What are RTR's current thoughts?

[ZBlue996Kam]

For those of you who are new to RTR, we hosted the second PCA club race at Pocono and had that race for a couple of years.

We also hosted the first Watkins Glen club race.

I wonder why we lost both locations.

It takes a lot of efforts to run a club race and cost a lot of club money.

What would you say if we host a club race that lose money? 
Would it be appropriate to use the money we make from DE to sponsor a club race?

These are the realistic questions that we should ask ourselves. 

My personal opinion on this is that we need both money and people to run a clubrace like anything else (MONEY).

As far as money concern, we are likely to lose money to sponsor a club race.  We need club money made from activities that actually make money for the club beside club dues.  Luckily, our DE program has been profitable and should be able to absorb the lost in sponsoring a club race.  It is up to the club executives to decide on whether its important to the club to host a club race that lose money.  By the way, we lose money on most events that we host except DE (I think).

As far as people concern, it is more difficult than money.  We need at least a dozen core people who know what they are doing and be doing the club race for years to come.  In additinal to the core people, we need at least 30 to 40 more volunteers to help organize the event year after year.

I do miss those good old days.

[Mike Andrews]

ZBlue996Kam wrote:

For those of you who are new to RTR, we hosted the second PCA club race at Pocono and had that race for a couple of years.

We also hosted the first Watkins Glen club race.

I wonder why we lost both locations.

Kam,

I can answer that. After many years of running on the north course at Pocono the exec decided to try and answer a number or racers concerns about getting bored with the north course and we acquired the full course for our race. NNJR picked up the north course event and we were hosting the full course. A couple years into this arrangement Pocono was undergoing major renovations to the garages and pits and we felt we could not host an event given those obstacles. So we canceled the event. Within the track rental protocol you usually get the same weekend the following year and at the last minute another organization stepped in and took that weekend from us, so we no longer had the option of using the full course the following year. And NNJR was running a north course club race.

The original Glen event was offered to PCA and as luck would have it the date that was originally proposed conflicted with other activities. Our Glen event was a perfect fit so we accepted the offer and put in place a combined DE and club race. The following year (with some politics involved) the club race was diverted to Zone 1.




ZBlue996Kam wrote:

What would you say if we host a club race that lose money?
Would it be appropriate to use the money we make from DE to sponsor a club race?

These are the realistic questions that we should ask ourselves.

Kam,

It does take a lot of resources to run a club race. And we have in the past run a race at a lose. But that's not a requirement as we have run races that have made money. It's all a matter of managing the event.

And we certainly have the volunteers required to run such an event.

And I wouldn't be surprised to see club racing at RTR again.

[ZBlue996Kam]

Thanks for taking the time to answer some my questions for years.

I hope that I have a Porsche to race when we host club race again. 

 

[Larry Herman]

First of all, it would take a huge amount of work, and a special person to undertake that.  Second, I think that due to it's proximity to a very large contingent of racers, and to it's newness, an event at Thunderbolt should be a hit (and a moneymaker)right from the start.  All you really need is a good date.

[Phokaioglaukos]

If we could get a date from Thunderbolt I bet we could find someone to be a lead organizer and enough other workers to put together a race.

It would be immensely useful and interesting if those who were in the club back when RTR did a race would sit down with those of us newbies who are interested and discuss just what it entails. Is there a PCA publication "how to organize a club race"? After almost two years of DEs I have an idea how they are put together, but I have never seen a club race. That might be a roundtable dicsussion to tack on to the end of a monthly meeting, or an evening at The Glen or another DE this year.

[ZBlue996Kam]

John Chatley was the event chairman for most if not all of our club races.

I think our DE guys are well qualify for organizing the club race.  The only aspect that we don't have much experience is timing and scoring.  We used to hire a professional timing and scoring lady to help us setup the equipments and lead the group.  She was extremely helpful when there is any problems that causing a out of sequence for cars on and off track.

Seems like Chris has stir up a good thing here.  Let's get more people and start talking about it.

[Mike Andrews]

Phokaioglaukos wrote:

If we could get a date from Thunderbolt I bet we could find someone to be a lead organizer and enough other workers to put together a race.

It would be immensely useful and interesting if those who were in the club back when RTR did a race would sit down with those of us newbies who are interested and discuss just what it entails. Is there a PCA publication "how to organize a club race"? After almost two years of DEs I have an idea how they are put together, but I have never seen a club race. That might be a roundtable dicsussion to tack on to the end of a monthly meeting, or an evening at The Glen or another DE this year.

Chris,

If we could get a date, I'd be glad to organize a race. And there's no doubt a number of other people interested in helping out.

I'd be glad to talk to you about club racing...... Just give me acall, stop me at an event or club meeting. August's club meeting is race cars of RTR at AWE, that might be a great location (or this weekend at the Glen).

Years ago PCA had a club race document, I can only assume it's grown from there.

[Mike Andrews]

ZBlue996Kam wrote:

John Chatley was the event chairman for most if not all of our club races.

I think our DE guys are well qualify for organizing the club race. The only aspect that we don't have much experience is timing and scoring. We used to hire a professional timing and scoring lady to help us setup the equipments and lead the group. She was extremely helpful when there is any problems that causing a out of sequence for cars on and off track.

Seems like Chris has stir up a good thing here. Let's get more people and start talking about it.

Bill O'Connell did the race at the Glen, John Chatley did the two prior to that, Bob Lam did the one prior and then a string of events run by Paul Johnston. Not sure about way back.....

[ZBlue996Kam]

Mike, You sum it up pretty good. 

I think John Chatley did the first and then Bob Lamb and back to John and Bill was the last event at the Glen.

I really think that our DE crew is more than qualify to do the job provided that they get good support from volunteers.

 

 

[Phokaioglaukos]

There is a thread about Thunderbolt, and if you read to the end, about what some of the other clubs are considering for a club race there on this Rennlist thread: http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/sh...p?t=238636