Very very glad to hear things went well for you, Bill, finally! You've certainly earned it! ;)
Will see you at the IT-Fest...
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Very very glad to hear things went well for you, Bill, finally! You've certainly earned it! ;)
Will see you at the IT-Fest...
Thanks very much, Vaughn. And thanks to everyone who has been so supportive over the years. It's because of the friendships in the club that I am still here.Quote:
Originally Posted by 924Guy
Good:
1. Low entry fee
2. High track time
3. Late start on Sat made for low stress Friday night and Saturday morning.
4. No hassles from GA or MO even though we were clearly the red headed stepchild. Felt welcomed.
5. Overall vibe of the event was low key fun, not high pressure stress.
6. Lots of cars on track means constant action. It is multi-class racing, but it wasn't much worse than most normal races.
7. Registration and tech very smooth.
Bad:
1. Two qualifying sessions and two qualifying races for 1 actual race. If I were king Saturday's race would have been a sanction number race, not a qualifying race. And I would have made Sunday Qual-Race-Race to make it a triple weekend. But it should be at least a double.
2. Overvcrowded restrooms. Not under your control but that was quite a shock to see a 5 person line for the shitter 32 minutes before we were due on track. I would not have wanted to be at the back of that line.
3. Inability to tent camp in the paddock.
4. It was kind of a hassle getting my beacon set up. Neither GA or SCCA pro would let me go across pit lane to turn it on. Not a surprise, but a little disappointing.
Not as good as I expected:
1. GA races were generally boring. It was nice to be there on a pro weekend, but it wasn't much more interesting than being paired with a national event. Most of the pro goodness just came from seeing the teams, the cars and the prep, not the track sessions.
2. 19 lap championship race sounded like fun, but that made Sunday a long long day. We survived, but if someting had caused the race to be cut to 16 laps I would not have complained.
Not as bad as I expected:
1. Overal crowdedness. We were able to drive across the bridge and watch virtually every corner. Minor inconviences, but overall not bad.
2. Paddock crowdedness. It was tight but we had enough space. We had some civilians wandering thru our paddock but nothing disappeared.
You got lucky on the schedule this year and that helped with entries. With only the Gattan and Nelson races to compete with, this was almost the first race of the year and people were itching to get on track. If you could make it a double race next year it would help to continue to draw entries. If it is a single race again, people may say "been there, done that".
A+ write-up! THANKS for the feedback! Others who raced: PLEASE do the same! The more feedback we get, the better we can try to do in the future (if we get an invite back).
My 1st competition race after drivers school. I was a little apprehensive about all the cars but it worked out great, and I had a lot of fun!
- Wish we could have camped in the paddock
- Wish all that track time would have counted towards more than one race.
Overall though, great event that stayed right on time. Hope to see everyone next year.
Scott Irwin
'85 Honda Civic
#81 - ITC
Way better than I expected!
Here were my concerns BEFORE the weekend
1. Too crowded
2. Being paddocked way the hell up in no mans land
3. Random people walking thru our paddock
4. Worried about people stealing things/equipment
Much to my relief:
1. Wasnt as crowded as I thought it was going to be, yes the paddock was a little tight but looking at the big picture not bad at all. AND we were close to the false grid/bathrooms
2. Most spectators left us alone, I know that sounds bad but the last thing I want is random people just going thru our paddock and doing who knows what.
3. The good thing about us being paddocked as a group is you didnt constantly have to worry about people taking/stealing things. As regional racers, we are a tight knit community. We look out after each other. A big relief.
Could be improved:
1. The only thing that got me bent was drivers couldnt get in to the main paddock area. I was able to because I worked for the school but for other team members/drivers the gate keeper kicked us out. We are drivers too, we signed the waivers. Let us in.
2. This isnt a complaint and Im glad for the hefty track time. But the 19 lap race was a bit long (in my opinion) Wouldnt complain if the race was a few laps shorter and maybe take away one of the qualifying races, and as Jim said, make it in to a points race. Again this is NOT by any means a complaint.
OVERALL:
Would I attend this event again? Yes.
Great job by OVR for a well planned/run event.
As stated security was fine, I had several people stop and want to talk about the car and SCCA racing. Stil made sure everything was out of site and /or locked up. But that is unfortunately a "new" requirement for any race weekend.
Sunday morning I got my qual hot lap in early, came in, went and got a shower with no line, and was walking back into the paddock as the rest of the cars were coming in from the end of the session. Dropping a duece was no issue, just time it with a trip down to T&S and the bathrooms right next door. Planning my friends, planning.... :)
Greg, I walked around everywhere. As long as I had my SCCA credential, nobody said a thing to me.
As for camping in the paddock, you just had to have the right type of "camper". It was proven a 911 could be used as one with the correct alcoholic intake.
Saturday being a tru race with it's own sanction number would be a good thing. Yes, it costs the region more, but....
I loved everything else. If it hadn't been 92 degrees when we came off track, I think 19 laps would have been fine Sunday. I did manage to melt my front tires. And my rear tires came home larger than when I arrived with the amount of OPR on them. It looks like I have re-caps.....
this event should be on my radar for next year. early on i was hoping/planning to go.
i did grattan on Memorial day and the others on the LeMons team voted to do Autobahn that same weekend.
What's that, not only did somebody watch the race, they took photos? :p It looked fun to me and wished I could have had the RX7 out there.
Photos: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...SM%20Shootout/