Mike Dana

iTrader: (6)

Greetings everyone,

For those of you that don’t know me or have just started racing in the NCT in the last year or 2, I’m Mike Dana and I’ll be your fearless NCT Director for the foreseeable future.

I started this series in 2003 with Les Ulrich and Dave Gullickson at the helm for 2005 and 2006 editions of the NCT respectively. Thanks goes out to both of them for their efforts.

This will be the thread on RCTech to post questions, comments and generally talk trash to your fellow competitors with regard to the 2007 Northwest Championship Tour. I will do my best to answer questions you may have. Some I may or may not be able to answer immediately, but I will eventually.

The 2007 edition of the host meeting will be taking place this Saturday in Ellensburg. Upon the conclusion of the meeting, we will have the rules and schedule in place and posted here for you.

Some news to report;

We are working hard to try and have the 2007 NCT finished up in August. This will hopefully free up some time in the late summer/fall to allow some other 2-day events to flourish, like the Great Snake Shootout in Clarkston which Walla Walla will be replacing.

Speaking of which, I have spoken with Carlton Epps of the RCPro Series in great length in the last couple of weeks. We held discussions on combining the RC Pro and NCT in select events for ’07. Unfortunately, I have to report we were not successful on coming to an agreement that would allow that to happen. Thus, RC Pro’s intention will be to hold 3 races in the NW next year as they create a Northwest Division. Fortunately, Carton and I have a GREAT working relationship and he has agreed to not schedule any RC Pro events against the NCT, nor will he even begin organizing the NW division until after the conclusion of the NCT meeting this weekend.

There are some VERY exciting things on the bubble for next year already! Some I can mention and some others I cannot at this time…

I’m working on some hopefully lucrative marketing partnerships to help boost the non-existent NCT awards fund.

Also I’ve got some possibly ground breaking event coverage in the works that would be the first of its kind in the RC world. Unfortunately, I can’t go into specifics here, at this moment, but rest assured, I started this series in part to bring a progressive marketing step to RC racing and I’m steadfastly committed to that going forward.

Also, I have some plans as far as local marketing to help the hosts penetrate their local media market share as well.

As you can see one of my goals for 2007: MARKETING BLITZ!!!! exposure, exposure, exposure.......

More news:

I’m SO HAPPY to report that Tory Azure will be the Website and Art Director for the NCT. This is great as Tory always comes up with GREAT logos and his web work speaks for itself. I am truly lucky to have Tory’s continued support. THANK YOU TORY!!! More to come on the web assault in the near future…..

So… as you can see, even though there are no NCT races to attend for months, this is the busy time of the year to get things ready for the upcoming season.


So, keep the thread clean and …. “lets gid it on”……

RCBLUE

iTrader: (7)

Congrats Mike on taking on the series once again. Isn't the meeting set a little quick without ample notice? I sure hope to attend with my local rep though.

Mike Dana

iTrader: (6)

nope...

Tim will be there.

stavman

Welcome aboard Mike. Looking forward to a great 2007 race season

Chris

doyschultz

Its good to see you back Mike!

I'm sure you'll do an outstanding job, as you've done in the past!

maxxman101

iTrader: (9)

glad to hear that you are taking over the nct again.

dgullickson

iTrader: (45)

Good job on starting this early!!! No need to cram it in a Month like I had to do


Please PM me that list of info you still need, I havent heard back on what all you needed.

SNIDE

iTrader: (39)

I have an idea that is not going to be popular but I know a lot of people are thinking it so it needs to be said.......

Maybe it is time to seperate the electrics from the gas.

Ok.....let the flaming begin......It just seems like there are a lot of electric classes but there really is never more than a A main and a half of a B main in any given class. Maybe we could offer just a few electric classes so the turn out in each class would have an A, B, and C main.

Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy who races both electric and gas. I have to say.....I feel like I have accomplished more qualifying in the C main in 1/8 scale buggy than making the A main in 4mod.

Just food for thought!

Hal Hudson

iTrader: (7)

Something like this Snide?

It might be a good idea to run a Electric Buggy class, Electric Truck class and Electric 4 Mod. You can run stock or mod just do it in one class. That should help the program run a little faster.

Ryan L. McCrery

Or maybe just run gas only, since electric has its own series already. Not trying to step on anyones toes, just making a suggetion. I know that I would not be allowed to run any gas classes in the electric only series, maybe it is time to think about having a gas only series, again just a thought, not trying to offend anyone.

Ryan L. McCrery

SNIDE

iTrader: (39)

Pretty close Hal. I was thinking.......keeping the classes that have more than 10 entries. Like Stock Truck, Mod Buggy, and 4 mod. Less classes to choose from would more than likely mean more entries in each class. Knowing you are in the A main before you even sign up just doesn't seem very competitive to me, but maybe I am missing something.

By creating more space at the top of the program we save time and could possible slip Gas truck in. This was done a couple times this year and seemed to work well.

I know there are racers that only race electric and I think that is great and they should have their part in the NCT. But the reality is, the series is where it is entry wise due to the gas classes. They are the most competitive. I feel the NCT was strong this year and will be stronger in 2007. One of the only flaws is the length of the programs. It needs to be fixed and I am sure Mike Dana will get it in check.

I just want to get the think tank rolling.

Mike Dana

iTrader: (6)

Dave,

I have everything is in place, thanks.

Mike Dana

iTrader: (6)

on the topic of dropping Electric classes from the NCT....

Thanks for the idea. I appreciate input and encourage all ideas to be shared. However, it should not be forgotten that not every idea will be incorporated.

With that being said, it is really important to remember that the NCT does not run the races! Although, some moves were taken last year that would suggest that was beginning to happen, it isn't happening going forward. From day one of the NCT in 2003, that was never the intention.

So just to be CRYSTAL-CRYSTAL CLEAR; the NCT does not run the races.

What the NCT Director does is organize the 5 or 6 races into a series of events that offers a point championship at years end. That's the most simplistic way to put it. Now, there's obvioulsy lots that goes into accomplishing that goal, like rules and classes offered and marketing of the races and the format of the events, etc.

One of the... actually no that's incorrect; THE biggest thing that the NCT does is get all the hosts together, in one place and require them to agree (as a collective group) on a format, classes and schedule to be offered. This is obvioulsy crucial to a series being fair from one event to another (and ironically is one of the reasons I couldn't come to terms with RC Pro, but that's another topic...)

So, as you can see reducing the electric classes down to the 3 open electric classes listed above, would be something that ALL of the hosts would need to agree upon. I would obvioulsy have some say in the matter as well, but really the decision lies with the hosts of the events.

Straight-up, my opinion is that the electric classes that are currently offered are important to the success of the NCT and racing in the NW. You might be saying right now: "What the hell???"

Let me try to explain; I find it is easy for most who race the NCT (especially the gas crowd that either haven't lately or haven't ever touched an electric car) to not realize that, except for SOUTHERN California, we have the largest group of electric racers in the country, right here in the NW. I'm NOT saying that the NCT has the largest group, I said the Northwest has the largest group. TRCR in Tacoma is the hub for electric off-road in the NW. There are others that obviously have turn-outs as well; A-Main, Four Sesaons, and Brians' ECT series are the other biggies for electric.

Now, nationwide gas racing blows electric out of the water in a popularity contest... hands down. I doubt anyone would argue that point. So, low, or I should say "lower" electric entries are to be expected. It wouldn't be wise to neccessarily fool yourself into believing that it's any easier to win an electric class than a gas class in the NCT though. I would agree that it is easier to make the A in an electric class, but NOT easier to win. The competition is there; agreed the depth of the competiton isn't but again.... it's not as a whole across the country either.

We have no track on the NCT schedule where a stock motor could copmpete with a modified motor (except possibly Peel-it but I highly doubt it). So, the classes listed, even though they might be called Open, would really be just an elimination of the Stock classes. I think the battles (BATTLE!!!) raged in Stock Truck last year (not to mention all of the years prior as well) were some of the best in all of the NCT.

So my opinion is that the easy road would be to drop the electrics or drop the stock class. Problem is (for those that know me would agree) I generally do NOT take the easy road unless it's the last and only option. One of my goals with the NCT is/was to promote off-road RC racing across the board in the NW. The way to do that is to BUILD up class entries not eliminate the classes.

Give me this year, with the rules I have proposed to the hosts, to see if we can't grow electric classes rather than kick'm to the curb.

With respect to the timetables of NCT events; I think it's fair to say that Walla Walla showed everyone how it's to be done this last summer. I would imagine (and I'm speaking for all of the hosts here which may be a bit pompus but I don't think it's out of line) I would imagine they all have thought of ways to incorporate a piece of the Walla Walla program into their event to make it better for YOU!!!

I personally know for a fact that Wenatchee (since I live here and talk with the RCCCW guys weekly at least) will be making concerted efforts to shore up the long days experienced this year.

Being the RD for this years Spring Shoot-out I have suggested (which those guys already thought of on there own) to:

eliminate the extra lap before your time started in qualifying,
eliminate the 1 min delay in qualifying (for flame-outs, repairs, etc.),
have a zero-tolerence policy with respect to being at your turnmarshal spot within a minute of your race being over

Those are all things that were basically done at Walla Walla. And, should help to tighten up the program. The BIGGEST thing is getting to your tunrmarshal spot extra promptly! That would make a big difference at EVERY race.... and that's up to everyone to do.


Mike

saw

I have never ran a race and probably never will, but one of the biggest issues for the races running long is that they never start at the stated time. If that issue can be addressed and we stick to two minutes in between heats all races can be done earlier. There should be no calling people to turn marshall, if they are not there they lose there best qualifer, trust me if it actually happened to someone i think waiting for turnmarshals would be a thing of the past. At one of the nct races this year the mains started at least two hours late because we were waiting for the person running the race to show up, that is hard to accept when you have a ten hour drive home. That is the kind of thing that absouletely has to stop if we want these races to be over at a reasonable time.

had a great time this year and can't wait for next year
jim mann

The Warlock

iTrader: (5)

One thing I noticed this year was the quality of the RD or lack of it. Some took a long time, but called the races well. Others got it done quickly, but with no commentary or calling leaders, etc. Walla Walla and Canby, on the other hand had very good RD's. I think there should be some level of experience required for the race directors this year. Glad to see you back Mike. My $.02.