I’m back home again following the ITR Expo. There are a bunch of thoughts I would like to pass along.

First, I would like to thank all the people who worked so hard to make this event happen. Wes and Clayton and Nate and Melissa and Demian and Phil spent a lot of time – a HUGE amount of time – and it couldn’t have happened without their help. (There may be others but those are the ones I know about.) Melissa, in particular, deserves a special thanks because she got stuck with a really crappy job, collecting the insurance and ambulance money from everyone at the event, many of whom weren’t happy about that situation, and she took this on cheerfully and efficiently. Phil, too, worked hard to put on the event and had to pull strings with the track to get us the dates. (The track had to pull the Tuesday date from Daimler-Chrysler to get it for us.) We owe all of them a lot of gratitude. Anyone who criticized any of them should be ashamed of themselves. Such criticism is particularly galling when it comes from people who didn’t do a lick of work themselves to make it happen. If you’re sponging off the work of others, you have no right to complain about how they do their jobs or the decisions they make.

Next, I think this was a TERRIFIC event. We had at least 43 Integra Type R’s at the event. (There were at least two there that weren’t in the photo.) AFAIK everyone who drove GingerMan thought it was a fun track. No one hit anything and no cars were damaged. The weather was perfect. And we all got to enjoy the company of a bunch of ITR owners.

In particular, I was impressed with the warmth and hospitality of almost all of the people there. There were too many to remember, but I fondly recall meeting Ed (zygspeed) and Tracy (Civic Sista) and Clayton (ausmith) when I arrived, David (davidnyc) the next morning over breakfast at the hotel, the Dragon family from Nebraska - the previously-mentioned Wes (white dragon) and Chris and Nate (albino dragon) and Melissa, Ed (sackdz) at the track, Chuck (00Typer417) whom I drove around the track at the start of the event, Stefan (NBP#0933) who was my student, Ray and Oscar who brought me Kevin’s tires that I bought, Ralph (Cheeseman) and Lance (lanceh) last night at Big Boy, of course Jason (Jason Franza) and Tammi who were just the most wonderful folks to talk with, and Glenn (Leftlaner) who came the closest to hitting anything at the track. So many of them seemed like old friends, even though this was the first time we met in person. This is as well as folks like Wai (wai) and Jones (jmb) and Jack and Jim (typer1189) and Matt (Dropspeed) and Kevin (krbobcat), all of whom I had met previously. It wasn’t just a track event; it was more like a reunion of a bunch of close friends.

Unfortunately, I would hesitate to call the event a huge success, in spite of all the people I met and the friends I made. During the event, there was a lot of ill will going around. I think there were a number of factors that contributed, including some miscommunications during the event planning. But I think a lot of it was caused by a handful of individuals who came to the event with a bad attitude and did everything they could to try to spoil it for everyone – and, when it comes to the possibility of another ITR Expo, they may very well have succeeded. The level of their immaturity was illustrated when one of them had the ***** to drive around the track with an obscenity directed at one of the event organizers. This was a juvenile prank similar to a small child who throws a tantrum. If you have a problem with how someone is handling things, either talk it through with that person, or live with it, or leave. Any of these is an acceptable solution for a mature adult. What occurred was anything but. This was like asking to be seated at a local restaurant run by John Doe wearing a shirt that says, in big letters, “JOHN DOE SUCKS”; you WILL be asked to leave. I can assure you that if you go to a BMW Club event, or a TrackTime event, or a NASA event, or a Car Guys event, and you write an obscenity on the back of your car about one of the organizers, you will be ejected there, too. The only difference is that at the ITR Expo, the person involved actually received a refund when he was ejected, which would never happen at any other event that I know of.

What’s really unfortunate is that such misconduct reflects on ALL of us. Like it or not, there is a big demand for track events, and dates are hard to come by. The community of track event organizers is a small one, and word gets around. When you want to have a track event somewhere, the track management and/or event organizers ask for references, and they talk to those who hosted your previous events. If the references are bad, you may not be able to get dates at all. And it only takes juvenile behavior by one or two individuals to get the entire group blackballed. (This is NOT mere conjecture on my part; I’ve seen it happen.) Those involved need to grow up. And until that happens, I would strongly suggest that those individuals not attend any future ITR Expos. But, based on this year’s event, I’m not sure there will be another ITR Expo. And that’s really too bad, because if it weren’t for those antics, everyone would be feeling just great about the whole event and how it turned out.



[Modified by nsxtcjr, 9:41 PM 5/28/2002]

 

oh boy.......what do i win if i guess who that was.

 

cant wait to see replies to this thread, double

 

I can't wait to see pics of said obscenity.

 

not gonna happen, Reid

 

i bet he bought a lot of *ICE* with the refund money

nick, who likes to throw clues around, cause he knows the scoop

 

So, what was the resolution with the insurance issue? What about analyzing the budget? Inquiring minds want to know! .

BTW, anyone up for CGI Motorsports' July 1st Gingerman event? I plan on being there.

 

Well I'm not going to say much, but I will say the way the event was run, everybody should thank there lucky stars no one use hurt or cars wrecked. Lets just say there were 11 corners and only 2 corner works and one person in control, who also happened to go take a **** and get a drink for about 15 min in the middle of a run.

Oh and here is the picture off the freedom of speach

EDIT: Dial up blows, will post picture laterz

 

Gee... I would never have guessed there be malcontents at such an event.

 

I dont really think that is up to you


oh one more thing Phil SUCKS! and we got the pics too
and they will go up

 

Opps one more thing big to Wes and Clayton

 

Yes it was and I belive that people have the right to be pissed....$355 for only 2 workers and a hand full of instructors

KitkatR-was not at all pissed that he only have to pay $55 extra to be safe

 

i would like to state that my instructor was awesome! I dont remember his name but he was a cool,friendly, and helpful guy. His wife was nice also.
to him

 

Wow, I have some too. Nice attempt at damage control.

Yes, I agree 100% to Wes, Clayton, Tracy, Melissa, nate, etc. Actually many man 's

x 3mill. this guy is, in my opinion, the biggest jerkoff I've ever met in my life.

on his scooter (recently purchased by ripping off participants of ITR Expo 2002?)?

Gee I wonder why? Perhaps because no one else has ever been to a track event run by such idiots? I've never heard of a track event without insurance/emt on sight and anyone who attends them on purpose is, in my opinion, a complete idiot. Maybe you support that Ken,, hopefully you don't.

To balance on his scooter?

see sig.

Actually, there's a right of freedom of speech. Especially when you are paying $355 for a two-day event on a seriously cheap track. I can complain all I want when there are TWO real corner workers working an 11 turn course. How in the hell can you call that good? At the bottom I'll post my main list of gripes that'll sum up my points.. right now I'm just replying to your *** kissing. (that's how I read it anyways)

And you know why? Because of the participants and ITR organizers. If Phil did anything, it was to make a recipe for disaster in the worst track event I've ever been to... or even heard of.

What? You were not happy to meet the ITR NC/VA/FL we-todds? I don't know why, we didn't do anything to you. Although most people seemed "afraid" of us and wouldn't come by, but some did, and some stayed. SGT was at our camp for most of his at-track time (and from 4:30-6:30am saturday night/sunday morning ), Zygspeed stayed at our camp a lot, KitKatR did the whole weekend once he found out the non-stunnas were camping in the woods. Budman's dad even stayed by us.

Oh, I agree with you here. Let's summarize.

1. Radio Calls by corner/workers/grider: Calls such as "That white integra had 4 off" - "Which white integra?" "The one by me." is NOT an acceptable way to tell others which car to black flag. There were many, many white, yellow and black integras. This was heard on the radio more than once by more than one person.

2. "Corner" workers: On monday, there were three real corner workers (does not include pit lane/grider). This is on an 11 turn course. There were parts of the course that corner workers could not even see. I also saw corner workers moving from one station to another in mid session.. and in one case said worker had to CROSS THE TRACK during hot laps. On tuesday, there were two real corner workers. I would certainly say this alone makes the event VERY unsuccessful. There were also cases of cars going offroad and waiting for the corner worker to point them back to the track, and after 10-15 seconds the corner worker would shrug, not knowing why the driver is waiting.. yeah, that's a safe event.. screw control, let the new track guys decide when to pull back on track And then there were different workers on monday and tuesday... again.. wtf?

3. Windows: Up or down? What the ****? that's all I have to say on that.

4. Clothing: Short sleeve and shorts "ok"? What the ****. Again, that's all I have to say on that.

5. Point.. err "blink" bys: What kind of idiot suggest using blinkers to tell faster cars to pass? Phil's reason was to keep their hands on the wheel.. what about shifting? I mean, I know it's hard to drive straight and point someone by with your hand and all.....

6. Schedule: Some sessions cancelled, a lot of them delayed. This is also a perfect example of how to poorly run an event. Go phil! GO!

Gee. I wonder why?

I guess.. it was originally said there would be EMT/Insurance.. and most normal human's would except a corner worker on every work station.. I guess you could call these miscommunications.. I blame it on something else though.

Who would this "handful" be? I must not have met them. I know the ITR NC/VA/FL crew clearly stated that all we wanted was for the event to run on time and smoothly and safely. That's it. Did "we" ruin anyones time? Judging by the people I talked to I certainly didn't get that impression.. in fact almost every one I talked to agreed with us.

Yep, those of us who had the ***** to speak out against "The worst run track event ever" certainly ruined all ITR Expo's in the future

This is a PERFECT example of the miscommunication you mentioned earlier. I assume that you heard the story from your buddy Phil? In reality, the person who had PHIL SUCKS on his car did NOT even write it on his car. He did drive around with a statement describing the way that Phil ran the event, this is not an "obscenity" by any stretch of the imagination.

Considering how unstable and angry Phil was.. and how close he was to cancelling the event anyways, I really think that method would have REALLY ruined everyone's weekend. On the opposite side of the fence, the proper thing for an organizer to do is to discuss this situation with the person who had phil sucks on his car to find out why, and ask him/her to remove the writing if the situation that caused the writing was corrected. Instead Phil decided to further hurt his business by pissing more people off.

you mean a PARTIAL refund.. then threatened with police because the person sat around to watch his friends drive on the track.. The gingerman track manager did act like an adult in extending the time deadline for the person to leave.. at least he's not as immature as Phil.

And your post reflects on how little you care about the safety of ITR Expo participants. I wouldn't send my worse enemy to one of Phil's "events".

You don't know how much this would please me. If everyone started caring about their safety and legal liability by participating in Phil's events I certainly think he'd be out of business very, very soon. I will do my damned best to spread the word on how poorly CGI events are run (in my, and others, opinions).

If Phil/CGI runs them, we wont be there. Now if the event is run by a RESPONSIBLE and intelligent organizer, we will certainly be there. Nothing you can do about it Ken, so go whine elsewhere.

That would be a shame. After all we learned about why carefully researching an organizer, etc is important it would be a shame to stop now. I think next years event can be setup nice and smoothly, I'd even be willing to help out if it's at a track close to me. I certainly wont let the event get planned before all required items are looked into.. hell no track around me will let you rent a track without 1 or more EMT on site, one or more wrecker on site, workers on each station, etc.

Yeah, I've sure everyone was pissed at someone writing PHIL SUCKS on their car more than the Insurance/EMT issue and the delays.. yeah.. sure..

 

Well seeing that I was told that there wouldn't be any refunds, Does this mean that I can get a refund? I wasn't able to attend as I had some car troubles.

 

And to think, I almost had to ask what the beef was about? Glad I didn't waste the time or money to goto this expo. Hopefully the next one will be a ViR like everyone suggested, to keep it rotating around the US. (West, North, ... etc.)

 

Oh it will be.

 

now really?!?

 

personally I don't find two corner workers to be a problem at Gingerman, the visibility at that track is great, two corner workers plus the main flag station is more than adequate IMO. The EMT is a waste of space IMO, on my visit to the BMW event last year at Gingerman the EMT guy was clearly asleep in his truck as I toured the track with the manager, I got a good laugh at that. So you basically pay a guy to sleep at that track for the day.

 

Sounds like it's a good thing I didn't waste my time and money in order to attend...

 

Are you serious? If the visibility is SO great then why did some cars spin off and not get black flagged? Why you ask? Because nobody saw them spin.. yep.. that's great visibility

Ok, let's think about this logically.

If the EMT guys are at the track, they are sleeping there. They wake up to a call and and are immediately available. On the other hand, if they are not at the track, they are still sleeping, but wake up, drink some Red Bull, drive to the track and then are able to help. If that's hard to understand.. then I feel sorry for you. Keep going to Phil's events, I await the thread where someone rolled their car and died because EMT was not on site (not that I want anyone to die)

 

Hey Ed glad you made it back in one peace


there were at least 3 corners that were blind that no corner worker could see


About the EMT a big to you

 

Who cares if he sleeps when nothing is going on... The point is that if he is there on site, then as soon as something happens the radio starts blaring and he can respond. Or would you prefer to have to wait 15-20 mins. for them to arrive from the nearest hospital when you are in dire need of medical attention?

 

You'll never respect having the EMT there until something bad enough happens and you need him. Alot safer to have an EMT at the track than to have to call in an EMT or rush to a local hospital.

 

I would like to also say that most of us still had a good time even though the event was not the best it was still fun getting to meet everybody and for the most part I think that goes for about all the guys (well maybe not 2-3 or 5 or 7 )