>>>>8th out of 9th
Hey Jake, you seem to be using me as a gauge at my first autox. (I was the
9th) Hehehe, wanna trade cars for a real test of skill? ;-)
I skipped out of novice last Sunday, but maybe I should return so that I too
can claim to beat some other novices...:P
-Arnold (friendly competition)
"Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try and take over the world!"
>From: Rich Urschel <OSP13@attglobal.net>
>To: Jake Hodges <jake_hodges@hotmail.com>
>CC: ba-autox@autox.team.net
>Subject: Re: Course design and rookie return rates...
>Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 14:39:50 -0700
>
>Jake Hodges asked a lot of questions:
>
>Let's start with your last question, Jake. Are you a crazy,
>unenlightened newby? Of course you are. If you keep
>autocrossing you will become a crazy old hand. As for
>enlightenment, you could pay attention to Ms. Kelley's
>musings.
>
> > Catch me up, here. As for Rookies being discouraged enough to not
>return
> > after not doing well at their first events... Are there a lot of data
>points
> > to support this?
>
>There are two to three hundred data points per year
>of Novices (nee Rookies) not returning. As for the reasons
>they don't return, well, we haven't actually tried to track
>them down and ask them, so it's open to speculation.
>
>What the data would show you is that we have a Novice
>program which is effective in keeping a fair number of
>newbies participating regularly during their first year, but
>participation drops off rapidly after that. Of the 1998
>rookie class, 12 trophy winners, 5 trophy contenders
>(but not winners), and 5 others participated in at least
>half of the events the following year. There are about
>five of them still participating regularly today. We simply
>aren't structured well to provide close competition to
>developing drivers after their first year except in a very
>few highly subscribed classes, even though the data also
>shows that 60% of the revenue comes from drivers
>competing for season trophies. So we have lots of
>newbies every year coming and going amongst the
>core group. The objective is simply to keep autocrossing
>alive. Everything else is gravy.
>
>In five seasons I was able to find close competition twice
>having otherwise to make up measurements of progress
>such as my ASP car being only 3% slower than Ray Miller's
>Super Stock car rather than 5% slower as it was the previous
>year. There's always something to shoot for, and since you
>see 8th out 9th as better than 8th out of 8th, I'd say you're
>likely to be around awhile.
>
>Rich Urschel
>
>Ps. We made a couple of minor mistakes with the course
>last Sunday. I'm sure we won't be forever abandoning gates
>as a result.
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