2007 AX?DE dates

[ronaldtrotter]

We met today with the other car clubs and discussed AX/DE dates for the first half of 2007. Due to the Chargers winning season the January. and Febuary dates are still up in the air. Until that is settled we cannot publish the dates. Hang tight we are suppose to have a firm schedule after 1 January. As soon as we have information we will post it here.

[Kim Crosser]

Arrgghh.. of course, the Race Legal guys already are talking about the great dates they got from the stadium (inside page of today's SD Union-Tribune). Do they pay more than we do? To who?

[ronaldtrotter]

Kim,

As you read in the article they talk about it costing $30,000 a month to run their program. I believe if we could make enough to generate $30,000 the board would nominate us for the Donald Trump Miss USA award (then we could all go into rehab).javascript:emoticon(':lol:')
Laughing But, then again do we want to run in the dark and on a Friday night.
Also can we get 1700 spectators at $10 a piece. I think the program Race Legal runs is great and seems to fill a void. I like drag racing also and own a car that would do well in their venue, but don't participate. It's too bad that there is not a venue for our kind of car fun (AX) that could help the kids who want to race but have no place to go. BMW and Porsche give the number of laps that these kids need and the supervision that makes it safe. No one else. Unfortunately for them you have to own one of our marks to participate.

Never the less we are fortunate to have an place like the Q. My worry is that it will be gone in the next three to four years and then what do we do. Go to El Toro? Sorry for the rant.

[Tim Comeau]

Ron,
Not so much a rant as a serious concern. It's been a concern of many of us for a long time because when the stadium goes, alot of fun/club income goes with it. We should all be looking for suitable alternate venues around the county.

[Don Middleton]

Ron, this delay in getting the dates is a little confusing. There is only one weekend in question, i.e. whether Chargers will still be playing on the 20th-21st weekend.

It would seem that they could publish the dates for the six months now. By the time they know about the 20th/21st, it will too late for anyone to use it.

Is there more to this delay?

[ronaldtrotter]

Yeah, Don there is. Part of the problem is that the play offs are changing the dates for the monster trucks and the motocross. They have to chose new dates in either Jan. or Feb. Once they chose their dates them the parking lot has to be prepared for them, pits, etc. We have little or no control over any of this since our payment equals a dime to their $100. Wish we could do more, but hang in there and we'll do the best we can.

[ronaldtrotter]

I forgot to add that as of yet we have not heard from the Staduim people. I will call Monday/Tuesday to see if anything has changed. Like I said in the last post there are more then just car clubs involved and a whole bunch of money.

[martinreinhardt]

I would suggest to start looking into an AutoX alternative location, at least for a couple of events a year. Unfortunately, the Q parking lot isn't in it's best conditions anyways.

How about another Autocross at the California Speedway parking lot, El Toro or maybe on one of our military bases? There has to be an alternative solution

[Don Middleton]

Thanks for the updates, Ron. I'm sure you are doing all that can be done.

Martin has a good point. Does the club have a list of parameters for alternative sites, i.e. minimum acreage, etc? With some direction, we may, individually, be able to better keep an eye out for sites with potential for hosting an AX.

[ronaldtrotter]

To my knowledge we do not have parameters. My son looked into the air field at Pendelton, but that's a no. El Toro and Fontana are good places, but except for north county the distance is a problem. One hour for most of us to El Toro and two plus for Fontana. Plus I was told El Toro must design their courses to keep the speed below 55-60 mph.

It is my understanding that the west lot is 65 arces, that's the size of space they are looking at to build a stadium here in Chula Vista and also Oceanside. Those of you who are architects can tell me more on this but I understand to build parking lots now you need a certain amount of green space, thus the planters in the big lots around town. That causes us problems with some spots.

I wish I had an answer, but I'm still to new at this to have any real insight. This might be something the board needs a task force to look at and investigate. We have a few years but not more then three or four.

[ttweed]

This might be something the board needs a task force to look at and investigate. We have a few years but not more then three or four.

Ron-

All the other car clubs in SD are in the same boat with the Qualcomm situation, and to some extent, I am sure they are all investigating alternatives, also. It may be useful to form a PCA-SDR "task force" to identify new sites, etc., but I think that it might be even more effective to leverage that collective interest by forming a "coalition of car clubs" task force, with representatives from each club, to pool ideas and influence aimed at achieving the goal of a new replacement site. When all the clubs meet to allocate dates at the stadium, do they ever discuss this possibility and their common interests in the current situation?

I'm just thinking there is strength in numbers, two (or 10) heads are better than one, etc., and that the autox community is such a small faction in relation to other interest groups that it may be essential to band together in order to even have our voice be heard in the public/private/governmental forums which will have to be accessed and convinced of our righteousness to accomplish anything of this nature.

For instance, on the SD SOLO2 forums, which is the SCCA equivalent of this BBS, there are 3 messages in a section called "Venues" that discuss these same issues. Here's the URL if you want to read them:
http://www.sdsolo.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=4 They are going down this same road, and even talk about possibly contacting the BMW and Porsche clubs about it. It just makes sense to me to build some kind of coalition of all the Qualcomm lot users (which may even include non-auto-club members) to maximize chances of success.

Just my $.02, and no, I am not volunteering for the job.

TT

[ronaldtrotter]

Darn and I thought you were just the right person to coordinate. Interestingly enough only PCA, SCCA and the Karting Assn. attended the scheduling meeting in Dec. I know the other groups were contacted.

[Kim Crosser]

hmmm... from my post in November 2005 -

Ok - different approach. Build it and they will come.

Even if the Chargers stay and the Stadium remains, the parking lot will continue to deteriorate. Aren't we all getting a bit tired of trying to avoid decomposing pavement, swales, drains, nails, light poles, and broken glass?

Why not begin to do something proactive?

There must be locations that are feasible to build a modest motorsports facility (the Miramar landfill? under the Miramar approach/flight path? up by Ramona?).

Possible plan:

1. Form a small committee to investigate
2. Get participation from other interested groups (BMWCCA, SCCA, British Car Clubs, karting, motorcycles, ???)
3. Find some candidate locations within the County (maybe set a limit of 1/2 the distance to Holtville from the Stadium?)
4. Determine the cost to construct a decent road course (maybe include a drag strip for the Race Legal guys if they are interested?) - don't forget enough paved area for parking and our Performance Driving School
... yes, I know we are talking at least 7 figures here - rural road construction costs can exceed $1M per mile ...
(of course, we can skip the curbs! )
5. Work out different options for the facility - lighting? plumbing or just port-a-potties? bleachers? trailer storage? etc.
6. Work out the operating costs (leasing, insurance, debt service, taxes, maintenance, fees, services, etc.)
7. Identify possible sources of capital funding - be creative (PCNA, BMW, dealers, celebrities/companies [name the track? "Jay Leno Motorsports Park"], individual contributions, financing, etc. (can it be non-profit and get tax-deductable donations - especially if we get Race Legal involved?)
8. Treat this as a business operation and put together a business plan and prospectus - heck, maybe one of our members would like to own it!
9. Go for it!

I am willing to help with this if there are some other motivated individuals who will get involved. (We need at least one person with some legal background, one with some construction experience [preferably highway/road experience], and someone who has done a business plan before [preferably successful].)

Any takers??? Any reasons to NOT do this? (Other than inertia, of course. )

I could be very wrong, but my guess is that the local motorsports community currently pays at least $200K-$300K/year to rent space at the Q, and I am pretty sure PCA-SDR would rent more time if it were available - I have to believe the others would as well. If annual operating expenses could be kept to a minimum, a project like this might be financeable to a pretty large number.

[ronaldtrotter]

I like it. l can anyone say Indian/Native American. The board has a lot on its' plate this year, but a task force would be most appropriate.

[Tim Comeau]

Kim,
In 1996 or so, PCASDR formed a committtee to search for possible sites for AX's. Nothing was found. Roger Roberts was the Pres. Maybe there's some big lots that have been paved since then.
We also had a huge meeting of all the clubs in San Diego County including drag racers and off roaders. The plan was to speak with one voice to the City Council and try to get a Motorsports Park built. This group was using the then rampant teen drag racing deaths for leverage. Obviously the park didn't get built.
Ray Rubio (fish tacos)tried, to no avail, to get some race track thing going on the Miramar landfill area. He was quoted in the newspaper as saying he would assist anyone who wanted to take up where he left off.
I'm willing to be a part of our club's search for racing sites.