Our June 1 event at Marina Airport came off extremely well. I know I came
home with a smile on my face and I didn't even win the class.
Here is some positive things I observed:
1) Highway 101 from San Jose to Cochrane Rd in Gilroy is now 8
lanes. Yea team!
2) Going north on 101 after the event was a breeze. No traffic jam.
3) Everybody we talked to with Marina Motorsports had a positive
attitude. One of the guys at the entrance edits the Triumph Travelers SCC
newsletter. The club is an independent and has been around for over 40
years! Now that I've retired from event scheduling I finally met John
Moulton, Marina Motorsports' contact guy. He was in the Pantera. John's job
is to pass along the latest "rule of the month" from the airport
management.
4) The course was another jewel from Tony Tabacco. It's tough to
come up with a decent course when the airport people keep chiseling on the
space. What Tony has figured out is how to lay out sweepers so maximum
space utilization is achieved. Did we mention he's an architect in the real
world? Putting the starting area where he did leaves space at the eastern
end of the area for paddock, etc.
5) The weather was terrific. It may have been in the mid-90s inland
but breezes off Monterey Bay kept us cool.
6) We left the premises to buy lunch. Alas the Deli with the large
"Open" sign wasn't. We pressed on to McDonalds because it was closer to the
site than Jack in the Box.
7) So many people stepped up to do their job and do it well I don't
know where to begin. I should have kept notes.
8 It was fun to watch the weeds disappear as we drove the course.
Whacked those little suckers right off.
9) A number of people volunteered their time to sweep the starting
area.
10) Our chair folks, Andy and Theresa Clark, were on top of the
operation all day. Thank you for all your efforts.
Was there a downside? Well nobody has ever produced a perfect event
including us.
1) The gravel in the pit area was still too much. Those of us with
sticky tires tracked it on to the course. There was still a pile of it on
the concrete surface left over from our previous visit.
2) Somebody decided we didn't need posting during the run group
even when there was a volunteer. Thus those of us in tight competition had
to go to our competitor(s) and ask "How are you doing?" That's the positive
part of it. But many of us prefer to see the whole list. Requiring a
posting person to hand write ALL of the times after the group has run is
one pile of work all at once. And when it is the last group of the day,
just how many people would show up to look? (I have this vision of the
posting person running alongside the motorhome as it's driven around to
pick up the pylons. <G>
And, of course, nobody would ever see the listings. This we have to fix.)
There are easy solutions to both of the above.
Other observation: I think the Prepared classes in SFR have just about
disappeared, except for CP (3 drivers) and EP. AP, BP, DP, and FP are also
vacant. Last year at Marina we had seven (7) DP entrants at one of the
events; this year: NONE. (That spinoff called BSP-Vintage is no longer
supported either.) Credit/blame the National Solo Events Board for the
above Prepared category situation.
--John Kelly
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