Split day Closed Club format

[fc-racer]

Hello,

At the last club meeting, a vote was cast for switching our Closed Club events to a split day format, morning and afternoon sessions. The day would be split by classes. For fairness, the split would reverse at the next Closed Club.

VCMC Motorsport Club members are busy members, you don't have time to spend the entire day racing, almost 30% of your free time. To help make racing more efficient and at the same time, accomodate more drivers, this method was chosen to allow us to move forward with our goals and objectives.

At the club meeting, there was overwhelming support to move to the split day format. Having to spend only a 1/2 day at the track was greeted with heavy support.

The way it would work is that there would be two registration times, morning and afternoon, with the afternoon registration overlapping the morning's running. Classes would be designated ahead of time of which split they are racing in.

We believe that with this format, a driver will be able to get five runs at a minumum and the parking, registration and tech overload will disapear with half the cars on site at a time.

I would like to hear your feedback. Are you in agreement with the decision made at the club meeting or in disagreement. Please provide some detail with your feedback.

Thank you.

Farzaan
President,
VCMC Motorsport Club

[Sead]

I strongly support this format, but I think that some issues have to be taken in consideration.
I think it will be a given that more participants will show up for such a format.
Another issue to consider is course design. We should try to design such courses that there can be a decent 10-20 sec overlap with 2 cars on the course. This can speed everything up, but takes close attention from courseworkers.
You may have trouble splitting AM/PM by classes. This can work for a Championship event, but not for a Closed Club. There has been numerous times a certain car group(subaru, integra, datsun, whatever-doesn't matter) has shown up in large numbers. You may want to do it by pre-registration on our website, with a small unadvertised buffer reserved. This will guarantee close-to even split.
I am also in favor of having earlier start times, and no official lunch breaks. This will require more admin/registration staff. I don't think there will be an issue with having more people doing admin, as we have proven that every on-course station can be run by only 2 people.
I attend events run by our neighbours south of the border, and I'm always amazed how they can run more than 100 cars in a morning, plus another 100 in the afternoon. 1-2 course workers per staion, and you're done in no time. Granted, they have bigger autox lots, but we should be able to do something similar to their system.

and lastly, thumbs up for Farz and the ELT for making our sport more efficient.

[Race Miata]

It's a great idea! A thumb up to the new motivative ELT. I agree that some kind of "pre-group" has to be done to make CC flows as smooth as possible. We may need to account for groups of people who may join the club right at a CC in the middle of the season.

To run morning/afternoon sessions, I assume each session will have only 1 work/run group switchover in order to save overhead. Will there be a higher chance for someone who makes all runs and leave afterwards?

If we all plan ahead of time during the event, prepare ourselves when the work group is up next, prepare the cars when the run group is up next, I think we can run the new format with great success.

[ December 10, 2001: Message edited by: Race Miata ]</p>

[dnf]

Hello all, this is an awesome idea... to race and still have time left in the day.

How are we going to deal with folks that want to race together with buddies in the same half day though?

[Mike-L]

I think it's a step in the right direction but there are other issues to consider.

Of course, you won't have just half the people there in the morning and half in the afternoon. In the middle of the day, everyone will be there: arrivals for the afternoon and morning participants still having their fun. You'll need to set some area aside for P.M. people to register and tech, using more room. Some parking plan may be in order.

Some accommodation should be made for people that want to run each other's cars. This is a practice (isn't it?), and needs to be somewhat more laid-back than an event.

Also, since it's a practice(?), this format may make it more difficult to make changes to your car and then try them out, if the changes are fairly time-consuming.

It will make it possible for people to spend 1/2 a day at the event, which means less contact between club members.

It's definitely an idea worth pursuing, but I think there are issues that will surface and need to be resolved. I think some more detailed planning is called for, but I'm certainly willing to give it a try!

--M.

[Radio Flyer]

Like Mike, I wonder how much practice, learning, camaraderie and tuning will be sacrificed in the name of efficiency?

I enjoy "my day at the races". Contrary to popular opinion I often feel the day goes by too quickly. Perhaps a combination of split and full-day events could be tried.

I assume split events have been used at other venues? Regional? Nationals?

[fc-racer]

This is a great discussion, let's keep it going. Provide your opinions, feelings, etc.

The original idea was to split the day into two based on classes, perhaps we need to initially go with classing as the split, but perhaps later (when we have our web registration system up and running) go with a pre-registered format where you choose which split you run in.

I still see our Closed Clubs as being casual and fun. We just need to find a way to get more runs, a 3 run full day Closed Club would provide less feedback and less opportunity to test than a split day 5 run event.

As for the social aspect, I still see a lot of people hanging out and helping out, having fun, going for rides so we won't lose that aspect I don't think. In the US events I've run, there was still plenty of time for Scotty or Jodi/Greg to come over and provide advice, Scotty even once adjusted my seat for me

Let's keep the discussion going, this is great information.

Farzaan
President,
VCMC Motorsport Club

[Cliffy]

Ths has been talked about for a few years and he necessity to switch is probably more imminent now than before. The local autocross community is growing and the trend looks to continue. Critical mass is about to occur. As with all things, there will be growing pains and adjustments. It will take the cooperation of everyone at our events to pull it off and learn from our mistakes.

I say we try it a few times to get a feel for how it changes things.

-c.

[Jeff Loh]

Split run groups are a good idea. Several things need to be looked at.
1. Equal sized groups in am and pm. Could be tough unless pre-registration is attempted.
2. Equal numbers of knowledgeable folks to do the admin and running of the event. (reg, T&S, safety etc) Otherwise somebody's gonna work all day. Also separate groups take care of setup and teardown.
3. How would you split them? By class or simply by numbers of drivers? Since it's a closed club you have to consider multiple driver cars with passengers taking turns, instruction runs by different drivers in the same car etc.