June AX Stuff

[Mmagus]

Hi all,

I wanted to say thanks once again to everyne who helped out, pitched in, stepped up and made this day happen. From the gang who came out to set up Friday, to the multiple folks who helped run Start (giving Jerry and I a break), to all of the various chairs, CDI's, timing folks, instructors, members and x-classers alike...all of your efforts are grealy apreciated!

On a peronal note, though I would have loved to have spanked Mark and Jerry... having all of us finish within .5 seconds of one another and nabbing 3 of the BRI top ten in our lowly GSS cars made this an extreeeeaaaamly sataisfying day!

Mark
AX Whippingboy

[lbevins]

Fun/fast track. Nice job, Mark and gang!

[ttweed]

... nabbing 3 of the BRI top ten in our lowly GSS cars made this an extreeeeaaaamly sataisfying day!

Obviously, the GSS index needs to be adjusted upward a bit. Not to mention the 944Spec index... Oh well, the BRI is going to become even more meaningless next season when the new classes kick in, unless we do some serious development work on it.

I thought it was a great course and a beautiful day, but there is one negative comment I would like to make about the autox yesterday, as the defacto tech chair in the absence of George Taylor, and that is in regard to the tech inspection schedule. We are experiencing more and more late arrivals to tech lately. The schedule requires that everyone be in line by 7:30 AM or be subject to a $10 "Late" fee, and that tech inspection CLOSES at 8:00AM. This rule has not been strictly enforced for quite some time, and I must admit that many (but not all) of the late arrivals have been non-members in X cars, who may not be familiar with the "drill." Bitching on this forum is not going to do much good, especially since we do not allow non-members to participate here, but perhaps that is a good reason to allow folks who run in our autocrosses but are not PCA members to join the forum? Anyway, we were very short on tech inspectors yesterday, and with some people arriving as late as 8:30, I was forced to miss the track walk and part of the Driver's meeting to get their cars inspected. This shouldn't be happening, and we need to find a way to communicate these requirements to people better and get everyone to conform to them. I don't know if enforcing the late fee is the way to go, or refusing entry to people who don't have the car tech'ed by 8:00 or what, but it is a problem and it is getting worse lately.

TT

[JERRY B]

It's not just the cars, Tom It's the drivers They run Flat Out

[Kim Crosser]

Tom T - Joel announced at the drivers' meeting that there would be NO late tech at future AX events. We just need to enforce that...

[rshon]

Even though the tech policy is listed on the second page of on-line registration, maybe there should be a stand-alone, highlighted blurb on the first page, something like "All cars must be in the tech line before 7:30 a.m., or a late fee will be levied. Tech will be closed at 8:00 a.m." And actually put a simple process in place to document and collect the late fee. (I will probably be the first one they get to test the process on. )

[jenniferreinhardt]

Yes, there are a few items like arriving to tech before 7:30, bringing blue tape for numbers, etc. that can be highlighted in VERY large print and color on the Motorsports registration for those X cars (and P cars) that are unaware of our policies and rules. I know it's kindergarten, but if it gets the job done. Since I help w/ pre-reg, I'll get it done.

I'm against having Non PCASDR Members X Cars on our Forum. That is a member benefit. We've already changed the dynamics of our club at the AX due to budget necessities, can't we have something left for our own members? People can read the forum, rules, policies etc. w/o having to log in to our website.

[Steve Grosekemper]

Tom
When I was running tech this is what I would do.
Set an alarm for 7:30 at that point I would put a person or cone to the back of the line. Any arrivals after 7:30 pay $10 before I even look at the car. Tech collects this so it doesn't get "forgotten". Any car that arrives after 8am waits until tech can get around to the car. Most importantly not causing a vollenteer to lose track or event time. I know this is hard to enforce when you are low on inspectors.
But it is to techs advantage to do this in the long run.

Sorry I couldn't help but I was at POC tribute with team Duncan Racing in Fontana.

[JERRY B]

I feel your pain Tom, but if we had turned away the last 10 cars we would still have had the same shortage of corner workers and income.
I propose that we increase the late fee to $25 which could be waived by the tech chairs or autocross chairs one time
The problem with the shortage of tech inspectors had a lot to do with the fact that none of the 24 X cars are tech inspectors.
Whereas with 24 more P cars maybe 25% of them are tech inspectors.
So the next question is can X car drivers become tech inspectors with the proper training?
Where did all the p cars go?

[lbevins]

Being low on tech inspectors allowed me to jump in and help fill out tech forms (also checked helmets, seat belts, and filled out and applied all stickers) allowing the inspector to move along quicker... Also gave me the opportunity to learn something new. So, it wasn't all bad news. Thanks!

[martinreinhardt]

My $0.02.
By they way, for those members who didn't hang around after the event yesterday, there were at least 8 of the X-car group that stayed to help pack and hang with us through the awards. I believe a higher percentage of the X-car group stayed and helped than of the PCA members...

I picked up the track, but left before the awards because our events have been running longer - perhaps due to our parade laps and 5 practice laps(?) So, that may be the same for others who left.

Obviously the "parade" and "5th practice lap" is what causes our events to run late and people are not staying. At the May autocross we had drivers leaving before their timed runs, as it was already past 5pm and 2 run groups to go.

I figure the "parade" and two "5th practice laps" makes the event last approx. 2 hours longer. If we eliminate these laps we could complete our events by 4pm, leaving time for loading the trailer and awards / socializing. I am sure some of you math gurus can be more scientific with the numbers.

Last time I proposed to go back to our standard and used-in-the-past 4-4-4 lap sessions, I was told that I don't have to take them. Well, you may have noticed me waiting in the pit-lane and not taking the parade nor the 5th practice lap. (I saw Jen sneak a 5th practice lap, even though we agreed not to )

Maybe 4 laps per session should be added to the rules.

[Kim Crosser]

We need to be done by 5pm. Not just because the Stadium says so - we need to let people plan to be done by shortly after 5pm. Getting home for dinner after 7pm is NOT a way to keep your (non-racing) spouse happy.
I have never liked the parade laps, but that is the AX Chairs' choice. If they wish to have parade laps, fine.
However, if we are running late at the start of the middle practice sessions, we need to cut back to FOUR practice laps. Continuing to run 5 laps when we are already running late is not appropriate.

The schedule is shown on the slips we hand out in the registration envelopes. I would propose that if we are more than 15 minutes behind schedule at the start of the middle set of run groups, then the practice laps in the middle session MUST be reduced to no more than four laps. Assuming that we will somehow "make up the time" (especially in timed runs) isn't realistic.

A sure way to get everyone to start bailing out early is to run the event late. There are people who drive hours to get here and have to drive hours to get back (one from Santa Barbara yesterday). We need to let them plan on leaving by shortly after five, not six. We already have some people coming to the trailer asking to be in a particular run group just so they aren't in the last ones of the day - how long until everyone wants to be in the first run groups so they can get home before seven?

When I mentioned that we were running late by the middle of the day, I was blown off with "Ah - no big deal. It stays light late." Maybe so, but the Stadium lets us run with the proviso that we are done by 5, and not everyone can just hang around until late. The awards announcements weren't done last night until after 6:15pm, which is about an hour too late.

[lrayner]

Great track and great day. I think one way to save some time would be to just run this course every AX Thanks to all the usual suspects who came early and/or stayed late to make it happen. My apologies for bailing early but it would have been bad form to miss my wife's retirement party (and teacher parties start and end early). I think the reasons we sometimes run late are usually an accumulation of things, but I agree that with the 5pm finish rule the only solution available to the AX chairs to get back on schedule when we are behind is to cut the number of laps.

While it is tempting to blame some of the problems that can crop up on the X cars, from my perspective they have been a blessing and allowed this Club to continue to offer great AX's, DE's and TT's. We can do a better job of educating all new participants, members or not, on how they can help make the event run smoothly. I saw a great example of this from Sean Malloy when we talked to a couple of young men out corner working who didn't understand how our rules were different from SCCA proceedures. With a smile Sean very calmly introduced us, asked their names, and let them air their frustrations at having been yelled at by several members over the radio (including me, I think). They listened to our suggestions and ended up having a positive experience that day. Hey, these are car guys with car guy friends who, like my son, might not own a Porsche right now but probably hope to some day.

The solution to late Tech inspections is already covered by the rules. I would hope the rules could be enforced calmly and evenly, without the need for lecturing. For this Club to continue to grow and prosper, we can all help by being good will ambassadors

[Mmagus]

I agree in concept, perhaps not detail, with everything that has been said regarding staying or getting on time. There were many things that added up to a late day Saturday. Some have been mentioned in detail some have not. Some things I will mention didn’t happened yesterday, but we have struggled with them in the past. So just for clarity lets continue to look productively at them:

Tech: People were still arriving at 8:15. I like Steve's proposed penalty system. It should be progressive and really hit folks in the wallet. If you have a child in day care you are charged your hourly rate plus $1 per/min extra for being late picking them up, it works.

Track Walk: Yesterday Sean was right there at the appropriate time, there have been times though when we waited much longer than a "parade lap worth" of time for the walk to start.

Driver's Meeting: I know and agree that announcements are important, but do we really need 8 people to talk at a meeting? That’s what we had Saturday. A more efficient way would be to have a list of the announcements given to a single MC, then have just that person, the AX Chair, Corner working Chair, Driver pairing people, and maybe safety Chair speak. Additionally, if your portion takes more than a couple of minutes you may wish to work on streamlining your presentation.

Setting initial corner workers: It takes time to get folks to the truck and time to organize them and time to get them out there for the first group. Steve works his butt off at it and does a GREAT job, I am not sure if there is even a way to get that to happen more concisely and maybe it isn’t' possible. We did, however, have the first group staged and waiting for again more than "a parade lap" of time for that to happen Saturday.

Parade Laps: Jerry and I politely disagree on them, he is the lead AX chair and I respect his position as such completely.

Practice lap amount: I take responsibility for that. At the beginning of the day Jerry asked me, “Four or Five?” I said: “Its summer let’s give them five.” It was the wrong call and I apologize. Kim’s comment about “if we are 15 min late at mid day…” should have applied at the beginning of the day as we started 20 min late. Again, my bad.

Starter Training: For most of the year Jerry and I have been running start without much relief, even though we have also had student drivers, this makes for a very hard day. Saturday we had a great outpouring of assistance and it was FANTASTIC! (Thanks a TON everyone) The only drawback to that is that when you have new folks or folks who haven’t done it in a while, you also have errors. Perhaps they start each car just a bit further spaced than necessary or hold the track when it doesn’t need to be. Or lose count and give a run group an extra lap. I know that this happens, because last year, while being trained I did them ALL at one point or another. Is there a way to fix this? YES! We could have Jerry or I at start all day which make having relief…not very…relieving…lol. Ideally though we would continue to have folks come help AND get a person(s) who wants to step into AX Co-Chair for next year to start being trained now. That’s what I did and its my understanding that it’s the traditional way. As of yet no one has volunteered, though we have approached several folks.

Instructor Check Rides: They are very important, we need and want more instructors and our CDI’s are doing a great job of bring them into the corps! I know this because we had at least 3 of them Saturday. The drawback is that when we have one we have to hold start until the car passes at least half the track in order to maintain safe distance. In that time we could have started another 3 cars. Saturday we had a good 30 min after the track was signed off by safety and before the track walk. While we can’t let the track go hot yet, we do have cars (like safety) driving it so perhaps we could get some check rides in there as well?

Inexperienced corner workers: Training takes time, folks make mistakes, it just happens and it all adds up. In general I don’t see a way to streamline that other than having paid corner workers and we would have to train them initially as well.

That is all I can think of, and PLEASE know that NOTHING mentioned above was a complaint or criticism. Rather I am simply noting of where I think we lose time in hopes of folks productively giving thought to how we might work together to improve. (Notice that I was most “harsh”…with myself) Please continue to chime in and lets all make this an even BETTER club, which will be pretty tough as I feel its the best thing going anyway!

Thanks all,
Mark
AX Whippingboy

[martinreinhardt]

I Ideally though we would continue to have folks come help AND get a person(s) who wants to step into AX Co-Chair for next year to start being trained now. That’s what I did and its my understanding that it’s the traditional way. As of yet no one has volunteered, though we have approached several folks.

I agree. Knowledge, traditions and culture transfers are very important.

Also, I believe in the past most chair positions were 2 year positions, which the second year included cross-training to the new coming chair in his first year.