40 minute races for 2007?

I am just interested in my own best interests. So at least I am honest :wink:

I get board running around the track alone with no one to challenge me. Maybe Brady will up his game next season.

On a serious note, Group 8 does get the most drivers "New" to NASA than the other groups. It seems to be more common to have one offs that end up in group 8. That will be even more so the case as PT takes off next year. PT umbrellas over GPC under the gies of ST1 ST2 and SU. Kinda leaves the door open until I can get GPC ackowledged as a national class. :roll:

Adam,

Short memory? I've been accused of much worse so that's not a bigge. But body-slamming us on a flip flop? Where's the flip-flop here? G5 and NO G8 - simple. Fordward progress, why all of a sudden is Clifton saying "OCTOBER" is the model for next year's schedule?? Was OCTOBER something wonderful between G5 and G8? I missed it if it was.

First I've heard of this caveat thing, guess I needed to read the fine print. But Clifton spent MUCH TIME IN THE DRIVERS MEETINGS IN OCTOBER reminding EVERYONE that there were championships at stake. G8 drivers don't know us, don't know who's in CMC vs AI vs AIX much less who the CMC points leaders may or may not be so how COULD IT HAVE GONE ANY DIFFERENTLY? How could we expect a G8 driver to lift or backoff when they have no chance of knowing who the points leaders are in a respective class? That didn't work last event and won't work next year.

Keeping G5 and G8 seperate will work.

"Keeping G5 and G8 seperate will work."
___________

MIke did you not read my post? This will not be any fun for me and that is what we are talking about here! :lol:

You gotta keep'em separated.

Seriously Keep the car count up and I am am sure I'll have plenty to do with the new "Catch All" group 8. :P

Kmix,

I've got a spare CMC Mustang here in the garage. Cheap cheap (hey, it's a Mustang.) Quit playing SUO or whatever they call your car these days and get over into GROUP 5 and RACE WITH US instead of driving around burning fuel and rubber.

Who knows, might be fun to struggle for a change lol. You might enjoy it!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TEXAST1

MIke did you not read my post? This will not be any fun for me and that is what we are talking about here! :lol:

---

If there is one thing I've learned over the years of participating in DEs ...

Vette, Porsche and BMW drivers all think alike ... :P

Pick a cat ... any cat

http://mcnelis.biz/images/cat/kittypoker1.jpg

Look, guys...
I'm going to be candid here and not hold anything back.
I hope I don't offend anyone, but, Here's my "Top Ten" style of responding to 7 pages of posts here....

1) Mike had a valid question as to whether we would be running any 40 min. races next year. :idea:

2) The real question at hand we (Clifton/Shannon/Todd) intend to have worked out prior to January is...how many races per weekend should AI/CMC anticipate? :!: (TBD)

3) The # of races per weekend really should be our first priority, and the length of them should be secondary. 30 min races are a good compromise (between 20 & 40 min), but I don't think we need to decide length of races before R1...we do need to decide # of races before R1. :wink: FWIW...I'm not offended in any way that folks have decided to contact NASA directly. NASA TX has an "open door policy" and value customer service as a high priority. I too have been in touch with all the NASA folks working thru all of these things in parallel, so there have been no surprises or backfires. :?

4) It's amusing to watch us debate a restructured NASA weekend schedule...3 months before the next event. Can we debate how Smith, Pedersen/Marvel and Burch should prepare their cars next season now too??? :roll:

5) I'm no where near retiring...and just gettin' started!!! :evil:

6) I'm dumb & stubborn and stay with things for the long haul...in good times and bad...even moreso if I love 'em and believe in them!!! :oops:

7) I'm a NASA groupie from way-back, hung with the band when they were playing in garages...and will stick with NASA & NASA National as we march forward. 8)

8 ) Our Texas AI/CMC goals & objectives from Day 1 have not changed. We've had a very successful formula so far and I'm not about to change anything major. We've obtained our 20-car field goals and our objective will always remain to have our own AI/CMC race group. We'll revisit that when the day arrives that we approach 40 AI/X cars and 40 CMC cars...and then our objective will be to separate AI and CMC fields and run them separately back to back on the schedule. :!:

9) 2006 was a year of compromise. We all need to put our General Interest hats on and recognize that until Kevin & Jaybird (and the other racing groups) get their act together and get a full field of ~20 GPC/ETC cars together, the possibility will exist that they run with us. This will get looked at prior to each event on a case by case basis and hopefully K-Mix will spend less time on the AI/CMC forum and more time growing and nurturing his own series so we can take his training wheels off and let him ride solo with his own run group of 20+ cars. <<smack>> We lub ya' Kevin...but I had to say it! (Kidding aside...He's in transition and probably had the highest GPC/ETC car count to date at the last MSRH event...we should applaud his efforts...they can't be that far away from their own run group!!! Right??? Right??? :?: :?: :?:

10) The 2007 Texas AI/CMC Leadership Team is in place and ready to go. All discussions with those directors/coordinators and NASA, regionally and nationally, have taken place and all systems are a go. We'll certainly miss the efforts and contributions of Richard and Adam next year, but the people coming in to replace them will have more roles, more responsibilities, more authoritity and, as such, more effectiveness in these new positions. (And they'll be able to cover my ass when I'm away for any extended periods of time!!!) In the next week I'll announce more details of my team and how we're going to manage Texas AI/CMC for 2007. For those of you that were around 3 years ago, it'll look very familiar. We're gettin' back to basics and anticipate an awesome 2007 Texas AI/CMC Championship Season!!! 8) 8) 8)

IMO...2007 will be a year of "make it or break it" for Texas AI/CMC. There isn't a single person I've talked to that wants to "break it"....and therefore...we're going to MAKE IT!!! :!:

Stay tuned and Happy Motoring!!! :D

-=- Todd Covini

PS- Those new CMC rules should be out any day now...I think things got fairly settled today!!!

Gee Todd, some real eye-openers in there:

Q1: Is the number of races per weekend going from 4 down to 3?

Q2: Is the length of those races (whatever number) going to change?

Q3: Will G5 and G8 be combined now on a regular basis instead of as an exception?

We aren't debating a request to "restructure" the race weekend, we are discussing the pros/cons of the restructuring NASA TX did to our races in 2006 whey they combined G5 and G8. At first it was because "only two cars left in G8 on Sunday", then it was because "we're an hour behind because the corner workers got here late". Then it became "because there aren't many G8 cars registered". Understandable situations and I thought we all supported the decisions at the time.

But nobody came out and said "G5 and G8 are going to be combined in 2007 until G8 hits XXX number of cars per event". At least nobody said it until Clifton stated that the October schedule was the model for next year's scheduling.

Waiting till R1 of 2007 to decide some of this isn't fair to those of us who plunk down our cash in faith IMHO. Some of this can be ironed out ahead of time and we've got a little over 2 months.

A lot depends on if we are two steps forward or back. If we are in the dark ages once again, I might offer my services during the race weekends to take video from different parts of the track to capture the true essence of AI/CMC.

Otherwise, I will probably be on-track if we are forward a step or two.

I know of some good things for next year. Stay tuned!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

We aren't debating a request to "restructure" the race weekend, we are discussing the pros/cons of the restructuring NASA TX did to our races in 2006 whey they combined G5 and G8. At first it was because "only two cars left in G8 on Sunday", then it was because "we're an hour behind because the corner workers got here late". Then it became "because there aren't many G8 cars registered". Understandable situations and I thought we all supported the decisions at the time.

But nobody came out and said "G5 and G8 are going to be combined in 2007 until G8 hits XXX number of cars per event". At least nobody said it until Clifton stated that the October schedule was the model for next year's scheduling.

---

NASA Texas appreciates the cooperation of G5 during 2006 in regards to scheduling.

Yes, the October event will be the model. However, there was a preliminary schedule that was never released to the racers that had G5 & G8 separate. This is actually the starting template I use to make the schedule for each event.

Group 1 & 2 will remain separate.
Group 3 will be a guest group, when needed.
Group 4 gone.
Group 5 still full of goobers. <-- I keed, I keed!!
Group 6 & 7 most likely combined unless SM grows again.
Group 8 is growing - GPC, ASC, Panoz, GTS, HC should all have more cars in 2007.
Group 9 - still only 1 Time Trial session, but hopefully will grow.
Group 10 gone.

Be aware that the DE cars don't always have transponders so they will not show up on mylaps. Early entries are greatly appreciated and if you choose not to attend NASA can always transfer that fee to the next event.

Just a little info for the discussions. I think that this is a good thread and G5 will be the model Group at each event next year. No pressure, eh? :)