Lone Star Grand Prix Restricted Regional

Race Chair: "This was my last restricted regional."

Guys I begged and pleaded with the race chair for this event to get US a second race on Sunday and he did. AND it was the same length as the national race. So for this weekend the regional race classed car got just as much track time as the national guys.

You know what WE do? WE took a giant, steaming, runny shit in our nest. Saturday there were about 20 cars in the regional race group. For Sunday 8 cars entered, 7 took the green flag and four of those were SM running ITA to get another race in toward their national license upgrade. One SP, one ITS, and one real ITA car participated.

Had I not been in Tech all day Saturday, flagging on Sunday morning, and being Pace Car for the races on Sunday I could have gotten two more first place trophies and clinched the divisional ITE championship.

So for all the regional racers in SOWDIV I don't ever again want to hear how IT is treated as second class citizens. Perhaps WE deserve it after all.

Jerry,
I don't have an answer for you. Lot's of things in play. Holiday weekend, fuel prices, and the regional community has found other places to get the race fix. If SOWDIV decides to make RRs a constant on R/N weekends (like many other Divs do), maybe people will comeback.

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Originally Posted by IPRESS

Holiday weekend, fuel prices, and the regional community has found other places to get the race fix.

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+ 1

Edit: The TMS race earlier this month had about 20 regional cars on Friday and 20 at the restricted regional Saturday. Good turnout. Even though we were treated second class by getting Fri/Sat vs. Sat/Sun like the National guys we still showed. I was at TMS, but not TWS. If you want to throw away restricted regionals because of one bad turnout on Memorial Day weekend, have at it. Regional racing in the SOWDIV is pretty much dead...just look at how many IT guys from SOWDIV are on this forum, 3 of us? The rest of my 2008 schedule has me racing elsewhere, for many reasons.

I really didn't plan on going down but since "we" had 2 days of racing I decided to support the weekend. (especially since I have complained in the past). It looked pretty thin in the paddock the whole weekend so I don't think it was just the IT folks who stayed home. Two groups were combined and group 3 (FV, FF) only had 8 cars racing on Sunday too.

Pete

P.S. My reward was two blown trailer tires, ruined exhaust system, cut race tire, fuel cell issues.

Yea a lot of tires bit the dust that weekend.

Mark,

I didn't say throw them away. I said the race chair expressed his disappointment at the low car count on Sunday when he went through all the time and trouble to work a schedule where the IT group got the same amount of track time/race lenght as the national groups. So, I made all the excuses at the BoD meeting last night (high fuel prices, holiday weekend, end of the school year, too hot, car broke on saturday, didn't want to burn up last set of good tires in the heat, and so on) hoping to at least get the patient back on life support.

Next year it may not be a problem. We are debating the race formats for next year. It is looking like one N/N, one R/R, and one R/RR Enduro. (Which takes me to the enduro section for my next post).

BTW, For the info of all, I am now on the LSR BoD and doing my best to look out for the regional racers. I am open to comments, complaints, and suggestions. Tell me what we can to to make the regional program better and I'll take it to the Board.

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Originally Posted by jhooten

BTW, For the info of all, I am now on the LSR BoD and doing my best to look out for the regional racers. I am open to comments, complaints, and suggestions. Tell me what we can to to make the regional program better and I'll take it to the Board.

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Jerry,

That is great you are taking the initiative and getting involved. It is appreciated. I went to a SOWDIV meeting last summer, while I intended to stay all day, I left after just a few hours. It was overwhelmingly clear to me how this division felt about regional racing. It's a national division, we all know that. Can you bring back regional? I have doubts. I only have so much time in a day and as this was not something I was able to commit helping fix.

The biggest group of regional cars in the Southwest is SRX7. Look at their 2008 schedule, 7 weekends with NASA and 2 with SCCA.

1) Competition. NASA is fairly strong in TX. - More tracks, more track time, more races per weekend, contingency (Mazdaspeed, Hawk and Hoosier for me), atmosphere/attitude, cheaper entry. This isn't just my opinion, ask around. It's fact.

2) SOWDIV attitude about regional cars.

You got to match or beat the competition. That's going to be tough. You can't do it on SCCA loyalty alone as you can't grow without new racers. This is an uphilll battle. Do you get the 5 course meal for $99 or the 2 course meal for $129?

Attitude. Easy to change ones own, but not the entire group.

I think the best thing that could happen for SOWDIV is for SCCA to do away with regional/national both car and license distinctions. The membership here is too small too be breaking things up with car and license differences.

I do not have the answers but maybe some of this gives you some ideas as to what is happening.

Mark, did you ever get an answer to your question about entry increases again from the Other Organization?

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Originally Posted by Chris Taylor

Mark, did you ever get an answer to your question about entry increases again from the Other Organization?

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No. And I only asked once, never pursued it any further. The fee this year is $328.95 every weekend and the Championship is $499. The other organization entry fee for a weekend is still cheaper than SCCA (which varies).