Cal Club Autocross Forums

Aaron Goldsmith wrote:

Giovanni Jaramillo wrote:

Aaron Goldsmith wrote:Oh DAMN, straight from history lessons to smack talk!

This is the Cal Club Solo way. Where we let the timing slips do the talking I believe that was a PSCC event that Marshall is referring to 2yrs ago.

Oh no, it was definately 07 and Marshall if I remember correctly you got beat by a Lady driving a BMW that day.
http://www.solo2.com/results/2007-07-08r.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ah you are right and I remember that SAME lady instructing Oli and beating him by 10 seconds (which in autocross time might as well be 10hrs)

Oli Thordarson wrote:

Marshall Grice wrote:

Aaron Goldsmith wrote:
I Worry about the same thing with Mr. Thordarson, that he thinks our Practice days are what Solo is. Oli, you gotta come out to a Sunday event, maybe we can get you a drive in a car that is competitive in class nationaly and we might just get you hooked too.

that's not true. I beat Oli by like 10 seconds at el toro when he ran CSM once.

haven't seen him since though. }:)

That OK Marshall, keep talking smack... maybe I will make you eat those words in 09!

You will only beat me by five seconds next time....

hahah.

to be fair, i only beat you by 9.12 seconds.

Steve Ekstrand wrote:And it would appear that in some cases our regulars expressed those concerns and had changes made to courses.

There's one case of this I know. Tom P, who was working for me at the time, advised the course designer of a section he thought was unsafe during set up. The section was changed before any car hit the course. This shouldn't make us 'concerned', are there any other case of this you're referring to?

Lets air this out. I've been to several SpeedVentures events. I go there as a hired contractor to supply the equipment, timing and some support personnel. I do it as a 'for profit' business. 'For Profit' is in quotes because I don't normally take any money home, the cash gets re-invested in the equipment so I can continue to run the RallyCross program and the occasional AutoX.

So far most of the SV events have been ran by Emilio, who is a past SCCA Solo racer and is very good at being safety minded. If I had omni-powers, I wouldn't hesitate in giving Emilo a SSS license with only paperwork training. I've contracted to 12 or 13 speedventure autoxes and have not seen one incident and of the 9-10 I've been to, haven't even seen a close call. They don't have a safety program in place like the SCCA does, which inherently makes them risky. They're only as safe as the guys running the event are.

SpeedVenture's standard method of operating is to use the inside AAA lot for autox at a discount while operating on the road courses. I've basically stolen that business model and was able to get the AAA lot even cheaper than they do, which is a risk to my personal income. So we're at a position now to under cut SpeedVentures at their own model, a group we consider direct competition.

Jay W

Christine Berry wrote:Where does speed ventures get their corner workers from? Obviously something they are doing is working if they are able to staff the increasing number of track days.

I believe the corner workers and the safety crews come from the staffs of the tracks they rent.

They are not volunteers, that is why the costs of track days is more. $125-$300 per day.

But you also get more seat time, 4-5 sessions at 20-25 minutes per session.

I've been giving the Club reps updates and opinions every month since April '08. You may not have e-board access, but you do have a club rep that does have e-board access and it's his/her job to inform you and your job to inquire. Your comments on 'expecting an atta-boy', 'having to sell it to us first', 'informing the general population' are all pretty far off base.

I don't often go looking for atta-boys, but I do eventually get tired of accusations and assumptions. I can't control what people are going to make up, or even spread around as false truths, but I can try to answer them as they come up.

Jay W

Christine Berry wrote: Jayson,
Did you tell us what you plan was? You might have told the E-board, but most of us don't have access to that forum, and I don't remember ever reading about it being discussed at the commitee meetings. Don't go out and do all the work, then expect an atta-boy, good job at the end because believe it or not, just because you think its a great idea, doesn't mean that everyone else thinks it's a great idea. With this group you have to sell it to us first.

Also, informing the general population of what is going on is a good way to make sure they don't infer something wrong, such as what I did thinking that it was coming from Cal Club. This club has struggled with in-fighting at times in the past because we have had leaders that assume that if they think its a good idea then everyone will think it is a good idea (and then they wonder why no one appreciates all of their hard work)

Thomas Barrett wrote:But you also get more seat time, 4-5 sessions at 20-25 minutes per session.

And increased risk in wrecking with track speeds at triple-digits.

On the safety front. I trust Jayson in running an event, and I know and respect Emilio. The events are probably safe, but the lot is marginal, and the record of the choices non-SCCA clubs make is suspect.

Part of the reason for an SSS, is not to what people think. Its not to be some omnipotent eyes and ears spotting every car jacking up or a policeman monitoring traffic. The SSS, is to stand off independent of the organizers and watch for corner cutting and bad decisions. Its hard enough to look over your own shoulder. Its even worse when its your dime and there might be an element of desperation.

Jayson Woodruff wrote:

Steve Ekstrand wrote:And it would appear that in some cases our regulars expressed those concerns and had changes made to courses.

There's one case of this I know. Tom P, who was working for me at the time, advised the course designer of a section he thought was unsafe during set up. The section was changed before any car hit the course. This shouldn't make us 'concerned', are there any other case of this you're referring to?

Lets air this out. I've been to several SpeedVentures events. I go there as a hired contractor to supply the equipment, timing and some support personnel. I do it as a 'for profit' business. 'For Profit' is in quotes because I don't normally take any money home, the cash gets re-invested in the equipment so I can continue to run the RallyCross program and the occasional AutoX.

So far most of the SV events have been ran by Emilio, who is a past SCCA Solo racer and is very good at being safety minded. If I had omni-powers, I wouldn't hesitate in giving Emilo a SSS license with only paperwork training. I've contracted to 12 or 13 speedventure autoxes and have not seen one incident and of the 9-10 I've been to, haven't even seen a close call. They don't have a safety program in place like the SCCA does, which inherently makes them risky. They're only as safe as the guys running the event are.

SpeedVenture's standard method of operating is to use the inside AAA lot for autox at a discount while operating on the road courses. I've basically stolen that business model and was able to get the AAA lot even cheaper than they do, which is a risk to my personal income. So we're at a position now to under cut SpeedVentures at their own model, a group we consider direct competition.

Jay W

The for hire(craigslist I thought) workers at the SV auto-x events need a cheat sheet for each position I think.
I ran one of these events back in early 2008.

The starter was not looking downstream at all when launching cars. I politeley explained that to him around 3 times over. ESL issue.
Secondly, this is just an annoyance, a on course worker, on the fly, added a pointer cone to a optional slalom and then proceeded
to double up the slalom cones while cars were running. His explanation for each course change respectively was interesting, he though he new
how to read the course and everyone was supposed to go the way he marked it for the added pointer, and he thought if he doubled the slalom cones, they
wouldn't fall over as often DOH I respcectfully went on course and explained why not to do both of those things quickly.

I spotted these things before Emilio did and helped him out by talking to the guys myself.

Thomas Barrett wrote: I believe the corner workers and the safety crews come from the staffs of the tracks they rent.

No, the tracks never supply the corner workers or emergency response. That is always the responsibility of the track day sponsoring organization. They are required to supply those services by the track operators and the insurance companies.

Fire safety and tow crews are usually also contract resources, although I think that may be an exception at BW.


Oli

Jayson Woodruff wrote:Altough I respect all Safety Stewards, I don't believe Steve has ever been to the lot in question to see an event there or to a SpeedVenture autocross. So his comment on the matter shouldn't be taken as gospel either.

Jay W

Mike Simanyi wrote:

Steve Ekstrand wrote: And don't get me started on the safety issues.

Oli,

For the record, Steve is one of our licensed Safety Stewards. His comment on the matter should not be taken lightly.

Mike

I've been in that lot for an AMG Mercedes event and it'll have to be VERY short to meet the safety margins that we enjoy @ Lot 12 and El Toro.

Check out the Cal Club website. The Solo people did not come out in force, as there were ONLY 144 votes cast. No one from Solo got elected - all the incumbants got re-elected, with the exception of Oli.

Still would like to see the numbers casted for each candidate.

Glenn Duensing wrote:Still would like to see the numbers casted for each candidate.

agreed

http://www.calclub.com/html/html2/bulletin_12_10_08.htm

Contact the Cal Club Secretary, Bill Matty.

http://www.calclub.com/html/headerpages ... embers.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Christine Berry wrote:Contact the Cal Club Secretary, Bill Matty.

http://www.calclub.com/html/headerpages ... embers.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In my post Christine, the URL has his e-mail address in there.

yup, your right, it does.

Christine Berry wrote:yup, your right, it does.

Curious as to why we have to e-mail him. Why not show the results online as to who got how many votes?

If we want to put someone on the board, next time we print up ballots and have them at the registration table. We should be able to get 150 votes from one event. DOH

George Schilling wrote:If we want to put someone on the board, next time we print up ballots and have them at the registration table. We should be able to get 150 votes from one event. DOH

Yeah, the cal club paper came the week after the event we really could have done that at, or it probably would happened.

Giovanni Jaramillo wrote:Curious as to why we have to e-mail him. Why not show the results online as to who got how many votes?

Because a static set of numbers can't support all cases? }:)

The interior lot SV uses was used for a small autocross course at the Motor Press Guild Track Day. It was short and dull.

Oli, back in 2003 Monty Holt was the RE and decided he was entitled to know everything about Solo finances, made preposterous claims about how a Solo event could or should be run and threatened to take the program away from the Solo Committee and turn it over to another region, despite our leadership being the direct representatives of the Solo points card holders. The SCCA BoD intervened and Area 11 Director Andy Porterfield told Monty to knock it off. It made the CalClub region as a whole--club racers and Solo--look bad.

I don't think Steve Staveley wants a repeat of that, but I've only met him once.

144 votes cast.

Gayle = 52 votes
Christine = 50 votes
Me = 48 votes

needed more then 60 votes to knock off the 4th place person. 1st place person had 88 votes.

Giovanni Jaramillo wrote:

Thomas Barrett wrote:But you also get more seat time, 4-5 sessions at 20-25 minutes per session.

And increased risk in wrecking with track speeds at triple-digits.

Triple digits are where the adrenaline kick in and even if it is more risky, that is why I do it for the thrill.

I have been driving that fast my whole life and now doing it on track instead of on the street seems much safer to me and more fun.

Thomas Barrett wrote:the adrenaline kicks in

This is called the red mist and that is not a good thing to experience while on track.

Oh hey look.... I'm entering Willow's turn 8 at 125mph.... I hope Dodge has better oiling than BMW.... No that can't be.... Crap, why am I doing this????

All I can think about at Big Willow is blowing up.... Of course, I've only run little four bangers there. And the throttle is flat like 95% of the time.