Divisional Series

Steve Ekstrand · Post by **Steve Ekstrand** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:28 am

I can't tell you unfortunately that the birth of the California Divisional Series was some joyous lovefest.

But once we got the baby home and got to play with it, its won our hearts.

There were a lot of disagreements and differences in the beginning and now all of it seems pretty meaningless. What matters is that the first year of our three race three region shootout was an enormous success. Despite poor driving and car problems, our family had a blast going to all three events. We can't wait for 2009.

I hope the three hosting regions will feel the same that this is a fantastic series in its infancy that can grow immediately to be the best series in the country.

To Guy Ankeny, Chris Cox, Pilar Miranda, Mark Duerst, Jayson Woodruff and all the key leaders in each region that made this dream possible, the Ekstrand family thanks you!

And of course, without Pro Parts, Koni, Carvin, and FMC Loan Pros it wouldn't have been possible. Also thanks to those manufacturers who ponied up contingency like Bridgestone, Kumho, Hoosier, Suburu, and Mazda.

Brian Peters · Post by **Brian Peters** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:05 am

I'm speaking on behalf of everyone who ventured out from AZ to attend the recent SoCal divisional events....thank you! I know Jason's been wanting to do a series for some time now, and it was great to see this finally come to fruition. Thanks to all that organized and made it happen, I can guarantee you'll get more of us next year.

Bob Beamesderfer · Post by **Bob Beamesderfer** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:39 am

It's always great to see all the folks from the other regions, especially my fellow Sun Devils! Nice driving, Brian.

Post by **Bill Schenker** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:22 pm

I hope everyone REALLY understands how much this super successful series was due to the very hard work of the key people.

I can especially speak about what Jayson Woodruf did; this event would not have existed without him. My thanks goes to him for making this, along with many hours of sweat and work by many others, a reality.

Thank you!

P.S. And speaking selfishly, the feeling of walking away with $250 (plus another $350+ in contingency) for 2nd felt better than ANY Tour or ProSolo that I've won!! It was made even more sweeter by the fact that this was OUR event, not something the national office put together.

Thanks Guy! Thanks Chris! Thanks Jay!!!

Glenn Duensing · Post by **Glenn Duensing** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:41 pm

Bill Schenker wrote:It was made even more sweeter by the fact that this was OUR event, not something the national office put together.

Huh????? Did you forget that SCCA/TireRack paid the sanction, part of the insurance and now we are part of the TireRack Championship Cup? Between SFR and CSCC, SCCA Tiretrack put over $2000 in the pot.

Bob Beamesderfer · Post by **Bob Beamesderfer** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:48 pm

Glenn Duensing wrote:
Bill Schenker wrote:It was made even more sweeter by the fact that this was OUR event, not something the national office put together.
Huh????? Did you forget that SCCA/TireRack paid the sanction, part of the insurance and now we are part of the TireRack Championship Cup? Between SFR and CSCC, SCCA Tiretrack put over $2000 in the pot.

Glenn, WHO did the heavy lifting to make this event happen? Locals did. Support from Topeka and TireRack are great. But I bet nobody outside of California broke a sweat to make the Divisional series a reality.

Glenn Duensing · Post by **Glenn Duensing** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:30 pm

Bob Beamesderfer wrote:
Glenn Duensing wrote:
Bill Schenker wrote:It was made even more sweeter by the fact that this was OUR event, not something the national office put together.
Huh????? Did you forget that SCCA/TireRack paid the sanction, part of the insurance and now we are part of the TireRack Championship Cup? Between SFR and CSCC, SCCA Tiretrack put over $2000 in the pot.
Glenn, WHO did the heavy lifting to make this event happen? Locals did. Support from Topeka and TireRack are great. But I bet nobody outside of California broke a sweat to make the Divisional series a reality.

Divisionals have always been run by the Regions. That's why the Regions keep the money opposed to a National Tour where a fee is paid to the Region. For this Series, each Region got a small token fee and all the money when to the competitors. The less the Region paid for "expenses", the more money went into the pot.

Giovanni Jaramillo · Post by **Giovanni Jaramillo** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:48 pm

Way to be a killjoy Glenn. We all know what Bill's intent was in his post. You were just quoting semantics. And by your own reply, we the "regions" made it sweeter for Bill, as opposed to a traveling circus coming to town.

George Schilling · Post by **George Schilling** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:01 pm

Glenn Duensing wrote:
Bill Schenker wrote:It was made even more sweeter by the fact that this was OUR event, not something the national office put together.
Huh????? Did you forget that SCCA/TireRack paid the sanction, part of the insurance and now we are part of the TireRack Championship Cup? Between SFR and CSCC, SCCA Tiretrack put over $2000 in the pot.

Thanks Glen for mentioning that. I had no clue that The Tire Rack had kicked in money. I was one of the announcers in SD and while I was asked to mention the local supporters, I was unaware of Tire Rack's support. I like to support people who support us. BTW, personally I don't think your coment diminished what Bill said at all. But being that you are Glen, I guess those kinds of comments are to be expected. Thanks to all who make this possible. We will deffinately do it again next year.

Steve Ekstrand · Post by **Steve Ekstrand** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:15 pm

Atleast I'm a funny charming mostly entertaining asshole.

Glenn Duensing · Post by **Glenn Duensing** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:03 pm

No matter what I say or do.....

Mark Duerst · Post by **Mark Duerst** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:50 pm

George Schilling wrote:
Glenn Duensing wrote:
Bill Schenker wrote:It was made even more sweeter by the fact that this was OUR event, not something the national office put together.
Huh????? Did you forget that SCCA/TireRack paid the sanction, part of the insurance and now we are part of the TireRack Championship Cup? Between SFR and CSCC, SCCA Tiretrack put over $2000 in the pot.
Thanks Glen for mentioning that. I had no clue that The Tire Rack had kicked in money. I was one of the announcers in SD and while I was asked to mention the local supporters, I was unaware of Tire Rack's support. I like to support people who support us. BTW, personally I don't think your coment diminished what Bill said at all. But being that you are Glen, I guess those kinds of comments are to be expected. Thanks to all who make this possible. We will deffinately do it again next year.

George

Only 1 SoPac divisional was to be supported by TireRack (both SD & LA are SoPac), LA got the nod, so we did not have to have those stickers in SD, hence no mention there of support by them.

Glad everyone enjoyed the series.

Kurt Rahn · Post by **Kurt Rahn** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:51 pm

Steve Ekstrand wrote:Atleast I'm a funny charming mostly entertaining asshole.

ROTFLOL

Glenn Duensing · Post by **Glenn Duensing** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:12 pm

Mark Duerst wrote:[quote="George Schilling
Thanks Glen for mentioning that. I had no clue that The Tire Rack had kicked in money. I was one of the announcers in SD and while I was asked to mention the local supporters, I was unaware of Tire Rack's support. I like to support people who support us. BTW, personally I don't think your coment diminished what Bill said at all. But being that you are Glen, I guess those kinds of comments are to be expected. Thanks to all who make this possible. We will deffinately do it again next year.

George

Only 1 SoPac divisional was to be supported by TireRack (both SD & LA are SoPac), LA got the nod, so we did not have to have those stickers in SD, hence no mention there of support by them.

Glad everyone enjoyed the series.[/quote]
Mark, that's not true. In the last email about the Series that was send to you, Guy, Chris and Jay talked about how to break a between SD and CSCC. I wasn't informed of SD NOT playing until after the event. Talk about a buzzkill as anybody who played in SD only and planning on going to the Nationals isn't on the SoPac team. As far as the sponsorship went, it went to the Series and not just to one Region.

I let the Divisional run loose. Howard worked hard to get extra sponsorship for SoPac. We worked hard behind the scenes to make this work. Two Divisions putting on a Divisional Series? That was unheard of and that created a lot of work. It was basically 3 Series in one. A CA Series, part of NorPac Divisional Series and part of SoPac Divisional Series.

Yep. A lot when on behind the scene and most people don't know what all when on.

Thanks George for letting me know all the sponsors but TireRack got plugged as I'm sure they will be pleased by that as that was the only other thing besides the stickers on the side that we had to do.

This topic is closed to me.

Rick Brown · Post by **Rick Brown** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:18 pm

When it comes to Thank You's, to me one of the biggest needs to go to Mari Clements. Most have no idea of the issues we had in Timing. Among other issues, 3 times we lost ALL times in the main part of the timing software and it had to be recreated in order to continue and have any chance of real results. The was done almost exclusively by Mari in addition to auditing each set of runs for each group. With the exception of the group she ran, all the rest of her time was spent working on the problems, including until 9:00pm Saturday night. To keep things running on Sunday and have results for the first awards ceremony required constant tinkering. There is way more to what she was doing that I can describe here.

Mari went WAY beyond what was expected. Let her know you appreciate it!

Richard Jung · Post by **Richard Jung** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:59 pm

Rick Brown wrote:When it comes to Thank You's, to me one of the biggest needs to go to Mari Clements. Most have no idea of the issues we had in Timing. Among other issues, 3 times we lost ALL times in the main part of the timing software and it had to be recreated in order to continue and have any chance of real results. The was done almost exclusively by Mari in addition to auditing each set of runs for each group. With the exception of the group she ran, all the rest of her time was spent working on the problems, including until 9:00pm Saturday night. To keep things running on Sunday and have results for the first awards ceremony required constant tinkering. There is way more to what she was doing that I can describe here.

Mari went WAY beyond what was expected. Let her know you appreciate it!

It was incredible how fast and hard Mari was working and problem solving. She was literally jumping from seat to seat in the motorhome. We did our best to make way while she took command of the computer situation.

We were very lucky to have such a dedicated computer scoring team of Rick, Larry and Mari, or we would have been there much longer - much appreciated guys!

Post by **Bill Schenker** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:27 am

Hear, hear!!!

Steve Ekstrand · Post by **Steve Ekstrand** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:39 am

I'm not sure anybody else could have done it. Her capacity and speed is so high, she's the alien of the timing and scoring world.

Its sad though to see her locked in the trailer for like 14 hours a day.

Kurt Rahn · Post by **Kurt Rahn** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:53 am

Its sad though to see her locked in the trailer for like 14 hours a day.

On the plus side, at least when she's cooped up in the motorhome she can't continue piling up the parking tickets on that red VW.

Seriously, Mari (and everyone in the motorhome), great job! We're all thankful!

Scott McHugh · Post by **Scott McHugh** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:31 pm

Congrats to all the organizers on a great series! Great people, competition, food, prizes and what outstanding venues. Great to see Golden Gate Fields after at least 15 years away, and as always, Qualcom and El Toro are always superb.

Super job by all in the Bay Area and SoCal and our family will be back next year!

Scott

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