Attendance ...

[rodhx]

Greg and the others do advertise the other events at the NDCCCs, and at least one young lady came out last time to check it out. Last fall, when my son went through it (the first time , I was given a business card that had all the 2008 solo dates on it, by David Branch I believe. Haven't seen any of those this year.

[zukitek]

My additional thought is, should/can we advertise the events(solo) at the NDCCC or other SCCA sponsored driving events? I realize NDCCC is not designed for teaching the kids how to race, but, you'd be a fool not to think that it still isn't instilling the basics of solo/RR.

I will address that quote .We do promote autox VERY selectively at NDCCC.As very young baby drivers ...these people are for the most part not ready to even consider performance driving yet .A very small fraction of them show talent /advanced skills and are given information on solo ..the rest are left to develop further .Generally 1-3 students of NDCCC is given materials on solo per clinic.THe judgement criteria I use is are they crawling or are they walking ?If they seem to be walking I will share solo with them ...if they are crawling ...then I may not .

RR

[dr_phatcity]

I have much respect for you Jamie but Charles is right, I say play buy the rule or play some where else. I don't care what other people do but I will be legal in my class or I will find a class that I am legal for. The comment "I snuck past tech with my aftermarket wheel last time I attended" says to me "hey I cheated and got away with it".

Thanks for the respect. Please don't take my posts as an endorsement for cheating in a class.

The novices often times don't get it .... every time I tell people I race my mini cooper, everyone asks,--- "Well, what have you done to it?" when I reply, nothing they all sort of laugh and don't believe me.

When you make people deal with a complicated classing structure, I'm not surprised someone concluded ---- "well, it's not fair to race against someone with everything so, I'll just sneak into this other class here". That is not the right perspective, but it takes people a while to understand our sport.

There is a tremendous amount of experience and wisdom among this crowd of folks here. If we want to grow the club, we have to share some of our insight and encourage people to properly participate and improve their driving so that they can become competitive. That's the cool part about the novice class.

We've got a good sport here -- its better for everyone if more people come out to provide more competition. Sure we can beat people and come across as super strict when they don't get it, but what's the point.

-J

(Sorry for the long post, I clearly don't want to work on my paper)

[Jab31169]

Attendance....well my main reason for not attending much or at all this year is just because my weekends are generally full of new house chores. The other reason is just funds. $40 an auto-x adds up pretty quick not to mention all the other consumables to go along with this hobby. I know some of you will say its just $40 bucks...I will then tell you to look back at reason #1 why I have not been attending. Lowes and Home Depot aren't exactly the cheapest places.

I love auto-x...im very average at it but I love it. In general I think the club is doing the right things to move forward as a club. I think the numbers will eventually come back up in auto-x. Just keep plugging away and spreading the good word. It could be worse...we could be without a place to auto-x. The whole PDX thing kinda sucks. I finally get a hardtop and we are going to kill off track days...super.

And another thought...it might be wise to talk with the bmwcca about getting some of there members out to the auto-x. I was just at the car control clinic they had at barbers and A LOT of those drivers really want to auto-x. Some of them didnt even know that we had an auto-x program in birmingham. In other news...I did get the STIG award at the event for doing 4 laps around the small auto-x course they had setup...in reverse. My neck still hurts from craning my head around.

[zukitek]

" I finally get a hardtop and we are going to kill off track days...super. "

We/I am not talking about killing off track days .We are only considering that ..1)They are not working out as stand alone events 2)how do we schedule them and have good club participation and support when we can't seem to get any feedback from the majority of the club as to whether they want them and when they want them.The only thing we can go on at this point is results and they are as they are .Not good

Untill those issues are resolved then there is a little relunctance to continue on the same path .Thats all .

[Jedi1]

Why not piggy back club track days with another group like PCA, BMW, Chin etc..? If attendance is too low to make it work as a stand alone then try and build it by combining with another group until we have enough to do our own event. Seems to me it's either that or nothing at all.

[rodhx]

Just a thought regarding Solo attendance and the Sunday-only schedule constraint, has anyone thought about pushing the start time back to take advantage of summer daylight hours? The entire day's schedule could conceivably be shifted at least two hours. When is the typical first car off...about 11am? If that can be moved to about 1pm and tech/registration open til noon-ish you might allow more folks to participate after church or perhaps come from farther away. Starting at 1pm also means no reason to break for lunch.

[JohnW8]

That's a good idea but starting early in the summer is an attempt to get the event underway before people start bursting into flames from the lovely afternoon Alabama summer temps.

[Focus]

And the set up people woudn't have to wake up before the sun! I like that idea.

[rodhx]

Regarding the temps, looks to me like you can either start when its "cool" or end when its "cool"...."cool" being relative of course...but either way there are cars on course during the hottest part of the afternoons.

I figured the suggestion would be a hit with some of the setup crew

[Jedi1]

either way that works out, see ya at the end of September (Maybe October), lol.

[DAB21]

David, I was going to make something simpler than the region logo. It would be more like 6"x4" or 5".

That works for me! Bring it- just tell me what I owe.

[Focus]

One biiillion dollars! mwhahaaha (payable to alscca)

[engled]

Send my a single color vector graphic and I will cut and weed it. If it's more than one color you will weed and put it together your self.

[Patrix33]

BTW - I have a used stock steering wheel with the airbag intact for sale - $35 I also have a garage full of turbo miata parts for sale. My car is living proof that more power does not mean faster times, but I sure enjoy spending so much time sideways