On Wed, 19 September 2001, Jeff Winchell said:
>On Wed, 19 September 2001, jac73@daimlerchrysler.com wrote:
>>you're looking at some VERY long days trying to do 4 runs for 1200
>>people (figure 300 cars per course per day). I don't think that's a
>>realistic call at our nice, high Nationals entry levels.
>How about running 6 days?
I take it you're talking running Monday to Saturday. Okay, let's ponder
this one. Yes, it drops the cars per course per day count to effectively
200 cars per day. 200 cars x 4 runs x 20 seconds interval = about 4.5
hours. Certainly reasonable on the face of it. Figure 6-7 hours with
downtime, reruns, etc. Three runs is even nicer in that respect.
However... It adds one banquet (Tues, Thurs, Sat vs. Wed, Fri), which is,
as they say in the brake shop commercials, "substantial additional cost"
for someone, be it SCCA, the MTAA, the TCVB, and/or the entrants. Said
banquet also eliminates the only "free to graze" night of the week, which
would be somewhat discouraging to the local restaurants who offered
discounts, coupons, etc. for competitors and also underwrite the Topeka
Convention & Visitors Bureau. Keeping the locals fat and happy
economically during our week there is probably the biggest reason we have
the support from Topeka that we do.
Running 6 days instead of 4 requires 4-6 additional Operating Stewards,
Chiefs of Course, Timing & Scoring Captains, 8-10 additional Safety
Stewards, 4-8 additional Announcers. It requires an additional day of site
usage as we'd need to stay on the Forbes site on the following Sunday for
course teardown and equipment & facilities removal (Port-a-johns,
dumpsters, tents, bleachers, barrels & signs), which is hard to get, even
in years that don't involve sudden increases in airport and military base
security levels. In past years, people leaving trailers on the site Friday
night were instructed that they had to be gone by 0800 Saturday morning.
And we lose the Monday arrive/get settled/get registered/get teched/walk
courses day. Remember that both courses would need to be available for
walking at the same time. With the South Course area in use by the ProSolo
finale on Saturday and Sunday, even if we eliminated one day of the Kansas
Region warm-up event on the North Course area, we wouldn't be able to open
it for walking until the South Course was also available anyway, so Kansas
Region might as well run the warmup both days on the weekend.
While it's *possible* to do this, I don't think it's ultimately advisable
as it's awfully hard on the organizers and chiefs -- you've essentially
added 50% to their existing workload. Remember that these folks are also
competitors, and they deserve a shot at driving at Nationals with their
heads in reasonable shape. *I* can't drive well when my head's elsewhere
or I'm fatigued out of my skull, and I firmly think I'm fairly normal in
that respect.
Jim Crider
autojim@att.net
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