2010 NEDiv Roundtable

[Jeremy Billiel]

Ahh... The roundtable does not need to happen in person as the internet is much more fun.

So there are a lot of correct statements in all of these responses. Here they are in no perticular order.

1. Volunteers due stick to particular regions and will usually work their preferred region first.
2. Regions do talk a lot about the races and who is do what, when.
3. There are still too many events
4. There are too many SCCA regions in the Northeast
5. The politics due come into play often.
6. Its no secret that when regions put two races on the same weekend typically someone loses. Last year it was NJMP
7. Regions try to use series like the NARRC to draw cars and make marginal events profitable.
8. The events that are succesful have NOTHING to do with the region. They have EVERYTHING to do with car counts, track time, fun, uniqueness, etc...
9. The Pro IT was never intented to replace regionals, but it did and the drivers made that clear with their wallets last year.
10. I must be missing something?

[Andy Bettencourt]

I think what Jerry was saying was that WORKERS care what Region is hosting an event - because that is effectively their employer for the weekend and each Region does things differently and certain things or certain friends can make the difference in the desire to volunteer.

We as drivers my not care who hosts the event, but we are indeed just half the picture. No drivers, no fun. No workers, no fun.

At the end of the day, we have a ton of events to choose from. That is great. But Regions need to understand (and I think they do) that there are only a certain amount of 'entries' in a given year. If you water down those entries over too many races, nobody wins. In today's day and age, each Region is I am sure very concious of not losing money. But from a drivers standpoint, it will be frustrating is a Regional Official comes on here worried about losing money on an event when it was double-booked with some other event inter-divisionally. I think everyone can understand that.

I like the way it's going, but we can continually improve.

[lateapex911]

8. The events that are succesful have NOTHING to do with the region. They have EVERYTHING to do with car counts, track time, fun, uniqueness, etc...

Actually, the Regions DO have a lot to do with that. NER has adopted some great formats and those draw racers. There are some racers who do track time vs entry fee math and decide where to go based on that. So the regions that come up with the best events will have an extra draw.

But it's still only one aspect of the 'where to race decision".