tbaffer

OK I'm the old guy - the rude one. I've gone to races all over this country and I've picked up a few bad habits. I actually expect guys to marshall without having to chase them down. I actually plan out how many races we can handle and what to do about the overflow - this year I spent an extra $900.00 to allow more than 10 to race at a time. That college charges 900.00 per day for events like this. The 10 other locations we tried to get would not even allow us to do it. I put an insurance rider on my policy to protect the racers at this event. I admit that I find it difficult to make changes in the computer 10 seconds brfore the start of a race because some racer decided that he would run a different frequency without telling me. I'm sorry that your car broke and I can't wait until you fix it or that you missed your race and decide to go in the next heat instead. We laid the white boards out on top of the white spaces to reduce the visibility problem but I agree that yellow would be better next time. I'm sorry that I actually asked guys not to pit on the straightaway and then had to TELL THEM not to pit on the straightaway - it's dangerous and not fair to the racers on the track to have a slow moving car dropped in front of them. I'm sorry that I told people how to use the pit lane and had to remind them. It was disapointing to see it rain on Saturday. I had to take everything down, take it home to dry it out and then set it up again the next day. I bought those impound crates which had tops on them to use one time for the radios. If sunlight is an issue with your screen - you should cover it. Remember this was a one time temporary setup. It took a ton of time for us to do this. My sons and I are exhausted 2 days after the event. We ran 60 races on Sunday, who does that? I thought that most people at this race were great. My fuse was much shorter than usual because of the continual bad behavior of racers who should know better. A transponder was missing for 4 races which meant I had to make changes before each race to allow the contestant to race. When I found the guilty party, he was downplaying his actions as "I forgot" - he didn't even marshall and he didn't even care about anyone but himself.
Running this type of race is stressful for all concerned and if I came off a little hard I apologize but it's necessary to be tough to get things done. I will keep your comments in mind in the future.

treky11

No need for apologies. I think many don't understand how much it takes to pull it off, especially with so many new racers!

GREAT JOB - Both times you held the event.

If someone got offended they ought to be able to realize that your busy and its hard to please everyone. Even if things get a bit heated sometimes, its in the spirit of keeping the program moving and its nothing personal.

THANKS AGAIN for taking on the event on such short notice. The local was great, as was the parts availability, the food, and pace of the program.

Everyone I talked to there said they had a great time and was glad they came.

Get some rest knowing you did a great job, see in Sept. in Edison!

fastharry™

iTrader: (4)

Yeah.....What my buddy just said goes double with me.....

Skydrol

any details on the car that was stolen? was it recovered?

ROCKHARD 10

ME TO !!! I THIRD THAT MOTION

tbaffer

The stolen car was recovered right away. I had all the sign up sheets and gave the police the guys name and address. They went to his house to recover the car. I don't know if charges were pressed.

owens

hey guys, i didn't make it up to the race, sound like you pulled it off pretty well on short notice. i raced the challange last year at sjccr in nj. that was my first large race i entered. i didn't really know what to expect, got there at 5:30 am, ran practice in the morning. my first heat was like at 3 or 4pm. there was like 300 entries in believe. that was ran about as well as it could be and it was still a long day or weekend. when you have that many racers you can't make them all happy. one thing on turn marshalling, last year ray set-up cones on the border of the track and numbered them. if your car number was #3 you went to the #3 cone and did your job. that seemed to work well.

SpeedDesignz

iTrader: (1)

HPI challenge was pretty damn good !!

All the crew from South Shore hobby and backbreaker racing had a great time. I would have liked to run my nitro main with the FDNY body ... but ohh well. Still fun non the less.

Great job guys

collins77

Anybody who thinks the NY Challenge was run less than good has no idea what a "bad" Challenge is all about.

Al's Hobby in Chicago owns the dubious distinction of holding probably the worst Challenge ever. I can't really blame Al's Hobby 100%. They were chosen to host the event with 1. Never having run a race before, and 2. Never having used the scoring system before.

So "yooz guys" (See--I picked up East Coast Lingo) did a really good job at a race of such short notice.

And thank you again for making the special trip for us Ohio guys to get our radios. We were a real pain in the neck, I know. The good news is Randy's Super was "Money" after practicing Saturday morning. Since he was able to get his radio, he practiced Saturday night and made a bunch of changes that resulted in a net-loss of "Money" handling. HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Thanks Again!

-Mike

Ray Murray

Oh Boy....

I have to address the coments of Tang. I know your a racer of ours, but I don't know you by this screen name.

I am shocked and sadened by your comments toward Mr Baffer. No matter how rough a race weekend may get, I am truly embarrased by your comment.

Having that many racers and weather issues on top of that is a race programs nightmare to try to get as much in as possible. Of course, I know firsthand how much effort it takes to run an event like this.

Yes, no program is perfect and we (SJCCR) had our own as well.

I have no problem with the constructive critisism, but the personal comment was just wrong.

I know you must be a good guy and was just blowing off steam in the heat of the moment, but you really have to think before you post.

Many new and impressionable racers are probably reading this and saying "Wow, those South Jersey guys are pretty lame" Is this the way we want them to think about SJCCR??

Like I said, I don't know you from your screen name and if you want to remain annonomous and forget about this, that's cool, but please don't post stuff like that and include SJCCR in your comments.

collins77

Ray,

I will personally lobby Kent to include you on the US team.

Can England handle you? That is the question.

Frank McKinney

What's an HPI Challenge without the Challenge?

Well you can't please 'em all but hopefully most everyone had a good time. Too bad the Milkman (me) couldn't be there this time for some good ol' East Coast hospitality

boom

iTrader: (10)

I had a blast, period!!!

Thanks to Bruckners and HPI for making it happen.

Please ,oh please keep doing Challenges!!!!!

OSherman

iTrader: (3)

a famous rapper once wrote 'I'm goin back to Cali'...

I hope the HPI Challenge does the same..

we miss them..

Proteus

Ray,

I understand your point, but I also understand Tang's point. I am on active duty serving as a Hospital Corpsman in a laboratory. When you have 50 + pts backed up and then you have a Major or a Colonel harping down your back on why they have to wait so long to get their blood drawn, do you think that I have the liberty to loose my cool? NO. Never!!!!!

The person Tang was talking about was rude and /or mad because he wasn't ready. In a huge event, and with the rain out on Saturday, he should have expected problems. I'm sure they have run big races in the past, so they should have expected probelems like that. They are a business. NEVER, and I mean never should they ever loose their cool.

Yes...I was surprised that the Baffers were even able to pull it of, so my hat is off to them. Maybe that "attitude" was normal......the New York attitude normal!!! LOL!!!!!!!! See you all next year


Jeff B