Memphis and Hallett

[TStiles]

Jarrod , I'm not in MW Division , but our family has plans to relocate this summer ( assuming the Houston house sells ) to Memphis.

If I assume that I'm living in Memphis , I'm shocked by the tow distances. Just not viable to race for a regional championship out of Memphis due to the long tows. Drives me toward STL and choose between winter/spring races in Texas , Memphis , Gateway , Hallett , Atlanta , Barber.

FWIW : I prefer more / shorter sessions / races.

FWIW2 : In SW Division , the ( slim ) IT field runs with EP,FP,HP,GTL,STU,STL,SSB group. Some of the EP cars will lap some of the IT guys , but from my perspective it works pretty well. It ends up being the largest group of the weekend.

[red986s]

If I assume that I'm living in Memphis , I'm shocked by the tow distances. Just not viable to race for a regional championship out of Memphis due to the long tows.

Yeah, I feel for the drivers in Memphis and Mississippi. With all the outstanding tracks in the southeast and southwest it doesn't make sense to tow to Nebraska for a regional.

[RX555]

As an aside to this discussion, I really don't care about points or championships. Living on the eastern edge of the MW division, it's a long tow to some of the tracks, so I've only been to Memphis and Topeka besides Gateway. I hope to make Hallett and MAM someday and like the idea of supporting the divisional races, but have a limited amount of weekends off and do what works in the schedule.
If I'm gonna tow far, would just as soon go to Road America, Barber, or Mid Ohio and run on the "pro" tracks. And there's several Cendiv/nasa tracks within a 4-5 hr tow too.
So, in case you're wondering, my point is don't let points chasing get in the way of getting out and having fun on the track.

[Matt93SE]

Jarrod , I'm not in MW Division , but our family has plans to relocate this summer ( assuming the Houston house sells ) to Memphis.

Noooo!


Jarrod, Unfortunately I wouldn't call Hallett's race much of a gunfight in ST. There were a few guns, but none of them did well. deBarros was the only truly quick car there that finished the race. McClughan had ECU problems, Grahovec "blowed up" (again), Koller was having a rough time with his transmission, and my 240SX is nowhere near prepped to STU limits (it's an ITS car with brakes and a wing), and I was having brake bias and trans issues all weekend too. Trans is currently out of the car getting a rebuild since I munched the synchros on 2,3,4 trying to catch your bimmer!

Get all of those other guys back on a good weekend where everything is running well and it will be a hoot.

[JIgou]

The geographical spread of Midiv is horrible....and, what's worse, we've got tracks in every freaking corner of the division. Even when the economy was "good", a divisional championship wasn't much more than an attendance award for most classes. Now? It's ugly, and only getting worse while the race groups try to figure out how to stay solvent.

Jarrod, Unfortunately I wouldn't call Hallett's race much of a gunfight in ST. There were a few guns, but none of them did well. deBarros was the only truly quick car there that finished the race. McClughan had ECU problems, Grahovec "blowed up" (again), Koller was having a rough time with his transmission, and my 240SX is nowhere near prepped to STU limits (it's an ITS car with brakes and a wing), and I was having brake bias and trans issues all weekend too. Trans is currently out of the car getting a rebuild since I munched the synchros on 2,3,4 trying to catch your bimmer!

Get all of those other guys back on a good weekend where everything is running well and it will be a hoot.

There were guns there....they just wouldn't fire. Not your fault OR mine that they chose high-strung cars instead of reliable (cough) IT cars.

I figured McClughan was in trouble when I wandered past his paddock spot one time on Saturday and it looked like he had half (or more) of the wiring harness laying on the ground.

If those guys (and others like them) would get their stuff sorted and reliable and whip up on us all proper-like, that would help keep us from making very dumb and expensive decisions about car prep - we'd just pull back and stay in IT where the car is "competitive".

[Matt93SE]

I haven't talked to Joe since I was on my way to grid Sat morning, but he wasn't happy. Usually he's well prepped and the car runs fine.. I think this is the first race in a year he hasn't finished (and whooped me arse in the process..)

[PSherm]

Looks like IT will get it's own run group from here on out, according to the schedule info on the Midiv website....

[Ralf]

Yeah, it will be great if cars show up.(Hint, hint. Paul!) Only two IT cars signed up so far with 2 weeks until the event. A shame, considering IT used to be the biggest run group before this years changes. Of course we don't get an invite to Topeka in July.

[KelleyHux]

I'm reasonably certain that the DMVR race at MidAmerica Motorplex in early June will have IT as a separate group (and I don't think it's going to be the last group).

After doing some analysis of entries over the past 7 years this afternoon, I long for the days when we had 20-25 IT cars in one group again ... (ah, but one has to have dreams, right??)

Hope to see all of you at the event!
Kelley Huxtable
"PLAY SAFE"
DMVR

[RX555]

Yeah, it will be great if cars show up.(Hint, hint. Paul!) Only two IT cars signed up so far with 2 weeks until the event. A shame, considering IT used to be the biggest run group before this years changes. Of course we don't get an invite to Topeka in July.

I presume you're talking about Topeka? Only 16 cars entered for the whole thing!! That's counting 2 pdx and the one school entrant. Only one school entrant is really dismal. I see there's a Majors event at Texas the same weekend, but they only have 71 or so entries.
As far as Topeka, when I was planning out the season last month or so, they didn't have much regional track time listed, so I dismissed it. Now I've just realized they've added IT races, but a week doesn't leave me much time to work it out. I hope it works out for them.

[Ralf]

Guess we got side tracked. Yes, Topeka.
I wonder how much the national office is willing to pay KVRG for the low car count since its a Majors Showcase event. They did say they would make up the difference to the regions so they don't lose money, right?

[PSherm]

I presume you're talking about Topeka? Only 16 cars entered for the whole thing!! That's counting 2 pdx and the one school entrant. Only one school entrant is really dismal. I see there's a Majors event at Texas the same weekend, but they only have 71 or so entries.
As far as Topeka, when I was planning out the season last month or so, they didn't have much regional track time listed, so I dismissed it. Now I've just realized they've added IT races, but a week doesn't leave me much time to work it out. I hope it works out for them.

If the whole IT/Rational thing had been worked out at the beginning of the year, and the PtB in the Midiv actually listened to what the racers wanted (ala Rocky's Survey), I don't think we'd be in this situation. But I've seen almost no advertising of this coming weekend, which is unfortunate since it will be a PDX/Vintage weekend as well.

At least the PowarPeon is scheduled to make it's season debut... if we can get it fired up...