east champs highs and lows

[bob-e]

Figured I'd do a little review of my experience which was a blast overall.

 

Highs:

Green track time! Sessions went off smoothly every time for me. Any track clean up was quick and we did great staying on time.

 

Water after the races and during impound from the Racer Connect girls. Man that was awesome and very much needed.

 

My competitors were great and the racing in class and through traffic was really clean and respectful.

 

Live schedules (courtesy of my own southeast region) were invaluable. No one likes to show up to grid early when it's a million degrees out.

 

Timing and scoring seemed on it all weekend. We moved a couple people and it seemed to go very smooth.

 

Lows:

Admission: it was my understanding that admission would be $40 per weekend or $10 per day. Not the case. My friends paid $40 each to watch me race for 25 minutes on Saturday. A ticket for Petit LeMans on Friday is only 10 bucks more!

 

Track photographer was bunk. No photos of me were taken and the photos I saw looked like the cars were parked on track (google pan/low shutter speed). As an amateur photog, I could have crushed this company's photos.

 

Lack of communication from race directors. I had a couple PT competitors without enough for a class. Emails went out and to race directors and no responses were sent regarding refund/class transfer/transfer to TT. Crazy.

 

Lack of communication from class directors. It was my understanding that everyone had to be there for the Thursday night meeting or have a proxy. I saw meetings being held by other race groups. We couldn't find Rivard or Greenbaum. Jim Pantas (race director) asked me to fill in. I set meeting times for the week and told everyone to be calm until Friday when I hope to get some direction. We have a meeting on Friday and I make some calls by a majority (100%) vote. Then we have another meeting after first impound where everything gets changed and I'm made out to be a jerk for making calls above my pay grade. (no thank you for filling in where they should have been the whole time). All this could have been avoided by some pre-race meeting schedules via email. Again, communication.

 

Impound: WAY too long the first day just sitting on grid while they make a plan because this was obviously done on the fly. I was a little confused why everyone searched for the stuff I had listed on my sheet. "Remote reservoirs. OK where are your remote reservoirs?" Why would you waste time looking for something I have taken maximum points for? Don't you want to find stuff I have not listed? It did take a lot less time than I thought it would though (that is after we finally got moved off of post grid)

 

Dyno: I would love to see an AWD dyno out there. Running GPS data to attempt to calculate HP just plain doesn't work consistantly. I don't think any one was over, but I'm tired of racers crying about an AWD advantage and NASA should be too (just be glad it didn't rain ). Maybe instead of hauling a 2wd dynojet from Cali, we could have hauled a 4wd Dynojet from much closer.

 

Scales: weigh one of the rental cars in the morning of the first day, get a base line and lock it up for the weekend. Recheck throughout the weekend to make sure the scales are still calibrated correctly.

[fox4life]

I like this approach, voicing your own personal experience with the event, good and bad. It should help NASA with future nationals events (hopefully). Rather than just complaining or complimenting amongst ourselves in the paddock, pits, etc about how it was run. That being said, this was my first nationals event, so excuse my lack of experience with these types of events, ill try to be as constructive as possible.

 

The good, for me.

- The whole event seemed to be on time, there were no major delays on track, in meetings (for the most part) or on grid.

 

-ill agree with Bob on a couple points, the track time was great, and the water waiting in impound/tech was awesome.

 

- ill also agree that my competitors were great, in class and out (944 spec, PT and TT) being a rookie this year, I dont have much room to talk from an experience standpoint, but I felt the racing was great, and respectful.

 

-I was able to find the different series directors when needed. Either through drivers info or just going to a few specific areas.

 

 

The bad. Again, for just me.

 

-the impound/tech areas seemed unorganized. The scales section seemed to move along at a good pace, but other than that it seemed a bit, um hectic and unplanned. One major concern I had was the lack of time spent looking over cars, the inspection process seemed very relaxed. I dont believe anyone was cheating, but it would've been nice to have some more thorough inspections. I've spend countless hours and dollars making sure everything was exactly correct per the rules, as I'm sure most people have, and it almost seemed like a waste since there wasn't much enforcement. Again, this is just my opinion of what I saw in my group, I dont know how all the other series inspections went, but I did see cams getting pulled out of cars from other series on Sunday post race.

 

-AWD dyno! Please! I'm sick of having to defend myself about "cheating" because I can't dyno at the event. As I'm sure my competitors are sick of having to go to the dyno time and time again when I dont have to. It just makes sense if you're going to allow AWD cars to compete that they should be checked just like everyone else.

 

Thats about all I can think of right now, all in all I had a great time, and will be back next year for VIR.

[John Graber]

The guys from Appalachian Tire were great. Couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating.

The PA and FM Systems were awesome. So nice to actually hear what was going on out there o ntrack. Heck we could watch in the truck from many different places and get a play by play.

Pro Paddock Manager at check-in was on it! No confusion or issues owning your spot.

I can't imagine the number of Volunteers it took to get everything else done, and in the same heat us racers were fighting. Kudos to all those that sacrificed to make it happen.

Everything else seemed pretty darn smooth from my perspective.

Great event and hats off to Will and Ryan! I certainly got my $499 worth! When is VIR???

[Emmanuel B.]

Great thread. Keep 'em coming!

[bob-e]

thought of some more highs and lows:

bfg (and I hear appalachian) support was awesome. those guys worked their asses off in the heat.

 

corner workers were on it with local yellows and blue flagging. Thanks to all the volunteers!

 

parking was great for me. we had a reserved spot, but it looked like the rest of the paddock was pretty well organized and racers were again respectful

 

after watching the spec 944 video I remembered the only problem I had on track all weekend. After lap one of the champ race, T3 through entry of esses was oiled down and debris flag came out. There was a 944 at the bottom of the esses with a driver standing by the wall. During our double yellow, nothing was cleaned up. I've used where his car was parked as an exit route before when pushing too hard through entry of esses. I visualized my 3200 pound car sliding through oil and pushing into the grass and collecting the 944 and driver. I just backed off through there for the remaining 30 minutes of the race. Scary.

[kbrew8991]

Would've preferred to have a qual session for prelim race #2 instead of a warmup that didn't count for anything.

 

Would've preferred to have some sort of warmup session before the champ race. Even if it was a "hardship" sorta thing early in the day where you had to give a good reason to be allowed to use it (hey my car broke and I replaced part X, can I test it?) and just have a 15ish min session for people from any/all groups to shakedown a car that may be having issues or whatever.

 

I realize with the compressed schedule that may be difficult to achieve however.

 

Another suggestion - semantical I know - can we call them "preliminary races" instead of "qualifying races"? It's a bit less confusing to outsiders this way, easier to get people following along at home to understand what's happening, etc.

[heavychevy]

I agree, the event was run very smoothly. Honestly my only gripe was not being able to get out of the car in Time Trials. If you did 1 or even 3 laps, you had to sit in a baking hot car for 15-20 minutes while other guys ran the whole session and a cool down lap. I understand they are trying to keep things in order, but that's pretty brutal. Would have even been a relief to stand in the hot sun for that period of time.

[T&A Racing]

I have seen a few comments about next years east event being at firm did they make an announment? I haven't seen anything official. Did they announce the dates?

[arggg45]

Labor Day weekend at VIR

[Greg G.]

I agree, the event was run very smoothly. Honestly my only gripe was not being able to get out of the car in Time Trials. If you did 1 or even 3 laps, you had to sit in a baking hot car for 15-20 minutes while other guys ran the whole session and a cool down lap. I understand they are trying to keep things in order, but that's pretty brutal. Would have even been a relief to stand in the hot sun for that period of time.

TT Rules and Supp's. both clearly state that a TT driver can get out of the vehicle when held in impound. If this was a problem, you should have let your Director know. (Also, if you know those rules, its difficult for anyone to argue....). Racers got out of their cars down there.

[hhdinyuma]

From my perspective:

 

Highs: Outstanding job organizing and running the event by NASA SE. Great facility with everything you would expect at a national level event. Level of competition and quality of cars was outstanding.

 

Lows: Never felt like a NASA National Championship event to me. More like a very well attended regional event. Missed the reception banquet we had at Miller last year. Everything about the Dyno was flawed including the lack of a AWD Dyno, queing process, inaccurate weather data, etc, etc. Extremely disappointed with the lack of media coverage. JWL and Speedcast made the Championships feel like the Championships. Racer Connect's attempts while commendable just didn't work for an event of this caliber, size, and scope. I just felt like the budget was the overriding consideration at the expense of the overall experience I expect from our National Championship.

 

Suggestions: Provide more incentives to racers to boost attendance. Make a valid Dyno check available for every car that is competing. Get Speedcast Back!

 

Overall Impressions: I will be at Sonoma and plan to be at VIR in 2015. I just hope to feel like the long drive and expense was worth it at the end.

[Rob in VA]

Extremely disappointed with the lack of media coverage. JWL and Speedcast made the Championships feel like the Championships. Racer Connect's attempts while commendable just didn't work for an event of this caliber, size, and scope. I just felt like the budget was the overriding consideration at the expense of the overall experience I expect from our National Championship.

 

...

Get Speedcast Back!

 

+1 - Speedcast needs to come back. Even though VIR is considered my home track, without Speedcast, I'd have to debate whether or not to attend Nationals in 2015.

 

And to end on a positive, being a part of the 40 SE30 race group and having so much green flag racing was incredible.