ive been to 2 speed trial events and i have to say they are the the most un organized group starting late, not enforcing rules, and simple things like letting the drivers know what the group line up is. they change the run sessions and dont even let the drivers know ??? When people went up to discuss it with the coordinator he brushes us off becuase he more interested in taking photos and speaking with people from a magazine than the paying customers. And i feel sorry for the beginner drivers and what they make them go through...

last time i ever attend a speed trial event


my best experiences so far

redline free drinks nice people

nasa lots of instructors

and hotchkis for the food!! and free goodies like 3 full size bottles of wax system, free t shirts, caps, stickers etc..

 

i was there this saturday but didnt seem to have the same bad experience as you. i will say though that they are defenitely not as well organized as nasa. i had fun but my buddy struggled since he has never done anything other than a couple karting events. he really needed an instructor but there was none for him since they put him in intermediate, fucked up thing was they originaly put him in advanced since he has karting experience. that didnt make any sense to me.

one thing that i had a problem with was the corner workers flagging of my car. now i dont think it was just their fault but they black flagged me twice for another cars infractions. in my group there was another white EG and they black flagged me for his spin and off track. now after the first session i put numbers on the sides of my car to avoid this happening again, but the very next session same thing happened numbers and all. that really dissapointed me. i guess i will be talking to them about it.
anyways it was fun but i think they could have done better especially with the corner workers.

 

We had some good Speedtrial events on the east coast a couple years back, but like anything good, it comes to an end sooner or later.

 

seems like your more interested in free stuff than anything else.

 

Who is the organizer? Speedtrial? Link?

 

im not interested in free stuff. im just telling some pros of some of the events!!!

not only the cons.

 

speedtrialusa.com
i thiink.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EG TYPE-R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i was there this saturday but didnt seem to have the same bad experience as you. i will say though that they are defenitely not as well organized as nasa. i had fun but my buddy struggled since he has never done anything other than a couple karting events. he really needed an instructor but there was none for him since they put him in intermediate, fucked up thing was they originaly put him in advanced since he has karting experience. that didnt make any sense to me.

one thing that i had a problem with was the corner workers flagging of my car. now i dont think it was just their fault but they black flagged me twice for another cars infractions. in my group there was another white EG and they black flagged me for his spin and off track. now after the first session i put numbers on the sides of my car to avoid this happening again, but the very next session same thing happened numbers and all. that really dissapointed me. i guess i will be talking to them about it.
anyways it was fun but i think they could have done better especially with the corner workers.</TD></TR></TABLE>

hey, are you the one who put 11 on the side?

anyway, speedtrial might not be as well organized as NASA or some other event, but it got more freedom than the other group(plus more track time than nasa, i think) i was there on saturday coaching many people over there, and i think it was smooth(although it is suck that they dont have a good PA system).

 

yeah i was the one with the 11

im not saying that i didnt enjoy myself. it was great and overall was a good experience. its just that i think they have a few bugs to work out. but im going to get in touch with them and let them know a few suggestions of mine to make the next events better. we need them and all the other groups out there to allow us to get as much track time as possible.

misha

 

actually, this is frank and the second part of my post wasn't directed to you.

glad that you enjoy the event.

 

i think its good to let them know to so they can fix things. The problem last time i talked to tommy about overcrowding etc.. he said no one else complained??? what kind of response is that.. and i know that isnt true because a couple of people on preludeonline wrote him so i dont know why he said that.

its one thing to listen to your customers its another to brush them off

 

speedtrial is the worse club I ever run with. They put drivers in anyway they like. It was the only non-racing club that always has accident. Been there twice, and never again.

 

Is Mike still the chief instructor? He drives a race prepped AE86.

 

Didn't he have major contact with a Spec Miata at the last Buttonwillow NASA event?

 

Streets of willows always brings out the weirdos for some reason.

Goto WSIR's website and complain about the PA system.

What the beginners had to go through? I think it is good for the beginners to do some of the stuff that guy had them doing. Or you have people in high HP cars who have never been on the track before cutting people off in the apex, not paying attention to their surroundings or slow people never letting anyone past. Now at the next event these beginners might be able to move up into slow intermediate. I believe that some of the people in beginner class probably could have gone to intermediate first time on the track, but then there are some people who should stay in beginner for their first 5 track events.

edit: i think it is funny that people complain about things starting late and then when people open up the track at the end of the day there is like no one out there, hahaha. This event actually had like 20 cars in the open session before it was over, i was impressed.

In everything you do, you cant please everybody. I know alot of the ITR forum guyts had a blast, except the wind problem




Modified by JDM EK9 at 8:51 AM 5/24/2004

 

You can try a http://www.redlinetrackevents.com event!


2-3 announcements are made for the run group coming up, and the order is NEVER changed! So, it's pretty easy to know who is coming up!



Modified by prkiller at 5:16 PM 5/24/2004

 

I can't even compare STUSA with Redline. Last time I went to a STUSA event I didn't see track time until 10:30 a.m. in intermediate group. If you look at the sign ups, STUSA has usually 5 groups of 25 each, or these days it's 4x25 ppl groups plus one race group. Whereas Redline usually has 60 drivers limit.

The Redline pre-grid worker also has a flag of the color of the group at the hot pit entrance (and the groups don't change unless they combine for more track time), so it's easy to know who is on the track at any given time even if the PA system is not working.

 

I ran with STUSA for the 5/22-5/23 Street Of Willows Springs event. And I had to agree with dchung that STUSA is very unorganized, running late, no annoucements of run group (they should use the PA system), changing run sessions without letting the drivers know, huge down time between sessions (5 run groups??!!), too many people on the track at the same time (25 drivers per session for a 1.8 miles track?!), terrible coaching/teaching for the beginners. The track time I get on saturday was pathetic.

And car numbers are not required ... how are they gonna differentiate one black honda from another????

People started to pass as they like in the intermediate and advance group without waiting for the point bys later in the day (probably because very few point-bys were given). And there was nobody to enforce the rules.

Bottomline: Will never run with speedtrial USA again.

 

I must say I'm surprised at the negative comments about STUSA on this thread? I was fortunate enough to win the first Challenge Trophy event at California Speed way last year, I felt that the event was quite well run although there was a major delay of the start... Seems like nothing has changed?
However, It's hard enough to find events such as this, that you can run in without going to huge expense, or a mile of red tape... So rather than complain about all the things you see wrong with the way the events are being run, why not talk to Tommy face to face and offer your assistance at events? Make it your business to see that the run groups are informed? make it your business to see that the rules are adhered to, make it your business to see that everyone has regulation numbers? If everyone who competes in the series on a regular basis offers to help out in some small way the series will grow and become more efficient. We look forward to running our cars at more STUSA Events in the future. It's great seat time for our drivers and great practice for our regular pro series calender.
Good luck in the future

Kiwi

 

Tommy Chen is the director of STUSA, you should contact him if you have a problem.

 

Yea, I remember I saw a picture of the accident. How good of a driver is he?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ek four &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i have a complaint about the entrance fee.
now i paid 120 to register and race and we get charged 10 bucks at the gate.. and no free entrance for a passenger. WTF?</TD></TR></TABLE>

that is the track fee, everyone who enters the track must pay that fee. the track owner gets that money, it has nothing to do with the organization running it. Buttonwillow has the same thing

I know it sucks because i didnt like coughing up the money, but then i thought my experience was worth it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EG TYPE-R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">he really needed an instructor but there was none for him since they put him in intermediate, fucked up thing was they originaly put him in advanced since he has karting experience. that didnt make any sense to me. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I think the fact your friend depended on STUSA to make the decision for him was not wise. He should know where he thinks he belongs if he was that inexperienced. Also, why didn't he ask for an instructor?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EG TYPE-R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">anyways it was fun but i think they could have done better especially with the corner workers.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think these same corner workers are used by other organizations. They are not local to a specific track.

 

i agree with you EauRouge about my buddy going to get help for himself but he just didnt do it. i told him it would really be helpful but he just would not listen to me. so that is not stusa fault.

i also dont think that it was the corner workers fault entirely, but also the event in generals fault because of the lack of requiring numbers. like said above how are you supposed to tell the difference between 2 white hondas. all they should have to say is car number 11 or 5 or whatever it may be that way the other corner workers look for numbers and not what type of car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KIWI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I must say I'm surprised at the negative comments about STUSA on this thread? I was fortunate enough to win the first Challenge Trophy event at California Speed way last year, I felt that the event was quite well run although there was a major delay of the start... Seems like nothing has changed?
However, It's hard enough to find events such as this, that you can run in without going to huge expense, or a mile of red tape... So rather than complain about all the things you see wrong with the way the events are being run, why not talk to Tommy face to face and offer your assistance at events? Make it your business to see that the run groups are informed? make it your business to see that the rules are adhered to, make it your business to see that everyone has regulation numbers? If everyone who competes in the series on a regular basis offers to help out in some small way the series will grow and become more efficient. We look forward to running our cars at more STUSA Events in the future. It's great seat time for our drivers and great practice for our regular pro series calender.
Good luck in the future

Kiwi</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree with Jeff on this issue.. Now everyone has different issues different problems.. When it comes to events such as STUSA,Speed Ventures,TCRA, etc.. there are gonna be problems pro's and con's!!! But for someone to really bad mouth and event where track time everyone gets!! and plenty of it even though run groups have changed! When you compare this to NASA/SCCA thats fine you can pay a little more money go buy a really expensive race suit and helmet to go with it and oh yea race shoes then youll be happy.. ALL STUSA is doing is trying to do is bring your normal joe out to the track and have a little bit of fun.. and if that person decides to pursue it then there NASA/SCCA .,.. ALL this being said when your out on the track in your SHORTS!! cause its hot and you get plenty of track time DONT COMPLAIN!!