2015 NERRC schedule

[StephenB]

I think we need to continue to make efforts to be inclusive of cars built to other sanctioning bodies. Those cars and people exist. Chump, lemons, nasa, bmw club, Porsche club. Heck Will Turner who has a huge customer base races in BMW club, grand am, now WC, and even the lemons race all at our tracks, but has he ever raced with us? How can we get companies like his involved with us? Why doesn't he race with us! We need to partner with people like him. Heck I would be 100% supportive of letting him race with us for free if he advertised our organization... but I bet others here and in our region wouldn't support that free advertising...

Stephen

[Greg Amy]

I think we need to continue to make efforts to be inclusive of cars built to other sanctioning bodies. Those cars and people exist. Chump, lemons...

ITEZ

...nasa, bmw club, Porsche club.

ITE.

Heck Will Turner who has a huge customer base...

STU has invited his recently-created Spec E46 to race in STU.

Any others?

[StephenB]

We invited him? Or we have a ruleset that allows him to race? BIG difference...

[Greg Amy]

We invited him? Or we have a ruleset that allows him to race? BIG difference...

We specifically list the Spec E46 cars as eligible for STU, because the class has deviations that make them ineligible to the basic STU ruleset (weight, I think?). We added the class a couple of months ago on his request (and Eric Heinrich's lobbying).

You can do this, too, but "it's never been done" in IT. In fact, the idea has been explicitly rejected (see: Spec Miatas in ITA).

GA

[craigs]

Will has been to the runoffs at least once and as I recall made a great showing on RA-1s that he was "contracted" to run at the time.

1. We have too many events competing for a limited number of drivers. Northeast Division July 10 - August 23 has at least one race EVERY weekend and sometimes three!
2. Allow people to pay up from for a discount. Buy 5 nonrefundable race weekends and get a 6th free if you pay before March 1st.
3. Cut the number of classes.
4. Remove the Major and Regional distinction.
5. One series at the divisional level.

Dave - you talk about LRPs high cost making you pause. No calling you out specifically because I hear it all the time, but I think LRP gets a bad rap for the entry fee which is only about $20 higher than NHMS. LRP is no longer way over priced in comparison.

[gran racing]

Do you see me at NHMS? It's not just about cost, it's about perceived value.

For example, I'd MUCH prefer to attend Summit Point's Labor Day Friday - Monday events even though it'll cost me more a fair amount more due to travel. Yet I totally feel my family and I get an awesome product. Maybe not a great example... From what I've seen of Palmer, I'd rather head there for a Friday - Sunday race weekend for more money and a lot more racing. LRP often has a waste of a vacation day Friday qualifying, some wonky qualifying sprint which isn't a race cause that noise would be louder or something like that, and so forth.

Ask tGA if I'm a guy who typically defends LRP, has emotional ties to it since I grew up going there with my father watching races, and so on. Gesh Greg, you proud of me? lol

[Greg Amy]

I do find it ironic that you're complaining about entry fee cost, yet you prefer to tow 7 hours (versus 5)..the difference just in fuel cost is more (ignoring the relative value of the tracks...I know you're not a fan of NHMS).

But I think that illustrates a bigger picture than just entry fees. I think entry fees certainly give us pause, but they don't guide our behavior as much as we think they do. I bitched about the entry fees for the Majors last year ($650, was it?) and for the Runoffs ($950?) but I still did the events because they were races I wanted to run, at venues I wanted to race, and competition I wanted to race against. Provide events at attractive venues with full fields and the rest follows.

Hell, I bet you could probably charge $750 for the first 2015 Palmer Regional and I bet the place still fills up. Yes, people will bitch, but if this were a purely economic discussion, that's what we'd do... - GA

[craigs]

When you mentioned dollar amounts I mistakenly interpreted that as cost and not value. My bad.