GL Div - CenDiv split, why? Why not fix it now?

[Drew Aldred]

Yep the scheduling issues were the big problem. Some hard headed people who were in charge of certain regions were not willing to work together to put together a schedule that would work for the majority of the regions and racers.

Now this was a huge mistake in my opinion. It has diluted the racer pool and also stretched the available workers. One National was canceled, and others have had poor turnouts in 2008. This was a bad idea from the beginning, and has only gotten worse. The only positive I've seen is a smaller schedule. Although in CenDiv having only 5 National races is too few, having 20 Regional races and 11 National races were too many IMO.

Chris, I'll be a Blackhawk on the 12th. Look forward to seeing you then !!

[planet6racing]

According to DLBracing, there are only about 20 people registered for the Blackhawk Regional. I'm hoping a lot more mailed in their registrations, else I fear that this might get cancelled...

[Bryan KF8G]

[QUOTE=Drew Aldred;269092]Yep the scheduling issues were the big problem. Some hard headed people who were in charge of certain regions were not willing to work together to put together a schedule that would work for the majority of the regions and racers.

QUOTE]

Ding...ding...ding... We have a winner. The schedualing conflicts have been huge in the past. And yea, part of that was ego, but there could be races 10 hours a part that regions would fight for dates and the oppposite region wouldn't budge becuase they felt the other race would hurt thier car count. With the price of gas, that doesn't seem to be much of an issue anymore.

[shwah]

I don't know why folks are slow to register for the Firecracker, but I know 3 additional ITB drivers are planning to be there, and a 4th and 5th that always are there, but I have not talked to them. Light but not empty turnout for my class.

See you there Drew.

edit - if this gets cancelled I will be screwed. Aaron took the win from me there in April. I have an edge on him here, he has an edge on me at RA. Our championship would only be changed by him not finishing a race if we don't get to go at BHF for the double.

[shwah]

Looks to me like there are 71 drivers registered for the Firecracker on dlb.

[R2 Racing]

You guys maybe think that the $4/gallon gas and damn near everything else in life costing more this year than ever before, just maybe having something to do with lower car counts?

[tnord]

sure it does Kevin.

while some of the things you point out are positives, you need to look at this from a more macro view. i think MiDiv has a lot of similarities to the old CenDiv before the split, with our massive geographical area, scheduling conflicts, and entry problems.

from Kansas City to Memphis (the SE corner of the Div), it's a 10hr haul. but Kansas City isn't even close to the NW corner, that's up in central Nebraska. so from corner track to corner track, you're looking at 15hr+ tow. that's just loony, and people don't do it. we are for the most part divided into an IA/NE/KS/MO and MO/IL/OK/TN subdivisions, with the regional racers from each not seeing each other all year. to solve this, there is a double points race in October for anyone who has scored in 4 or more MiDiv championship races, which basically means if you want to finish well for the season, you have to go. the race rotates tracks every 2 years. i hate the track in STL, but i hauled my ass out there last october....because i had to.

last year the scheduling was awful. there was something like 7 races in 8 weekends during july & aug (who wants to be racing in that heat in this part of the country?). every region lost their ass hosting races, KC region who hosts events at HPT was thousands in the red for last year's double regional in july. i think we ended up with ~70 entries.

this year KC region took the initiative to reduce the # of races we held, and have been much better off for it imo. the double regional (moved to june) drew over 100 entries, and i'm sure the only National we have later in the year will do well.

bottom line?
i think undoing the split and forcing the two sides to work together (even if that means losing a bunch of money for a year) would be best for the health of the divisions, and the SCCA as a whole.

[shwah]

As a counter point to the benefits of the split - know where you are racing, who you are racing against, and race against your competition in the championship.

The current arrangement discourages running some events. For example, I have been wanting to race at Grattan for the past few years, but I have not had time/budget outside our CenDiv races to go and do it. I have run lots and lots of laps at Gingerman, that is where I got started with the whole track day thing, but I have never raced there. We are going to IT Fest this year, but until the Milwaukee regional race got cancelled it was going to be a serious squeeze for us.

Since divisional series don't score any out of division events (ala national points systems) it ends up preventing folks from going to new tracks and racing new competition - excepting the truely dedicated.

As a result, next year I will probably not contest my local series, and focus on hitting some new tracks, and racing some new drivers. I will go to Grattan, and I will find a weekend to go race against Chris and the other MidDiv ITB guys.