WOS schedule opinions?

[Grandpa Jones]

Hi all,

What was the consensus of the meet starting on the weekend this year? I preferred the 2011
mid-week start, makes it convenient to fit travel and the meet into one week of vacation, at
least for me.

Cheers,

Dave

[Milwaukee Midget]

Dave, I wholeheartedly concur with your thoughts.

WOS is my preferred event.  I've attended twice, ran once, and travel 1600 miles one way to get there.

The problem for me personally is that I come off of the Labor Day weekend into a short work week, which already leads to some scheduling issues.  To be able to schedule most of my travel time on a weekend is far preferable to dicing up the end of a holiday-shortened week in a mad rush to get to Wendover on Friday for tech and Saturday driver's meetings, rookie O and competition.

I can make the trip in two days, but Kate will attest that I'm a bit stressed out after the drive, and not much fun to be in the car with, especially while pulling a trailer.  If I can stretch the drive over at least 2 1/2 days, leaving late on a Friday, I'm in a much better mindset to compete, and better company for my bride.

Now I know it is the USFRA - the UTAH Salt Flats Racing Association, but I also know I'm not the only one who travels quite a distance to be there, and have a need to be back to the real world in a reasonable time frame.

The other issue I think comes up is that the hotels tend to charge a bit more on weekends.

It's my hope that the USFRA will reconsider this scheduling for 2013.  I'd like to run that event next year, but I may be forced to chance the weather and do World Finals.  We got lucky this year - but it's always a coin toss in October.
 

[USFRAMONTE]

As one of the elected officers of the USFRA, I can tell you why the decision was made to shift the start day of the World of Speed.  With racing begining on Wednesday, most of the club members would arrive on the previous Saturday to begin the set up process and would have to stay through the following Saturday to complete the clean up.  That ment we were paying hotel rooms over two weekends for our workers.  Also with it being September, school is in session and the spectator count had been dropping over the last several years.  People were disappionted to show up on Saturday only to find that on the last day of racing many of the racers have already packed up and headed for home.  This new schedule allows the people coming to watch to bring their kids without having to take them out of school.
We spent many hours in discussion over this decision.  2011 was a tough year for us financially and we had to make this move to try to both reduce costs and increase revenue.  We realized it would impact some of our racers but really had no better options that we could see.

[Milwaukee Midget]

As one of the elected officers of the USFRA, I can tell you why the decision was made to shift the start day of the World of Speed.  With
We spent many hours in discussion over this decision.  2011 was a tough year for us financially and we had to make this move to try to both reduce costs and increase revenue.  We realized it would impact some of our racers but really had no better options that we could see.

Understood.

Did moving the dates achieve the goals you hoped it would?  Are the plans to set the dates for next year the same - to coincide with the Saturday-Tuesday after Labor Day?

You guys do a great event - I'd like to be able to make it out next year.

[hotrod]

I had to skip WOS this year because it did not finish close enough to the start of the Mike Cook Shootout.

I could have made both events if they were stacked one day apart as in the past but the down time was too much to fit in with my accrued leave time.
As a result I had to make a choice which one I would pass on.

I know that is not a high concern for USFRA as relatively few of your spectators/participants will choose to stay over but it is a consideration to keep in the back of your mind, if the option is open. A one day layover between the events works, but a longer split is tough to make work for most people with jobs.

In fairness Mike probably needed the extra time for course grooming as they were working on that right up until the start of the event.

Larry

[USFRAMONTE]

Did moving the dates achieve the goals you hoped it would?  Are the plans to set the dates for next year the same - to coincide with the Saturday-Tuesday after Labor Day?

Chris, in a word, yes.  This year our gate receipts were the best we have had.  The cost cutting measures we took (while not exactly popular with everyone) worked as well as we hoped. 
It is quite a job to try and fit around Speed Week, BUB, El Mirage and the Cook Shootout.  When the dates for Speed Week were moved up, it had a pretty far reaching ripple effect.
The dates for World of Speed 2013 are set for September 7th-10th. 

[USFRAMONTE]

Sorry, I wasn't sure how to highlight the text that I copy pasted from Chris' reply.

[Peter Jack]

If you click on the quote button at the upper right of every posting it moves the whole text into a reply box. You can then trim to use only the part that you want.

In this case I think everyone understands what you were saying and it's appreciated that someone from the organization posts a clear and concise reply with well reasoned answers.

Pete

[SteveM]

I'm planning to be there next year, regardless of the exact dates.  With that said, is the schedule 100% set for next year (September 7-11th)  I'm ready to put it on the calendar.

Steve.

[USFRAMONTE]

Thank you for that info Pete.

And to Steve, the dates are set and secured with the BLM.

[Stainless1]

Rooms still way cheaper than speedweek, and us old retired farts don't really know Saturday from Wednesday.... just need to know when inspection starts    See you there Monte

[Clay Pitkin]

Hey Monte,

In one quote you say The dates for World of Speed 2013 are set for September 7th-10th. 

but in another post it says from Sept 7-11th, so is it going to be cut by one day?

Rooms still way cheaper than speedweek, and us old retired farts don't really know Saturday from Wednesday.... just need to know when inspection starts    See you there Monte

In agreeance (if that's a word) to Stainless, the rooms are much cheaper than speed week.

As far as the dates go, I still have to take my kids out of school, no biggie, we just get homework on the go

Also, just my humble opinion, but I think more people would be willing to come out and spectate on the weekend, rather than in the middle of the week.

TIA
Clay

 

[Schruiber]

For us it means taking the kids out of school right at the start of the school year, yet we'd like to come again with our T-2011 car.  Funding and schedules prevented us bringing students this year.  I take it Tech Inspection would commence again Thursday or Friday?

[USFRAMONTE]

We have the salt reserved with the BLM all the way through Sept. 14th.  At this point the race dates are set as Sept. 7th - 10th.  If we were to get a higher number of entries we would look at possibly extending the race through the 11th.  Inspection will officially start Friday Sept. 6th.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

We are some of the folks that have looonnggg drives from home to the salt*, and therefore in past years we would drive once or twice - and fly once.  If two events -- maybe WoS and the Shootout - are within a few days, like they were this year, we didn't fly or drive home -- we went to visit the kids in Denver.  If the events were even closer we'd probably stay over.  If they're farther apart we would drive home - but. . .  This year there were about 10 days 'tween the Shootout and WF.  Six of those ten days we spent looking through the windshield of the pickup.  At least we had a good reason to make the trip home -- a family reunion in Chicagoland in the middle of the time slot between the two events.

There -- that's our position. With WoS moved "up" - that is, a bit earlier in the month - we have longer breaks between events, and that means we've got to figure out the options of staying over - and paying for room and board, or driving home - and paying for fuel and room and board.  Unfortunately for our budget -- there's no real way to save money when going to Bonneville and there's no way that we intend to skip the four events we enjoy attending.  Deal with it any way you want, Monte and USFRA - we'll do our best to be there with you.

*Talk about the long distances - - this year from the beginning of August, when we left home for the salt, and the middle of October, when we got home from WF - - we put about 16,000 miles on the pickup.  Diesel fuel averages about $4/gallon and the truck averages (using both with and without trailer) about 18 mpg.  You do the math - I'm afraid to see it.  But we'll be there, no matter what.