well this question isnt regarding the auto-x itself but a question regarding how they organize the event. My friend and I (non-scca members) sent in our RSVP check the same night the practice was opened. I look about 3 days later on the website and see that it's closed. No big deal. I look today ( http://www.solo2.com/practice.htm ) and find a list of people running that day. Surprisingly, my name and my friends name is NOT on there. We called up one of the people organizing this and he said that he got over 100 letters (checks) in one day. That's odd, but if you look at the list, MOST of the people on the list are SCCA members with Points card #'s. My question. Is there a specific way they organize the events? i.e. Points card holders get priority? Sorry for the long post.

Curious,
-James

 

I'm the friend *scratching head*

 

Could be as simple as SCCA members get priority.

Membership has it's priveliges.

 

Was it a championship series?

As of recently, the local club here is talking about giving absolute priority to club members.

This weekend, we had an event that pulled in 280+ registrants. Needless to say, we had to turn away a full run group, and cut another run group short of one of thier runs. If we had've capped off the novices, or "one timers", I think we would've had enough time to run everyone.

When you get 100 letters in one day, how are you going to decide which ones get in, and which ones don't? I most certainly would give priority to the racers that are in it for the season points, or have shown enough of a commitment to the sport (owning a membership).

That being said, you should politely suggest that your club get a webpage, and offer online registrations to avoid such situations in the future.

 

Why don't you get a scca membership? In the SF region we had 291 SCCA card holding entrants for our first event. We give complete priority to card holding members. In fact if you aren't a member you can't run, and if you do apply, please apply before the day before the event.

 

That's a great explanation. I was just kind of upset because I was really looking forward to the event. It's just a practice session. For the Championship days, its first come first serve. It was originally opened to 40 people only. Looks like they opened it to about 14 more. Well there's not much we can do but maybe show up that day and hope several people drop out. Looks like I might have to get me a points card.

-James

 

If I can't run on saturday, i'll go to the sunday championship event and possibly apply for a Speedfreakz Membership. Thanks for the info fellas!

 

That's not an entirely bad rule. I mean, I'd be annoyed being on the other side... but at the last test and tune down here before the 2 National events, there were plenty of guys far more serious than I who were there tuning their cars for the ProSolo and National Tour openers. I fall into the category of people who were kinda frustrated at only banging out 6 low 30-second runs on a day when a ton of newbies crowded in who had no aspiration of running either big event. I'm trying not to sound like an *** here, but it was just an inopportune time for such a huge crowd to show up when there were a bunch of people who really needed to bang out runs. Typically it's possible to get ~20 runs or more at one of those events, so the 6 really cramped setup time. Any other time of the year, I'm all for seeing more people getting into the hobby!

 

james:
did you look in the solo2 msg board? I think they have a thread or two regarding the same question you asked.

 

heh yea i just checked it out. I'll probably just show up on sunday.

 

The DC Region SCCA Solo II group only allows non-SCCA members in 2 of its events and that is only because they are Metropolitan Washington Council of Sports Car Clubs Series events. Next year however don't be surprised to see zero events that don't require a membership.

This is done for several reasons. Some may view it as an elitist thing but it really isn't. As Steve Johnson has said - it is the autocrossers that are the backbone of the SCCA. They are the largest portion of the 55,000 members. The whole purpose of requiring membership is to get more people involved in the SCCA. It is a $55/yr. expense and there are discounts on lodging, car rentals etc. as well as other benefits of being a member. The membership requirement also helps out on the event insurance rates. Non-member events cost more to insure.


[Modified by Cobra, 9:13 AM 2/26/2002]

 

Martini,
Sounds like you were at Boeing Sunday. I was in the group that was shortened. Which car were you?

 

I had the chance to co-drive the black NSX, so I took that opportunity. My RX-7 still has a few miles to go on the break in for its brand new rotors and pads.

anyways, I was the guy running around with the black H&R Springs hat on. I was running registration for a while, running the waiver boards for a while, etc etc, I was even announcing for a bit there...it was a long day. I was in the 2nd run group of the PM, so one of my runs got cut off as well.


[Modified by martini, 11:56 AM 2/26/2002]


[Modified by martini, 1:56 PM 2/26/2002]

 

Heh, if you got frustrated only getting 6 runs, don't come over here (DC area) to autox. We get three runs, no practice, no fun runs.