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KILL THE COBWEBS!
Our 2003 opener was a HUGE
success. Three dozen drivers and literally hundreds of spectators enjoyed the
start of a new autocross season and the christening of a new event site. Our
collective thanks to Corvette (2002 ZO6!) driver and swell guy Phil Kiser
and his business partners as they let us use the south lot of the old Buttrey
Warehouse. The tight but terrific course was all inside a most welcome chain
link fence that made watching and security both a breeze! Even the intermittent
use of the facility by the National Laundry folks after their disastrous fire
was easily handled. The day saw a very tightly bunched of times turned in by
long-timers and newbies, front and rear-tire smokers, and both familiar and
just-hatched cars. This portends a great season of broad and deep competition
in all classes. Fast might not be easy this year.
Of note: Figarelle has
saved another Camaro from the crusher, Akers found the other four
cylinders he’s been looking for all these years, Heppner can drive
sideways, Austin wants a GPS system, Kisers think pylons are
apparently fiber, Namen Paul will do burnouts for glory, Schamp
now has his cylinders in a row instead of bent, and Masterson has yet to
change his Porsche’s coolant from winter to summer air. Just thought you’d like
to know.
Ryan’s Station was our
post-event gathering spot, and they were superb as well, offering us the best in
space and cold drinks and hot food. Just a superb day for all, even if you got
lost, broke the car, hit nearly every pylon, or put on your best display of,
“Oh, my God, can I save this slide?”. Cool day. We’ll be back.
THIS TIME IT COUNTS
The first points event will be
this Sunday, May 4, 2003, at ExpoPark in Great Falls. Be there early for
registration and course set-up assistance if at all possible because we
anticipate a good turnout. Stevenson promises a challenging course
(aren’t they all?) that will tax your brain. Important for this event:
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The “X” factor is a
problem for timing and scoring, so here’s the deal: If your vehicle is not
marked correctly, you will have two options. You may take the run and have it
incorrectly attributed to your co-driver with no possibility of getting it
corrected or re-run later, or you may return to the longest pre-stage line as
you correctly add or subtract the “X” on the car. There simply is not enough
time or attention for event officials to keep track of your vehicle’s
identity, so be a grown-up and get it right yourself. These options are not
negotiable, so make yourself a tape “X” or get your own shoe polish and paper
towels or get a magnetic “X”. This ain’t rocket science and you are all
adults, so please take care of your own correct vehicle identification.
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On the subject of
loaner helmets: Get your lazy butt out of the car well before a run, secure
one of the club’s loaner helmets, and be ready to run at the head of the
pre-stage line. The starter will NOT wait for you (much less your passenger)
to get a helmet at the start line. BE READY or you will simply be sent to the
rear of the longest pre-stage line. Seriously, this is not baby-sitting 101
so please take the responsibility of arriving at the start line READY TO RUN.
Anything else is just monkey-motion and, because we want everyone to get a
full set of runs in with our ever-increasing number of competitors, we don’t
need to tolerate any slow-downs. Hell, go buy your own helmet, anyway ($100
or so for a Snell 90), so you don’t have to tolerate someone else’s sweat.
Thank you.
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In the future, course
watching assignments will be made available at the driver’s meeting (which is
mandatory, by the way), so the entire day’s assignments will be out there for
you to be aware of. We will simply not run until the assigned persons are at
the start line, ready for their shift at watching for fallen orange cones. We
really, really need to speed up the transitions to keep these events moving,
so delays are too time-costly to tolerate. Remember that this is a volunteer
organization in which EVERYONE WILL VOLUNTEER, whether you want to or not.
Come ready to work and play in combination.
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The club has a
new dedicated computer in the timing trailer just for our events, so
computer/clock problems ought to be a thing of the past.
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Please do not
get in the way of event officials as they try to keep things moving smoothly.
The pre-stage, start, timing, scoring, and run results-posting people do not
need your help, so stay clear. Hang out someplace other than the trailer if
you must loiter. And the breakfast goodies at the trailer are for WORKERS,
not watchers.
IN
OTHER NEWS
“Cruising the Drag” is coming
soon downtown, Saturday, May 10, to be exact. Hundreds and hundreds of cool
cars, trucks, and bikes. If you might be interested in forming a club display,
contact Bob Morin at 771-1346 to express your interest. And if you have
never seen a burnout contest, make this year’s smoke-a-rama a must-see. You
gotta love burnouts!
Jim Messick will head up our contingent of Demolition Derby workers who
will swap their time for some more event dates at ExpoPark. Leave August 2
clear on your calendar and call Jim at 268-1742 to be part of a fun and exciting
day at the Fair with some of the roughest sheetmetal you have ever seen. We
will need about two dozen volunteers for various tasks (tech, safety, scoring,
field judges, etc) so do not be shy. Great fun! Call Jim.
Last issue reported that the
Double Nationals were in Portland. Wrong! Let’s try Seattle on May 23-26.
Duh. Talk to Tom Masterson if interested in the event
The next event will be in
Helena at the Helena Regional Airport facility on May 25, so plan accordingly.
Think early, if you know what we mean. This event will be in conjunction with
the Mustang Club and Ford’s 100th anniversary, so expect a very large
turnout. But be there anyway. Autocross heaven.
For more information on these
and other swell automotive/autocross topics, call Ed Austin at 452-1135
of Jerry Rukavina at 761-4357. Next General meeting will be at the 10th
Avenue Hardees at 7:30 PM on May 29. See you there.
JUST SO YOU UNDERSTAND THE SEQUENCE FOR A SINGLE EVENT:
- January Schedule is
finalized and locked in with event sites
- February Club begins
insurance confirmation with SCCA nationals
- Prior to the event by a
couple of weeks Promotion in media, arrange for porta-potty and for
barricades if necessary
- Day before event
Course-setter is probably finishing the course design
- 6:00 AM, day of event Club
officials begin getting club trailer to event site
- 7:00 AM Course setting
begins, many dozens of pylons are unloaded, loaded, and set.
- 7:00 Course perimeter is
secured, possible with barricades from city
- 7:30 Registration begins,
with non-participant volunteers requiring signature on waivers, membership
forms, etc. Take your money.
- 7:45 Clocks begin being
set-up; entrant information loaded into the timing computer
- 8:00 pits begin filling up;
technical inspections and vehicle classification begins
- 8:30 SCCA Safety Steward
approves course; course is chalk-marked
- 8:45 Course walking
allowed; everyone must either sweep, mark cones, or clear course perimeter
- 9:00 All of the above
continue
- 10:00 Mandatory drivers
meeting; run groups announced, worker groups announced
- 10:15 Last very quick
course walk for late entrants; timing clock check
- 10:30 Course-watcher
positioning and check, radio check, course is cleared
- 10:45 First competition run
commences, registration will close soon, run results are posted on results
boards on the timing trailer, pre-grid congestion
- 11:00 through 4:00 or so
Competition runs continue, course workers are regularly changed, starter,
timer, and pre-grid all swap workers so everyone gets to make their
competition runs
- 4:00 Comp runs are finished
and timing and scoring begins the process of tabulating the results
- 4:00 to 4:30 “Buck runs”
(which cost at least $2!) are limited and run
- 4:30 Everyone pitches in to
tear-down the course. All barricades are re-loaded and returned, pylons are
re-stacked and reloaded into the trailer, all club equipment is located and
put back in trailer. Course site is policed
- 5:00 Club officials take
trailer back home, tabulate final results, and return to the post-event site
(probably a bar or restaurant) for the tail end of a gathering that
participants have been enjoying for quite some time. Much BS and fun are
exchanged
- Late that evening, event
results are e-mailed to Tribune. Club officials get to put fuel in the
generator, remove, recharge, or replace batteries in radios, and check the
recharge levels in fire extinguishers. Trailer must be appropriately stashed
until next time. If it is an out-of-town event, this takes place in darkness.
See, it’s not something that
just “happens”. Your club performs an incredible amount of plain old-fashioned
hard work so we can all have some fun. Cool. Very cool. If you help, thanks
for your help with all of this. You’re cool, too. |