Heart of Dixie June 17-19, Nashville

[pballance]

To the top, I spent most of this past Saturday inviting RA drivers/Crew/workers to come and race/Work at Nashville. I also spent a bunch of time trying to stop a rumor that HoD is cancelled for 2011. WRONG!

Register HERE: https://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/event/event.advert/uidEvent/6233BF74-ED90-7F3C-21D37A9D02145288

Registration is open PRO-IT for those who choose to run, ECR, Test day. Register now so we don't have to worry about whether or not this race happens. We do not charge or cash checks until after the event. There is no reason not to register early.

And, to be brutally honest, if we do not have enough drivers registered to cover expenses, we will have to make a decision about the event. That decision will not be made for some time, but there are only 4 weeks until the event and right now only 24 drivers are registered.

[FV90]

Combined ProIT/ECR 1.5 hour enduro!
Spec Miata has it's own group!
Garages for rent!
A/C at the media center!
Even a temp shower set-up and 2 small regions that are glad that you are racing with us!
Register today! THANK YOU!

[Cobrar05]

NASA has a major event at Road Atlanta that weekend every year. I really wish you guys would get your event off that conflicting date.

[FV90]

Rob,
Thanks for your advice, unfortunataly we have to make sure we do not get too close to other SEDIV SCCA events. We work on the schedule starting out in July of the year before the event actually takes place. As an event coordinator you not only look at SCCA RR events but with 2 small regions we try to stay away from Solo National Tours and assorted larger regions RR's. We actually had an April date chosen early on but could not make it work. It is very easy to concentrate on a conflict on one event, but the actual work to put on an event is much harder.
NSS does not expect to compete against a Road Atlanta event in qty turnout we are quite happy just breaking even. A month after this event we will look at the dates on the SEDIV schedule and hope to find a good date that doesn't interfere with anything - good luck on that,

[JohnW8]

I can't wait! I look forward to the Nashville race every year for the fun track and awesome NASCAR Garages and the well run event.
I wasn't able to race last year due to an engine issue but I'm ready to run! Looking forward to it!

[pballance]

Like John said, it IS a fun event and the garages are a nice break.

As of today, May 31, we are up to 33 entries. I am the only one registered in "S" but I know of a couple more that will probably be there.

The time to register is now!

Paul

[pballance]

Up to 42 entries right now. You guys are missing an opportunity. These races are SARRC points events and $$$ Pro-IT. Right now Jeff and I have ITS sewn up for points and $$$
:) :)

Come have some real fun and enjoy TRUE southern Hospitality. We have a Paddock HOST, not a paddock marshal. :)

Paul

[FV90]

Plus the HODBX
Heart of Dixie Beer Exchange!

[pballance]

Only one week left in early registration. No charge or cash required to register early so go ahead and sign up.

Up to 45 entries, still need a few more to hit the break even point for the region. Come on out for some good racing and good beer as part of the beer exchange!!

Paul

[240zdave]

What a blast! And what a coincidence. Paul Balance got tired of waiting on me to finish building the replacement car to the one I crashed at Barber in 2007, and offered to let me drive his car in the Saturday SARRC. Thanks to his generous offer, excellent car prep, 3 practice sessions on Friday, and dumb luck, I was able to bring it to a second place finish behind Chuck Hines, who I first met in 2007 after his car slid off the rain slick track at Barber into my car. That's where I met Paul when as the corner worker at the spot of the crash, Paul helped me out of my car and offered me and Chuck a bottle of water. Chuck reintroduced himself at Impound Saturday with an apology for hitting my car 4 years prior, which was appreciated and totally unnecessary. That was racing and could have happened to anyone. If not for a couple of mistakes on my part, my car would not have been sitting against the tires where Chuck's car slid off.

Anyway, it was an excellent couple of days and the most fun I've had since 2007. I have got to finish building my car. Thanks again, Paul.

[pballance]

I really did enjoy seeing Dave pilot my car. He did great!!

This time a week ago we were qualifying. WE all had a good time at a fun track that is way more technical than people want to give it credit for.

We are already looking forward and planning for next year and I need YOUR help. For those of you that did not attend, would you prefer an earlier date? Say March-April? or a later date say maybe in October-November?

I have heard a lot of complaints about how "front loaded" the SEDIV schedule is and we are trying to find a date for 2012 that does not conflict with US F1 race, June Sprints, NASA RA race, etc. but we would like some input from the racers.

Please respond here.

Thanks, Paul

[Mark Gray]

:shrug:What happened in ITS at Nashville???

Need the full race report for Saturday and Sunday!

[Cobrar05]

let me offer two things. as ive mentioned the conflict with the nasa road atlanta event keeps me away. with my mother and sister and neices in nashville, i'd love a race event that they could come to. but with almost 200 race cars and 400 cars overall at road atlanta as someone that sell photography services as well as racing, i can't pass that event up even for a nashville event.

move your date one weekend one way or the other and i'm there.

[TomL]

Unfortunately, not a whole lot. Chuck Hines and Jeff Young qualified upfront with the STU Miata of Tom Neel. Chuck and Neel took off at the start, while Jeff, who had been smoking in qualifying, was barely faster than me for a few laps. Then I passed him and he went into the pits. I was fourth OA at that point, but then I got passed by a pair of Miatas leading ITA (John Waight and Clayton Pannell) and the 240Z of David Plott. I got to watch them battle for the rest of the race which ended Plott, Waight, Pannell. The only other ITSs were Michael Jordan in a 944 who finished at few places behind me and Dennis Cross (240SX) who didn't make the start. Neel passed Chuck on the last lap to win overall.

Jeff must have had something major and didn't make it out on Sunday. Chuck had a long trip home (and now has 6 wins) so he decided to pass as well. Jordan and Paul Ballance had the only ITS cars and they finished 6 and 8 overall. Only eight cars total, since we lost Jeff, Chuck and a few others.

There was some heavy rain on Saturday (not during our races fortunately) which didn't help turnout. I enjoyed the weekend as always - great folks- but I sure wish we could get more people to attend.

[JeffYoung]

Total fail weekend. Plug wire fell off in race, was running on 7 cylinders, and brand new tranny was leaking like a sieve. Yay.

Congrats to Chuck, et. al. for the good drives.

[240zdave]

This is a repeat of what I posted on another thread, so bear with me. I want to thank Paul for asking me to drive his car in the Saturday SARRC race. I was great to be driving a Z car after almost 4 years of not racing. It was everything I could do to pass and stay ahead of John and Clayton in their Miatas. It was great fun, and I got to talk with Chuck Hines for the second time, the first time being when our cars ended up in the tire wall at Barber in 2007. That's where I met Paul, who was working that corner and handed each of us a bottle of water. So Heart of Dixie was sort of a weird reunion under much better circumstances. Jeff's unfortunate issues enabled me to get 2nd place in ITS. Admittedly small turnout, but great weekend for me.

[pballance]

I drove like a wimp on Sunday and didn't have enough tire left to get by Michael in the 944. He didn't give me any breaks to get by either and made his car as wide as possible. We had some VERY VERY close racing for multiple laps. In fact I need to get my buffing compound out :happy204: At least I think it will buff right out :D

For what it is worth, we are looking at ALL options to make the NSS race more attractive. Changing dates, changing the course :o
IE maybe dropping the bus-stop and running more of the oval or dropping the infield section, using the bus-stop and running NASCAR 1-2. We are considering all options. We want to continue to race at NSS and want the racers to be happy.

[240zdave]

I vote for keeping the course as is, and changing the weekend. Maybe swap weekends with the Track Trials that were Apr 2-3 this year. The only thing about going earlier in the Spring is that we can have some pretty severe thunderstorms in this area. There doesn't seem to be a lot going on in August. I don't know what the Speedway's schedule is like for other events, though.