The reason I stopped going to FLR AutoX events is a-holes wandering around bitching about classing. I went to an SeAD event with my wife and my father. Several people bitched about my car and my father’s car saying they weren’t classed properly. My father’s car is a fully race prepped Eagle Talon (2wd/NA) and I had an ever so lightly modded Porsche 951. Both of us were there to sort out our cars before a DE at Watkins Glen. Neither of us would finish higher than dead last in our classes, nor did we care about which class we were in. Registration classed our cars, a couple of dicks walked by and bitched up a storm and wanted to protest the event before the first car went off. Same thing happened to me and my next event at RIT and I decided I’d rather pay $300 for 4 hours of track time instead of $30 for 2 minutes and sort my car out the first morning of a DE.
If there was an “unclassified” run group for people who aren’t there for points, and just want to learn their car/sort their car. I’d be interested in coming back. BMW club AutoX classes are simple, BMW or not BMW. No bitching about what tires you have and that your engine bay doesn’t look stock.
BIMP was great when wny had it. I tried to make it to that event more than any other event. It always had well over 100 people there. It sucked because we would get less runs but they were a lot more fun, so it made up for it.
I’m a regular for WNY - and I hit the OOR’s (like the upcoming two at SeAD). Also after finally getting out the seneca, I plan to come to more as it is pretty much summed up as “awesome”.
edit: ALSO, to everyone bitching about sites, lack of variation of course etc… how often does dunnville repave their track to change it up? Yes I realize you can run it backwards, and there are a few spots for options to change the curves but all in all its pretty static.
There is so much more that goes into running an event that you don’t see or notice, and some of that is post event. By the time I am finished uploading results, it can be 10pm sometimes. So with that in mind, there is no way we can start later and go later.
I think hes more-so saying that you eat tires/brakes a bit faster on a road course, and if you are going in to a track day you can’t be iffy on how much pad life you have left as it can be a much more costly accident if you run them raw… I realize its the same for autocross but the wear is considerably less (especially for an inexperienced driver that is constantly locking the wheels up and over driving the car), and the consequences are certainly much less.
I think plain and simple autocross is the perfect motorsport for someone thats not hardcore, but also it can be for the hardcore people, and thats the beauty of it.
All in all, I think aside from the different points of view on what motorsport is better for whatever reason or blaming the gas prices and blah blah blah, we’re missing a huge point. Yes this is a fun event but this is not unlike any business, or “not for profit”, it lacks proper advertising and “customer service”. I think this thread is a great start, people are identifying there is a problem and are looking for solutions… I don’t know what means of advertising is feasible for autocross as it is certainly a low budget operation, but as the saying goes sometimes you gotta spend money to make money. It’d be nice to say well just build a track in buffalo and be done with it, but there is a lot of cost involved there, maybe we need to find something in between.
There may potentially be enough “hardcore” people in the area to help fund a project, or help fund advertising… I am not extremely wealthy or i’d love to fix the problem myself
edit: I would be seriously interested in knowing how much it would cost to build a course similar to BIMP (but less walls and more general run off space)… it may be a big investment but I’m sure a decent business person could estimate a ROI on it easily. Dale’s a business owner, maybe start there?
Less cost, same seat time or more, zero equipment expense, timing and wheel to wheel competition. Honestly, I think AJ’s is a bargain compared to $30 for five 50 second runs that take up 7 hours of your Sunday.
The convenience associated with driving behind slow/fat kids at AJ’s is unparalleled. Please remind me of all the technique and experience I’m getting there as I wait behind the numerous, inevitable spin outs that occur.
Going to AJ’s is like picking up a $20 toothless hooker down on the fruit belt. You ejaculate prematurely and after 4 minutes you question if it was really worth it.
So unless you are driving karts at auto-x or the track, $25 at auto-x is getting you legitimate seat time in the vehicle you will likely compete in… your own.
Okay, we took care of the one common complaint that there wasn’t enough information out there on autox and our schedule.
So please check out the “Autocross Info” section on www.wny-scca.com and let us know if that adequate or if more is need.
You probably would have had more attendance just by reminding people about the event through the mailing list sometime last week.
Looks good! Do you have the directions to the sites anywhere? I know they are listed within the event registration system, but can people find them without setting up a preregistration account?
do you really want to spend all day arguing with me about this? Cause, I don’t have shit to do at work today. Remember that this is barely in the scope of the thread topic…
You want to know why people are not attending auto-x… but you don’t think convenience plays into it at all?? Especially considering the cost of it now? I’m talking cost measured in fuel expenses, equipment expenses, and time… time, especially now that the weather has broken, is an expensive commodity.
If I can go to AJ’s (still only been once) and get 2x the seat time, for $10 less, while beating on a rental, and not having to spend an entire fucking day there… I’ll gladly deal with a few fat kids & NYSpeeders so long as I can get in a few good laps.
You act as if no one ever slows down an auto-x event.
You also act as if every run you make (all what, 3 of them?) is perfect.
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Yes I realize you can run it backwards, and there are a few spots for options to change the curves but all in all its pretty static.