Cal Club Autocross Forums

Marshall Grice wrote: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.

Where's Naylor and his math????

Okay if 144 votes where casted, you got some counterfit votes out there. If 144 ballots with 4 votes each...well that's another story.

Thomas Barrett wrote:

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.

Gio, you sound like one of the safety nazi's that promote the "Speed Kills" BS. It's incompetent drivers and and unsafe equipment. I did Solo 1 for some time and a few track days in the old GT2 Z-car with triple digit speeds and never felt at risk. But I recognize there is risk and wouldn't have done it without a full cage and personal safety equiment. Las Vegas region used to run HPDE combined with Solo 1 at Spring Mountain with the Solo1 drivers being the instructors for the HPDE drivers. The only time I felt unconfortable was riding in a street car with not even a roll bar, even though they coned down the straights to reduce speeds.

4 votes per Ballot.

Giovanni Jaramillo wrote:

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.

Having raced motorcycles for three decades, and five of those years on the national circuit, I can tell you adrenaline is your friend. Red mist is bad because you not only react reflexively to needed car inputs, but your decision-making becomes flawed and you will make bad passes, etc. I don't think I could win some of the hard fought races without adrenaline flowing. My reaction times are so much faster. My vision is keener. I smell everything. My capacity to sense my environment and where other cars are on track goes up dramatically. Everything seems to happen in slow motion even though I am processing massive amounts of data input. The key is balance and sensibilities when operating in that hyper stimulated condition.

I know it was good race and that I got a good pump when I get up at 6 am. I practice, qualify and race. I load up and drive 3-4 hours to get home. Eat dinner and do other things, go to bed and find that I am still up at 3 am unable to sleep and still pumped from the race. That is a good adrenaline rush. I will add that I have never crashed my car on track and only one time in all my races did I get bumped and spun when I pinched off a Spec Miata when lapping traffic at a WSIR race. It was so light a tap that you could not even see any damage to my car. So yes racing has risks. Yes, adrenaline gets me amped. But it can be your friend. I lasted through three decades or motorcycle racing with no serious injuries and I still ride.

Rick Brown wrote:Gio, you sound like one of the safety nazi's that promote the "Speed Kills" BS.

On the contrarty Rick. I just recognize when the "red mist" hits me, and dial it down and drive within my limits. I've been to Willow Springs (Big Willow), Buttonwillow, and California Speedway. All at triple-digit speeds, but always drove within my limits. I understand the adrenalin rush but the key is to not push it (unless your Club Racing). If it's an HPDE then you increase the risk of a crash.

Rick Brown wrote:Gio, you sound like one of the safety nazi's

I believe that's Schenker's title

Giovanni Jaramillo wrote:

Rick Brown wrote:Gio, you sound like one of the safety nazi's

I believe that's Schenker's title

Her Komendant Wilhelm Schenker

Aaron Goldsmith wrote:

Giovanni Jaramillo wrote:

Rick Brown wrote:Gio, you sound like one of the safety nazi's

I believe that's Schenker's title

Her Komendant Wilhelm Schenker

Herr Field Marshall Schenker

Bob Beamesderfer wrote:

Aaron Goldsmith wrote:

Giovanni Jaramillo wrote: I believe that's Schenker's title

Her Komendant Wilhelm Schenker

Herr Field Marshall Schenker

Frau Farbissina Schenker

So... lemme see if I understand this correctly. Out of all the solo regulars out there in our region, we only had about 50 that bothered to send in thier votes ? mmmmmm

Even more incredible is that it only took 60 votes to win one of the seats. With 10 or so more votes, we could have had at least one of our people in. Definitely worth remembering next election.

Oli Thordarson wrote: I am going to go out on a limb here and surmise with reasonable confidence that staffing even one weekend of track days/HPDEs or a Time Attack like Redline is going to require more volunteer staffing than we can muster at Cal Club. Remember, this is a not-for-profit race club. To the best of my knowledge all of the solo events, road races and rallies are staffed by volunteers. The demand for track days is huge, you are right. But on any given weekend I can usually choose between two and sometimes three local tracks to run a track day if I wish. There is no way Cal Club can expect to volunteer staff all of those events. Nor do I think the tracks would find it in there best interest to let one association monopolize dates. I think the same can be said to some extent about autocross events. For Solo there appears to me more demand than what Cal Club can deliver locally just once per month. How do we best meet that demand and meet the competitve challenges?

You might look at the SCCA PDX program. ;) AZ and CO are doing this now (as well as others), and CO reports over 20% of drivers on regional race weekends come from PDX.

Kurt Rahn wrote:Even more incredible is that it only took 60 votes to win one of the seats. With 10 or so more votes, we could have had at least one of our people in. Definitely worth remembering next election.

All this discussion about winning a seat(s) on the board brings me back to an unanswered question in one of my previous posts.

If the solo group had a control of all the seats on the BoGs, what would you guys do?

Do you have a plan for what you want?

I can understand the machinations of frustration being part of a larger organization, but you need to know what you want to do when you get on the BoG. While I may not be the perfect solo guy and while I have only run with your group twice, I do count many of you as my friends. But more important then friendship... I have a job to do on the BoGs. I ran on a platform where I want to see robust growth in Cal Club membership and vibrant exciting events for solo, road racing and rally.

I will make sure your message is heard at the BoGs and I will go to bat for you guys, but I need to hear a clear and unified message. This is where I think it is appropriate for me to request a plan of action from the Cal Club Solo Executive board of:
Mike Simanyi
Max Hayter
KJ Christopher
Renee Angel

Your executive committee is the voice of this group. Tell me what you want and I will see what I can negotiate. Brainstorm and just throw-out ideas. Get them all out on a list and then we can go through them and sort them out later based on importance and value to the solo program. I will then ask you guys to be clear on how much these programs are going to cost and I will grill you on what the expected return will be for the Solo group and Cal Club in general. If we put together a good package and make the argument that the plan has compelling value... that is how we will get some positive changes for everyone.

I am not naive. I understand there are political cliques all through SCCA and diverse needs and opinions. I don't make any promises that I can accomplish anything, but I do promise I will carry the message with vigor if it is a good one. You guys need to back me up on that. Carrying a message that is unclear from a bunch of squabbling people on a forum does not give me much credibility or influence.

I see your next Executive Committee meeting was scheduled for December 17th, but it is cancelled due to the holidays. I looked it up because I wanted to go if you would have me. I don't see any others yet scheduled. I will understand if you guys want to meet first and get your ducks in a row before getting me involved. I am feeling rather presumptive right now offering this up, but if you want to give me a shot I will give it a try.

If you don't really want a seat on the board and you guys want to be left alone then the executive committee can send me back to the paddock and I will focus on rally, if they want anything, and the road racing program. The message you guys are giving me on these posts is very divided.


Yours truly from the Board of Governators

Oli Thordarson
SCCA T1 #22 Corvette Z06
Lousy solo driver, 9.12 seconds behind Grice
Never been to a Rallycross, yet....
#2 2009 CalClub Regional road race ranking
#1 2009 Southern Pacific Division road race ranking
#11 2009 Runoffs finish (after being docked three places for a pass under yellow because I am a bad boy) See the race on Speed December 31st, 9 AM.


.

Jason Isley BS RX8 wrote: You might look at the SCCA PDX program. ;) AZ and CO are doing this now (as well as others), and CO reports over 20% of drivers on regional race weekends come from PDX.

Hey Jason, help me out to understand what you are saying here. Remember, I am a road racer so keep it simple.

I don't understand the term PDX. What is that?

Arizona and Colorado are doing something that "reports over 20% of drivers on regional race weekends come from PDX." I don't think yoo mean 20% of the drivers are flying in from Portland International Airport. Seriously, you are telling me something important here, but I don't understand.

http://scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=36" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Marshall Grice wrote:http://scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=36

That tells you what it is. The July 08' SportsCar tells you how AZ (and CO) work it in to Regional Race weekends. Any region not using this program for "track days" is giving money away.

It sounds like this PDX program is similar to the Performance Driving Clinic being conducted by Cal Club on December 20th, but by a different name.

http://www.buttonwillowraceway.com/clinic.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Oli

Oli Thordarson wrote:I see your next Executive Committee meeting was scheduled for December 17th, but it is cancelled due to the holidays. I looked it up because I wanted to go if you would have me. I don't see any others yet scheduled.

Haven't had time to update the calendar but suffice it to say, November is always the last meeting of the year, every year, as we take a break in December due to the holidays. And that the meetings are ALWAYS on the 3rd Wednesday of every month except Dec, unless otherwise noted. But this reminds me to update the calendar when I get home tonight.

No.

You have zero right for a plan of action from the Solo Committee. That's the whole point.

NO MOLESTAR!

We just want to be left alone, especially when it comes to "plans of action". Plans of action usually involve a list of assets and a plan for how solo competitors can bail out the club racers. No thanks. Go straight to hell. Like we haven't made this clear? You got a huge windfall from us with mandatory SCCA. That will increase in 2009. You get it all. And they are the highest region fees in the country. And we have one of the larger solo regions so there are a lot of fees to collect.

Piss off too much and we'll start a coordinated campaign to register our members as San Diego members.

Oli Thordarson wrote:If the solo group had a control of all the seats on the BoGs, what would you guys do?
Do you have a plan for what you want?

This is SUCH a loaded question. If you could read my mind, you'd be shocked. But I'll leave it up to the E-Board http://www.solo2.com/contacts.asp to either reply here or PM you offline or talk to you in person.

Steve Ekstrand wrote:Piss off too much and we'll start a coordinated campaign to register our members as San Diego members.

Which was grumbled about earlier this year Oli. So now you understand Oli how we really feel. Why should YOU (i.e. road-racer) get all of MY (i.e. soloist) $25?? Please answer that question.

It's pretty pathetic that we could not turn out enough votes to get even one seat.

:unimpressed:

Marshall Grice wrote:http://scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=36

This sounds like a great program for me.

I am kind of at the stage where I love track days and my skills are getting better and now I am starting to want some competition. Not quite ready for wheel to wheel yet but working that direction.

Steve Ekstrand wrote: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.

Its a lot more fun in a Corvette. The car is in its sweet spot, 80-140 is where it likes to run.Hell it diesn;t shift into 3rd gear until 118 mph.

Bob Plante wrote:It's pretty pathetic that we could not turn out enough votes to get even one seat.

:unimpressed:

I think it's a lack of timing and advertising it within our Solo division. Now that we now how it works, we'll be better prepared for 2010. Also the LINK to the petition to submit people was WRONG and only after telling them it was wrong (2 weeks after the fact), did they fix it. Luckily I was able to figure the correct link based on their web-directory configuration. Still it was timing in my opinion.