Jeff Parker wrote:
> With all the blathering about karts causing site loss, insurance etc., we
> have had an actual site loss for our local club.
Welcom to the Real World(TM).
> It had nothing to do with karts. We have never run karts there.
So, is it safe to say that your club didn't allow karts? Or is it just
that nobody with a kart was interested in running Solo II there?
> It was
> mainly due to heavy, high horsepower cars tearing up their pavement sealing.
> That and wanting to project a good image to the NCAA. We had been using
> their football stadium parking lot.
I've seen sites lost over all sorts of issues. In one case, my (then)
home region lost an airport site because an event we had there held up a
rich guy in his corporate jet for about a minute while we moved cones so
the plane could taxi to its hangar (not the terminal) after landing.
Even though the region had used the site with the airport authority's
blessing for years, that one complaint took it away. For good, AFAIK.
> This is a for real site loss. Not some conjecture about what MIGHT happen
> IF something should go wrong.
BTDT. Ask around, and you'll see that it happens all the time.
> Now I expect to see all kinds of hysterical
> messages about banning those big, heavy, torque monster cars.
No, but see the previous team.net thread re: dragstrip starts and
pavement damage. IME, the ground pounders only hurt pavement when
they're launching hard. And there's ways to design courses so that smoky
burnouts aren't necessary to get a good time.
I have never been in a situation where site owners were actively trying
to get a club to run Solo II events there. I've negotiated arrangements
with the management of new (to Solo) sites, and I've had to answer for
things about our activities that site owners found not to their liking.
As Kevin Stevens pointed out, "we exist on sufferance." The instant our
activities pose any sort of inconvenience, regardless of how minor, many
site owners will cut us off rather than hear us out. That's unfortunate,
but it's reality.
Jay
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