Novice class changes for 2009

[Chuck Fowler]

Year end trophy for Novice is Rookie of the Year. Also sounds good.

Novice (NOV) and Novice Ladies (NOVL)
alternate titles: 1st year (1YR), Beginers (BE)

instead of potentially having 2 names for the same thing and confusing newbies "your a rookie in novice class trying for the rookie of the year", just call the class Rookie (ROK) (LROK). it would be more familiar to beginers. great idea for keeping it a class someone can stay in the full year

[Mako Koiwai]

For a while we were advertising on the local Subaru forum quite a bit, one of the reason's Team Blew grew.

[Sebastian Rios]

I also don't really think it's that hard to get an instructor in the first group. With a little planning you have an assigned instructor or two and let them run the in the multi driver lane and delay the novices runs slightly. Been done, worked OK as far as I know.

As someone who has had to scramble to find instructors for early run group novices, I'll tell you it's not easy. Having the novices in just one or two specific run groups makes it much easier to plan.

[Leonard Cachola]

b) Eligibility: A person who has competed in fewer then 4 event weekends per year (practice, championship or both in a weekend) within the last 5 years.

How about simplifying this to anyone who is still in their first year of autocrossing may participate, but also indicating that they can move into open classes at any time (thus, relinquishing their Novice Class points)? This is going to be self-policed anyway.

[Leonard Cachola]

e) There will be a guided Novice course walk during the lunch break, and the option of one during the morning walking session.
f) There will be separate registration cards for the Novice class
g) For cars with Stock, Street Prepared and Prepared Indexes: All cars running tires with a treadwear rating of 140 or higher will receive an additional PAX of .975 over their car’s standard PAX. The use of street tires must be indicated on the registration card.

e) I would still want to offer the novice course walk in both morning and afternoon sessions - it'd be interesting to see how this would affect the attendance of the walks if we decide to implement this class.
f) Would it be possible to just be able to have a box to check off for the Novice class that way we don't have two different cards?
g) Well, we could make the Novice class street tire only.... (just a thought)

[Tom Denham]

e) There will be a guided Novice course walk during the lunch break, and the option of one during the morning walking session.
f) There will be separate registration cards for the Novice class
g) For cars with Stock, Street Prepared and Prepared Indexes: All cars running tires with a treadwear rating of 140 or higher will receive an additional PAX of .975 over their car’s standard PAX. The use of street tires must be indicated on the registration card.

e) I would still want to offer the novice course walk in both morning and afternoon sessions - it'd be interesting to see how this would affect the attendance of the walks if we decide to implement this class.
f) Would it be possible to just be able to have a box to check off for the Novice class that way we don't have two different cards?
g) Well, we could make the Novice class street tire only.... (just a thought)

#1, take care of Leonard, with some kind of," appreciation", for the Hard work he puts into the Novice Coordination,at each event.

Not quite on topic but , worth mentioning.

[Kurt Rahn]

Well, we could make the Novice class street tire only.... (just a thought)

Agreed. I'm guessing 99.9% of novices aren't likely to own R compound tires and a second set of wheels, and are even less likely to spring for them. Any novice class should be SK only for simplicity's sake.

#1, take of Leonard, with some kind of," appreciation", for the Hard work he puts into the Novice Coordination,at each event.

Doubly agreed! He's really taken this position to heart and made the noobs (myself included) feel welcomed!

[Christine Grice]

Well, we could make the Novice class street tire only.... (just a thought)

Agreed. I'm guessing 99.9% of novices aren't likely to own R compound tires and a second set of wheels, and are even less likely to spring for them. Any novice class should be SK only for simplicity's sake.

My friend Bryan Hagenaur drove last year in Aaron Goldsmith's supra with R-compounds on it. It was his first year, he would have been eligable for the novice class. I think the number is a little less than 99.9%.

Fairness would be have the novice walk up to registration, we answer his question as to what class he should run (example: SM). We ask him if he is on street tire and mark a box accordingly (lets say yes). Now he can run in a class where even though his car has some mods that bump him into SM, he is not held to an index set by cars with huge race rubber on them. He can now compete on a more level playing feild with some one like Steve Ekstrand's relatives that are driving his STS car.

The computer system is already set up to handle this, Rick has already done it for the Historic class.

And I suggested different colored registration cards because then we are less likely to let a Novice slip through registration without asking him if he is running street tires or suggest to him to take the guided Novice course walk. The registration person is alerted to the fact that since this person is holding a non-white card, he needs a little extra guidence and patience. The different colored cards can't be too clomplicated of a system since San Diego uses at least 3 different colored registration cards with the formats of each being just ever so slightly different.

[Jayson Woodruff]

The different colored cards can't be too clomplicated of a system since San Diego uses at least 3 different colored registration cards with the formats of each being just ever so slightly different.

BTW, they're phasing the different colored cards out in San Diego.

Jay W

[Steve Ekstrand]

He can now compete on a more level playing feild with some one like Steve Ekstrand's relatives that are driving his STS car.

I think that is a good point. Stacey and I were discussing exactly that last night if everything was based on street tires with no pax adjustment the ST classes would all have an advantage.

[Christine Grice]

The different colored cards can't be too clomplicated of a system since San Diego uses at least 3 different colored registration cards with the formats of each being just ever so slightly different.

BTW, they're phasing the different colored cards out in San Diego.

Jay W

Do you know what their reasoning is?

[Aaron Goldsmith]

Well, we could make the Novice class street tire only.... (just a thought)

Agreed. I'm guessing 99.9% of novices aren't likely to own R compound tires and a second set of wheels, and are even less likely to spring for them. Any novice class should be SK only for simplicity's sake.

I don't think it's too unlikely that a novice 6 months into a season might want to run on some race tires be bought second hand. Even more likely is that one of us folks with a race tired car would bring a friend (or Girlfriend/wife) out and let them run our car in novice to get them hooked, that seems to be how a lot of people come to this sport.

[Kurt Rahn]

I don't think it's too unlikely that a novice 6 months into a season might want to run on some race tires be bought second hand. Even more likely is that one of us folks with a race tired car would bring a friend (or Girlfriend/wife) out and let them run our car in novice to get them hooked, that seems to be how a lot of people come to this sport.

Good points. I still thing making a novice/rookie class SK-only makes sense from a simplicity point of view.

[Aaron Goldsmith]

I don't think it's too unlikely that a novice 6 months into a season might want to run on some race tires be bought second hand. Even more likely is that one of us folks with a race tired car would bring a friend (or Girlfriend/wife) out and let them run our car in novice to get them hooked, that seems to be how a lot of people come to this sport.

Good points. I still thing making a novice/rookie class SK-only makes sense from a simplicity point of view.

Don't really see it myself.. it's a check box. If they understand the rest of how novice works indexwise they can get the street tire part. ;)

[Sebastian Rios]

Don't really see it myself.. it's a check box. If they understand the rest of how novice works indexwise they can get the street tire part. ;)

I think the novices have a hard time with any index let alone 2 indices.

[Aaron Goldsmith]

Don't really see it myself.. it's a check box. If they understand the rest of how novice works indexwise they can get the street tire part. ;)

I think the novices have a hard time with any index let alone 2 indices.

I figure if they don't get one, they won't get the other.. and i'm not sure they care. The second they do care it takes 10 minutes of reading to understand how it works. As long as registration can ask them if they are running street or race tires then they're good to go. Shoot i'm fine with making a stack of handouts explaining it that you can keep at the registration table for new people.