Thought this may put a few rumors to bed..
Dean Watts
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From: "Kathryn Hayworth" <medsrvc1@concentric.net>
To: <WATTSIT2ME@aol.com>
Cc: <gm@laguna-seca.com>
Subject: your letter to GM at Laguna
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 09:30:21 -0700
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Dear Mr. Watts,
Please allow me to reintroduce myself to you. My name is Kathy Hayworth, and
I am currently the President of the Board of Directors of SCRAMP. In
addition, I know I have served you many, many times in my capacity as
registrar for General Racing's events at Laguna Seca, Sears Point and
Coronado.
While I have refrained from commenting on the many emails and letters we have
received from Steve's participants, yours struck a particular chord and I feel
called to give you a response. I would also suggest that you discuss my
comments directly with Steve if you want verification of our position on this
matter. I started working with SCRAMP at the third annual Historics and have
developed a close relationship with both Steve and Debbie, so the innuendos
written in the Autoweek article and the comments that have been made about us
are exceptionally personal to me.
I have spoken with Mark Vaughn regarding his comments in the initial article
and their validity. While I cannot go into specifics, please know that a
retraction will be made by Mr. Vaughn and he has now been provided with
sufficient corrected information to clarify quite a few of the points he was
trying to make.
As you may or may not be aware, for all of the past 28 years General Racing,
Ltd. has been the promoter for the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. As
such, they have been solely responsible for sponsorship, entry fees,
participant gifts, vendors, etc. SCRAMP has merely provided a world class
racing facility and the infrastructure to operate a major racing event. Your
fees as an entrant to this event have not changed in almost twenty years, and
I know for a fact that if you were to enter an HMSA, VARA, HSR or other
sanctioning body's event, the fees would be considerably higher. I am not
quite certain what circumstances led you to feel you have had "POOR"
hospitality from us to this point (and I would be happy to hear what you have
to say on this matter) or while you feel we are "supporting the various
vendors", all of whom pay a large fee to General Racing to sell their wares to
the public at our facility (vendors fees for this event are not paid to "the
track").
You may not be aware of the fact that SCRAMP is (and has been for 44 years) a
non-profit corporation. What monies we do not use for track improvements and
operating expenses, the balance is turned over to local charities to support
our community. This has amounted to over $10 million dollars in the past 44
years. We all work as volunteers, save for the paid track staff. And, we
don't even own the property! We are allowed to "lease" the track from the
Monterey County Parks Department and have operated under a use permit from the
County of Monterey since 1974. All of the buildings and improvements that we
have commissioned belong to the County of Monterey, and we are now working
closely with County officials on a $12 million dollar improvement plan to the
Park facility that includes a complete sewage treatment plant, garages,
hospitality suites and more restroom facilities in the initial phase. We are
scheduled to break ground on this project in mid-November and be completed by
October 2002. The second and third phases are scheduled to include more
spectator amenities and improvements, but those will be in addition to the
first $12 million dollar phase. I know of no other volunteer organization in
the world who maintain a world class racing facility in the manner we operate,
do you? Would you be willing to put in the thousands and thousands of hours
that we do to provide this opportunity to you, the participants? And many of
us do not even give a fig about racing! It is done only to support the
community in which we live and raise our families.
SCRAMP and General Racing Ltd. have worked under a contractual agreement that
has not changed in the past 15 years. When we started contract negotiations
with Steve last year, we felt this was a good opportunity to review and make
changes appropriate for doing business in the 21st century and to better
utilize the strengths that both of our organizations share. We have been
trying to preserve the confidentiality of these negotiations out of respect
for both General Racing and SCRAMP. We have the utmost respect for what Steve
Earle has brought, not only our table, but to the world of vintage racing.
The past 15 years or so have been very successful to both General Racing and
SCRAMP, but in the early years we worked as a mutual support system until the
idea Steve was presenting really caught on--this has been very much a "team"
effort and Steve will be the first person to tell you (which he has always
graciously done) that he could not have accomplished what he did without our
help, too. SCRAMP has a fiduciary responsibility to fulfill our mission of
bringing world class racing to the Central Coast of California, while
subsidizing our charities and promoting increased economic benefits to local
businesses. BUT NONE OF THIS WILL BE DONE AT THE EXPENSE OF OUR PROMOTERS OR
THEIR PARTICIPANTS! Any increases to our contracts (and not only with General
Racing) are due to the rising costs of doing business. We are funding the
Improvement Plan with the $7.5 million dollars received from Mazda for the
naming rights to our track (with the blessing of the County of Monterey) and
loans we will take out to meet the projected $12 million expenses. Debt
service to these loans will be funded by a fundraising project, gifts,
donations, and the revenue from the hospitality suites. We will not, and I
paraphrase from your letter, be sticking our hands in your pockets...unless
you choose to be a part of our improvement plan and be grateful for the work
we do in operating a race track where (in spite of driving vintage race cars
that are inherently not as safe as those of today's standards) you can enjoy
the sport you participate in.
So, Mr. Watts, please verify this information with Steve. Before you malign
an organization such as our's and believe everything you see in print,
"someone better take their collective heads out of the sand". I welcome your
suggestions and/or response and would appreciate you forwarding this on to
your fellow competitors. Changes to everything in our lives does happen
(especially in light of the events of last week) and we may not always want to
accept those changes, but they will occur.
Respectfully,
Kathryn R. Hayworth
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