1) Rally mailing list:
if you are/would be interested in joining a rally mailing list,
please let me know, and i'll collect email addresses and names, and
start the list. ( Rich ? Dr Bob ? Mike ? pZ ? )
please reply to 'caloccia@stratus.com' or '...!uunet!lectroid!caloccia'
(as I am no longer on the brit-cars list...)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Club Question: How do you keep novice rallyists (people) returning ?
Rally Question: What do you run for classes and how do you promote novices ?
please reply to 'caloccia@stratus.com' or '...!uunet!lectroid!caloccia'
(as I am no longer on the brit-cars list...)
First of all, anyone who is interested in rallying might be able to help me
out here. [The events are usually TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) rally, or
Trapped TSD in nature.]
Recently, at an informal gathering of the Worcester Area Sports Car Club (WASCC)
(in Mass.). A number of us got to talking about how increase the 'return' of
'novice' people for a longer period of time. It seems that many people 'new'
to rallying/the club, will attend a few events as novices, then (when moved
out of novice) they seem to stop coming back.
Observations include:
1) novices are 'promoted' out of the our novice class too early.
2) once 'promotoed' the comptition is very good, so as to be discouraging
(comparing ones' many-hundred points score to that of the experienced
rallyists with tens of points, and A/B cars with 5-15 pts)
3) at the WASCC level, the 'equipped' class is under utilised, (1 to 3
entrants out of 15-20 cars) and doesn't really bring in new people.
4) we don't seem to be in competition with nearby clubs, although it
is not uncommon for more experienced people to 'drop out', (probably
seeking more thrilling rallyes [I personally find statements along the
lines of 'not too hard for novices, yet challenging for experienced
rallyists' to usually be untrue.])
Suggestions have included:
1) change the promotion rules to allow novices to get more experience
before entering heavy competition
2) add another class between the 'new' rallyists novice and the
more competitive classes.
3) change the class structure, deviating from NER SCCA, so as to promote
more equal experience/ability classes.
Background on Area Clubs & present class structure:
In this area, there is WASCC, operating out of central Mass., the
Touring Club of New England (TCNE) which is still centered in Mass., and
a couple active clubs on the fringes of the area, or on the fringe or
TSD rallying: Empire Motor Sports Club (EMSC, Albany, NY), Fairfield County
(FCSCC, SW Conn.), Cumberland Motorcar Club (CMC, Maine), Berkshire (BMSCC,
W Mass.), Valley (VSCC, Hartford, CT.) QSCC (R.I.), VSCC (?, Vt.), and of
course the large and well organised 'metro' group in NY, N.NJ, etc.
The co-sponsors for the New England Region SCCA Rallys have included many
of the above clubs. In particular, the NER Rally crowd heavily overlaps
WASCC and TCNE. In the recent past WASCC has mostly done short 40 to 60
mile rallyes, oriented toward the novice rallyist. TCNE usually does slightly
longer events, 60 to 100 miles, while the NER events are from 100 to 300 miles.
At present WASCC, and TCNE have 'adopted' the class system used by NER:
| All vehicles are restricted from having lights mounted higher than the
| bottem of the windshield, or to have an operating two-way radio.
|
| Classes
|
| A (Equipped) -- no other restricitions.
|
| B option 1) -- stock odometer in stock location, with no limits on
| computation equipment.
|
| option 2) -- computation is limited to 'any standard slide rule-type
| device' and/or tables, paper, pencil.
| timepieces, either electrical or mechanical, which cannot be
| varied in rate.
| no limitation on milage measuring devices.
|
| C -- may not have reference to an odometer
| -- speedometer must be stock, in stock location
| -- speedometer must be non-adjustable
| -- must not have controls which allow it to compute/display average
| speed
| -- digital speedometers can only display whole mph, (no fractions)
|
| D (novice) -- stock odometer in stock location, with no limits on
| computation equipment. (same as B option 1)
| + some mechanism for people to be ousted from novice
Where NER lets people run in novice until they have accumulated 50 points
(points earned: 10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1), WASCC lets people run as novices only
if they have experience in less than 5 rallyes.
3) blatent advertisment for my upcoming rallye (central Mass.) follows...
The A D V E N T U R E S of B U C K C A R B F I R E
The Adventures of Buck Carbfire: a TSD Road Rally.
Sunday, September 23, 1990
Presented by the Worcester Arear Sports Car Club, and
Auto Exotics, Inc., of Worcester.
Start: Hotel Barre*, On-the-Common, Barre, Massachusetts 01005
The Barre Common is located at the intersection of Routes
32, 62, and 122 in Western Worcester County.
Registration: 11am, First Car Off: 12:01pm.
Finish: In the vicinity of Princeton, Ma. (approx. 4:30pm)
Entry Fees: WASCC Members $7, General Public $10.
*The Hotel Barre will be open for Sunday Brunch at 10am.
The Hotel Barre happens to have a 'Mystery' event on that weekend,
you may contact the hotel for further information at 508.355.6501.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Buck Carbfire 1990' is a Burning Throat Rallye Production.
Copyright 1990 Worcester Area Sports Car Club
Rallye Master: William Caloccia (caloccia@stratus.com, 508.490.6352)
Co-conspirator: Dan Senie (dts@stratus.com, 508.490.2000)
Registrar: Joanne LaCourse
|