What follows is a copy of a message I sent to Howard this morning (with
copies to Tasha, Sandi, and Paula - isn't e-mail wonderful!). Since I am on
digest, I do not know if anyone else has similar questions, but if you let
me know that you want to know about any of this stuff, I will forward
Howard's answers directly (assuming he does answer). The note refers to us
personally, so for those of you who don't know who we are, we are the
Lombardo Racing team (Karen Christoff, Tom Lombardo, and John Thomas). We
drive a 1986 white and red Honda Civic in EP/P1 and pride ourselves on our
spiffy, color-coordinated attire and the kewl graphics on our car.
Karen
(If you can't drive fast, you might as well look pretty)
Howard,
We received the January 8 memo to ProSolo drivers yesterday, and I'm
confused about a number of issues. Please help!! Because I cannot believe
that we are the only ones who find the missives from your office confusing,
I will be posting a copy of this to team.net with an offer to forward your
responses to anyone who is interested. Given the time crunch (we all have
day jobs and cannot afford to spend the days before Ft. Myers getting the
required graphics on the car), I would appreciate a prompt response.
First, in your previous memo you said that current licenses will remain in
force until their expiration date. Since Tom and John have active licenses,
do they need to pay the package fee?
Second, it would be helpful to know the guidelines for installing the
vehicle identification package. We know that they are not the same as those
in the handouts at the ProSolo banquet last September, but we were never
told what they are. For those of us with multiple color cars, it would be
useful to know these before we have to select a color for our graphics.
Could these be posted on the web site? Given that we may need to repaint
the car to accommodate your requirements, we need to know this very quickly.
Third, speaking of colors, I appreciate the choice of colors available.
However, all reds are not alike. I know it's difficult, but it would be
very helpful to be able to see the available colors. Some reds would match
our car very well, others would look terrible. From what I understand, the
whole point is to make the cars look pretty. I can't do the best job of
this if I can't see the colors before I choose which to order. Is there any
way we can get swatches or official color names and brands so we can check
these out with our own graphics people?
Fourth, The memo says that a ProSolo car used in the National Series "can
have its own unique numbers." Does this mean it MUST have unique numbers.
If John and Tom use 23 and 123 in the ProSolo series, can I use 23 in the
National Series? Do I need to reserve 23 in order to ensure that I can use
it in the National Series? Does it matter that I may choose to run in the
open class at some events and in the ladies class at others?
Fifth, I understand from speaking with Sandi and Paula that John should
order 23 and Tom should order 12 or 13 to get the 1 he will use as the
second driver. This presupposes that a driver is not required to actually
use the number s/he reserves. Is this correct? Since we will be doing this
with no intention of actually using the number how can we do this without
locking some other driver out of a number s/he wishes to use? Obviously we
cannot order 1 by itself since that belongs to Grady forever!
Sixth, do I need to order an entire National Series Identification package
(and pay $25) just to get the EPL class ID? If not, how can I get a class
ID that is consistent with the numbers and letters and color of John and
Tom's packages?
Seventh, can we again use the class designation EP1 to make the car legal
for both ProSolo and Solo II? This is important for those of us with
permanently placed numbers and graphics, and most cars I know of are used in
both forums. Few of us can affort to build and maintain a car that runs
only four events a year!
Eighth, can Tom and I order both of our names, both first and last, on Tom's
number reservation form?
Ninth, I thought that the graphics were to be ordered directly from the
supplier after you returned some sort of certificate we were to send to the
supplier to verify that we were eligible to purchase those particular
graphics. Has this changed? Will we be receiving the graphics directly
after returning the number reservation forms or is there an intervening step
in the process? Will we really have these in time to get the car ready for
Ft. Myers????
I apologize for the length here, but I do want to comply with the rules. I
just need to know how you are interpreting them. All of these things are
inportant to us as we begin to get the car ready for the season. Mechanical
prepartions are bad enough, having to worry about graphics as well, in such
a short time, makes preparation that much more difficult.
Hoping to hear from you soon
Karen Christoff
(Lombardo Racing's Graphics Honcho)
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