There must be something wrong with the calendar on the site, because here is the schedule:
06/15/2008 Senec OOR #2
06/21/2008 Kart (might change to ECCN on 6/22, stay tuned)
07/13/2008 Senec
08/10/2008 ECC-N
08/17/2008 Senec OOR #3
08/31/2008 ECC-N
09/07/2008 ECC-N
Jim, there is.
only thing i noticed was it doesnt have OOR’s on it?
The reason I haven’t been going is the low amount of seat time vs time invested. To go for a whole day, and get 5-7 minutes of practice and seat time isn’t worth it for me. If it was a half day thing, I’d be much more inclined to get back into it.
It’d be hard to do that because no one would be there to work. I doubt they can afford to pay people to stay ( or come early ) to do work assignments.
Ok, I couldnt see that on the calendar.
I’ll try and make as many as possible, but ECCN is starting to become repetitious to me.
you really need to get out to seneca and batavia (if batavia happens this year)
08/10/2008 being the next local event seems like terrible scheduling to me. That’s over 2 months away. Even if Batavia gets moved to 6/22 at ECC-N that’s still 7 weeks between local events. Most of the summer goes by without autocrossing, unless you’re willing to drive to Seneca which a lot of people in this thread have said they aren’t.
It will be another hit to WNY autocrossing if Batavia is lost. I know a lot of the old timers complain about running there, and safety steward wise you have to cross your fingers about a few things, but that location definitely draws above average crowds, even with the longer drive to the site and the expensive food.
Losing that site this season has nothing to do with us and everything to do with bankruptcy. The faster my car is, the scarier BIMP gets. But I do enjoy it still, and a lot of others do as well, so I don’t mind running there one bit.
And there is a big gap because of things like holidays (7/4), prior obligations (7/20), the pro at SEAD (7/26,27).
the 8/10 event is in the process of being changed to 8/3 since divisionals will be at SeAD the weekend of the 10th.
I know it’s not being dropped now because of any decision by WNY. It was dropped from 2 days to 1 because of WNY though.
I just really hope Batavia can find a way out of it’s financial problems because a lot of people enjoy running there. It’s like mixing a mini track day with autocrossing.
6 weeks is better than 7 I guess.
And the schedule was designed the way it was to create no conflicts with FLR and any near by National events (which the people who run the local events go to) so that people can pretty much autox every weekend from the end of April to the end of September if they want to.
That hasn’t really been proven in the numbers over the past couple years. Plus, if people really wanted it that bad the BMW club does 2 or 3 events there a year.
Plus with the declining numbers we get at Batavia and the cost to run there, it’s become a finacial burden to run there, and really only do it because people supposedly love running there.
table fiasco?
110 people at BIMP last year, and you scheduled it on father’s day no less, a day when a lot of people specifically said they didn’t come because they had plans with family.
Compared to 80 the event before it and 75 the event after it.
43% increase in participation even though some people didn’t come because the date was bad for them.
It’s the only event you have scheduled this year that has pre-registration over 60 (67 right now), with the much more hyped Seneca event having 48. That despite the rumblings that Batavia wasn’t even going to happen because of bankrupcy issues.
Jay, I don’t get all your points about scheduling. You used to do this, and if I remember correctly, show up to every event. WNY and FLR schedule their events around each other and also have to schedule around other in region SCCA events (no rally-x and auto-x on the same day for example). A few weeks go by without a local event because of other motorsport events going on. If all the events start competing with each other, attendance would decline even further. WNY and FLR scheduling opposite each other only boosts attendance. Site availability at any given time is an issue as well. Don’t you remember all the logistics of this stuff from when you were a more avid competitor???
Yeah, I used to be at pretty much every event. I still love to autocross, love the people, but just can’t devote 7+ hours to 5 minutes of seat time. I still want to see the WNY solo program remain strong because it’s a great resource for bringing new people to motorsports at a really low cost.
I understand the logistics of scheduling but 6 and 7 week gaps seems excessive. It’s not like in the past I wasn’t at events hearing things like “so and so isn’t here because they’re at event XYZ”. If it comes down to a choice between really long gaps and having some conflicts maybe conflicts is the better choice. Assuming the big gaps are contributing to the new/young crowd not sticking around anyway.
You keep saying 6-7 week gap, but what you really mean is a long gap between running ECCN. There are events. We have always run OOR’s in the past. And I’d rather drive to SEAD than Lake Erie Speedway. We had an OOR at RIT, and there were about 10 WNYers. We just don’t have sites. If we have every event at ECCN, then people complain about it. If we start to venture out, then people complain about the distance. I know that there is no perfect solution, but we are just trying to figure out what will please the majority.
our company is working on making better cement compounds, maybe i can convince them to launch a project testing it for race courses and build one for us in buffalo ? 