybe the club Webmaster can facilitate placing a link on the home page.

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

I still think people prefer to communicate through a forum versus using facebook. The number of posts per day on each, seems to agree with that.

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In need of car.