Well, being one of the event chairs was anything but boring. :)
First off, I'd like to thank those of you who put in extra effort to
help things work. There were so many of you that helped that I won't
try to name names, because I know I'd forget several of you. Nanda
and I received lots of invaluable advice, both before and during
the event. It was a relief every time someone grabbed the
clipboard and handled worker check-in so we could deal with
everything else that was going on. Several people obligingly did
work assignments when it wasn't even their proper work group so
things would keep going. Having a friend volunteer to go out and
get lunch (and water!) for us was also a *very* big help. There's
no way we could have done anywhere near as well as we did without
all the help we got.
I learned a *lot* Saturday. Looking back, I can see two key things I'd
do differently if I had it all to do again.
1) I'd have made the course shorter. On my CAD program, the course
measured out at about 4400 feet, or a little over 8 tenths of a
mile. While it's a lot of fun to have 80+ second runs, a long course
causes a few problems. The length of the runs isn't the real
problem, it's the number of cars that have to get reruns whenever
the red flags come out, plus the time wasted while those cars finsih
the course at reduces speed. In future course designs for locations
that usually have big turnouts I'll keep courses under 4000 ft.
2) I'd have started the day with just 3 runs per car. Trying to give 4
runs per car was our biggest mistake of the day. My advice to anyone
running an event at the 'Stick or Oakland is to plan from the
beginning to have 3 runs per car, and if you have extra time (ha!) you
can have fun runs. Now that it's over, I feel a lot worse because some
people had to leave without running than I do about giving some people
just 3 runs. And I felt pretty bad about having to cut down the runs.
It would have been much easier on everybody if we'd started with just 3
runs.
Speaking of fun runs, I'd also suggest that future event chairs at those
two sites make sure that registration doesn't sell any "fun run"
entries. At around 11 you can check to see how things are going and
decide to sell a few at that time if turnout is low.
We got off to a late start, which didn't help any. Part of it was
because the course took a while to lay out (another reason for a
shorter course), and a big part was due to two blown fuses and a
recalciterant generator that we couldn't get going until after 9,
when the first cars were *supposed* to have started. The cross-wired
timing gear was a minor factor that didn't set us back more than a few
minutes. It was just *really* noticeable because everyone's attention
was focused on it. These sort of equipment problems are going to
happen and event chairs just have to live with them.
Thanks for all the feedback on my course design. It did turn out a
little tighter than I'd expected near the beginning. When you haven't
designed a course before, it's hard to get a feel for how tight a
given size turn is. Some of the turns were intended to be a bit
faster, but I just didn't have a good feel for how a given radius
translates into speed. Now I've got a reference to work from.
Most people seemed to like the big "wall slalom". I'd never seen one
before either, but it seemed like a good idea to me. I was a bit
worried about how fast it'd be, but I guess it turned out about right.
For those who might be interested in making one similar to it, The
walls were 50 feet long, with 50 foot gaps. I'd have liked to have a
few more cones in the walls to make it more visually obvious how it
was intended to be driven, but we ran out of cones. Yet another good
argument for a shorter course next time. :)
I was pleased to see lots of people watching along the wall between
the pit area and the course. I put the grids down at the end of
the pits so I could showcase part of the course out there where
people could watch it. I think I put about one turn too many
between the wall and pole G, resulting in a bit too much
tightness, but overall I was pleased with the result.
Overall, I'm sorry the event went so long, and I'm *really* sorry that
some people had to leave without running as a result. Judging from the
discussion on the list, I think we've all learned a lot, I know I
have.
For others who might be thinking about chairing an event, I say go for
it. It's a lot of work and a very long day (I was up at 5 and didn't
get home until 9:30 that night), but you'll know you've
accomplished sopmething when it's over. Plus you get a very nice
jacket at the end of the year. At the end of the day, I was
exhausted (I ran in the 8th group, and was just about nodding off
while sitting in my car between runs), but I'm glad I did it.
Now I feel like I've made a contribution to the region. Not everyone can
fit Steering Committee meeting into their schedule, but anyone who can
spend a day at an autocross can chair one. And I'll get a cool
jacket at the end of the year. :)
One final recommendation I have for the region is to make a serious
effort to match up inexperienced event chairs with experienced
ones. There were a number of experienced folk on Saturday who
(very politely) tried to point out that maybe 4 runs wouldn't work,
but the two co-chairs didn't have enough experience to see the
wisdom of it. If someone with experience had offered to co-chair
the event, things might have gone a bit better.
We are making an effort to help out rookie drivers, but helping
inexperienced event chairs is even more critical. With the turnouts
we're getting, we can put on events without really struggling to
get new drivers. But we can't put on events without event chairs, and
throwing rookies out to sink or swim isn't the best way to attract new
ones. Nanda & I got a ton of help, but when it came down to critical
decisions like how many runs per car, we had to make the decisions
ourselves, and neither of us really had the experience needed. If
either of us had been experienced we probably would have known to
go with 3 runs.
Keith Hearn
Round 5 Co-Chair
'99 Miata 10AE "Sexy Sadie" the Sapphire Shark
B-Stock
Milpitas, CA
Team Make My Jacket a Large, Please
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