Future of CMC: A wish list

[chris-CMC#35]

From my perspective as a NASA TX 'official' i'm going to add a few comments to Matt's points.
#8 - i remember a weekend when a bunch of Mustangs showed up at one of our events, invited by Todd Who, who by the way did not show up. I came to Thunder and asked for volunteers to ride with these guys. You would have thought I asked you to cut off one of your nuts. In the end, a few guys agreed to help - I clearly remember David Francis stepping up, which was greatly appreciated. Not a way to win friends.
#9 - I made a point of asking the Thunder group to come to one of the Saturday night BBQs that Will sponsors. 'not enough food, small portions, blah blah blah.' but did anyone go talk to Will and explain this? I don't know.

These are just two examples of what Matt calls "harsh truth."

And now, as as former member of the CMC Rules Committee, my two cents about tires. Leave the Toyo stickers on your cars, but run whatever tire you can all agree on. As Matt says, you won't get contingency $$, but if you hate the tire, why do you want the contingency bucks? Besides, the whole tire contingency essentially goes against the CMC vibe, which is low cost, evenly built cars, put it on the driver. During one of my years in RM, I was 1st or 2nd in every race. At the end of the season, I had collected something like 80% of all the Toyo bucks. this was back in the days of the RA-1, which means I only needed two sets of tires for the entire season. I gave away most of the bucks to other drivers. My point is that the Toyo contingency does almost nothing for the vast majority of CMC drivers, so why not dump it?

-chris

[ShadowBolt]

From my perspective as a NASA TX 'official' i'm going to add a few comments to Matt's points.
#8 - i remember a weekend when a bunch of Mustangs showed up at one of our events, invited by Todd Who, who by the way did not show up. I came to Thunder and asked for volunteers to ride with these guys. You would have thought I asked you to cut off one of your nuts. In the end, a few guys agreed to help - I clearly remember David Francis stepping up, which was greatly appreciated. Not a way to win friends.
#9 - I made a point of asking the Thunder group to come to one of the Saturday night BBQs that Will sponsors. 'not enough food, small portions, blah blah blah.' but did anyone go talk to Will and explain this? I don't know.


-chris

I don't remember the Mustang guys and unless I had car trouble i would have enjoyed riding with them.

90% of the time the food fed to the group is bad. The BBQ guy Will uses is just not good. The crap he fed to us at the COTA Nationals was the worst. No I have not told Will because he is eating it and must like it. This same guy has done many events and so far we have found it really bad. This is not because I live in the middle of the best BBQ in the world. Will lives here too.

JJ

[michaelmosty]

The Martin’s coordinated the best group activity ever last year at Hallett with the Slip and Flip and specifically coordinated it for all of Nasa TX, not just AI/CMC. Heck, Dave and Sean even picked up the slack a few years ago and did dinner for the entire Hallett event after other groups didn’t follow through with their food responsibilities. I certainly don’t think our group is segregating ourselves from the rest of the region.

I know the AI/CMC group does lots of things together but I see that as a positive of having such great people to spend time with.

I think we definitely have an opportunity to promote our series better with discussions and rides for potential future racers.

[Fbody383]

Aiight... somebody raise the truce flag and let's do some "state of the union" chatting at Hallett.

Some of us are already time and money limited, but I agree about trying to interact more with the other groups. That said, I know we'be been the hangout-together-dinner-drink group since I joined the fray. Not saying it couldn't be more inclusive, but I'll listen if somebody wants to discuss whether we moved, or the surrounding people moved.

[Supercharged111]

#7 Last season we had an event, last run of Saturday, where we racers took HPDE or whatever drivers for a ride in our race prepped cars at full race pace. There was side by side action, tires in the dirt, the whole 9. It was great, every single person got out of the passenger face with a huge smile, and the newer drivers' minds were especially blown not only by what a car feels like driven at full speed, but also how it felt to be in such proximity at that speed to other cars. That's how you set the hook. We were nose to tail, door to door with passengers. I even gave a Spec Z a push start, and because it wasn't a race and egos weren't on the line neither was the risk. We need to do it again this year, my last passenger was a fully licensed Spec Miata driver and the first was an HPDE1 student. The whole point was to set the hook. Last November, post season, we had a CMC test and tune day. We did lead follow, drove the rookies' cars, gave feedback, checked alignments, springs, swaybars, track width, etc. It can be tough to drag people out on a non-NASA weekend, I tried another in the Spring time and nobody's car was ready so as long as people end the season with a healthy car, I'd say do it either mid-season or post-season.

[centerville]

#7 Last season we had an event, last run of Saturday, where we racers took HPDE or whatever drivers for a ride in our race prepped cars at full race pace. There was side by side action, tires in the dirt, the whole 9. It was great, every single person got out of the passenger face with a huge smile, and the newer drivers' minds were especially blown not only by what a car feels like driven at full speed, but also how it felt to be in such proximity at that speed to other cars. That's how you set the hook. We were nose to tail, door to door with passengers. I even gave a Spec Z a push start, and because it wasn't a race and egos weren't on the line neither was the risk. We need to do it again this year, my last passenger was a fully licensed Spec Miata driver and the first was an HPDE1 student. The whole point was to set the hook. Last November, post season, we had a CMC test and tune day. We did lead follow, drove the rookies' cars, gave feedback, checked alignments, springs, swaybars, track width, etc. It can be tough to drag people out on a non-NASA weekend, I tried another in the Spring time and nobody's car was ready so as long as people end the season with a healthy car, I'd say do it either mid-season or post-season.

This is a great idea. Logistically not easy but a great idea.

[t500hps]

#7 Last season we had an event, last run of Saturday, where we racers took HPDE or whatever drivers for a ride in our race prepped cars at full race pace. There was side by side action, tires in the dirt, the whole 9. It was great, every single person got out of the passenger face with a huge smile, and the newer drivers' minds were especially blown not only by what a car feels like driven at full speed, but also how it felt to be in such proximity at that speed to other cars. That's how you set the hook. We were nose to tail, door to door with passengers. I even gave a Spec Z a push start, and because it wasn't a race and egos weren't on the line neither was the risk. We need to do it again this year, my last passenger was a fully licensed Spec Miata driver and the first was an HPDE1 student. The whole point was to set the hook. Last November, post season, we had a CMC test and tune day. We did lead follow, drove the rookies' cars, gave feedback, checked alignments, springs, swaybars, track width, etc. It can be tough to drag people out on a non-NASA weekend, I tried another in the Spring time and nobody's car was ready so as long as people end the season with a healthy car, I'd say do it either mid-season or post-season.

Just a small piece of info from the east coast that might be worth discussing with your directors.

The powers in our region will occasionally let some of the more veteran racers take a prospective driver/racer out for an HPDE session to "show them the ropes". It depends on how "full" the session is and it kinda sucks getting back into the car after your race is over but as you guys know, it really hooks the newbies. The good part is it doesn't cost us anything and we're already there! (it's not a separate event). Event before last I was one of 3 CMC racers that took passengers out during HPDE4. We discussed dedicated passing zones among us and really ran nose-tail giving the guys a hell of a ride. In 2.5 years we've attracted 6 new racers and have another guy who hopes to get his license this fall.

[drecords]

Here's a wild idea...what if we picked an event and asked will to include it in the event advertisement where we charged some $$ value for a ride in a CMC car that would get donated to a not for profit charity? Probably would be fun for wives/interested spectators/crewmembers to see a track at speed and do some good as well as get folks interested in the series.

[chris-CMC#35]

That's okay David - I've gone back to my corner... ;-)

[Fbody383]

That's okay David - I've gone back to my corner...

Dude, I'll say it in front of everybody - I think you've been a fantastic voice in this deal.

I was just trying to say it is always much more productive when we all sit around face to face and talk this stuff out.