Been following this thread...with events that run from 150 to 200 drivers
here in NER - do we WANT more solists? Nationals flirted with a cap,
ProSolos frequently have waiting lists, and sites are getting smaller and
increasingly hard to find.
How about figuring out how to run events BETTER, with LESS?
Andy 'as controversial as I get' Bettencourt
"msmith2" <msmith2@columbus.rr.com>@autox.team.net on 12/11/2000 08:07:51
PM
Please respond to "msmith2" <msmith2@columbus.rr.com>
Sent by: owner-autox@autox.team.net
To: "Team.net Autocross List" <autox@autox.team.net>
cc:
Subject: RE: The REAL Issue
>It's clear that SP doesn't currently reflect some of the things that
>enthusiasts do. Mostly due to enthusiasts having even more options now
than
>ever. Should SP be changed to reflect these changes? I'm guessing the
>current SP competitors would say "no." They did when surveyed a few years
>ago.
It never did. At least as far as American V8 cars go anyway.... The very
first thing done to any of those cars upon delivery was a camshaft swap,
especially the 70's cars. Hello Prepared. For me, that's been the whole
problem with SP. You can do things in excess of Prepared in some areas, but
not in excess of stock in others. The areas that were targeted for either
did not take into account what was commonly being done.
>So, we have STS, STR and SM. Hopefully, they will satisfy the needs of an
>additional group of people. To me, the bottom line is this. 99% of our
new
>entrants start with some car they already had. MAYBE 1% say "I think I'll
>start autocrossing. What car should I get to do it with?" It's also just
>about a universal truth that people change cars.
The idea is to attract the cars that have already had a few things done to
them, the things that would put them in Prepared, or Modified.
>To me the question becomes: IS SM a class in which you start, or a class
to
>which you go later? After we answer that question, then and only then can
>you decide what cars/modifications you allow. If you're trying to attract
>people by having the class, I think it's a bit narrowly constructed as it
>stands, by the way...
It can be either, but was designed to be a place to start for interested
non-members. We lost a LOT of return entrants because of things like
Eclipses with boost controllers were in EM with a V8-powered tube-frame
Sprite.
Autocrossing is not popular enough to dictate to an entire cross section of
younger drivers what they WILL do to their cars IF they want to play with
us. WE have to do what it takes to attract them AS THEY ARE, because they
ain't rebuilding their car just to race with us. Largely, that is what Solo
2 has done in the past, and why we have the number of classes we have now.
We get say "we have a class for just about anything", and now, we get to
mean it.
If you want to get sticky about it, the entire Prepared section was created
for the sole purpose of giving road racers a place to play (god knows
nobody
does that to their street cars). If there ever was a beef about increasing
the number of classes (by 6) for a minimal return on entries, I'd say THAT
was a MUCH bigger deal......
Mike CP58
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