A Serious Conflict of Interest in SCCA

[tnord]

4. "Reasonable people" ? Ha. You can't explain your claim here, either. Explain me this: What has SM Nat'l racing done to SM Regional fields ? How does a strong Nat'l program affect a Region that only hosts Regional races ?
[/b]

seriously? you really don't get this do you? are national classes not eligible to run regional races? has no one ever attended a national race, or watched the runoffs on tv, thought it looked fun, but ended up building an IT car? are there no 'national' drivers who enter regionals just for the fun of it? has no IT driver ever wanted to go to the runoffs so he converts/buys a prod car? has SM not fed into ITA? has SM/SRF not brought in loads of new drivers that wouldn't be racing otherwise? both regional and national guys pay their membership dues right?

there's no reason to even waste my time with someone that can't understand this and see the big picture.


Dave -

the only purpose of bringing this up is to make people aware of the situation. i'm not trying to lead a crusade or anything, everyone can make up their own mind.

[dickita15]

Actually on the concept of which brings more revenue (ie more important) to the club, nationals or regionals, the national office gains more revenue from nationals, well the runoffs. National and the regions often have cross purposes. Regions run races and derive revenue from these races every weekend. Topeka collects small sanction fees from these but thier one big cash cow in club racing is the runoffs. This is the only event where national takes in the entry fees and pays the expenses and keeps the profit.
A similar situation has just occurred with the temp membership. Under the old plan they were good for 90 days and the regions could sell them or give them away. National received no money. The regions had an easy way to allow people to participate. Under the new plan they are only good for the weekend and Topeka get the money.
Better for National because less people avoid buying membership. Worse for the regions because it is now harder to recruit works and crew.

[seckerich]

And the best way to have change is to let the market decide what they want. Let HPT crash and burn as a runoffs location and the BOD might just look for some new ideas. If not, it is what members want if it supported. Vote with the moola!!

[JWiley]

Last I heard, the Runoffs races get broadcast on SPEED sometime after Christmas at around 2:00 in the morning,; if this is the best marketing tool SCCA has to present itself to the outside world. there is a serious problem. Have they considered buying space on milk cartons: "Have you seen this racing organization?"

James Wiley
HP Midget #72

[gran racing]

Not to veer too far off topic, but right now I think the Speed World Challenge races has a great opportunity. The problem from my perception is that it is not used as a marketing tool to grow membership within the SCCA. Part of that might be because we are looking for it to survive financially and at the hard dollars of that section of the SCCA.

Btw, I really like the milk carton idea!! Not only is it funny, it is something that might grap people's attention. Now we just need to figure out how to get that on a beer bottle vs. a milk carton. LOL

[planet6racing]

IIRC, weren't the Ozments still living and working in the Chicago area (and Chicago Region) when the HPT announcement came out? When they moved, I'm sure Ed had to find a new job. Plus, if there was some conspiracy at the time, why wouldn't they have moved it to Road America? If I believe what I've been told (and I do), Chicago region would have a big interest in that...

Could someone answer the following question? Why do I keep reading this? :026:

[lateapex911]

Yeah, good points on the TV stuff. The Runoffs doesn't exactly pull in the ratings on Speed. I haven't seen recent numbers, but I talked with Roger W about it back when he was there, (ex big man at the network) and he said they did it as part of the Speed World Challenge package....it became a "gift" of sorts That was then, in the networks infancy, and now...sheesh...I have to think that the negotiations to get the Runoffs aired is a lot harder for Mike Dickerson of the SCCA, or whoever has to do it. Broadcasting races is really expensive, especially races that last a week!

If Speed doesn't like the World Challenge ratings numbers, and can't sell ad space, we'll end up footing the whole bill to get anything on the air. If I were Pro, I'd be considering format changes to make the races as interesting and exciting as possible. There have been some great ones, but some dogs as well.

The World Challenge broadcasts are pretty well done, and while I know a lot of people have less than kind words for Greg Creamer, I like how he slips in pro SCCA commentary whenever he can. And flaggers and other workers have to love his on air praise as well. I do think it would be great to have background sidebars on some of the drivers and their beginings,( like Curran, etc), but again, air time is $$, as is outside production.

[tnord]

IIRC, weren't the Ozments still living and working in the Chicago area (and Chicago Region) when the HPT announcement came out? When they moved, I'm sure Ed had to find a new job. Plus, if there was some conspiracy at the time, why wouldn't they have moved it to Road America? If I believe what I've been told (and I do), Chicago region would have a big interest in that...

Could someone answer the following question? Why do I keep reading this? :026:
[/b]

as i've said countless number of times. i make no accusations or assumptions on the circumstances or decision making process that got the runoffs to topeka. i just want to ensure that the right decision is made for 2009.

imagine if they kept the RO at HPT for 09, then how bad would this arrangement look?

whatever. read the letter, not the BS that follows, and decide for yourself. that's all.

[AntonioGG]

A similar situation has just occurred with the temp membership. Under the old plan they were good for 90 days and the regions could sell them or give them away. National received no money. The regions had an easy way to allow people to participate. Under the new plan they are only good for the weekend and Topeka get the money.
[/b]

I have to correct you on this. The old temp memberships were bought by the region from national and used as needed...the region could sell or give them away. Then national stuck us (regions) with the memberships we had purchased (sizable number) when they went to the free 90 day temp membership plan. Some of the craftier region(s) sent those old temp memberships in as payment when money was owed to national Now we're back to non-free temp memberships.

[mustanghammer]

as i've said countless number of times. i make no accusations or assumptions on the circumstances or decision making process that got the runoffs to topeka. i just want to ensure that the right decision is made for 2009.

imagine if they kept the RO at HPT for 09, then how bad would this arrangement look?

whatever. read the letter, not the BS that follows, and decide for yourself. that's all.
[/b]

The real "conspiracy" that should concern all of us is NOT how the Run Offs got to Topeka. That deal involved Steve Johnson, Ray Irwin, The City of Topeka and the State of KS. The BOD approved the bid and the deal was done - like it or not.

The real concern that many of us in this area have is that Big Ed is both an employee of HPT and is contracted to the SCCA (where his wife works) for race track safety inspections. That is the conflict of interest that should make all of us take notice.

What happens if a serious accident or death occurs as a result of an Ed Ozment desinged and approved track modification? Does this sound like a 60 Minutes feature story or what?

I haven't driven the new T1/T2 complex but I have seen the in car footage and talked to several drivers I respect that have driven it. I believe it is dangerous and someone will hit it. The fact that the track was allowed to be configured in this way only throws fuel on the conspiracy fire.

I have seen allot of changes to HPT over the years and have driven all of them with the exception of the latest ones. Each time a change was made track management made safety "improvements" only as a reaction to problems that occured not before they occured. The worst example was the first race weekend held at HPT after the first iteration of Turn Alpha was put in place. We had a fatality. Was it caused by the new turn? Well all I can say is that the wall that the driver hit was removed by the next time we raced there. You make the call......

[tdw6974]

[quote]
agreed though I hope you mean IMS.
indy is a great convetion town. hotels, resturants, blues clubs

Remember don't let the Hotels know the dates then won't have to pay $300 per nite for a 49.95 room. Ooops Off thread

[dickita15]

I have to correct you on this. The old temp memberships were bought by the region from national and used as needed...the region could sell or give them away. Then national stuck us (regions) with the memberships we had purchased (sizable number) when they went to the free 90 day temp membership plan. Some of the craftier region(s) sent those old temp memberships in as payment when money was owed to national Now we're back to non-free temp memberships.
[/b]

Actually Antonio you describe three temp programs. I was describing the change from V2 to V3 which is the current change

Tom not saying it won’t happen but I remember showing up in Indy on Pole Day without a reservation and getting a cheap room just out of town on the beltway.

[JWiley]

Since this has become something of a catch-all bashing of SCCA management, I wonder how many others of you could care less about Speed World Challenge, Trans Am, Pro Racing, or any of the other concoctions our "club" has come up with to "market" the SCCA. If it doesn't directly affect my participation in, and my enjoyment of, a typical club race weekend, Regional or National, then I fail to see why any money or effort shoud be expended in these areas. If there is a quantifiable measure of how these extraneous activities do anything other than create or justify jobs at the National office, I would like to see it. I realize that there are a very few racers who see the SCCA as a stepping stone to bigger things, but the vast majority of us are in it for fun at a local level. Someone please enlighten me if I am just a rube in the big city on this one...

James Wiley
#72 HP Midget
Atlanta Region

[Chris Wire]

I absolutely LOVE World Challenge! The rest of the Pro Racing/Enterprises menu I could care less about. Enterprises is an entity that seems useless to me. Although I see some merit in SRF since the numbers actually give it a chance to operate in the black, I don't believe that the club should be in the manufacturing business at all. Formula SCCA and the cousin Sports Racer seem ill advised and self serving to say the least.

I'll draw the parallel with the current woes in the mortgage industry. Those speculators and lenders that got in over their heads are going to have to take it on the chin. Just as I feel that the gov't shouldn't be using taxpayer dollars (is there any other kind of gov't money?) to bail out failing private enterprises, I don't believe that the National office should be using club monies to subsidize failing pro racing ventures.

That said, I think I remember WC restructuring their fees to the racers so as to create enough revenue, when coupled with advertising fees and marketing partnerships, that the WC portion of Pro could support itself. I think SRF operates in the black as well. Kudos to both groups for that, but the rest of the Pro side seems useless and unnecessary to me.

[Stan]

Travis, I may be wrong, but I think it is the other way around. I think Regional entries exceed National entries by a wide margin. Anyone have actual numbers?[/b]

Jeff, last year there were about 10,700 National entries and about 29,400 Regional entries. Stan

[lateapex911]

Since this has become something of a catch-all bashing of SCCA management, I wonder how many others of you could care less about Speed World Challenge, Trans Am, Pro Racing, or any of the other concoctions our "club" has come up with to "market" the SCCA. If it doesn't directly affect my enjoyment of, a typical club race weekend, Regional or National, then I fail to see why any money or effort shoud be expended in these areas.

James Wiley
#72 HP Midget
Atlanta Region [/b]

Well, that's rather ...ummm..."centered", LOL.

[gran racing]

If there is a quantifiable measure of how these extraneous activities do anything[/b]

That's the tough thing about marketing is often times you simply can not put a hard dollar to various promotional activities. I can tell you that WC is what made me aware of the SCCA.

[Cobrar05]

First let me post that Butch has the clearest handle on things that I've read here. The split runoffs would nail down track dates in three time zones to allow for rotation. That would be sweet.

Next Butch brings up TG and IMS. That road course is not exactly VIR, Road Atlanta or Laguna Seca, but it is at the Mecca of Motorsports. It is also fair. There would be no regional or national or NASA races there to get some laps and there would be no home track advantage there.

With the USGP done for the foreseeable future, maybe its doable.

Til then I have the SIC and the ARRC to keep me busy.

[Mattberg]

This conflict of interest has been around since before we even started running HPT. I think you could end the argument quickly with looking at some simple basic stuff.

First is, why we have a guy, who until his wife was hired, was running "Big Ed's Handymand Service", in charge or at leasst a significant player in track safety. Fix my broken gutter or or fix my vacuum cleaner, but lay out my race track or make decisions involving my safety on same?... I don't think so. That's simply forgetting the possible conflict of interest and common sense to me. But then there's that...

There were always signs of trouble in this hiring in both questionable events before and after Terry's hiring. The first sign of the problem was almost day one of Ms. Ozments tenure. IIRC, one of the RMDIV tracks got shut down for safety reasons by the SCCA safety staff and as i remember it... an inspection by... yes, Ed Ozment. Well it turns out this wasn't the first time such had happened and and in another previous instance much like it, the resulting actions were a BIG problem. It turns out that the track in this case and at least reported in one other case was offered an exclusive solution to fix the problems to be implemented by... uh... Ed Ozment, who was all of the sudden in the track construction and safety business as an independent contractor.

Forget about the award of the Runoffs to HPT. I doubt Terry had anything to do with it and she lacks the intellectual agility or business acumen to do "deals" anyway. That deal was one stumbled through by an almost as inept group of folks we refer to as the BoD. She's only a paper pusher with a big title who really doesn't do much of anything other than administration much like her previous job, which IIRC, was a low end supervisor at the phone company.

The bottom line is that there really is too much tied together here anyway you look at it and hashing out issues over what's already been done will be fruitless. Looking ahead and to avoid even the perception of conflict, Mr. Ozment really should not be involved in working, bidding, planning or being involved in any other way with SCCA business operation as long as Terry is in her position. The relationship is too slippery a slope to walk. Why do it? Hate to break up the SCCA family tradition but Ed needs to find work outside of projects involving the SCCA and/or Terry needs to remove herself as a decision maker in situations where Ed has anything to do with it. The latter I feel is impossible so Ed, go back to fixing pool filters, broken sinks and patio furniture and leave race track design to a professional who is not married to the VP of Club Racing.

[Drew Aldred]

She's only a paper pusher with a big title who really doesn't do much of anything other than administration much like her previous job, which IIRC, was a low end supervisor at the phone company.
[/b]

Now to be fair, she was there for 18 years Matt !!! Plus what other job could you get that pays you to take 2 weeks vacation to sunny FL in the winter to attend National races as part of your job ?? Oh and this year's June Sprints too. I'm sure none of these events could run without her guiding hand...........