CenDiv schedule Kettle Moraine Regional no more.

[cooleyjb]

Well, my schedule just got a lot easier to figure out next year.

After the debacle at MM last year, and the feeble attempt to run a regional at AB (one year on the North, one year on the South and done for good) I won't be heading back to MM and won't be going along for an experiment at BIR. I was looking forward to both RA doubles, but may just repurpose the cash and prepare for IT Fest and ARRC.

Would you like to see it switched back to a regional?

[shwah]

It just doesn't make any sense to change it to a national. The runoff hopefulls can all still come and test at a regional. All that is being done is limiting entries (and income from the event) while preventing a bunch of racers from participating.

I won't even address whether it is 'fair' for regional racers to compete with national racers. I think we all know this is a different decade than that.

The Tro CenDiv Championship excludes any who compete at the runoffs, so it will not have any impact on the regional level series points.

I am sure it isn't easy, but of course IT racers would like to not have half of thier chances to race at Road America taken away. Just speculating here that there is reluctance to run at Autobahn again due to cost and turnout, and there are only so many tracks that Nationals can run at, but after excluding IT cars from the MW RA event this year (AFTER it had been scheduled as a RR), it just looks like more of the same. That event is listed again, but is one week before the IT Fest, so ...

Yeah the short answer is I would like to see it remain a regional weekend (even though I missed it in 2008 because I had to travel for work...)

[ddewhurst]

2008 Kettle Sat.

IT race group 35 cars with 16 being SMT = 19 IT cars

Sat. total cars 130

[shwah]

You forgot the weather report Dave. Pouring down rain - to the tune of an ITB car taking first overall in a run group including ITR, ITS, ITA. I would have definitely been there were it not for an overseas trip interfereing, but some folks do avoid wet races.

And of course the point again is - the only thing that changes by making it a national is that we can't participate. Leave it a regional and all of the national racers will still be there.

[jumbojimbo]

looking at it from the organizers perspective...Run it as a national and your upside potential is higher because national drivers who come to test and get experience at a regional pay a lot less then if they come to the national.

Assumption on my part, but if you look at income you can probably expect to get fewer entries but similar income from the national due to the higher fee. and each extra national entry would equal more than 150% of each extra regional entry. Upside potential is higher.

I'm not saying it's right, but it is understandable from that side. RA is a limited quantity item, if you have the product, why waste it selling the cheaper product?

jim

jim hardesty
WOR Road Race Chair 2009
75 ITC Civic

[planet6racing]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but...

You do not make more from a National weekend versus a Double Regional weekend, given the same number of participants. The fixed costs remain the same (track rental, emergency crews, etc), the only variable is the sanction fee from SCCA (1 National sanction vs. 2 regional sanctions). The entry fee for a National event is less than that for a double regional.

[shwah]

Sorry. Twice the race sessions more than covers the higher per race entry fee for a single national. That and 4 mile track leaves plenty of room to accomodate everyone with large groups, split starts and/or whatever else is deemed appropriate.

Right now the CenDiv regional sechedule has a few events, a big time gap and then 4 events all 2 weeks apart, with IT Fest on one of the off weeks, followed by 6 weeks of nothing an a double at BHF.

With one of those events listed as 'tentative' because the track has not been certified for SCCA (just like it had not when it was tossed onto the 07 schedule), and one that had the last event at that track cancelled less than 24 hours before the first scheduled session.

The bottom line is that the regional program in CenDiv is behind that of our neighbors. How is it that MidDiv finds a way to accomodate all racers at every race weekend, yet we can't?

Looking at this, I honestly may not run any 'home events'. Possibly the last one if any testing needs to be done before ARRC. I guess the next step is to stand up and get involved to help solve the problem...