Many, many kudos to Steven Volpp, his family and excellent crew. They are
working their rear ends off to bring a first class autocross series to
all of us who love to drive.
The first ever event at Talledega Gran Prix Raceway was a sample of the
class and professionalism that this series will have. Nancy and I put 31
runs on our Corvette in a super fun event during the weekend. We
definitely got our money's worth as that works out to $5.49 per run.
Compare that to $9.17 per run for a divisional or tour event.
Were there problems and glitches? Sure, as any new start-up organization
would face. I'm intimately aware of the challenges of putting on a
well-run autocross event as one of the past co-chairs of the Atlanta SCCA
autocross program. Three years in that position showed me that there was
always room for improvement. Therefore, tweaks and changes were always on
our agenda.
There have been some discussion about how the PRO index affected the
results of this first event. The PRO team decided to put all 39 drivers
into one indexed class. Some have mentioned that autocrosses on road
courses screw up the results when indexed. Whereas this ended up being
the case for the first event it was really more of a course design issue
rather than the fact it was staged on a road course. The Steve Hoelscher
course design was a blast to drive and really challenged all of our
sphincter muscles as we charged through many slaloms at the upper end of
typical autocross speeds. The problem was that this course turned out to
be a pure "speed maintenance" design as cars had to keep turning and
turning with relatively little change in speed through the whole course.
This meant that low horsepower, small narrow cars that were well driven
rose to the top of the charts. And speaking of that, Robert Carpenter put
on a hell of a show driving his little T class CRX to near FTD raw times.
He then backed that all up by jumping into Brian Flanagan's IS Honda
Civic SI on Sunday and turning an even faster time on street tires!!
I have been to many autocrosses at TGPR and have seen courses laid out
there that would have fit the indexes perfectly. All that needs to be
done is to throw in several maneuvers that greatly slow cars down and
allows them to accelerate out to give the upper class cars a chance to be
competitive on the index. Of course, PRO doesn't plan to run their events
on the index, anyway. They just need to have more entries so everyone is
running in class. And that is where all of us come in.
PRO has done an admirable job refraining from stepping on SCCA toes. They
don't see themselves as competition to SCCA and don't want to get into an
adversarial relationship with the long standing club and its membership.
Some autocrossers within SCCA are coming out strongly against the PRO
series. I can appreciate member's loyalty to an organization that has
brought our sport to its current state. But remember, PRO doesn't have
regions and has no plans to develop them, as far as I know. PRO is a
business, not a club, that wants to put on 30 first class national level
events across the country. As a confirmed autocross addict that appeals
to ME!! Consider this. By boycotting the PRO events you will assure that
there will be a very limited number of national level events to drivers.
You will continue to see limits on competitors at those event as event
caps keep getting hit. The PRO series gives us all more choices.
The PRO business plan is to grow the sport among people who don't know
anything about autocrossing, right now. That's all well and good, but
seasoned autocrossers can do a bunch to help assure the success of this
series by attending events. Does the current format favor your car or
class. Perhaps not. You could choose to stay away because of a perceived
insult to your class or car. However, we found out that the PRO staff is
determined to build their series and want input from us, their customers.
We (all competitors were invited) had a great meeting with the whole PRO
staff on Saturday night to discuss ways to improve the series. They were
very attentive to our input. One of the benefits of this business is that
they can adapt and adjust to the needs of their market very quickly,
since they have full control of their product.
Some are probably balking at the $85 entry fee, comparing that to $55 for
a SCCA divisional or tour event. But let's take a look at what you get.
1. Unlimited practice on Friday (worked by the PRO staff)
2. A minimum of 6 competition runs during the event
3. If you get into the bonus rounds you could get up to 6 more
All this in addition to some of the coolest technology for tracking your
times and results. Bring your laptops with wireless network cards or
Gameboys to the next event. Besides, entry fees are some of the smallest
expenses in a good autocrosser's budget.
PRO's policy of allowing only 5 events to be counted towards the year end
championship means that most of us won't have to travel too far to get
our fill of national competition. Just take a look at the entry list at
Talledega to get a sample of the depth of talent in that small 39 driver
entry. The event was small but VERY competitive.
For example, I can balance out my other 4 events by entering the 2
Gainesville, Florida events in August a rumored event at Nashville and
one in Kentucky which are all within 6 hours tow from my house.
I know Steven and crew won't blow their own horn on these lists but I
don't have that restraint. I'm a very happy customer and I believe that
PRO is a very good thing for all autocrossers. Let's get out and support
this new series.
Ben Thatcher
http://ApexBenefits.biz
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