Railgun

The rotary world:

I had spoken to Aron some time ago about reviving RR or creating something from scratch. He seemed interested in it as did others that I've spoken to recently. However, I wouldn't know the first thing about setting something of this magnitude up. But I do have ideas.

The sole purpose of this thread is to garner interest, brainstorm and see if there's enough interest in creating something new and, with experience and lessons learned, better.

There had been some threads on this early last year but didn't really get any traction. I hope that input from some of the larger, more prominent and experienced members of the community chime in with suggestions. I'm usually a pessimist, but in this case I'm full of optimism and I hope that all posts are of the same nature unless you can give valid reasons why it should not happen.

That said, and the following is from my own opinion and experience on the whole thing, here's my take.

The main thing I loved about the RR was the track time. Though the organization was a little off, but the group was good to go. The main thing that caused issues I think for everyone was the weather. Who knew that there'd be snow that weekend? Considering the first weekend in '03 had great weather, I didn't attend '04 but rain was the norm I guess and we all know how sucky it was in '05. The issues that were the ultimate demise of the event, whether known or not is really irrelavant. Again, lessons learned.

I don't autocross, so I can't comment on the organization of that side and drags were cancelled that last year, again due to weather. The '03 seemed to be pretty well run.

Extracurricular activities (as it were) were all over the place, but I don't know that anyone should care about that. The event itself should be the focus. If regional club presidents (if any) want to take that into their own hands, then more power to them.

So, to cater to the masses, what would people like to see. There are several catagories I suppose...

Driving events:

Autocross-
Again, I know nothing about this per se. This would ultimately be determined by the facility and its accommodations. Volunteers would needless to say be a huge piece to this. It would be up to everyone to participate. Perhaps short shifts as to not require those volunteers to be there the whole day and allow them to enjoy everything else that may be going on.

Drags-
There could be a similar thing to what I experienced the first year. A rotary vs piston thing. Or we could keep it within the rotary community. Or it could just be an open format just to see what our cars can do.

Track-
Experienced drivers are a little key here. Those who've never tracked before will be a little overwhelmed and need experienced drivers to sit shotgun to teach those noobs the basics. There's a local group around Chicago called 3ballsracing that have a great format for this type of thing. I'd recommend taking advice from them (if willing to give it) on how to set something like this up. Of course, the experience from Aron, who I believe ran this piece of it from RR will be invaluable.

For all the drag and autox events, what overall format would there be? Open? Somewhat of a competition? What would the award be? Trophies? Prize of some kind, whether monetary or material? Which leads us to...

Sponsors/vendors.

I'd love for them to chime in on what they liked, didn't like or would want to see or do. Again, the weather really killed it last time. No one wanted to really wonder around outside for obvious reasons. What do they have to offer? What do we want to see from them? Since it's such a small market, competition is a little more...fierce.

As far as sponsorship specific things...I suppose that equates to how do we get help funding it. Rental, insurance, and whatever else that has a cost associated with it. Though, I hope with as much participation as I'd like to see, those costs could be spread around much further than between the previous two.

And most importantly, how do we get Mazda involved? We NEED them to be involved in some respect.

Exhibitions

In 05, Downing brought his beautiful machine for all of us to enjoy. Of course, (recurring theme here) the weather kind of ruined it a bit. I don't think he opened it up, but is was a great display nonetheless. Abel Ibarra made an apperance as well. I don't recall if he was going to do a few passes or not, but I do know that his time was cut short due to the obvious. This will be a key thing too. Get these guys out here again and show us anything and everything they can. This was a big draw. When Jim fired up that 4-rotor, people flocked.

Classes, or how-to sessions are good as well, but need to be interesting, and perhaps interactive.

Location, location, location...

Yeah, we had gone through a few rounds of this. IRP, which isn't IRP I guess, may or may not still be a good choice. I'm not sure. Gateway I think was mentioned and possible MAM. The point of whatever location is that it should be one campus and possibly be large enough to be able to accommodate however many people would be expected. In addition, have a large enough space to be able to support auto-xing if needed.

Forgive me if some of these seem like random thoughts. But that's all they are...thoughts.

So, what do we all think about this.

Aron...please chime in. I know it's been a LONG time since we talked about this, but better late than never.

Railgun

Anyone?

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

If you are still looking to locate it in Indianapolis, have you contacted the Indy RX8 Club?
I just checked the IRP schedule. It looks like they have a very full calendar.
We haven't talked in a while. Is it just you that are looking to revive this or are you in talks with others. It would help to have them post too.

Speedrx8er

we should have a more centralize location. So the Minnesota and Wisconsin people don't have to drive so far.

Railgun

Well, regardless of where it is, someone's going to have to drive far. The goal is to find the best place for it.

Al,

It's certainly not going to be something for this year as it's well past the point to try to secure something now. As far as the Indy folks...there was another site that a lot of them were on that I used to have an account with, but something changed and I don't anymore, nor has anyone responded to anything about it...I created a new account and it never got approved.

Aron in particular is who I'd like to get a hold of. I have to see if I still have his # somewhere. Again, it's been a good 18 mo since I spoke with him.

tdiddy

I posted something over on indyrx8club.com. I will check it later to see if anyone responds. Its been a while since I was over there last but with the turbo install and everything I have been kinda busy...

max5roadster

I think oour club could be into assisting in this. What about the Chicago club.. Evolution or something like that. Anybody contact them? What time frame are we looking at?

tdiddy

Railgun, Al, and myself are all members of the Chicago club. I am a member of both Chicago and Indy. I still need to get down to St. Louis...

05whiterx8

i'm sure we can get something together to help out.....maybe it could be a joint venture between indyrx8club and chicago.......

tdiddy

Sounds like a good idea to me. Both clubs have pretty strong membership.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

There was a little split between the Rotary Car Club of Chicago and Evolve Chicago (RX8s). I am active in both. There is a planning meeting for Evolve coming up soon which I will be attending. This will be put on the agenda.

05whiterx8

i'll talk to flyboyindy about this later and see what he says....we can put it on our agenda for the next meeting too

Railgun

Well, to be sure, this is all things rotary. The split between the Chicago folks is irrelevant and shouldn't be discussed here. That will fix itself in time.

The main goal of this thread is to discuss options. Who, what, where, when, and how. It's all logistical at this point. Ideally, some offline/online conference (meaning not here, but on an AIM conference or similar) between all interested parties (local clubs encompassing 7s and 8s) will happen. This is to gather interest, get people talking and thinking about it and to brainstorm. Additionally, this is for those who were involved originally to voice their ideas and concerns based on their experience.

05white...

This is certainly being pushed as a joint venture as I think with pooled resources, whatever this event becomes will be that much better as it's FOR everyone and therefor everyone will/can/should voice their thoughts about it. Of course, we can't please everyone, nor should the intent be to do so, but that doesn't mean we can't come close. :D

05whiterx8

nope, you can't please everyone....i've been in customer service long enough to know that one.....lol......we'll try and get some ideas flowing on our end and see what we can come up with


Railgun.....i'm not sure what happend last time you tried to sign up at our site....if you want to go back and try to sign up again....i'll make sure and get you approved so things can be discussed there too if you would like

Railgun

Thanks! [offtopic] I was talking about indyhp actually. I dont' think I've ever registered at the 8club site. I just did so... [/offtopic]

05whiterx8

ahhh, gotcha...never been on the indyhp site

flyboyindy

We will discuss it at our next officers meeting in February... Sounds like it would be a lot of work, but a lot of fun!

ryank771

This does sound like a lot of fun. I'm sure we can get a good turn out from the indy8 club.

Railgun

Ok...any more thoughts?

Just a couple of quick thoughts from me.

I'd like a definite decision on location no later than 5/31/08. This would give us enough time to get the logistics in place to secure said location. Dates will somewhat be subject to what's possibly available, but a range will need to be figured out by then as well.

Railgun

We're not dead yet. Aron (keynote22), one of the two originators is now on board. I think it may be picking up a little steam over in the 7 world and he has mentioned that he had already lined a couple things up that would make a 2008 event possible. Please, keep your ideas coming!

foxman

I would pattern it after this, This event has gotten bigger and better every year. While there are only 1 or 2 rotaries that typically show up to compete, the event itself is successful. They charge $100 to register for the event as a competitor and $10 to get in for spectators. It combines car show and performance challenge. The one area they do not do much in in vendors. RR could do a better job with this. The car show and the performance challenge are right on. It takes an army of volunteers to pull this off but it can be done.

joyridevr6

How about Gingerman as a venue. I can't imagine it being any more expensive than what that drag strip cost, and it is about the safest track that I have been on, which has become more of a consideration to me recently. I have not done any research so I have no idea what kind of hotel accommodations are available to us and what they would be like. Also keep in mind that there would be no drag event, which was canceled both times I went to Rotary Revolution anyway, and I am not sure about space for auto cross. Christian, if you need any more half assed suggestions, let me know. I would be happy to throw more ideas out there without actually knowing what I am talking about. It's one of my special skills.

Off topic: Sorry I didn't get back to you I'm on nights so I was sleeping last time you were in town.

notorque

to find location you should set up a poll on here, have a pic of a map or something showing regions and have everyone vote on thier location and determine that based on population density. just an idea, there are a million ways to change a lightbulb

Red Devil

Gingerman, Putnam, Blackhawks Farms all come to mind as possible venues...for that matter also Autobahn but I'm guessing they'd be more expensive than the others...