I am working with the powers that be in Oregon region SCCA to help make some changes to the race weekends for 2013 for two very simple reasons. One is to increase entries and the second is to have more fun which will hopefully also help increase entries. This is not just SM specific it is Oregon region specific.
Andrew Foley. Todd Butler and Jim Weidenbaum among others are all working very hard to champion this cause and are doing an excellent job. Most of you who know me, know that I really don’t have time to be involved in this, but I have such great respect for what Andrew, Todd and Jim have done and what they are working on that I need to make time to try and help.
So..... In the Oregon Region, SpecMiata represents a large portion of the weekend entries and we have the choice to help drive the changes we want, or we can sit back and accept whatever changes are forth coming. Below are some of the things that are being discussed to achieve the above goals. Noting is set in stone yet.
Please take the time to think about these ideas and ANY others you may have and get those thoughts to myself, Todd Butler, Jim Weidenbaum or Andrew Foley. You can certainly respond here on the forum, but to really be heard you need to please respond via e-mail to one of the appropriate people so that your thoughts can be shared in future planning meetings.
- Number of Races - We are going to drop a race at PIR and go from 6 races to 5 races. With the addition of the Ridge we will probably move the dropped race to the Ridge. If you look at this years schedule for SCCA and Conference there were quite a few races and we are really asking a lot of our workers. Both SCCA and Conference share corner workers and I am told that with all of the racing around with the new tracks the worker contingent had to work 10 straight weekends this past summer. Car counts are down this year and eliminating one of the early races and working more closely with the Vintage organizations and Conference on having a collective schedule we hope to spread some of the racing out a little bit and give our workers a break and try to eliminate back to back weekends for the racers. Please remember the workers are volunteers and without them we do not race. There are some regions in this country that as drivers you have to work the corners when your cars are not on track. We need to respect their time and schedule. We are very lucky!
- ​Combining race groups - We are looking to eliminate classes and consolidate some of the run groups so that we can have larger fields and free up time for either more racing, special races or whatever we choose. It looks like the natural groups to consolidate will be groups 3, 6 and 7. There are over 60 classes of cars in OR region and 18 of them never had a car show up at all this year, so we will be eliminating several of them based on historical participation. Its confusing for someone new who wants to get into racing, so eliminating the classes that no one runs should help. CSM is a class that will more than likely be eliminated.
- Saturday Enduro - By combining race groups above we will be able to run a 60 or 90 minute mini endurance race. These are a lot of fun and it promotes 2 drivers sharing a car. This would be less about winning and more about fun. There will more than likely be a mandatory stop of somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes to safely allow for driver changes and fueling if necessary. Conference did this twice this year and it was a lot of fun and very well received. The thinking here is 3 run groups (red, yellow, green) based on displacement or speed. Not sure which yet. The emphasis here being on the fun and not on winning. We are not looking for people to build purpose built cars but to take an existing car and share it with a buddy. We will more than likely award a trophy for winning each group, but will also randomly award something for anyone entered and finishing the race.
- Driver Awards - Currently driver awards are given out at driver services. We are looking at giving out awards at an awards ceremony of sorts at the end of the day on Saturday for the Saturday races. For Sunday races you would still be able to go to driver services to get them in an attempt to not keep people at the track any longer than they need to be at the end of the weekend. The intent of getting the drivers together for a Saturday awards ceremony is to start to build some awareness of our fellow drivers in other classes as well as interact more with the officials and corner workers. At the end of the race day on Saturday and Sunday there is typically a social event that is usually only attended by the workers. Combining the worker gathering and an awards deal on Saturday we hope to build on the awareness and recognize the achievement of winning a race. We are also looking into getting the workers involved in this by allowing them to vote on a “Racer of the Day†a “Pass of the Day†etc, to be awarded during that gathering.
- P, Q, R every day - We are looking into changing each day to its own event with Practice, Qualifying and Racing all in one day. This would allow people with family commitments, work etc to be able to make a race in a single day and not have to skip an entire weekend. This type of format could effect the length of the enduro or could jeopardize it all together. In this scenario, every weekend would be a double.
- Driver Podium - For the BFG Super Tour event we rented a stage/podium that was located just outside the impound area that allowed for pictures with a trophy and and a brief word from the winners. We could build a podium and do this on a consistent basis if people thought it would be well received. Cars are typically impounded after the race for a period of time anyway, so it would not add to the time in impound, but just effectively use some of the down time.
- NW Challenge - Now that we have 3 primary tracks (PIR, SIR and Ridge) we can expand upon the NW challenge race and try to bring in some sponsor dollars for a payout of product, cash etc for winning the NW Challenge.
- Dedicated paddock space for SpecMiata. We will be receiving our own designated paddock space for each event. SRF already has theirs, so we will be adding some for us as well. Likely near the SRF guys. It will be written into the supps and any competitor who chooses to park in the SM designated are who is not an SM will be asked to move and if they don’t they will be asked to leave the event. The intent of this is to build on existing class camaraderie as well as make it easy for someone interested in going racing to really get a sense of the cars and people in each class all in one area. It will also eliminate the need for everyone to try to sneak into the test day to mark off space for their camp.
- Spec Miata / Spec Ford Racer Challenge - The Spec Ford Racer guys are a great bunch of drivers and Todd Harris and I are talking about a friendly challenge between the two race groups throughout the season to measure our driving talent and crown a champion at the end of the season. The details are being worked out now, but we are thinking about measuring us versus them based on how close we get to the existing track records for each group and assigning some form of point system. Todd and I also talked about a pre-season go kart challenge and then also doing some sort of timed autocross competition in the ProDrive skid car on the school or first event weekend to kick off the challenge.
- SM BBQ - We are going to try to re-instate the SM BBQ. We have not done it for a while and need to start doing it again. The hardest part for this is the logistics of making it happen. MiataCage will sponsor it, but we are going to need people to help put it on. Maybe we can do some kind of revolving weekend responsibilities or maybe we can ask for volunteers (2 or 3) to handle the BBQ for a weekend. Saturday is my vote
- Scaled Entry Fee Program - We are looking to keep this plan in place. We had 2 weekends this year with over 20 entries that earned us some entry credits.
Thanks..... Sean