Here are a few thoughts and questions that came to my mind as I read through the previous posts:

* Bill is right - the scheduling process is ugly. Everyone should, at the very least, attend the Midiv Convention to see the end of the process....but everyone also should know that there's a ton of work that happens before that meeting.

* To the issue of the MAM race the weekend before Memphis: MVRG/MAM was originally scheduled for April 28/29. MVRG swapped weekends with St. Louis because Gateway wasn't available on May 19/20. Yes, St. Louis was tentatively scheduled for a Regional/National at Gateway on the weekend that MAM is now scheduled, the weekend before Memphis. (And no, there were no other dates in that timeframe available at MAM.)

* I agree, there are too many events. But, as noted, no one wants to (or can afford to) give up their dates. MVRG, for example, relies on two successful Regional/National weekends to be able to pay the bills for the Driver's School weekend the same year. Dropping one of those successful weekends may put the entire SCCA racing program at MAM in jeopardy, as the losses from one DS weekend could easily eat all of the profits of a single Regional/National weekend, particularly if THAT weekend were poorly attended for some reason.

* The "Must have a school" item that Travis mentioned is a "rule" that has frequently been referred to during the scheduling meetings, but can't be found in writing. That "rule" is that any track holding a National event MUST hold a Driver's School. The Exec Committee is working on a rotation schedule recommendation that would only REQUIRE a track/race group to hold a driver's school every other year, which will help the point above. (They would, of course, be allowed to hold one every year....)

* What would everyone here say if there were two, and ONLY two, SCCA weekends at any given track, period? How about two "regular" racing weekends, plus the "Every Other Year/Optional" driver's school weekend?

* Before we move too far down the concept of split regional/national weekends, I need to point out that the same group of workers would need to support all of the races. Adding additional weekends by splitting regional and national racing may further exacerbate the already critical worker issue.

* National racing participation was at record high levels last year (even taking Heartland Park out of the equation); meanwhile, regional racing participation was at record low levels. Rocky's theory attributes this drop in regional racing to the high price of gasoline: as regional racers are "typically" lower-budget racers, the additional cost to travel may have curtailed some of the racing. What's the concensus here?

* I'm firmly of the opinion that the MidAm Bonus Race is NOT an attendance generator. Aside from the 5 or 8 or 10 folks fighting for a divisional championship, the folks racing in that event are the "usual suspects" one would normally see at any given track.

I'll bet that more than one division championship was "won" in Memphis in 2003 the same as was "won" this year at MAM - I was there, and that event in 2003 certainly set no attendance records.

* MAM and Nashville (a track physically located in the Southeast Division) are 725 miles apart. Half of that is 312 miles, or somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 hours towing. Going back to Rocky's theory above, is there REALLY a conflict if there are two events that same weekend? How many here would actually be torn between the two tracks?


There ARE some good ideas floating around here, even though it's a little tense once in a while.

Jarrod