Which email did you send it to... the hotmail.com or the yahoo.com? If you sent it to the right email - it's Seafair weekend so who knows... maybe you'll hear from him on Monday. Good luck!

 

Yahoo, right off the evolution school website.

 

 

Word from the Pro is that Isley increased his lead from yesterday and took the win!

 

Yup, he was really flying this weekend. Congrats to Jason on winning BS at the Packwood Pro! I'm pretty sure Joe Goeke took second and Mark Sipes (TeamRX8) took third, unless they swapped positions Sunday morning.

I, on the other hand, didn't do so well. I was only happy with my Sat afternoon runs. Screwed up Sat morning and slowed down on Sunday.

Oh well. I did tell myself when I jumped into BS that I was going to look at it as a learning experience. I'm certainly getting an education from Jason, Joe, and Mark, not to mention the 5 other people who beat me! Hopefully Evo will help.

 

Keith has been in Packwood ever since then. Packwood is not exactly a hotbed of internet activity. I suggest mailing him again tonight.

Steve

 

Bleh. Silly prosolo. After saturday morning, I was 5th out of 11. Then in the afternoon I just sucked horribly and ended up 9th. I couldn't stay for sunday, so I suspect I ended up DFL. Oh well. It was a ton of fun, though. Good to meet y'all!

 

Looks like you at least beat the BMW.

Final results: http://www.scca.org/Event/Result.asp?Ref2=308

 

Woot! DFL-1!

 

Dear SCCA. Please reimburse me $82 for mileage to and from the Packwood ProSolo on August 6th, 2006.

You see, I was interested in starting autocrossing again, so I thought going to see a ProSolo would be a good way to rekindle my interest. Packwood is a long way from Seattle, but I hear it's one of the best AutoX locations in the country, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I checked your website for the schedule, talked to some people that were going, got myself up early, and headed out.

Got there and saw the "SCCA members only" sign. Figured that meant that entrance was for the competitors, so I drove around for a minute looking for the other entrance. Never found it, so I went back to the members only entrance and found two guys and asked them where the spectator entrance was.

As you already know by now, there is no spectator entrance because YOU DON'T ALLOW SPECTATORS. Since when is the SCCA the Secret Car Club of America? Did the freemasons give you some pointers?

I hear you're looking for more participation in your events at Packwood. Ever considered the fact that most people like to actually see something before they try it? I can think of about 14,000 retail locations that have figured this out. You might want to have a discussion with a few of them. I'm sure they'll be able to explain it to you in detail.

I realize that this is America (it's even in your name!) and the event was held on private property, so you can do basically whatever you want. But to not put "NO SPECTATORS - PRIVATE EVENT" on the website is just totally unacceptable. Why do you even bother to describe the event, the schedule, and various other details on your website if the only people that are allowed to attend are the insiders?

Just send me the $82 and we'll try and forget about all of this, and I promise I'll leave you alone in the future. Good luck being around in 10 years.

 

I haven't been to that many national events, but I've never seen them restrict entry to just SCCA members. Usually, anyone can sign a waiver and get in to check out the racing, cars, and talk to the drivers.

It must've been a local/region deal. Only thing I can think of is maybe there were security concerns or something. Bum deal, sorry to hear that you weren't able to check it out.

 

The guy at the check-in said "if we allow spectators there will be so many people here that we won't be able to get anything done."

You'd think if that was true someone else would have shown up asking to watch in the 40 minutes that I was there.

 

I don't know if that was an SCCA thing, or a region thing, but it was unbelievably stupid. They should be so lucky as to have a spectator "problem," but I would be unbelievably angry if I drove to the event and they didn't let me in.

At the very least, if they're going to have a rule that severe, and unpredictable, someone should publicize it prominently. Very, very prominently, so that nobody drives three hours from Portland or Seattle (or anywhere else), only to be turned away at the gate (in your shoes, I would not have left until they called the cops; I do know of someone who drove up from Portland to watch, begged to be let in, and eventually was).

It would be easy to have a "guest list," so that members could have guests.

And the "rule" was unevenly enforced; they never asked me for a membership card or number, and I was only a spectator (I am an SCCA member). And nobody else who had signed the sheet before me had written down their SCCA number.

 

I'm pretty pissed. I'm writing anone I can find at the national SCCA, and I'm also going to write the Tire Rack and let them know that their sponsorship money is going to private events. Not much use in advertising only to people that already know about you, so maybe they will want to reconsider spending all of that advertising money on the SCCA ProSolo stuff.

I'm aware the rule was unevenly enforced- I watched people just drive in while I was there. I only got caught because I actually paid attention to the sign and actually asked where I could watch.

At least I now know that I haven't been missing anything with the local SCCA chapter. They're obvioulsy not people that I really want to associate with. Why is is that "clubs" always turn into such horrible, isolated systems?

 

Actually, the local autocrossers, including and especially the national class ones who live and compete locally, are uniformly friendly, helpful and pleasant. Please don't judge the people, or the local clubs, from one stupid rule, almost certainly imposed by the SCCA in complete ignorance of the fact that if everyone in Packwood showed up to watch, it wouldn't be a problem.

Do come to the local events. Autocrossing is the best, safest and cheapest to learn car control skills with your car, and there are lots of folks itching to help you learn.

 

^^^^ Agreed.

I find it odd that someone was turned away at the gate as a spectator. But I wasn't there, so I'm going to leave it at that.

Jason,
Are you trying to get BS thrown into SS? (.113?)

Mark listed Hoosiers... spill.

 

SCCA Solo doesn't have spectators. They have "non-driving participants," but I don't think that's the issue. It seems like the problem was the really poorly thought use of an "SCCA Members Only" sign and an idiot working gate. Like someone likes to say, it's the region.

Unless, of course, there was an odd site restriction added at the last minute.

 

I noticed the sign when I came in, in 13 years with SCCA I have never seen this before. As stated in one of the other post for insurance reasons SCCA solo events are not advertised and not listed as spectator events. I would have to guess this was a requirement of Hampton Mills, this is still an active Mill site and they do not want people wandering around. As the Mill gives all the money from the lot rental to the City as a donation to help less fortunate family's they are being very generous to begin with. I am sure that everyone from SCCA will meet every requirement they lay out no matter what it is. I can tell you the gate guys were not SCCA staff or members and did not check for membership. btw I appreciate the effort they made and wish other sites would put up signs like that, might keep out some of the undesirables and cut down on theft at some events.

TeamRX8 took one for the team and now we know the 285-30-18 is not the way to go on the RX8.

Joe was on old tires, 50 runs, on sat and put on fresh rubber for Sunday. I fully expected him to freight train me on Sunday but I manged to find a lot of time myself.
SS and AS were well off the pace, SS did have some dirty and red light times that were on pace. I am trying to talk Tom Kotzian into running his RX8 this weekend as Team wont be back.

 

Congrats on the win Jason.

Any more information regarding this? Were there clear problems with the tires? Thanks.

 

One very clear problem..... They are not as fast as a 245 V710, what else do you need to know.

 

Hmm, that was helpful...Spose if I ask a dumb question, I get a .....

 

I think we need to wait for TeamRX8's opinion. He wasn't THAT far off the pace... only a couple tenths off Joe. Maybe he didn't drive his best, or maybe Jason was just too quick?

 

... or Team RX8 is generally slower than those two anyways?

What I mean by this is Sipe has been just about a second off of Jason or Joe at a 2 day event, even in raw time without cones. Now, he's only .2 back. Also, he's been running his car on street tires for most of the year in STU.

Tough one to call.

--kC

 

Mark drove my car at Packwood. Plus drove us several hundred miles there Friday (after I hurt my leg on the trip), did all the car prep, nursed me throughout the weekend, dealt with quality issues on the Kodiaks, etc. etc. etc. Not the best weekend.

 

DKNV,

WTH happened to your leg. Sounds like an interesting story in itself. Hope you are doing better.

So, your car and your money on the tires? Were you and Mark happy with the way they (the tires) performed or not? Any issues with rubbing or wear?