PCA First Settlers 5/23-25

[ptrhahn]

Any trackpedia folks planning on attending? I've done this one the past couple years, and it's always fun, so I'm on again!

One of the best deals going, too, for three days.

[Stack]

If you're a glutton for punishment, you can do the PCA event, then take a couple days off, come back for our TZC/THSCC Wed/Thurs the 28th/29th... then stick around for some SVT Cobra club action on the 30th-1st :D

[ptrhahn]

^^^

Hey, if you wanna pick up the my fuel tab for running a turbo rotary on 100 octane for 5-6 days, sure. :-)

Seriously, three days pretty well spends me and the RX7.

[Lobo6]

Any trackpedia folks planning on attending? I've done this one the past couple years, and it's always fun, so I'm on again!

One of the best deals going, too, for three days.

Is Rebecca still their DE Registrar? If so tell her George from MA says "howdy y'all". :D

[ptrhahn]

^^^

I don't think so... I talked to a Don Bryant this time around—but I think Rebecca still attends the event.

[briankeithsmith]

I'll be there. Instructing and running in Red group.

[Stack]

Is registration closed or full?

I went on to see about signing up but when I get to the "sign up" page, there's no link or button to actually sign up.

Damn people not using MotorsportReg! :grumble: I'm spoiled!! :D

[briankeithsmith]

ClubRegistration.net - definitely sucks.

Alot of the PCA clubs are moving toward it. But what can you do...

Try registering on the night that an event opens on ClubRegistration, and watch it bottleneck. It's a pain...

[ptrhahn]

Yup, I didn't quite see the point in clubregistration, since I had to mail in an analog paper check (the first i've written in about a year and a half) anyway.

I'll be running black group (not instructing). This event is too cheap for it to be worth it!

[briankeithsmith]

A few years ago I wrote a pretty slick registration site, and tried to market it. I couldn't get anyone to bite. It would have collected the fees via credit card, tracked medical/contact/vehicle/profile/etc.

I had some really cool registrar admin screens in mind to build, but never could get anyone to bite on it. So I stopped wasting my time on it. The fee for hosting an event was going to be the entry fee for 1 driver. So if you were charging $100 per entry, you paid $100. If you were charging $500, you paid $500.

Nobody would go for that, but that's what I needed to cover credit card processing costs, hosting fees, and development/support time.

PCA likes clubregistration because its free, and evidently the management of the event is pretty decent.

Brian

[ptrhahn]

^^^

Brian,
I'm really surprised by that. Every club has their own "online" registration and almost none really work well, or are a "one stop" processing mechanism. At some point, you always end up picking up the phone or mailing something.

I guess maybe the margins are so tight in running track events that good sense gives way to pennywise/poundfoolishness.

[briankeithsmith]

Yes I was too. The way I looked at it, was most events are 100+ people in size. So in essence, this was going to cost the club hosting the event 1% or less of their total income stream. Out of that I would have had to have paid the credit card processing charges, set up a system to hand over the money to the clubs, and pay for a really nice hosting plan (that gives some real speed). It wasn't going to earn me a killing, just pretty much pay me back for some (not all) of the development time.

But nobody went for it. It seemed like a fair pricing structure to me, and I think it would have served the clubs well, because people could have signed on, created an account and handled everything right then/there.

I think the gains in efficiency from a registration standpoint alone would have been worth it, but I'm not a salesman, and couldn't convince anyone of that. Computers - when used properly - can make your life very easy... Same with software.

[Stack]

New thread...

http://www.trackpedia.com/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=4103

[stinkycheezmonky]

I'll be there with my brother instructing. We're in the Black group as of now, but last year that was WAY faster than what my car is capable of. We'll see if I can squeeze into White. Blue Honda Civic with a big orange 102 on the side if anyone wants to stop by :)

Edit: Stack, if you need any help registering, Don is a great and helpful guy, shooting him an email should take care of all your problems.

[ptrhahn]

^^^^

Excellent... I'll be in a silver 3rd gen. Mazda Rx7

[stinkycheezmonky]

Ptr, my brother and I were moved to the White group (at my request), but apparently our laptimes are "among the fastest for the lower-powered cars for the White group." So, I guess if we're getting held up a bunch or rolling everyone real bad we'll get re-bumped to Black. If that happens, look for my point-by ;)

[Lobo6]

First Settlers / PCA clocks lap times???

[ptrhahn]

^^^

I think I've seen a beacon out for Hotlap, but I didn't think they recorded times. Stinky, what are you turning?

[stinkycheezmonky]

No, they certainly don't. I told him my laptimes, and I'm assuming he was familiar with the general laptimes of that group based on his experience. Last year they were very firm about the "no timers, etc." stuff.

Edit: Ptr, I run ~2:20-21. Or did before my crash last year. We'll see how my testicular fortitude holds up.

[briankeithsmith]

Less than a month to go, guess I'd better put the engine back in the car :)

[ptrhahn]

Yikes, that crept up quickly didn't it? Only 2 1/2 weeks away.

I've got a whole host of tweaks to complete!!

[ptrhahn]

Well, the event is almost upon us!!

I've decided to squeeze one more day out of my hoosier R4's on Friday, and then try a set of used Rolex GT slicks on Sat/Sun, so I'll probably be slow :-(

Stop by and say hello, I've got a silver RX7 w/ black track wheels:

[briankeithsmith]

What run group?

[ptrhahn]

^^^

Running in the Black group.

[ptrhahn]

Overall, this was a pretty good event once again, and virtually trouble free on my end. I got to meet Stinkycheesemonkey, and believe I saw Brian Keith Smith's car.

I was able to run at, but not lower than, my best times from last year which was a little disappointing, but alot of traffic and older tires probably contributed.

My thought is that this event is getting a little crowded.. I think I got 3-4 clean laps total all weekend, and was watching tape from last year where it was significantly less crowded. I think I'd rather pay a bit more for fewer participants. Also, it doesn't appear that the "recession" is affecting this crowd, as the hardware was even better than last year.

[Stack]

FS PCA would be smart to do just what you suggest. Full course especially needs quality track time when you talk about 30 min or less run groups. Sure, you can have 50-plus cars out there easy but it takes at least 3-5 laps before the cars sort themselves out. And if the experience levels are too wide, its even worse.

Our wed/thursday event went very well, despite crappy wet weather wednesday, and more than our share of tire walls hit (and some Armco by a 360) :( nothing more serious than bent sheet metal though thankfully.

I ran my best time ever in our time trial wed: 2:25.8 !!!

I had to ask twice that it wasn't 2:28.5, even dbl checked the sheet myself since that was 2 secs off my grouping times. Will process some vids this weekend. Skeen was with us, but didn't get to chat much.

BTW we only had no more than 30 cars per run group at any given time :)

[ptrhahn]

^^^
Other than being mid-week (requireing too much vacation usage for me), that sounds great. I think I heard we had 51 cars in the Black run group.

I managed a 2:12 on Sunday, and a bunch of :13's and :14's in mild traffic on the old Hoosier R4's. I didn't get a chance to try out the Rolex GT tires, but I did hand the keys over to my buddy Fritz (for those of you who know him) who has much more time at VIR than I do, and he reckons the car's worth a 2:09 on good tires. Something to shoot for.

I need to get a tow vehicle before I start making more regular trips down there though... 5 hours w/ no A/C in a race seat get's a little old.

[stinkycheezmonky]

Nice meeting you Peter, and as I said, your car is gorgeous :) I also thought things were a bit crowded, especially compared to last year. I started lining up at the very end of the group each time, and that gave me much better track time, but maybe halfway through a session I'd start catching up to the slower guys, who also seemed more averse to giving points :( My times were not as good as I was hoping for, but I think ok for my first time back and the beat Hoosiers I was on. And YES, these guys don't mind spending money! :o

[ptrhahn]

I just sigtned up for this year's event in May. Who else is going?

[stinkycheezmonky]

I'm out, moved to Chicago and that trip just isn't in the funds right now :(

[ptrhahn]

Bump!

I'm rocking this event again in 2010, hopefully with a few new goodies. Who else is going?

[stinkycheezmonky]

Still in Chicago, and still out. Peter, were you at the February NASA event there? I saw a silver FD that looked like yours, but never managed to see anyone near it when I stopped by.

Also saw a vid of a silver FD there within the last month or so being chased by a buddy of mine in a white Civic hatchback.

[ptrhahn]

That wasn't me... may have been a guy I'm familiar with out of TN. He'll be at this event as well, albiet with a yellow V8 powered RX7.

P