Vracer111

And man does the course look interesting - starting off with a 6 cone slolam right from the starting gate and zigzagging all over the place. I'm definately going to be mapping out the crests and troughs to see what kind of cambers everything will be at... Definately going to be tougher on me (and my Tacoma) going for a class win than the last night course.

Here's the course layout:

Tail Happy

Do you have any specific gripes that you would like to share ? I've never had any complaints about Houston SCCA events (other than the low number of runs, but that's an unfortunate consequence of the high turnouts).

Chris
#75 CS

AmginE

did you find the time? i couldn't, after searching. Also, the last event i went to seemed to run very smoothly, what's the gripe with houston scca?

mr. carpenter

depending on your group be there around 2:00 or 7:00. there is nothing wrong w/houston SCCA. the only time i've seen them be ******** is when somebody is being unsafe. if you don't want to "put up" w/them go to austin or dallas or stay home. those people go through quite alot of work to put on these events.most places only get 3 runs regardless of turnout. everyone i've talked to from other regions likes houston's way of running events.

AmginE

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mr. carpenter &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">depending on your group be there around 2:00 or 7:00. there is nothing wrong w/houston SCCA. the only time i've seen them be ******** is when somebody is being unsafe. if you don't want to "put up" w/them go to austin or dallas or stay home. those people go through quite alot of work to put on these events.most places only get 3 runs regardless of turnout. everyone i've talked to from other regions likes houston's way of running events.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Solipsist

Damn, this was the second event that I missed this year. I'm a little low on funds so everything’s a budget. Also I'm just now recouping from an ear infection. I can't drive all drugged up.

Vracer111

Not sure what you are talking about with the SCCA getting too big for their pants and it going to their heads... It still costs the same for me to run as it did 2 years ago and I haven't noticed any problems with the rules or much else changing. Registration is faster now with the online submittal - if anything it's getting better!

Vracer111, who ran his runs around midnight and had a blast - even though he lost focus at the end of his third run and apparently came in too hot in the slowdown section leading to grid, which resulted in a stern talking too by Mr. Hendricks... That was not a bad thing, it was a good thing to remind Vracer111 to be 100% focused at all times, running or not, and mantain a safe speed coming into grid entrance. Needless to say on the fourth run the brakes were applied hard right at the finish lights; and Vracer111 had to accelerate to get up to a safe grid entrance speed...

Vracer111

I'm not an SCCA member and I pay $25 to autocross. I'm guessing you haven't ever tried online registration, being that you don't pay for entry until you show up at the event. For me being a non-SCCA member, the cost is the same as it has been all along - $25. What's the big deal if it rains: running in the rain is fun and challenging, plus I paxed higher with the tacoma in the rain than I ever have done in the dry. Dry is nice, but rain evens the playing field...

One last thing, four runs is what the Houston SCCA events have been getting in the last few months, check out the results pages... Getting 4 runs with 300+ people is kinda hard to do though, unless you get cars running from 7am to 6pm maybe.

Ever since the switch-over to online-registration, I have gotten through registration payment/work assignments and tech faster and been able to walk the course a minimum of 3 times before the drivers meeting...all for the same cost as two years ago.

mr. carpenter

first of all, become a member and elimate 1/2 your complaints. member dues are 70.00$ , i just paid mine. you don't lose money if it rains. unless you know donovan, you're only assuming he's making money. so what if he is? most people do get paid for services, it's a very novel concept. you obviously have other choices. go to porsche club, go to austin. the new changes were put in place because non members crowd up events taking seat time from members. SCCA is a club made up of members who pay dues. it's not autocross for the world. just become a member and don't worry about things like the politics. if you consider the 5$ extra paid by non members, than thats 60$ off dues making it only 10$.

mr. carpenter

you do alot of assuming. no, they did'nt do it to increase attendance. the did it so non members would quit coming. it's working perfectly.

Tail Happy

Well, some of your arguments are "autocross vs. track events". I don't think autocross will ever make sense from a financial viewpoint. But it's still fun. This doesn't really have anything to do with Houston SCCA though.

Some of your arguments, or rather assumptions, regarding online registration are faulty. Austin also charges people $5 more for not pre-registering. It's not because someone wants to get rich. We do it because having the majority of people pre-register makes things so much easier for the timing & scoring and worker chiefs. The faster they get things worked out, the sooner we can start.

I understand your dislike of the 30 non-member policy. That would tend to screw things up for those non-SCCA people who don't know if they will attend until the last moment. I don't speak for Houston SCCA, but I suspect they implemented it to attempt to reduce their entry numbers. And being part of the SCCA (Austin is not; it's a private club), it seems natural to me that they would favor their own SCCA members. I've never run a PCA event, so I can't comment on how they compare.

Chris

tilt

Just wondering why do they hold the events at night? Every autox event I've been to are held during the day. I guess it's lit up well enough to be pretty safe? Come to think of it ive also never seen a autox event held where there are light poles near the track.

Vracer111

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tilt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just wondering why do they hold the events at night? Every autox event I've been to are held during the day. I guess it's lit up well enough to be pretty safe? Come to think of it ive also never seen a autox event held where there are light poles near the track. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Because Houston in July and August is to dang humid and hot - it's bad enough you're sweating and hot at midnight because of the heat and humidity levels, but you'd really be in greater misery during the daytime... Plus night events are cool to attend - especially when a three-rotor Bug-eyed Sprite comes out to play; the haunting sound of that car echoing in the night air and the sight of the exhaust flames make for a cool experience.

Tail Happy

Nope, been that way for more than a year. And to be more accurate, it's $15 for pre-registered members, $20 for non-members or non-preregistered.

So non-members don't pay more for showing up at the last minute, but members save $5 by pre-registering.

Doesn't have anything to do with Donovan. As I said before, the more people pre-registered, the faster registration goes, the faster heat assignments go, the faster worker assigments go, the faster the event starts. Is that so hard to understand ?

Chris

DLBM3

Donovan L Brown
Not speaking for any Region or club.

I felt I was personally attacked and want to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

“Donovan, which is a rich little bastard already”
I will not apologize for what I have because I work hard everyday and earned all of it myself.

You mentioned the Porsche Club - I run the online registration for Lonestar Porsche club as well. So if I am the cause of the trouble why haven’t they changed the way they do things? I run their online registration as well.

Facts about DLBRacing.com

Revenue Earned from Online Registration $0.00
I currently run online registration for 5 clubs and charge each of them $0.00.
Revenue Earned from Banner ads $80.00
The banner ads have been removed because they were more trouble than they were worth. The only ad that currently appears is for a t-shirt I created and people decided they wanted to buy. Revenue from t-shirts $20.00
The decision to limit non-members was a committee decision not mine.
The decision to charge a “convenience fee” was a committee decision not mine.

As you can plainly see I don’t make a fortune with DLBRacing.com.

DLBRacing.com began as an experiment with C# and the .NET framework and has turned into something much more than that.

Does DLBRacing.com have the potential to generate revenue? I believe so. And if the opportunity presents itself I would be a fool not to seize it.

Donovan

AOAGEH

Houston Region SCCA On-Line Registration (OLR) facts and rationale:
=================================
1.) If you use OLR, you do not have to show up. ~30 folks chose not to
attend after they registered for the last event.


2.) OLR allows us to avoid data entry delays and get the event running
quicker - which equals more runs. Witness 4 runs instead of 3 at the last
event, even though we had 233 entrants.


3.) OLR also allows us to provide more accurate results, and posted in less
time. Note that results were on the web by 11:00 am on Sunday following the
event.


4.) The $5 charge for walk-ups on the day of registration is a "convenience
fee". If you walk up and register the day of the event, you make our
(Houston SCCA) job more difficult, make event delays more probable, and
results potentially less accurate. So, for the privilege of walk up
registration, a $5 fee is imposed to members and non-members alike. This is
to discourage walk ups, but not eliminate them.


5.) Eventually we want to offer (not require) payment on-line as well, which
should really reduce your time at registration - just sign the waiver and
get a work assignment.

Other related topics:
=================================
1.) SCCA is a *membership* oriented club. Thus the $20.00 for members, and
$25.00 for non-members. We cater to what provides the best quality event
for our *members* - NOT the non-members. We allow non-members to run in
order to give them opportunity to see what we have to offer. Not all folks
like what we have to offer, and that is fine. We will continue to try to
give the best value to those that do.


2.) Non-member limits: The events were growing at an alarming rate -
heading towards 300+. So to keep from growing to a number of entrants we
cannot manage easily, which results in a poorer product, we limited the
amount of entrants that were non-members. Everyone does have the option to
join SCCA if they wish, or deal with the limits. An easy solution to beat
the non-member limit is to on-line register early - like the day after the
previous event.


3.) We are not trying to "force" membership - and we do NOT have a
"membership drive" going at this time. We allow 60 non-members to attend
each event. Even with 233 entrants, that was still ~25% of the entrants.


4.) Changes in policies: If you dislike what we do, let us know. If we
then do not respond the way you like, approach us again. If we still do not
respond the way you like, feel free to join SCCA and get involved with the
administration of the events. We welcome your help and input, and we really
are trying to put on the best event possible for everybody.


5.) Finally, remember that SCCA is a club of *volunteers* and is NOT a Solo2
business. Fees all go to running the event, buying better equipment and
making the events better for the SCCA members - not necessarily the general
public.


Hope to see you at one of our Solo2 events soon.
Next event is Sunday August 31st.
Registration times 7:30 and Noon.
Details at http://www.houscca.com/solo2/solo2.aspx
Feel free to zap me a line


Roger H. Johnson
rjohnson@ghg.net

95GSRRacer

Hey Roger, Hey Donovan.

Houston definitely does put on some of the best events in this area. Arguably some of the best events in the United States. What makes this possible is the awesome group of people that organize the Houston events.

As for the online registration, the fees associated with not pre-reg, and non-member caps: see the post above. I think it's pretty comprehensive.

Donovan, I have your back on this one... Keep up the great work. If it makes you money(which I hope it does) good for you! So far I think that the Online Registration and event calender have been totally awesome. Thanks.

If anyone gets the opportunity to attend a Houston event, dont miss out!

kittylicious

i have autocrossed every weekend (save 4 this year) since the beginning of the year and think houston SCCA region hosts some of the best events. donovan doesn't make any money off dlbracing.com (altho i think he should start charging--but no one listens to me).

altho if you dont like it, dont show up.
less people = more runs.

95GSRRacer

Hey Kittylicious. Good to see all these BMW people posting on HT!

95GSRRacer = Eric

mr. carpenter

be quiet 95gsr

kittylicious

oh yeah my original post got chewed up by exploder but i frogot to metion that Donovan is one ofthe nicest guys you'll ever meet. You'd be lucky to count him among your friends.

on a less pleasant note.. my kittylicious is really sick, so sick i may not be able to fix her.... i might be forced to take the loss in her sale now and get her replacement.. whatchu think eric--should i look at getting a civic like yours? and give you some competition in STX? *cackle* the fact that i'm dirt poor right now certainly doesn't help things. i wish i could find the free-money-tree and give it a good shake

mr. carpenter

yes kathy !! get a civic and beat eric. he's gotten too big for his pants. what happened to the smacktalking mr nice guy? it's great to see all the houston people come together on an issue such as this. that guy does'nt even come to events anymore. who needs people like that anyway?

Vracer111

Once eric gets back with the civic to where he was reigning with the GSR there's no hope for anyone - not even Z06 Corvette drivers... ...just need to start paxing in the top 10 again Eric.

Sorry to hear the M-roadster is down kittylicious...seems to not be too uncommon though, as a guy at work decided to get rid of his Z3 once the computer started giving him fits and another BMW ownder at work has had his share of problems in the past. BMW's = awesome when running, but $$$ when there's a problem...

PS. There has to be something special about the Houston area SCCA, since 3 of the 20 finalist for the Mazda Rev It Up events are Houston SCCA region autocrossers...and Karter Bollman waxed the pro's time with a 1200+ index... Will be interesting to see what happens at Laguna Seca August 30-31st...

95GSRRacer

Thanks Paul. I dont think paxing in the top ten is possible in STU. The pax is just too high. About the same pax as a SS and I am on street tires. I do need to do some things to the car for autox though. Maybe they will help. More than that, I need to improve the driver!!!

You need to get your honda out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kitty... I hope you get things sorted out quickly!