Enduro Interest

[Waco Racer]

The NASA Texas Staff has been discussing, for a couple of years, about running an enduro in the Texas area. I would like to gauge interest in this type of event.

 

There are a few basic items to iron out:

 

1. Season of year - Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall - pick one

2. Track - pick one

3. Length - 4, 6, 8, 12 - pick one

4. Time of day - morning, afternoon, day into night - pick one

 

Lets keep it simple for now. There are many other details but these are the basics.

[Knestis]

It's important to not conflict - like in the same month - with other long races. They tend to suck from the same pool of drivers, with teams traveling farther on average than for sprints. Other than that, you want to avoid whatever kind of potentially race-stopping weather you might have in your area, season-wise.

 

For a first enduro, it might be useful to make it relatively short - maybe a 6 hour. Work out the organizational kinks without having to leave workers out there ALL day, for example. Or do a daytime enduro and save the night stuff for Year 2.

 

Pick your track (if you have multiple choices) based on pit lane width and number of spots. Safety and stress levels improve when you don't have folks struggling for space, if you can possibly do so. Organizational access is also important - for example, can you get food and water to all of the corner stations without having to resort to going FCY to put delivery trucks on the track?

 

Also, look at the supps for other enduros and try to avoid changing pit rules, etc. unless you have a very powerful reason to do so. It's harder to avoid issues when the rules are different at every track we go to, and you want to make it as easy as possible for entrants to do the right thing.

 

Kirk

[Waco Racer]

These are great points Kirk, many of which we have already addressed. Many teams and officials here in Texas have run the 6 hour in November. We are hoping to offer something unique to the Central part of the USA for 2008 and a fun event for teams from other regions. We have a long way to go, but with help from our racing friends we can accomplish this goal.

[Knestis]

Well, cool then - pull the trigger on that bad boy and we'll see if we can find drivers to want to run it with us. Short answers then...

 

1. Season of year - May or September, not too early or too late, and avoid the hottest months in Texas.

 

2. Track - I dunno. The one with the best pits. Track layout isn't such a big deal from my point of view.

 

3. Length - 14 hours. Everything is bigger in Texas. It wouldn't be much more of an struggle than a 12. There's got to be a historical event you can celebrate with that number.

 

4. Time of day - 9:00am-11:00pm

 

K