i spoke to jerry k. about possibly stepping into the role of the group leader at the feb. infineon weekend. he was open to the idea and even said maybe i'm the right guy for the job. i'm studying up on the responsibilities of the leader as well as what the issues are for our region since clearly attendance is way down. i know some of it is just life taking over (wife, family, work, what ever), and some were politics from nationals. i have strong desire for NCHC to be the best that it can be for the simple fact that cars are my passion. honda are my passion...

here are my questions to you, the racers:

- are you currently planning to race in NCHC this season? if so, which class? full season or partial?

- are you interested about nationals or just local races? how about crossovers with nearby regions? what's the farthest track you are willing to travel to?

- do you think we should focus on NCHC only? meaning should we consider creating a local version of the rules? here's my thinking, some issues are pretty small, like side skirts. when ever you want to race nationals you can make your car comply to the national rule set. locally we don't care. how do you feel about having our own rules? or is that too complicated?

- what other rules do you think could be improved upon or clarify? please raise you voice now.

lets get all your concerns out now so i can talk to jerry k. about it all at once this weekend. personally i'm all for having our own rules (nothing too crazy, we'll use the current NCHC rules as guidelines and it'll be 95% the same) but making it really work for the local racers.

ps, don't mind the lack of proper punctuation and capitalization; when i type fast i don't like to worry about it. NC E30 group has 30+ cars... there's no reason HC isn't at 20+ here. some thing is wrong!

 

Awesome! Good luck Frank and I hope it works out bc nor cal is the next best region to so-cal and they, as much as us, need to get the turnout back to the way it was, so we can get some good Buttonwillow crossovers to boot.

One thing though, I don't think "local rule sets" would be a good idea (unless it is something like a gentleman's agreement to run the national cap in H2 which is what we are going to be doing), because now you have a conflict on interests across the committee, which I assume you would be a part of if you are appointed the regional director position. I would also assume other regions would throw fits and want the same things that you would open up to your region, be it side skirts and APR mirrors in H2. Just my opinion for what it's worth. Maybe Jeremy will chime in on this.

If I were in your region as a racer and you had this "local rule set"(though I would like this nationally, right now) I would want 4 things besides side skirts and adding 25lbs to the H2 B20. No ctr cams in H2 B16 cars, no 6 speed weight penalty for K series H2, and allow K20 heads on K24 for H1 and a 50lb weight reduction for K20 H1. These are just my suggestions to improve turnout. I am sure there are many good suggestions out there and we should all work together to tweak things.

BTW- I still rock my Ktwizzle T-shirts !!!

 

one thing i can safely claim about ncal is we have 3 of the top tracks in the whole country. :-) all with in 2 hour drive. that's something really special. two are historic and world class status. (SP and LS of course). but too bad ncal doesn't get LS anymore... but i don't mind if the entire calendar is SP only. heh. i'll also be promoting HPDE and try to recruit new bloods into the sport. i'm very good a doing that. so we shall see...

 

True, I wish I was closer just for that aspect! Don't forget Auto Club though, where you can run 5 wide! haha
Auto Club should be a place to have some enduros, that would be awesome.

 

5 wide. (you should go nascar racing then :-P ) lol. i hate ACS roval actually. boring to me. i like the in field only better.

 

Probably best to keep this in the HC forum on Nasa forums. But I will say that I talked to Jerry last week and he said that he was considering me for the NorCal HC group leader deal. I told him I'd be willing to do it. If I have the priviledge, I would have no intention to change the rules, nor to make a local/regional subset of rules. Instead, my primary focus would be to get the Norcal car count back up and to ensure, for the current Norcal HC racers (ALL of which I know, and whom I raced with over the years) are having fun in the series and region they're racing in while being competitive.

 

I vote for Jonathan Meris for California Governor..... oooo errr uhhh NC Honda Challenge Director!
I also want Thunder Roadsters and their smaller counter parts not to run in our group!

Free Motul oil and better tires.. LOL J/K

Jonathan has my confidence!

 

Fyi, Jerry won't be around this weekend.
Although Jerry is involved with finding/appointing a nor cal series group leader, I don't think he has anything to do with Honda Challenge rules. Honestly, Jerry doesn't know anything about HC rules and he could care less about them. So talking to him about HC rules or even trying to have "local HC rules" would be futile and a waste of your time. To change HC rules or to have new HC rules, it has to go through the rules committee and I would also guess the Honda Challenge National Series Director.

 

Let's take it to hc private forum.

 

I agree....but he doesn't have access because he hasn't raced in HC for (around) 7 years.

 

I made a pair of comments in the HC sub-forum of the NASA forums. I was pretty honest in my responses.

Ghettoracer - I applaud you for working to get involved, but I'd suggest that you build a car, get into the series, then make your evaluations after you've been a competitor. Right now you're just looking in from the outside, and really don't know the history involved with a lot of the rule changes, nor the opinions that the current drivers have, nor do you have the historical knowledge to understand the reasons behind why a number of the drivers have chosen to stay on the sidelines.

 

haha... i read you know. the only reason i post about this was when i asked jerry who the group leader was. he said there was no one and there wasn't even any candidates. this was in feb. event. if jmer is interested, perfect. i have no interest in running against anyone for the position. i thought the series needed help and if no one was going to take the lead i was willing to give it a shot.

a lot of you probably don't know this but i actually worked at the NASA ncal office for about 1.5 years in 1996-1997. before HC was ever even imaged there was a class called Honda Unlimited at the time. it was WAY ahead of its time. i was friendly with the older NASA Honda racers like Dave Balingit, Taz Harvey, Marc Kirberg...

the reality is NCHC is barely alive and it's not even on my radar screen originally. the _only_ reason i was going to run was because Ron and Donna said they are both going to run H2 this year. i hope this is still the case. otherwise i just bought the H2 long block from Mike for nothing...

i rather revamp the car for MotoIQ's series which has wider press coverage.

 

I'm not sure IF I would want Meris as a governor. Meris has WAY too many skeletons in his closet!

All joking aside. Jonathan also has my vote of confidence.

I'm sure there will be racers who may want some of the rules change for NCHC, but I do not believe it may be the best thing.

I also agree that this discussion should be taken to the private forum.

 

just got a message from Ron. he'll be at SP this weekend, but neither Ron or Donna will be running in HC. Tom Lepper will be coming out. i'll be there to see Ron and just hang.

 

Not an HC guy (although I'd love to be one once I can get my license together) just throwing out that in SCCA RX we allow for regional classes. We run a lot of Modified Rear down here and while there's not a National class we had one for our local events. Everyone understood the deal, you run MR down here and M2 up at the Nationals.

 

Taken to the HC Racers private forum!

 

Good Paul tnx

 

private? why? so lame. what about the potential NCHC ppl that the group leader should be trying to attract?

*shrug*

 

Because the core discussion does not need outside comments.

 

lol. have at it. good luck with it. seems to be the same issues year after year...

 

Exactly Spence ,and we dont need to air our dirty... LOL i said "dirty".. hee hee hee, laundry
in public.
We have problems, and we need to work them out with the people in HC not with the general public.

 

Yeah, but... the "general public" are also the potential HC racers. If the discussion is about growing the series, why can't it involve the entire honda race community?

As a long time, and one of the original norcal HC racers, we had some really excellent years which showed just how strong the series can be. In my opinion, the problems were never around car count. They were all around rules. They changed too often, without obvious reason, and were applied selectively and inconsistently between regions. I know many norcalers left because of finances, but many, like myself, left because I was just tired of drama and appalled at the community.

I would like to return I have a perfect H2 car. But this year I will be doing USTCC and WERC until norcal honda challenge gets on it's feet again.

 

why is rule discussions considered dirty?! i think that's the whole point. some of you wanna make it all secret 'n sh*t. the rule making process should be more transparent. secrecy = politics. it's the same crap for many years now...

that is the reason i called for a local NCHC rule set (but only if that is what the local racers want). it's not like i'm pushing for that. i'm pushing for the POTENTIAL HC RACERS to VOICE THEIR OPINIONS so the group leader can truly understand the problem.

what NCHC need is a group leader that will listen and fight for the RACERS. be it against the National Chair, HC rule makers, or other race groups. that's what i expect out of the next group leader.

 

And the only way to get it on its feet is with participation , racers like you should be participating to make the counts bigger, that would be the first step for a change right?
So show your interest and desire to compete and send your membership and go kick some **** at norcal.

 

I think Paul meant to say that inside discussions should be done inside, not the outside.
Let me give you an example, when you go to Disneyland you don't go to the personel meetings or get to decide how many hot dogs are going to each stand. You just go there to enjoy the day and have fun. That is exactly what is happening here. House keeping should be done in the house.