Hi Gang

There is no agenda in this message and I have no side, just a comment and a view from a family that races in the New England Region.

Linda and I live in Central Mass. We are 2.5 hours from Lime Rock and the same from NHMS. 7 hours from Watkins GLen and 7.5 from NJMP. We used to go to Summit when we raced Lay down Karts but that is over 10 hours. We do not go to Pocono (6 plus hours) as we never really enjoyed it when we raced karts there.

We have eliminated Lime Rock from our schedule. While the place is beautiful and great fun and a challenge to drive well it is :
Too Expensive for the race time you get.
Too easy to get a race cut short due to an accident
There seems to be a hight percentage of carnage there.
It is a lot of work for a one day event and the DE/Race combination is too expensive for a family with two drivers.
I do however enjoy instructing there for DEs.

We usually do all 5 events at NHMS and do not feel there are too many days there. The May triple seems to be the Jewel of the year. We especially enjoy the value of Doubles and would rather they all be doubles for the number of races and the value.

We travel to Watkins Glen 2 times a season recently. One to instruct at a DE and then the Fun One or the Last Chance Enduro.

Last year we also went to NJMP for the October event. Great fun and we plan on maybe 2 trips there this year. One DE with SCDA and then a race late in the season.

I also try and do 2 or 3 instruction DE days at NHMS.

So this is pretty busy for two old Farts who do it for fun.

We do not care about points. I agree with Steve Ulfelder's post completely. We do not race for points. We race for fun and enjoy seeing the same people at events so we can compare lies.

So that is about 12 events through the summer with maybe 3 or 4 autocrosses just to stay sharp.

If a Lime Rock day goes away it has no effect on us. If a NHMS day goes away we are not going to go to a Lime Rock or a Pocono event to make up for it. We will just be a little sadder as we grow older.

I do not know what the final answer is. Maybe give up the May 30 LimeRock and pick up a mid June event there to spread things out a bit. I agree, having races on back to back weekends is not a good idea. Having races that lose money is even worse. There needs to be more open communication between groups to better schedule the events.

Anyway just a viewpoint from midpack.

Phil Kogan