On behalf of Rod and myself,I would like to congratulate everyone who participated on the day.If you do the maths,there were about 1,000 laps covered,for a total of about 3 harmless spins.Attitudes were excellent,and no-one even scared us this year!
Any comments would be much appreciated,as we make it up as we go along,and any suggestions etc would be much appreciated as to any improvements we could make.
I think everyone improved their times on the day,and many from last year were quicker again.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Len

 

I would like to thank Rod who was good (brave?) enough to come for a ride with me and then take me for a ride in his car.

Apart from inspiring some farm work (check the nats threads for that one), he also helped me take ~1.5 sec off my time in the last session (after I had calmed myself down)

I have attached the official timesheet.

Cheers

Andrew

 

Thanks to Macca and Rod for their driving lessons and cool heads, I am sure those boys slept well when they got home
Here is a shot of the lovely red monster (no not Rod showing Archie where the track was) the fire engine red POLO
What photo shoot would be complete without the winners and their trophies

 

I was nearby when Rod was giving advice to Archie... "Now Archie the big difference between drag racing and track racing is that you have to brake late and remember to turn the steering wheel at the bendy bits!", says Rod...




Well done Archie - 2006 was the year of the turbo.. And a mighty bow to The Man (Rod) who was less than .2 of a sec behind a car with racing slicks and a stage 2 turbo driven by a man who is a pretty damn good driver too.. Awesome - it was worth being there even without a car.. Thanks for having me folks..

 

We're so lucky to have these guys involved.

The help on offer is amazing. From prepping your car for the track to picking the right line and braking points. All advice freely given with a smile and words of encouragement.

I'm not sure what entry fee arrangements these guys had (in particular Rod) but IMHO we get a lot more out of their attendance than they do. I vote their entry fees are shared by the rest of us at future Nats.

 

Rod and I both paid full price.I got to do a total of 12 laps in my own car.......

 

I agree Dave.

These guys willingly share their driving experience with us and end up paying for the honour of doing so as well? Not right in my books.

If i remember correctly, we were going to have paid instructors this year but couln't fit it into the budget. We would have seen more "bush bashing" and slower lap times if not for Rod and Len.

Rod had to join in our blue group for the last session just to make up some lost track time due to the time he had given up during the day. He only got 33 laps in for the day, half of which were probably whilst taking others for instruction. The rest of us all prpbably did over 50 laps.

These guys should not be out of pocket after what they contribute.

Cheers

Greg

 

I rest my case your honour!!!

Let's make sure this doesn't happen again next year.

 

In my view, MACCAA's contribution was above and beyond. I think the organisers should consider the amount of work that he took on. I know (yes, I know I know) there's a lot of prep work, but when it comes to the day, people need to share the burden...

 

If I'm still involved with the club next year, that won't be happening - I guarantee it.

 

We had to lose our paid instructor because the general lack of numbers meant some cost cutting.

However, Ric Shaw committed and then simply didn't turn up. Apparently he tried to let Hymee know but that message didn't reach us on the ground until Monday morning (when Len made some enquiries).

This caused Len and Rod to spread themselves rather thinly on the day - to the point where Rod simply ran out of time to take my car out for a drive.

Spread over 22 of us, covering Rod and Len's entry fees would have been a miserable $40 each. IMHO, this should be borne in mind when organising the next one.

 

Correct.

 

What-I won't be allowed to do even 12 laps?Wait till you see what group we put you in then......

 

Agreed!

 

Hmmmm, hindsight is a wonderfull thing. In my view, a lot of things that should have happened didnt, and a lot of things that shouldnt have happened did...and I was one of the "organisers".

This year was about continuing the "tradition" but at very late notice with very limited budget. In the end, everyone had the choice of coming or not. Those that chose (and were able) to come were more than happy with their choice and as has been said in this thread and others, appreciative of the effort all of the organisers put in.

At all times, every effort was made to do the best by everyone, unfortunately its quite obviously impossible to please everyone.

 

 

Nobody's pointing fingers here Andrew and all who attended were obviously pleased to be there.

We're all on record as being extremely appreciative of any and all efforts made by those who got the thing off the ground this year. A number of people contributed and that's fantastic. We're also all aware of the constraints the organisers were working under.

However, it's always worth having a debrief to see what we can do better next time and share the load of the actual trackday around a bit more. My suggestion to cover the instructors fees is constructive, not negative.

 

I tried very hard to make a neutral comment. It was meant to be matter of fact not moaning.

Btw here are the full results http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/re...6/11/2006.WAKE

 

Although I didn't spend much time on the track myself (only did 16 laps!) I was very grateful of the instructors help & guidance. I reckon as the RX-8 community we should definitely sponsor their entry fees, especially if the next Nats is bigger (and we wouldn't plan for anything else, would we?) and therefore probably will have more rookies like me, who need more of the instructors' time.
Will

 

Fair enough. I just wanted to make it clear that I wasn't being derogatory in any way, shape or form.

Any volunteer organisation can suffer from hurt feelings and bruised egos when improvements are suggested.

I want to avoid all that and move on in a positive manner to make next year's Nationals even better.

 

All Cool! I would love to move on, but when it comes down to it its instructors this year. Its going to be something else next year.

I tend to agree with Kalli in that an offline/pm based feedback is probably a better way to go.

Cheers

Andrew

 

There is something else that y'all should note.. We retained the practice of assigning car numbers in the order that we received payment and the signed entry form...

Check out Len's car number..

Says buckets about Len's commitment to the Nats..

 

I also think Kall's idea is a good one.

BTW, the organisers of last year's Nats had access to a private forum at .au (I still have access to it). Might be a good idea to make more use of that in planning the next one.

 

Slightly off topic but as someone who attended last years nats (couldn't go this year but definitely will next year) i am keen to know what peoples opinions are who went last year and again this year with significant changes done to their cars.

For example did anyone use a different tyre brand and notice any positive/adverse effects. What about those that may have made suspension mods.

Obviously the FI guys would/should have put down much better times than without but am curious about the effects of the more subtle changes.