BCAC Thang Q

[SkinnyG]

I'd like to thank the organizers of the BCAC for putting on such a big honking event.

Special thank you to Guido, the fabulous host, who put housed me and fed me and humoured my philosophical ramblings and rantings. If you ever have the chance to stay at his place, it's great! Thanks so much, Guido!

Very nice to see all the old friends of events gone past, nice to catch up with Troy, Tyson, Todd, Tony, Scott, Ron and Jen, and others I have missed. I miss you guys - it was like "coming home."

Very nice course. Technical in the right spots, and nice for all cars and classes. Very fun!

Speaking of fun, I came down for the weekend specifically to have fun again. Over the years I had become (or continued to be) too competitive in my mind, I was losing sight of the "fun" factor of the sport. I had a blast at this event!

(Novices: be sure to keep an eye on your alignment - the rear wandered to 1/8" toe in, not good! A tweak to 0 toe, and the whole car changed phenominally! Had I caught this earlier....)

I am likely to only come down for the BCAC for as long as it is held. I doubt that I will compete another full season, as we're hoping next year to buy a house and start a family, so I can use the money elsewhere. I will still race in the Okanagan, and I'd love it if you could make it for an event or two (special thanks to Bruce, Steve and Tom who braved the scorching heat earlier this year).

I'll admit I was apprehensive about the Barbeque over the banquet. But the cornucopia of food, and the ability to get home before dark (the Sentra turns into a pumpkin at midnight) was indeed nice. Thanks!

I also appreciated the expediency of the event - being able to get all the way back to Kelowna by 9:30 (Hope-Princeton) was very nice. The 4-in-a-row format worked well in my mind. Nice to get it over with (less anxiety for me).

I would also have liked to look over the D Mod Midget more closely - what kind of motor was in there to make it D Mod? Definately worth a looksee!

Myself and others were thinking, wouldn't it be neat to have the BCAC run by ALL the CACC solo clubs? Have each club share in the running of the event? Certainly make it easier to put on a kickass event with less strain on a particular club, as well as further foster that "community" spirit that this sport embodies.

Greg "Let's all hold hands and sing kumbayaa" Wellwood

(oh, and by the way statisticians: 100% of OASC members trophied 100% of classes entered! )

[fc-racer]

Originally posted by Skinny G:
I'd like to thank the organizers of the BCAC for putting on such a big honking event.

Myself and others were thinking, wouldn't it be neat to have the BCAC run by ALL the CACC solo clubs? Have each club share in the running of the event? Certainly make it easier to put on a kickass event with less strain on a particular club, as well as further foster that "community" spirit that this sport embodies.

Greg,

Firstly, the event team led by Guido did an incredible job so I agree with you 100% that it was one fine event. However, your second point I do not agree with.

There really is no benefit to anyone to have an event co-hosted by several clubs. As with all organizations, a little friendly competition brings about innovation and fresh ideas. It also allows each event to have its own personality. When all clubs jump in together, you lose that individual personality, you lose that drive for making each event better than the last and you also end up with too many decision makers or too many "cooks in the kitchen".

Working with a club outside of our region is a different story because we are both learning from each other in an environment that we don't normally find ourselves. We had a great time working with CSCC, seeing how they do things and having them see how we do things.

If we were to all combine together (BCMA, UBC, VCMC) and host events, I do not feel that the events would run any better or be any more fun. If we were to combine together to host events, we might as well just be one club called VCMC or CACC or whatever and forget about having individual clubs. We would then have a monopoly with no benefit to anyone really.

What I would feel would be a benefit is for CACC to take a proactive role in running the region. For example, take the best of each event and make it the standard that all clubs must reach in order to have the opportunity to host a regional event. For example, if BCMA's tech procedure is more thorough than the other club's, then CACC should find out what it is that they are doing, the pros and cons of their system and if appropriate, standardize it so that all clubs must use that tech procedure. Same thing for timing/scoring/results/cours design, etc, etc.

Using that methodology, every club's members benefit by having the best of everything when they arrive at a regional event and a consistency that just isn't there right now.

We also do not find our membership strained to put on these great events. The key to keeping the membership happy is to involve new members and empower them in hosting events. We've had many first year members running CPE events this year and eventually they will graduate to hosting the regional events. By doing that, we keep the leadership of these events fresh and motivated. It's not the same people doing the same work over and over again (except Lawrence, but Lawrence is like the heart of VCMC ). I think all clubs do that so it should not be a strain on any club.

I like the way things are right now, although the regionals do need to work on standardizing the process and procedures to the "best in class" so that members feel like each event is of the highest calibre.

[SkinnyG]

Yeah, I liked the event too - the food was awesome.

Greg "Captain Hostility, Energize!" Wellwood