Well, I'm back at home, and as soon as the car gets off the dyno, the season will be over. So it's time to think about next year!
I thought some ARRC feedback might be helpful to the event organizers. Butch, you've come here often looking for input and ideas, and I've watched you work for several years down at the ARRCs, so i know you can handle compliments and constructive criticisms.
All in all, I really enjoyed my event, and it was great to be back.
Highlights;
Parking! For me, it was smoother than ever. I had just pulled up and Fletcher arrived as though he appeared out of space. we had a brief chat and I was off.
Registration: Again, smooth and easy. maybe I hit it at the right time, but it went quickly and the woman was super nice.
Event organization and overall operation: I liked the announcements and calls to grid, and the race calls were great. I thought having Greg Creamer out in the back with an antenna and a mike was great, and he did an awesome job. He's worth what ever you pay him, and I understand he flags as well. Laurie Sheppard did a fine job to my eye in her first year. The Awards dinner was great, and yeah, Butch, I'll put a good word in for you as SCCA Prez!
Tech: I had some misgivings about the tech situation, and I had others mention the same things without provocation. First, getting the suits teched seemed to take an inordinate amount of time. The inspector went through my book, numerous times, then got interrupted, spent a couple minutes doing someting else, (filing) then came back, and stated over, going through my book again a couple times, studying the annual sticker as though it was written in Mandarin. Odd. It took nearly 9 minutes start to finish for me, and yeah, that's not the end of the world, but it showed my why the entire process took nearly 25 minutes, with not that long of a line.
But the real issues were post race. I, and others, thought that the officials were difficult to discern. Somebody would just come up to you and tell you to do something, then walk away, and honestly, it took some careful scrutiny to see who these people were. No two were dressed alike, and finding the tech tags was tough, and I had to chase one guy to see his after he did a flyby telling me to do something. A little, "Hi, I'm Bob, I'm in charge of IT_, and we need you to _____" would have been great.
Others made the same comments, and mentioned that while one guy would initiate the process, some other person would step in then go away, sometimes saying nothing. Honestly, at times, I had no idea if it was a tech guy with his head in my engine compartment or just some random guy.
While I was lucky, and my teardown ws simple, others weren't. They reported that the officials took multiple readings, and kept arriving at differing conclusions. Trust me on this, there were some racers there who were frustrated, and the confidence level in the results suffered.
I completely understand that this event is EXTREMELY hard to staff, as you are looking at a TON of work, and getting adequate amounts of staff, much less competent staff, is probably super difficult. And I know that extra protests on top of the usual teardowns made life even harder.
I also know that the teardowns are a major attraction of the ARRCs, and they are the single factor that gives the event the legitimacy that it has.
So, no matter what, serious racers will be back.
But, I think if there is room for improvement, it's in tech. If nothing else, create a uniform for the officials who are overseeing the operation, whether it's a common jacket or a hat or whatever, and request that they wear their nametags in a similar location. and whenever possible, introductions would go a loooong way in creating a smoother operation. I am not sure what to tell you regarding the actual methods, but, if it's possible to look at organizational factors, or new techniques to come to the conclusions, it would go a long way to reducing the stress level not only for the competitors, but the officials as well.
Race operations: I thought race operations were super. It seemed as though they let us race like big boys, (even when we acted like little boys and F-ed up!) and that was appreciated. In my case, I had an exhaust bracket fatigue, and I bet there were some officials looking at he now bouncing exhaust and debating whether to black flag me. They made the right call, and I really appreciate the fact that they didn't knee jerk reaction it and pull me in. I stayed off the berms, and it all ended well.
So, overall, a great event, and I look forward to many more. I hope the previous comments don't come across as overly harsh, whiny, or unfair.
I'd love to hear what others think and what experiences they had.
