So what is the consensus on the start time?
5pm start is ok, but getting out after Midnight is a bit much.
I also saw a group leave early & I'm not sure if they participated in the mains or not.

4:30pm would be a little better

4pm would mean at most missing 1/2-3/4 a round, & if we could figure out who was running a majority of what class, the race schedule could be offset if it were only a few people.

I'd rather miss the 1st round than the Main...

Thoughts, comments?

I was the last one out at 1:30am and got home at 2:15am.

I think we are looking at this backwards -- we need to determine an acceptable finish time and work back from there.

We had 53+/- entries - Started at 5pm and Finished at 12:30am that is 7.5 hours.

8.5 Minutes per entry
1:45 Hours per round

I think we should be done racing by 10:30pm - so that means we need to start at 3pm.

The current start time was established because a few racers had to work and couldn't make it any earlier. In my opinion this is a case of whats good for a few is not good for the whole. I'm sorry but we can not continue to let the whole suffer for the few -- it is time for a reasonable finish time to be established.

My idea for a solution is start racing at 3pm on Saturdays and offer a week night race program every other week for guys or anyone else that cant make the Saturday program.

Example weekly schedule:

3pm Saturday Offroad
1pm Sunday Onroad
7pm Tuesday Onroad
5pm Wednesday Offroad Practice
3pm Saturday Offroad
1pm Sunday Onroad
5pm Wednesday Offroad Practice
7pm Thursday Offroad


Regardless, we can not continue to finish racing at 12:30pm.

I take some of this on me as a race director some on the PA system which we are having a terrible time with the drivers cannot hear the race director no matter who it is. I don't know how but we need to fix it
Also I have to hang some blame on drivers and Marshall's not being ready . This week if like the ok to run a 1:30 clock it expires too bad we start without you your not there to Marshall or your backup isn't there you lose a lap of your fastest time. We are better than this guys we need to fix this there is no way 53 racers should take that long

I apologize for taking this hard stance on this but this also reflects on me as a race director.

I am in favor of a 4pm start time or 5 min qualifiers
Spike

We could hook up the FM transmitter and use something like these at every table.
http://www.amazon.com/GPX-C222B-Cloc...ds=clock+radio

Lots of little speakers won't echo nearly as much as a few loud ones.


There's a table at the end of the drivers stand. Everyone should be setting there trucks there, not going back to the pits. (it also makes a good spot to check for chassis protector)

I haven't race off road in a few years, there are a lot of new people that I don't recognize. AKA, a lot of new marshals that don't know exactly what to do.
IMO the biggest 'marshal' issue I saw was them leaving before everyone was done... @spike, maybe waiting to announce that the qualifying was over until all cars had finished might help.

I'll bring one of my old EQ's on Wednesday day to try to kill some of the resonance but the room is stupid "live"...

Last year we started at 4:30pm and the between the races clock was set to 2:30 minutes instead of 3:00 like it is now. I think if we go back to this format and no waiting for anyone we'll be ok. And what Zac said, we need to start enforcing everyone to use the tables behind the stand to put their cars on right after their race instead of going back to the pits and being late to marshall.

I agree, something has to be done. maybe do it like trackside. you enter the driver stand from one side, exit from the other where the table is to set your truck down. maybe even have a "babysitter" at the exit for a few races to remind racers what to do. Past that, yep dock laps, start without them, whatever. The real problem here is racers not doing what has to be done. everyone know when they are up to race, be ready. everyone knows to marshal. its not the announcer or a radio problem.... we all need to do our part to get the program running smooth

For us we just leave early. Club racing should be structured to end at a reasonable time period. This has never really happened with MARCCAs winter off road program in the 4-5 years I have been a member. I often joke with Jason as we are coming home from races at other tracks 2-3 hours away that we would still have time to stop by MARCCA on the way home if he wanted to because they would probably not be finished yet. Yes big races and special events do many times run late, but normal club racing? Other tracks either limit entries (at big events), shorten the time or number of qualifiers or change the starting time to finish at a reasonable time. The race director needs to run a tight ship and the racers need to respect and work with him to make this happen. With numbers increasing for the program everyone will need to work together to get the most track time without a lot of wasted time and get out a decent hour. Just sort of how it is.

Keith.

I think this is a great idea. Would we be opening the track earlier than noon on saturday or still at noon?

Had just as many entries as last year, and I don't remember getting out much past 11 pm. Stick to 4:30 and run a 2:30 clock between. With 8-10 races in a round, there is no reason why you shouldn't be ready for your heat on time.