Bill,
I appreciate this well thought out response to the FOT at large. Obviously,
it is all a dollars and cents issue, as if somebody in the loop is losing
lots of money, there will be no more tracks to race at or sanctioning
bodies to organize events.
It just seems to me the "for profit" sanctioning bodies are getting fat and
have lost all interest in us, the small bore, grassroots community.
Luckily, the "not for profit" sanctioning bodies are still catering to us.
My hat is off to FOT alumni Bob Wismer and Bill Dentinger of VSCDA, and
Mike Jackson of VDCA. I'll bet I am missing others who are involved in a
sanctioning body, I apologize for my omission to each and every one of you.
I will continue to happily pay my dues and run events put on by VSCDA,
VDCA, VARAC and the newly formed, northeast US based Vintage Racer Group,
headed up by Mark Palmer, the MGVR leader.
As far as your comment about track owners being squeezed for cash, I
certainly sympathetic. I have many thoughts about this that are well beyond
the scope of the FOT mail list, and I look forward to boring you with them
at Mid-Ohio next week!
At 10:55 AM 10/03/2004 -0400, BillDentin@aol.com wrote:
>Keep in mind that fixing such problems involve dollars. In the case of set
>up, the sanctioning body needs to buy the set up day from the track. Week
>days
>are not as expensive as week end days, but at major tracks they still cost
>thousands of dollars. Sometimes running a test day will pay (or help), or
>else
>it just gets added to the entry fee. So that can be fixed, but it will
>involve more dollars from somewhere.
>I am also sympathetic to the tracks. For a myriad of reasons, they are
>having trouble making ends meet. VSCDA is a ROAD AMERICA stockholder, and we
>receive financial statements and attend annual meetings. They have been
>losing
>significant money for several years. Their problems are due to current
>capitol
>improvement depreciation and their CHAMP car event, rather then amateur
>racing.
> I know exactly what VSCDA pays Midwestern club tracks like BLACKHAWK and
>GRATTAN. I'm a business man, and I can guess at their potential annual
>income
>and expenses. Quite frankly, I don't know how they make ends meet.
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