On Mon, 21 Jun 1999, Mari L. Clements wrote:
> Where's the best place in the country (sorry Dennis, I am talking US here)
> to live for autocrossing? Make the case for your region or your favorite
> region.
I will place my vote for San Francisco Region (though from reading pots so
far, it sounds like San Diego is really nice too). Even though we have
"winter" (if you can call it that), our season never really ends either.
First events of the season start in January and will run roughly two weeks
apart until March or April. By then, the American AutoX Series and
Sacramento Region starts up, providing events within a 100 mile radius of
the Bay Area for nearly every weekend from around April through August,
with an occaisonal weekend off (or two) in there somewhere. All you need
are tons of tires.
For locations, we have Oakland Coleseum, which is slippery asphalt and
therefore really nice for people who can't afford a lot of tires.
Candlestick Park (I refuse to call it 3COM) isn' too bad, but a bit bumpy.
Stockton Fairgrounds is kinda small, but homey. Then our two "premiere"
sites are Mather AFB and McClellan AFB in Sacramento. Both are huge, are
concrete, and very Nationals-like. The downside is they're hard on tires.
If you weer to run ALL events available to you during the season, I would
expect you to go through at least two seats of Kumhos. Even more if you
run multiple drivers.
The downside, of course, is the high cost of living in the Bay Area.
BUT... that being said, I lived in the midwest for a year and attended the
events locally, but finally gave up in frustration. The people were
friendly enough, but totally unwilling to consider any kind of change.
Their insistence on numerical run order, meaning you get to show up at 8
AM, work, run, wait, work, wait, run, work, wait, run, work, wait, run,
work, etc, etc, etc and finally get out of there around 4-5 PM was
frustrating and tiring. I was even told by more than one long-time region
member that they were far more interested in having fun and socializing
than trying to really compete. Explains why there were only one or two
national caliber drivers from that region. SFR, by comparison, has more
national champions in its region than anywhere else in the country, last I
heard.
I'm all for socializing and having a good time, but structure makes things
a lot more enjoyable.
Rob
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