by MR LIPP on Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:32 am
Really good info from Peter
Driver's Education AWAY from Qualcomm Stadium
by SDGT3 on Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:02 pm
Hello to all PCA members,
I want to post something as it relates to the on going discussion of what fellow DE Co-Chair Martin Lipp posted as it relates to conducting a DE at a big track vs. what has been customary to PCA and running a DE on the surface lot at Qualcomm Stadium.
When the current 2009 DE Chairs (Carl Scragg, Martin and myself) met with the 2008 DE Chairs (Chuck Sharp and Curt Yaws), we spoke about doing something different as it relates to DE's. As most already know, Qualcomm is probably in it's final years as a place we can use for the use of any motorsports and others in the club are already looking for suitable venues to continue to hold events locally, In the meantime, we need to look for new ways to do things and one that has been discussed for years has been conducting a DE at a proper track. One of the other reasons was to become a "feeder" series for the Time Trial events.
It was our opinion that there needed to be a better transition for individuals who autocross to progress to the TT series and what better way to do that than to have a DE away from Qualcomm and at a bigger track.
We thank you for all your responses to the poll questions as it helps us gauge what the membership wants. From said responses, we can clearly see that everyone would like to see a DE at either the Fontana infield or Streets of Willow, preferably on a Friday if it has to be a weekday. After our meeting this past Monday, I went to work contacing both tracks to check availablity. Please note that weekend days are not only already booked, but are cost prohibitive and therefore we are looking for weekdays.
Keep in mind that we want to have at least 1 DE away from Qualcomm this year, but we have to make sure it doesn't interfer with any of the autocross, time trial dates or other Zone 8 events. As a result, June was completely open. Also bear in mind that after late-June until October, both of these tracks become extremely hot and most don't want to go there. Therefore, I checked from early June to mid-June and gain from late October to early December and NO FRIDAY dates were open. As we are new DE Chairs installed just this year, we could not act prior to our meeting this past Monday and are late to the party in terms of gathering our choice of dates. If all goes well this year, we hope to gather earlier dates for 2010 and have that "Friday" everyone desires.
After discussing the most preferable date available with Carl and Martin, we have elected to reserve Monday, June 15, 2009 as a date at Fontana's infield course. Carl will complete a budget and propose it to the board at the next meeting in February.
Because Fontana is more expensive to rent than Streets, a higher participation rate is needed to make this work, including, but not limited to extending the invitation to other regions like OCR, GPX, LA, etc. What I can tell you is that the entry fee will be higher than Streets (estimate is appx. $49 more), but there will actually be LESS out of pocket expenses to members when compared to Streets because there will be savings in gas as Fontana is closer and most important, NO need for an overnight stay in a hotel in Lancaster or Palmdale.
Finally, we'd like to gauge the level of support or lack thereof, this date on June 15th at Fontana has at this point. If there is not enough interest, we will not put a deposit to secure the date after the Feb. board meeting.
We thank you in advance for your anticipated response to this questionnaire.
__________________________________
Peter Busalacchi
2009 DE Co-Chair
"Illegitimi caudex non carborundum"
Monday June 15 DE 
"Argh! The curse of the Black-Pearl!"
I saw Mike Gagen's car at the body shop and saw him working on the car himself, so you KNOW he's going to need all the track time he can get to shake out the bugs and loose bolts from his car. 
