Anyone coming to Ayer, MA for the Tour June 9/10

Diane Hall · **Posted:** Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:24 pm

Just curious if anyone is making the trip.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Tue Jun 05, 2007 9:01 pm

No offense, but between the area that site is in and the site itself, it seems hardly worth the trip, personally. I'm off to the other coast this weekend, but even if I wasn't I wouldn't even consider that area again. If it was less than two hours, maybe. But given that it is more than that, no way. The one time I did go I only did it because I could go spend a day with friends in Vermont easily before heading home. Those same friends are coming to visit me in July this year, so I don't even have to do that.

--Donnie

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:06 am

We like that area really well, especially the lobster! It's the long hectic drive thru or around NYC that's the killer. I would rather drive to Oscoda MI than to Ayer. It's near impossible to schedule the drive to avoid hitting rush hour traffic in one or more of the major cities the only reasonable route takes you thru which adds drive time and having to mix it up with the local crazies in bumper to bumper semi parkinglots. We debated the trip long and hard before deciding on going to GA and AL tours instead.
The SCCA schedule has also made us have to pick and chose our battle sites. We had one tour in Feb, then nothing in the east until packing Jun and Jul with dates nearly every weekend. We can't just close our business for 2 months to go AX racing!

Diane Hall · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:58 am

We've been told this is the last year for Ayer. The site is reverting back to a different (town?) ownership or something and we're losing it. Sucks, since it's really the only decent site up here. There just aren't any good big lots or old airports that'll let us in. With all the good sites in and around RDU, you guys are lucky.

Good route around NY... Garden State Pkwy -> 87/287 -> TapenZee Bridge -> Saw Mill Pkwy -> 684

If you're towing a big rig, skip the Saw Mill Pkwy. I tend to skip it even with the open trailer unless traffic is unbearable on 684. It's a really narrow 4 lane.

We tend to get a to the Del Mem Bridge area in the late evening, then leave from there around 9-10 AM and be home by 3-5ish. That seems to effectively avoid DC/Baltimore, No NJ/NY, and Hartford, CT rushes for the most part.

I'm not surpried no one is coming. I live here and I'm not running it. :roll:

It's a decent local site, but it's no Peru...

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:11 pm

Diane Hall wrote:

We've been told this is the last year for Ayer. The site is reverting back to a different (town?) ownership or something and we're losing it. Sucks, since it's really the only decent site up here. There just aren't any good big lots or old airports that'll let us in. With all the good sites in and around RDU, you guys are lucky.

Good route around NY... Garden State Pkwy -> 87/287 -> TapenZee Bridge -> Saw Mill Pkwy -> 684

If you're towing a big rig, skip the Saw Mill Pkwy. I tend to skip it even with the open trailer unless traffic is unbearable on 684. It's a really narrow 4 lane.

We tend to get a to the Del Mem Bridge area in the late evening, then leave from there around 9-10 AM and be home by 3-5ish. That seems to effectively avoid DC/Baltimore, No NJ/NY, and Hartford, CT rushes for the most part.

I'm not surpried no one is coming. I live here and I'm not running it. :roll:

It's a decent local site, but it's no Peru...

As a person that lived a long time off of the Saw Mill Pkwy, I can second Diane thoughts. It's a fun road to run a sportscar that is stock (ie no uber stiff suspensions), but towing another vehicle wouldn't be a lot of fun.

Sort of like driving the Taconic Pkwy in a rainstorm :roll:

- AB

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:32 pm

I was stationed at Fort Devens when I returned from Vietnam in 1969. My first ever autocross runs were at sites near Ayer in my 69 Mustang GT. Really nice area to visit and better than most of the other places the Army was likely to send me but the thought of driving there with our van and open trailer kept me away even when I had time and interest. The last time I was there was in about 1991 when we took the Skippy FF School at Lime Rock. Those old parkways like the Sawmill are scenic but not "rig friendly" for sure!

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:08 pm

We can't do 4 days of travel time for a tour event, and that's about the only way to avoid the rush hours. Sites around here aren't getting much better. Laurinburg is nearly completely deteriorated and very tire unfriendly, Sanford and Danville are too narrow for anything much more than death by slalom/offset type courses. Petersburg is not very available since the new owners took over.
Big clear lots are going the way of the dodo bird all over, and SCCA just sits in their golden castle totally unwilling to make any real effort to help.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:26 pm

Chuck Frank wrote:

...SCCA just sits in their golden castle totally unwilling to make any real effort to help.

So what, pray tell, should SCCA be doing about it?

--Donnie

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:49 pm

Donnie Barnes wrote:

So what, pray tell, should SCCA be doing about it?

Actually Chuck, I was going to ask you this as well.

Insurance and liability on the part of site owners is obviously a big deal, and rightly so in this day and age, sadly.

New construction (from my limited understanding) often requires a certain amount of trees per square yard of pavement, so that limits, if not altogether eliminates, new parking lots. RBC Center being a tenuous example (see the whole liability thing).

Old sites are a problem too. I anticipate Marcus and I will design a course "around the potholes." Just like always happens at Laurinburg.

It's a problem. I know Wes is working on it. Meanwhile, we should enjoy the occasional site like Gwinnet Co Fairgrounds on a National level, and enjoy sites like Laurinburg and Sanford and Danville as much as we can. I personally think we're in a hell of a lot better shape than lots of local autocrossers...

Diane Hall · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:09 pm

Ayer is big, long, lots of pavement, and no trees. And it's 25 minutes from the house.

Wish we could keep it. :cry:

I don't know what the SCCA may be doing elsewhere, but they've (NER) got a line on some property up here for a new track in western MA. A P&S agreement is done. Not sure when they'll actually own it, but a P&S and plans for a track seem to be progressing. I hope they really get this off the ground. Time will tell. They seem pretty serious though.

And unlike VIR, they seem to be planning a decent auto-x lot... 500x1000 ft. :shock:

http://www.palmermotorsportspark.com/

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

Karl Shultz wrote:

It's a problem. I know Wes is working on it.

I know nothing!

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:00 am

Karl Shultz wrote:

New construction (from my limited understanding) often requires a certain amount of trees per square yard of pavement, so that limits, if not altogether eliminates, new parking lots. RBC Center being a tenuous example (see the whole liability thing).

Lots a towns and cities have this "green" statute. To avoid this you have to get away from such municipalities. IE- Out in the sticks with the hicks.

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:02 am

IMHO SCCA should be agressively persuing venues with places like Nascar track parking lots, municipalities (hell it don't cost much different to put in an AX pad that can also be used for driver's ed, police training, etc than to put up lighted tennis courts that sit empty most of the time, soccer fields and now cricket fields!?!) I don't know where it is going, but there was talk of an auto test track being built in NC, why couldn't it include a pad available to AXers since it is to be built with our tax money?
Same goes for sports stadiums that are built with taxpayer's money. HPT teamed up with the City of Topeka to upgrade that facility, so it can be done if someone approaches it with the right pitch ($$$$).
Instead SCCA prefers to let the local clubs aquire the rights to use a venue, even for a national event, where an inexperienced person can misphrase something during those negotiations that immediately and forever turns off the site owner, and/or doesn't have the means to produce meaningful statistics as to the event's financial (and possible prestige) impact on the community. Getting the community on the racer's side goes a long ways, witness Walnut Ridge, where the National tour and PS is a community event and the racers are welcomed with opened arms.
I could go on and on, but it only falls on deaf ears at home office where entropy was invented...

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

Well, if the SCCA stopped using Solo money to fund their Pro Racing, maybe things would change ...

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:13 am

I will say I agree to some extent with what you said Chuck, but Walnut Ridge is not a great example. The reason they open their arms is that there is little to no enterprise there. The normal 2 events per year probably boost their annual local economy by 5-10%.

The SCCA doesn't believe it needs to acquire sites and I think that's a fact we will live with. If local clubs want to hold Tours or Pros, they'll need to find a good site. Otherwise, I think we will all end up running the series in Topeka, week after week. That wouldn't be a lot of fun. - AB

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