thanks to the organisers

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harky
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thanks to the organisers

Post by harky »

thanks to every one who did volenteer work for the event
my first time as a competitor. It is not easy to run such an event and there are many things to organise. my wife thanks whoever kept the female toilets in the pits clean. (not a job everyone wants to do)
i will go faster next year and will do some volenteer work for half a day and hope others consider doing this as well
harky
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so far 120mph for$2000---imagine how fast I can go for $20,000
540ci
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Post by 540ci »

Yes a great big thank you to all the hard working people who organise this event. You do a fabulous job and the event was a huge success because of your efforts. This was my first time on the salt, I was crewing for Don Hudson no. 417, and I have come home absolutely addicted and will be back for more! Can't wait for next year!!
teamleader
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Post by teamleader »

My first time to Lake G as well. I found it a little frustrating waiting for the lake to dry but once racing started everything seemed to go like clockwork. Overall, once I was able to slow to the pace, I enjoyed every aspect of the experience - except queing to use the toilets and showers but I survived and I will be back.
I would like not just to let the organisers and volunteers know that their efforts are appreciated but I also think the Newtons and their staff need a huge thank you.
The hospitality, friendliness and general help in the face of their peace and tranquility being shattered needs commendation and I for one thank them from the bottom of my heart.
David Leikvold
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yeah

Post by David Leikvold »

I can only echo the comments of all those above. Thanks to all those who did anything to make the week a success, whether it was a little or a lot. My brother and I finally made the Haj after trying for too long. I must admit it took me a while to get used to the pace of the event, I'm used to race meetings that are full on. Now that we've done it once and made all the novice mistakes we will do it so much better next time and of course we'll be back with Trevor's streamliner so we'll be busy too. Thanks in particular to Doctor Goggles, Deb and Reverend Headgash for being so welcoming. That applies to everyone else too, the camaraderie was almost palpable. Makes a nice change from some classes of racing.

While I'm here, I'd like to make a few suggestions. Forgive me if they've already been suggested many times. If the wireless timing system being trialled was a goer can the club buy two of them so we can have a long course and a short course? Or two long courses? And could we also scrape another short course for all the licensing passes which need only be timed with a radar as the speed isn't that critical. If we bought another timer we could get 5 or 6 runs a day. That'd be really handy for those guys who want to share a car and still get some value for their entry fee. I'm told that Bonneville now runs four separate courses from one starting area and can cope with more than 500 entries. With just the one course at Lake G competitors would be very lucky to get two runs a day. Might also be useful if one or two courses started to go soft, just move to another and keep racing. I was helping push the JS belly tank along pre stage on Wednesday and the line hardly moved for hours. That's nobody's fault, it's just something that needs to be improved.

I don't want to harp on about the ramp again but I reckon some more of that conveyor belting and maybe some big sheets of plywood could be handy and affordable.

Scrutineering (thanks Bob) was very time consuming too. Would it be possible to have scrutineering days about a month before Speedweek in the capital cities in each state so that those who could make it could be checked before the event and thus shorten the lines at the lake? And if you do your scrutineering at the lake please make sure your car is legal and safe, one or two cars I noticed were, to put it bluntly, dangerous junk. Or just plain junk. It was very encouraging to see that a lot of the newer cars (i.e. ones I haven't seen in previous magazine reports) were built to very high standards. My pick of that bunch was the silver D/GL. And for cheap thrills I reckon the Noah's Ark Vet NASCAR Oldsmobile was the stand out champion.

Thanks again to everyone, I'm looking forward to 2010 already.
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!
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jrbcastle
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Re: yeah

Post by jrbcastle »

David Leikvold wrote:I can only echo the comments of all those above. Thanks to all those who did anything to make the week a success, whether it was a little or a lot. My brother and I finally made the Haj after trying for too long. I must admit it took me a while to get used to the pace of the event, I'm used to race meetings that are full on. Now that we've done it once and made all the novice mistakes we will do it so much better next time and of course we'll be back with Trevor's streamliner so we'll be busy too. Thanks in particular to Doctor Goggles, Deb and Reverend Headgash for being so welcoming. That applies to everyone else too, the camaraderie was almost palpable. Makes a nice change from some classes of racing.

While I'm here, I'd like to make a few suggestions. Forgive me if they've already been suggested many times. If the wireless timing system being trialled was a goer can the club buy two of them so we can have a long course and a short course? Or two long courses? And could we also scrape another short course for all the licensing passes which need only be timed with a radar as the speed isn't that critical. If we bought another timer we could get 5 or 6 runs a day. That'd be really handy for those guys who want to share a car and still get some value for their entry fee. I'm told that Bonneville now runs four separate courses from one starting area and can cope with more than 500 entries. With just the one course at Lake G competitors would be very lucky to get two runs a day. Might also be useful if one or two courses started to go soft, just move to another and keep racing. I was helping push the JS belly tank along pre stage on Wednesday and the line hardly moved for hours. That's nobody's fault, it's just something that needs to be improved.

I don't want to harp on about the ramp again but I reckon some more of that conveyor belting and maybe some big sheets of plywood could be handy and affordable.

Scrutineering (thanks Bob) was very time consuming too. Would it be possible to have scrutineering days about a month before Speedweek in the capital cities in each state so that those who could make it could be checked before the event and thus shorten the lines at the lake? And if you do your scrutineering at the lake please make sure your car is legal and safe, one or two cars I noticed were, to put it bluntly, dangerous junk. Or just plain junk. It was very encouraging to see that a lot of the newer cars (i.e. ones I haven't seen in previous magazine reports) were built to very high standards. My pick of that bunch was the silver D/GL. And for cheap thrills I reckon the Noah's Ark Vet NASCAR Oldsmobile was the stand out champion.

Thanks again to everyone, I'm looking forward to 2010 already.
The answer is easy David volunteer's the clud needs people to put there hand's up to help ,you would need twice as many volunteer's as we have .thursday pm they called for people to help on the start line and no response i went down and then a helpful lady put her hand up and a young bloke did too i dought you would find another person like Cled who all weeks stands on the start line and doe's his job for free.,from sun to thursday am i'd been cleaning and emtiying the tolilets replacing paper in them etc.i i entered and only had time for 1 run for the week ! As for scrutineering pre race again more volunteers would be needed as for Bob i think he give's more than enough time now let alone more before a race meeting he has bussiness to run and a car to prepare ! One other thing with running 2 or more tracks would be cost the of equipment the entry fee's i think would have to rise to cover it.Then you would have people winging i think the clubs need"s to find it's feet with what it has and get it right with one track first, yeah if the bloody weather was kind we we could start on monday which would help too and the wind stopped we could run 10 - 11 hours a day too.The first year i run there were 40 - 50 entries and by thursday my mate and i had done 28 pass's and packed up we had had enough . Regards John
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Cookey
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Post by Cookey »

For Dave's and others interested, the wireless timing guy who we all believed was going to bring some of his gear to the lake to demonstrate for us simply turned up with his assistant and camera (and nothing else).
They looked at how our current system worked, took lots of photos of our transmitters, receivers and timer units, wrote down what part numbers they could find on them and said that they would look at coming up with a proposal to supply and run the meet timing for a fee :roll: :roll: :roll:

As they are heavily involved in timing for the V8's and other CAMS events, Peter Noy asked them what would happen if our meet schedule was to clash with their mainstream timing business, they just said that "we would have to see when the time came" :wink: :wink:
These people have a very viable business in sport timing and one shudders as to the potential cost to the DLRA for them to supply equipment and personnel for a week at the lake! The cost which naturally enough must be borne by the racers.

As far as the suggestions for extra courses such as run at Bonneville etc is concerned, what must be realized is that the track preparation and setting up of the infrastructure before any vehicles run down the course always gets plenty of support from teams and club members.
It's the packing up of the equipment and the cleaning up of the lake and camping areas that gets left up to a small core of solid members and the club committee whilst everyone else heads for home with a great feeling about Speedweek :!: :!:
We agreed to extend the cut off time for runs this year provided that we had sufficient volunteers to help pack up the track and clean up but once the track markers and cones were picked up the amount of people to do the work diminished very rapidly.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first chance as race timer and believe that we got through as many runs as was practical given the weather and other circumstances.
Areas where we can improve the efficiency of Speedweek are constantly being received and considered but like our friends at Bonneville, El Mirage and Maxton etc everything is based on volunteers, something that we never seem to have enough of.

My bitching, is now out of the way and I am off to collect the Frankland quick change rear end that my good lady Kath (without her knowledge) has bought me for my (our) streamliner project. :P :P :P :P
Cheers,
Tony Cooke
DLRA # 363
David Leikvold
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thoughts about timing systems

Post by David Leikvold »

Thanks for your well considered responses, John and Cookey. That's what this forum should be all about, sharing knowledge and ideas to improve our club. I am disappointed to read the wireless timing gear wasn't actually being tested, that sets us back another year. And if they can't promise to turn up every year to time us we will be no better off. There must be other timing options that aren't so ongoingly volunteer essential or expensive.

As I remember it, circuit racers use Dorian timers on their cars that trigger a unique signal when they cross a wire permanently buried in the track surface. This system can simultaneously time as many cars as you can throw at it. I don't know any more about it than that. So my thought is this, might we be able to run a Dorian (or similar) system on multiple courses (maybe just two shorts and one long) using a common starting wire laid in a tiny slot cut in the salt, maybe an inch deep or so with other wires laid where the timers currently are, which I'm guessing are at each mile? In circuit applications it would be easier than on salt because the track is permanent but for us would still require installing every year. You might think that offers no real advantage but read on.

The main advantage would be that we could have more than one car running on each course at the same time. Let me explain. I'm not talking about drag racing, I'm talking about minimum separations. My brother reminded me that busy civilian airports have 30 second separation of aircraft movements. There is no practical reason, as far as I can see, why we couldn't do the same when the timing system can accurately monitor multiple vehicles simultaneously. If, for example, we had a short course mostly used for bikes (which are all pretty much as fast as each other, especially when compared with the huge variations in speed our cars have) they could easily run with a 30 second separation, which would probably be about a mile, give or take a bit. That separation would make it virtually impossible for anyone to catch the competitor in front of them. Barring mishap, that would get 120 bikes down the course EVERY hour.

With cars, if they were divided into long and short courses based on their speed potential, it might be better to have a separation based solely on distance. As a car passed the 1 mile timer the next car could leave. This would probably still mean a separation of much less than a minute and, with two courses primarily but NOT exclusively for cars, roughly 240 cars an hour getting a run. We don't have anything like that number but what that capacity would mean is that there would be virtually no waiting time in pre-stage or at the start line. And best of all, it would make us easily capable of managing the inevitable expansion of numbers of competitors in the years to come. Good, reliable cars would have dizzy drivers! Think about it, 4 cars at once on the short course (number 4 starts as number 1 reaches the 3 mile) and 6 on the long course at any given moment, all still roughly a mile apart. That's 14 vehicles at any given moment on three safely separated courses. That would mean a new set of procedures for the braking areas but it would be workable and not outrageously expensive. And what a spectacle! And if a car or bike spun or crashed in front of you you'd still have plenty of time and room to stop and an aborted run wouldn't be a big deal because you'd be back racing again in less than an hour. Five days of 360 runs an hour would be more than enough for anyone, even cars with several drivers. People would be volunteering to clean toilets just to get a break from the racing!

Comments gentlemen?
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!
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geocacher
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Post by geocacher »

Hi David,

I came in 06 and helped out in the end as a Paramedic. Since then I've joined the club and did most of my week this year as an Assistant Starter, wrist band nazi & spent some time in the merchandise van with Carol & Rod when I wasn't hanging around in the Silverton pit.

I got a lot more out of the event as a result of being involved as a helper, and even more out of being able to assist and be involved with the Silverton boys to whom I'm extremely grateful.

Being involved in the event gave me a look at the machinations behind it and while some racers know a bit about how the event is run cos they've been coming for a long time many don't, particularly those who haven't been before this year. I'm sure there are many who due to lack of time off work or distances travelled arrive late Sunday or Monday, race, and go home while racing is still fading on Thursday or Friday.

I like being involved and I don't see my effort during the week as anything at all significant compared to the countless thousands of hours put into vehicle preparation by the members running the vehicles that come to the meet - to them I'm also grateful as they are the heart of the event. No cars or bikes, no event. Not a lot different to - no volunteers, no event.

I'm not looking to blow my own trumpet, just give some background to where I'm coming from when I make the observations or suggestions that follow.

The hours put in behind the scenes are countless and are performed by very few for the benefit of the greater membership. Even the few hours put in checking wristbands I would estimate collected something like $1500-$2000 which would have been lost revenue had we not taken the time to do it. But all of the few hours doing the small jobs add up to a lot of hours during the week, not to mention the time put in during the year by the executive and the time put in setting up and packing up.

There are so many issues with your post that I can see and I'll try and address them one by one as I see them. A lot of them though relate to the number of people involved and the increase required in staffing to facilitate what you suggest but there are other issues also.

Firstly - running two courses.
Great idea but we struggled to get assistant starters this year for one course. Cled does a sensational job as a starter and was on his feet for the whole event. I don't see anyone else putting their hand up at the moment to do his job for a whole event for the one course we run, let alone two. Don Noble was an asset this year as he, like I wasn't running a vehicle.

Ideally helpers in this area come from non racing personell as they aren't being pulled emotionally (for want of a better word) between the pit and the start line.

The start line requires as a minimum a chief starter and two assistants. Three assistants is better but it functioned with two.

Each course would require timers to man two sets of gear, and for the short course observers to assess the license passes.

The setup time would increase, as would pack up time at the end of the event unless more people get involved.

That's at least another 10 volunteers required to run another track not including rescue staff. I can't see based on previous experience that we have that sort of commitment from volunteers.

Further to that you would need an additional rescue crew to run an additional short track.

Rescue brings me to your second idea of time/distance separation of vehicles and simultaneous track use.
Short answer is that it can't be done. One car or bike on the track at a time and no second vehicle started until the safety zone is clear. Full stop. No alternative.

The reasons why are various but all relate to safety for participants and rescuers. Airports function the way they do because there are dozens of people involved in controlling access to runways and it is my understanding that separations are based on a second plane either being able to abort a landing if a previous one has become complicated or as a last resort pull up short or power on and take off again.

You can't get away from the fact that in this game cars break or spin and if they break they can catch fire or dump oil & parts, bikes break or worst case riders do :( and when it happens they (bikes/cars) are often on the track or are always within the safety zone for quite some time.

You can't eliminate the risk to those racers who are stuck there when another car is already on the track heading toward them. And worse than that you can't put rescuers and paramedics in harms way trying to get access to them to either put out fires, get them out of cars or treat them.

It's bad enough doing a prang here at work on normal roads with the dickheads who don't slow down to rubberneck passing you at near highway speed. You can't safely assist someone in trouble on the race track if the track still has cars/bikes on it, and there is no reliable way of communicating the track closure to someone who is mid run in a safe timeframe.

You would also heighten the risk which has been demonstrated to be present if a part comes off a car, or a track marker is knocked out, to the vehicles following it down the track. The smallest part - and this year we had parachutes, shackles, track markers, nails from track markers, bolts and mars bar wrappers to name a few - any of which end up in the tyre of the next car/bike and we have a big problem.

Work out the time separation between your six cars 1 mile apart on the long track as you propose even if they are doing 120-150mph. It's less than 30 seconds. Even if only two cars were on the track at the same time it can't be done safely for all of the above reasons.

That and the fact that multiple vehicles aren't all going to be capable of doing the same speeds or rates of acceleration even if you were running batches of license passes.

Forget about trying to group cars in similar classes. We couldn't even get starting cars to group in a numbered order :roll:

I had a long chat to Colin Clare as we tried to work out how to speed up the rate of runs, which was better than it would have been had we been running more long course cars than 125/150mph license passes which move through fairly quickly. Had we run more fast cars on a longer track the run rate would have dropped of remarkably.

I don't see how we could have put a lot more cars down the track. A few more at times maybe but not a lot more.

One thing that would speed things up is to take prestaging to the next level. What we did this year worked well but there is room for much improvement.

I propose a wireless network at the lake for the week. Details - car/bike #, driver/rider #, lic pass details & class - all collected at prestage. Each batch of 10 cars sent to the start line already knowing their unique run number and given a laminated card with it on it - in chinagraph pencil or marker. (Weighted if necessary so that the objection based on them being blown around as litter is overcome and recycled in batches of 50 or so so that we don't have to generate an endless number of them.)

This would reduce the volunteer load at the start line slightly as the start line would run easily with 2 assistant starters rather than really ideally needing 3. The assistant starter controlling the grid can simply direct people to lanes in order after taking their card and the cards get cleaned off and sent back to prestage.

At the same time as that information was passed to the starter it would be simultaneously available at the timers van, the guys at Sthn Rescue and the Club Animal bus.

The guys at Southern Rescue might seem an odd choice to some but they keep close track of who's running and maintain a heightened sense of response readiness for some cars and will actually chase the fast cars. This is to improve the response time in the event of an incident that they would otherwise be two miles from and minutes away from if it occurs, so they need to know who is on what run number also. (The rescue chase car is another reason why simultaneous separated runs won't work too.)

Each run would have an individual number which reflects the card number given when details are collected. If a run is aborted it doesn't matter whether the driver pulls out of the queue in prestage or in the start line, you just move to the next run number.

It would also solve the problems we had this year of cars/bikes turning up with no idea of where they were in the queue and the ranting from some over losing their place behind so & so. Most drivers were more than happy to shuffle the order to expedite proceedings but some unfortuanately took it out on volunteers when their position was compromised by their and their competitors memory of where they were supposed to be when they moved to the start line. Thank to those who were patient and easy to get along with. 8) 8)

This system would eliminate the time taken to read off and repeatedly give details from the start line to the timer. This may not sound like much but I estimate a saving of 30-40 seconds per run. This equates to about 10% more runs down the track - or maybe 50 more runs in a week long meet. That's a significant increase - the equivalent of an extra half day of racing.

The timer could enter times into the database directly and they would simultaneously be available to Club Animal.

Potentially even competitors/teams in the pit could have access to screens of times and run orders via the same network. This has a lot of potential.

The network gear wouldn't be expensive. A lot of us already have laptops and you'd only need 5 all up. I reckon we could come up with those without having too much difficulty. And you could run the whole thing off an Excel spreadsheet or probably better off a database and I'm sure that someone in the club has the expertise to set it up and work out what sort of wireless access point and aerial is needed to facilitate it.

The other issue is communications. Whether it's liked or not, the starter needs noise a cancelling mike on his radio and preferably a headset. Too much time was lost in repeating details lost in wind or car noise. Use of proper phonetics would go some way to solving this but better comms would speed things up - especially if all the starter had to tell the timer was that the car for run number YYY (from the live database) was coming down the track.

And no one in the management side of things should be using half watt handhelds. 2-5 watts at a minimum to ensure half of conversations isn't lost. The amount of time only half of a conversation made it to the starter was significant.

Wireless timing gear isn't the panacea some may be hoping. Setup time would be reduced and there wouldn't be any more birds nests like 2006 but once the current gear is set up it runs well for what it does. Stiffer brackets and mortein surface spray (for the ant) as it turns out would solve the two problems we had this year. The big saving would be in setup and pack up time, but the transmitters needed to punch the signal reliably over a 6 mile course would need more punch than the ones that may be only transmitting a couple of mile tops on a circuit.

I'm sure there are other suggestions that will come to light from this.

Can I have the next ten forum posters from pit pre-stage please.... :wink:

Dave
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Post by OLDtimer »

Dave, everything you say is correct. The logistics of running 2 courses mean it cant happen. Not enough volunteers to run it, another safety crew, communications (we can only run one repeater channel), a second timing crew & equipment (license runs must be observed by chief timer), additional surveyors costs, the list goes on. The idea of running simultaneous passes is not only extremely foolish, but could be fatal. Before the next vehicle can be released from the start line, the track must be deemed clear & safe. All wireless timing will save is around 3 hours set up & pack up, neither of which delay racing time, as they are done well before the meet starts. Wireless timing was tried at Bonneville but they are still using wires now. I would love to see it work here, but we need to prove its accuracy & reliability 200% before we adopt it. (apart from the huge expense of purchasing the system). See ya next year, Pete. DLRA #6.
Rob
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Post by Rob »

G'day Dave,

I hear you RE the number system, there was more than one starting order dispute within earshot on any given day.

What about a requirement to include either a gloss white painted rectangle or (even blackboard paint) area so the run number could simply be written onto the vehicle? Perhaps also specify it to be in a similar location for each vehicle to simplify start line procedure.

Low event cost & no cards to find/lose/sort/store or recover.

......................................................................................................

Whilst we're on general event stuff, is there a reason why the toilets aren't drained/pumped in situ? Towing each individual toilet off to be drained and back onto the salt was obviously time consuming and added to the traffic at the ramp. Care & precautions would obviously need to be taken to prevent spillage but that's do-able.

That'd be my 2c

Cheers,
Rob
I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.
DON NOBLE
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Post by DON NOBLE »

Thanks for all the inputs you blokes . Am sure some will be implimented . But as has been mentioned before , its all up to the number of volu :D :D nteers that come forward .
Re the start line , Cled ( at 74 I think)our chief starter stands on the line the whole event , and never seems to falter . To get Cled away from the line you would have to drag him by the ankles and he would be clawing at the salt . I did manage to don ( no pun intended ) the chief starter jacket for about an hour , but only after bribing a very famished Cled with a pie and a hamburger .
Cled said he only want s to do the start one more year , and I have allready put my hand up to be his replacement , but its up to the A.G.M. to decide who becomes elected to that position . Our new chief timer implimented some changes , and I have been advocating for changes to the system to make it more efficient . Some of those changes are filtering thru and I believe they have helped . Proof of this is that on the Wednesday of the event we had 137 runs , a record number for one day , even tho there were a few delays beyond our control . That day I spent 12 hrs on the line and loved it , now try and drag me away from the start line :D
And to our chief timer Cookey and your assistants, you did a great job .

:D AHEM but just had to fly the flag for the Red Nissan Wagon ( sometimes known as the shopping trolley ) which after creating 2 x class records is retired . :D

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Last edited by DON NOBLE on Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.
NOW LIVE IN NEW ZEALAND
RED NISSAN WAGON 1986 # 281
2002 F/PRO 125.4 MPH RECORD
2003 F/PRO 140.2 MPH RECORD
2005 F/GC 137.9 MPH RECORD
2006 F/GC 141.1 MPH RECORD
1/4 mile ( drags ) @ Willowbank 14.15 @ 97.61 mph August 2006
harky
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Post by harky »

good to see i stated some debate
for me the best thing some of us can do is make a commitment to volenteer some time
next year i will allow time to stay and help cleanup.
cheers
harky
harky
DLRA #643
so far 120mph for$2000---imagine how fast I can go for $20,000
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jrbcastle
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Post by jrbcastle »

DON NOBLE wrote:Thanks for all the inputs you blokes . Am sure some will be implimented . But as has been mentioned before , its all up to the nuber of volenteers that come forward .
Re the start line , Cled ( at 74 I think)our chief starter stands on the line the whole event , and never seems to falter . To get Cled away from the line you would have to drag him by the ankles and he would be clawing at the salt . I did manage to don ( no pun intended ) the chief starter jacket for about an hour , but only after bribing a very famished Cled with a pie and a hamburger .
Cled said he only want s to do the start one more year , and I have allready put my hand up to be his replacement , but its up to the A.G.M. to decide who becomes elected to that position . Our new chief timer implimented some changes , and I have been advocating for changes to the system to make it more efficient . Some of those changes are filtering thru and I believe they have helped . Proof of this is that on the Wednesday of the event we had 137 runs , a record number for one day , even tho there were a few delays beyond our control . That day I spent 12 hrs on the line and loved it , now try and drag me away from the start line :D
And to our chief timer Cookey and your assistants, you did a great job .
Gee Don don't no about a kiwi been our starter in another 12 month's you won't be able to say 66 and Bob will be really pissed if you stuff up his number !! :shock: :shock: and Cled's only 74 your not to far behind him and you will want to retire too. :D :D
DON NOBLE
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Post by DON NOBLE »

[/quote] Gee Don don't no about a kiwi been our starter in another 12 month's you won't be able to say 66 and Bob will be really pissed if you stuff up his number !! :shock: :shock: and Cled's only 74 your not to far behind him and you will want to retire too. :D :D[/quote]

.
.
:D Um allways be an Aussie at heart , re accent , too late to teach me a new accent . Cleds old enough to be me dad ( well if he started very young ) .
Retirement , yep allready done that workwise . Oh by the way isnt NZ another Aussie state ( ducking for cover ).
NOW LIVE IN NEW ZEALAND
RED NISSAN WAGON 1986 # 281
2002 F/PRO 125.4 MPH RECORD
2003 F/PRO 140.2 MPH RECORD
2005 F/GC 137.9 MPH RECORD
2006 F/GC 141.1 MPH RECORD
1/4 mile ( drags ) @ Willowbank 14.15 @ 97.61 mph August 2006
David Leikvold
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help!

Post by David Leikvold »

Geo Dave, thanks for your response, it answered a lot of questions. And everyone else too. Here are a few more thoughts: I now understand that the lack of volunteers is holding the club back. I don't think the shortage was widely known. My brother and I just came to spectate, so we had nothing much to do. We were completely unaware of the problem, maybe because we didn't bring a CB radio (because we weren't ever going to drive onto the salt). And at the briefing in the pits on Tuesday nobody asked for more volunteers, maybe they assumed because they'd all been working hard for days that we all knew. If we had known we would definitely have stayed all week and helped every day instead of going home on Thursday because we'd had enough. There were hundreds of people there, on the lake and at the canteen who surely would have helped if they'd been aware of the problem.

When I was a P-plate kart racer it was compulsory to do a day as a flaggie to get your open licence. So here's my latest fabulous idea (I've got a million of 'em, folks!); everyone at the lake has to do a day's volunteering. This could be achieved by having a volunteer(!) waiting on the road just before the drivers camp and collecting a sizable chunk of cash from everyone who comes along ($50?) in return for a specifically coloured wristband that allows them into the camp and onto the salt. That same "toll booth" could also charge for camping fees in advance with the same wrist band marked for when they had paid to. Wristbands could be checked at the ramp or by wandering "wristband nazis" in the pits. The $50 would be refundable only after they had done a day's volunteering and had been signed off as having done so. If they didn't do the work the club keeps the $50. The same wrist band could cover the $20 pit entry fee as well. Next we need a Coordinator of Volunteers to do exactly that, assigning people the tasks they chose wherever possible and ensuring a roster was organised and maintained. To be fair to drivers they might be allowed to do two half days instead of one whole day.

I also think a noticeboard at the canteen might be useful. A public address system in the pits and the canteen (a loud speaker linked to the CB channel) would be ideal for getting messages and announcements to everyone.

And by the way John, if you only got one run in the whole week because you were volunteering so much you should be refunded your entry fee.
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!
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