Express Check-in for SCCA

[Kestrel]

Novices at the end ensures two things...

1: They can ride along before they run and they get to work the course to see how things work before they run
2: There's no potential for griping that "instructors" get a free look at the course if they ride with a novice at the end

3: It ensures Novices actually work (Novices -- particluarly the "one-event wonders" are notorious for coming out, getting assigned a late work shift, running their heats, and then buggaring off ).

[POS Racing]

Novices at the end ensures two things...

1: They can ride along before they run and they get to work the course to see how things work before they run
2: There's no potential for griping that "instructors" get a free look at the course if they ride with a novice at the end

3: It ensures Novices actually work (Novices -- particluarly the "one-event wonders" are notorious for coming out, getting assigned a late work shift, running their heats, and then buggaring off ).

Forcing them to stay all day isn't going to cure that issue, and most folks including myself aren't keen on the ideal of “ride along” when I only get 4 runs at an SCCA event!

How many novices do a one event and done, I’d imagine it is quite a large percentage. This new format scares them off before the even show up!

IMHO - YMMV

[Kestrel]

Novices at the end ensures two things...

1: They can ride along before they run and they get to work the course to see how things work before they run
2: There's no potential for griping that "instructors" get a free look at the course if they ride with a novice at the end

3: It ensures Novices actually work (Novices -- particluarly the "one-event wonders" are notorious for coming out, getting assigned a late work shift, running their heats, and then buggaring off ).

Forcing them to stay all day isn't going to cure that issue, and most folks including myself aren't keen on the ideal of “ride along” when I only get 4 runs at an SCCA event!

How many novices do a one event and done, I’d imagine it is quite a large percentage. This new format scares them off before the even show up!

IMHO - YMMV

Won't cure which issue? It certainly will cure issue #3. Like you (and I) pointed out, quite a few Novices come out once, and are never seen again. These folks don't really care about being disqualified at the end of the day because they didn't show up for their work assignment... they just wanted to burn off some rubber . If you have them run in heat 5, they will have to work before they run. So I get the work out of them before they have their fun. So the problem of them running and then leaving (before their work assignment) is solved.

As for scaring them off before they show up, again I don't agree. It's not like most of them read every word on the SCCA website before hand. They just show up and do whatever they are told until they don't want to mess with it anymore.

• - So a few will show up and find out they run late heats and decide to just go home. Fine.
  - A few will show up and not understand that late heat means 3:00pm. They'll sign up, work their shift and either race or go home. Fine.
  - And the "hardy ones" -- the ones that are really interested to begin with -- will stick it out. And they'll either come back or they won't... just like Novices have for years (some take it seriously and want to be involved, others find something else to do)

So as you can see, I'm not too bothered about the Novices running last .

But I will agree that I'm less keen on giving "Ride alongs" at SCCA, since there are only 4 runs. Doesn't mean I wouldn't, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get someone to ride with me. On the other hand, you only have 4 "class runs" at ER too... (so you save those ride alongs for the PAX runs?)

[Miatamaniac92]

All these reasons are why the non-competitive me will not be at SCCA autox's unless I am watching.

I like seat time and ride along time, SCCA is too little bang for too much buck. Plus I am SM2.

Chris

[onething]

If you like this idea (or even if you don't), PLEASE show up at the meeting on Tuesday, March 2nd. Your input is extremely important. There are some loud "It wil never work" voices. Mr. Ramey is loud, but I'm not sure he can be loud enough by himself.

After a long day of driving in Paris, if I were to drive back to the Metromess, it would be to go to the Mavs game with my boss and his free tickets

Can I give Tailchaser my proxy??? I like this idea, I have been to an event that ran this way - except I recall no novices, and I told Mr. Ramey at the end of last season I will do anything I can to support it. We need to give it more than one event to decide if we like it, can fix the minor problems, or want to go back to the old circus. Of course, being a well capped safety dude, I could run when ever in the old format. How's that going to work in the new is not important to me.

[tailchaser]

All these reasons are why the non-competitive me will not be at SCCA autox's unless I am watching.

I like seat time and ride along time, SCCA is too little bang for too much buck. Plus I am SM2.

Chris

The intent is to cure some of that... Wouldn't it be a little easier on you if you didn't HAVE to sit around all day? If you know at the driver's meeting that you work 1st heat and run 3rd, you'll know what time you need to be there, and you're done by 1 - 1:30. If you work 1st and run 4th, you'd finish your work shift, have plenty of time to go for a long lunch and come back to run, especially if you can con a buddy in to ringing your cell phone when heat 4 started... This format has serious potential to alleviate some complaints from the 175+ entry fields SCCA draws. It's not for everyone... SCCA isn't for everyone. Transitioning to this format will help.

Personally, I'd like to see novices run with their respective classes. Then, at registration you'd find out that you (and everyone in your class) would work heat 1, run heat 3, etc. We'll see what happens.

[Kestrel]

The last available SCCA "regional addendum" apparently states that Novices are out of the pool after they trophy the first time... Obviously, novice rules used by Texas Region the last 2 years more closely resembled ER's novice rules, but may revert to the printed rules this year.

I'm sure I'm just reading this wrong, so feel free to call me a$$h@#e again , but does this mean there wouldn't be any year-end Novice Trophy? Or maybe it means that if a new driver shows up at event #2, and wins the event, she will not be able to fight for the Novice year-end trophy (because she trophied her first event, she can no longer run in Novice Class). If that's true, it's better to place about 5th in each event in Novice class. That way, you are more likely to accumulate enough points to take a year-end trophy?

Silly, and way too complex. Just let people run in Novice Class for one full season (9 events) and be done with it. But again, I'm probably just misreading what you are writing.

Anyway, how did the meeting go last night? I had planned to make it, but got stuck late at work...

[tailchaser]

I'm sure I'm just reading this wrong, so feel free to call me a$$h@#e again , but does this mean there wouldn't be any year-end Novice Trophy? Or maybe it means that if a new driver shows up at event #2, and wins the event, she will not be able to fight for the Novice year-end trophy (because she trophied her first event, she can no longer run in Novice Class). If that's true, it's better to place about 5th in each event in Novice class. That way, you are more likely to accumulate enough points to take a year-end trophy?

Silly, and way too complex. Just let people run in Novice Class for one full season (9 events) and be done with it. But again, I'm probably just misreading what you are writing.

You're not mis-reading. The regional supplements were last revised in 1999, and that's what they said. There shouldn't have been a season points battle in Novice. If you care about this issue, be sure to write your congressman.

I think the meeting was fairly civilized last night, but maybe that's because John G wasn't there... There was some naysaying regarding the assigned run heats, but not nearly as vociferous as before. General Default showed up and I saw only minimal nervous twitching when we discussed the topic.

It looks like David D is going to scare up some cops for a Cop Challenge for the first event. You may want to wear your sunglasses, altiain, but I think I already mentioned that.

[POS Racing]

think the meeting was fairly civilized last night

So what was the end result of this meeting? What will the format be for Event #1????

[altiain]

5 heats, with kiddie karts and some sacrificial lambs in 1st heat (someone volunteered F Stock), Novices in 5th heat, and the rest of the cars running in Heats 2, 3, & 4. If I understood correctly, it appears that the 1st & 5th heats will be static, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th heats will rotate as the season progresses. You will be running in the same heat with the rest of your class, but you may not necessarily be working with them - this will give Lauren and crew the flexibility to fill in any gaps in the work assignments.

Yeah, the meeting was relatively civil last night. No chairs were thrown, and I think the most anyone got was a couple of small bruises.

By the way, it appears that my help will be needed more in tech this season than in the worker camps, so please remember to leave your $5 bills under the left windshield wiper when you come to Tech, as this will certainly help thing move more smoothly. A number of you forgot this at the S2k event, and I let it slide... this time. I won't let it slide again. :P

Iain