Here's part of an email from the autox coordinator for the BMW club. Marina
is my (and my car's :)) favorite site. I hate to loose it. Are we still on
for the 23rd? John?
--Navid
-----Original Message-----
[snip]
Finally: On the GGC web site, in a link from the page announcing the
upcoming autocross, I wrote a piece about how we're putting our use permits
in jeapordy when we do things that the permits don't allow. For example, at
the last Marina autocross and car control clinic, our members were driving
around parts of the airport where we had no permission to go. The airport
manager made a big stink about this, and almost shut us down for the
weekend. And, despite my repeated announcements Sunday, some of you kept
driving around the other parts of the airport! Shame on you!
Last weekend I got a call from John Moulton from Marina Motorsports. MM
leases the site, then rents it to car clubs and other users. Among other
things, John said that, at a Porsche club autocross, a PCA member entering
the site came around the corner from B Street onto the taxiway at about 45
MPH and almost ran into an airplane using the taxiway. Both the car and the
plane had to take evasive action to avoid an accident.
The airport manager has now suspended all autocrosses at that site, and MM
will be going before the Marina City Council with a plan on how these kinds
of problems will be avoided in the future. One possible solution is to
station a volunteer worker at the intersection to direct traffic. Another
possibility is that the airport will hire a security guard, and each user
club will have to pay for the guard.
I'm reasonably certain that this will be resolved, and that we'll be able to
hold more autocrosses there. But this is not guaranteed. And, these same
kinds of problems can cause us to lose the use of other sites as well. So
let's review event site etiquette:
1. Obey all posted signs and speed limits when you're not on course.
2. Keep your speed down when you're not on course.
3. Don't go wandering around parts of the site where you don't belong.
4. Yield the right-of-way to other vehicles. This is especially important
at airports, where aircraft have the right of way.
Thanks for reading this, now let's make sure we do the right things at all
our events so we can continue to have fun with our cars.
|