Jean,
You forgot the monthly FREE Paddock Talk online tech sessions,
where the best talent in the sport gather and share their
collective wisdom on car setup and stuff.
While we're all sharing, let me point out a few observations
of my own. Jean has been running in my class (GS) recently,
and I've spent lots of time around her in grid at the last
few NationalSeries events. At least once an hour, somebody comes
up to Jean and gives her an emotional "thank you" for something
that they picked up at the school. She also gets genuinely
excited when one of her students wins, or does better than
expected. In my opinion, this is all that she gets from the
school. Anybody can do the math on the back of a napkin and
see that there's no fortune to be made even at $200/day tuition.
As for giving back to the autocross community, I was fortunate
enough to be at last year's Peru nationals warm-up weekend.
My napkin math says that Jean lost her shirt on that weekend,
[a sight that many would like to see!] :-) yet she still
provided a *free* lunch on both days to all participants.
I also was sitting at her table at the Wednesday awards
banquet in Topeka. While everyone else was partying down,
Jean was going over the Tues/Wed results and writing contingency
checks for the winners. Yes, sitting at the dinner table!
(Some party animal, huh???) She could easily have mailed them
out a few weeks later and enjoyed the banquet, but she wanted to
personally hand the checks out to the winners at the trophy
ceremony and congratulate them face to face.
On a personal level, I've received so much from Jean that I
couldn't possibly list it. I have zero natural autocross
talent, and my learning curve has been steep. At each
school or warm-up, I have learned something important though.
I credit last August's Peru warm-up with my local success
in October/November. (Artie says Timmy and Tyson are scared!) :-)
At the Meridian warm-up last month, I figured out something about
my car and steering input that will pay dividends at our local
event site with a pin cone on every course. When I was having a
bad day at Fort Myers last month, Jean came over to me and offered
words of encouragement when I wanted to crawl under a rock and
hide.
I am sure that I'm not alone in saying that the help that
I've received from Jean and her instructors has been priceless.
They're always available at events to answer questions
or give advice. How anybody could slam them for trying to
help others is beyond me.
Anyway, I hope that this insight into the person behind the
"Jkinser77" AOL screen name has been informative. Maybe
some day, we'll know something about the person hiding behind
the "REPilford" screen name and anonymously throwing rocks
at the person that has given many of us the most help of
anyone in the sport. Who knows? Maybe some day, you'll
be able to stand on the podium and thank Jean too.....
-Arthur ("Thanks, Admiral Kinser!!!" edition.)
Jkinser77@aol.com wrote:
>
>In a message dated 3/8/01 5:20:10 AM Pacific Standard Time,
>Jkinser77@aol.com
>writes:
>
><< Just so you know, I was asked to do this against my better judgment for
>this
> list and this is exactly why. Maybe you should go into Grassroots
>Motorsports
> Magazine and take a look where most of the profits go...Maybe you should
>take
> a look on SCCA forums site and see where profits go, maybe you should
>attend
> a National warm up for hardly nothing of an entry for a couple days and
>see
> where profits go, and maybe if you would win Nationals you would receive
> something from the school and see where profits go.
>
> I do not appreciate a letter like this when you have no idea what you are
> talking about. >>
>
>and while I am at this I hope if you ever attend a Southeast Divisional
>series event, you don't take advantage of lunch as that is what I bought
>for
>the event, and also at a pro Solo, since I helped sponsor the lunch at Ft.
>Myers this year. Check our ads also in North American Pylon besides
>Grassroots since you seem to think I am so full of money and not spending
>it
>in the right areas. And Please, contact GRM and see what half page ads on
>color ads up to be. Hey, and ask some Hennessey and Lingenfelter clients
>about the driving school and help they just recieved from sponsorship from
>this school for the Texas Triathalon. And Corvette people out there, take
>advantage of the schools Evolution are putting on for sponsoring the C5
>Corvette bash down at the Corvette Museum in April. Make sure to come by
>to
>the people from the school who are giving of their time and taking off work
>to go help.
>
>I could go on and on, but why should I when you didn';t know what you were
>talking about when you opened your mouth about something you think you are
>being cute about. Make sure to do your homework next time before opening
>up
>on this subject.
>
>I am not a mean person but this one, for what this school and the people
>who
>work for it do to make these schools work to help people just really did it
>for me.
>
>
>
>Jean Kinser Dana
>Owner/Cofounder Evolution Performance Driving School
>www.autocross.com/evolution
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