Area 12 report from Philip Creighton

[JoshS]

It was Stan and I remember the map. I did a more in depth study last month and basically plotted the location of EVERY licensed driver and calculated the distance from the official residence to several tracks. That's why I reference above certain tracks as being the shorest average distance, I'm not guessing, I know what's closest.
[/b]

Cool. I'd love to see it colored like the map that Stan used, because it's hard to tell density with a bunch of individual dots.

So since you've done it -- where is the geographical "center" of the licensed racer population?

[Ron Earp]

So since you've done it -- where is the geographical "center" of the licensed racer population?
[/b]

Good question - national or regional? Active?

I bet it'd fall a long way from Topeka KS though!!!!!

[JeffYoung]

CMP! CMP! CMP! CMP! CMP! CMP! CMP!

[Ron Earp]

CMP! CMP! CMP! CMP! CMP! CMP! CMP!
[/b]

If they go there on a national race can we open a "Farscape Tour Guide" booth for newbies? We could make some cash to cover the Brew n Cue, Mexican Death, Fox n' Hound, Brown Trailer, and Skank bills.

[JeffYoung]

I'll be more than happy to give anyone a tour if they pick up the bar tab.

[Ron Earp]

I'll be more than happy to give anyone a tour if they pick up the bar tab.
[/b]

They need to cover some extras.

I was scairt when that chick got hot that Neil and I didn't pay to see her ta tas, although they were completely unsolicited from our side. I was also worried when I figured out the the bar chick owned underwear that was at least 37 years old. Mine don't last that long. Voodoo. It worries me.

[Matt Rowe]

The map shows both national and regional licenses and actually includes novice permits and vintage licenses but no matter who you include the distribution really doesn't change. The only real difference is the vintage crowd is closer to Laguna Seca. Oh, and the list was every active license holder as of 11/22/07.

I didn't calculate the center of the population each track/driver combination is calculated independantly and then the average straightline distance is calculated. What it shows is in shortest to longest for current National and Regional drivers in miles:

Indy - 869
Mid Ohio - 892
Road Atlanta - 921
VIR - 947
Road America - 951
HPT - 968
Watkins Glen - 1024
Laguna Seca - 1755

[JoshS]

How hard would it be to get and average all of the latitudes and longitudes?

[gran racing]

I'm beginning to wonder if HTP is really that bad for the Runoffs. I didn't like it at first, but am slowly warming up to it (then again, I won't be racing there). It is in a central location - hopefully we won't lose sight of how far away an East Coast track is for the large CA regions. In watching a couple of the races, I actually found it to be more interesting to watch than Mid Ohio. As many have already stated, Mid Ohio is a nice track but there are so few passing opportunites. Based on everything else I've heard, HTP has also been accomodating to SCCA.

[DavidM]

Jeff, you ain't right. Nobody should know that much about the Camden, Kershaw, Lancaster tri-city metro-plex. Going to Wal-mart in Lancaster tells me all I need to know.

I think the Indy "road course" is horrible. I sure hope SCCA doesn't go there. Not that it matters to me since IT isn't a national class.

David

[JeffYoung]

Dude, you know me well enough to know i ain't right! I race a Triumph in IT for god's sake!

It's the Camden-Lugoff metroplex by the way. Kershaw/Lancaster is a whole different breed.

Yeah, a lot of this discussion is academic. Our runoffs is at Road Atlanta and our baby Runoffs is at MidOhio. I like that.