That would have been the Glen Barrett kerfuffle. This time it was Heather, and she called. She had the courtesy to call me and present the execution notice by phone. Glen was sh*t-canned by an email (or so went the story, which I tend to find credible). Speaking of Glen Barrett, if you could get in the Wayback machine and go back and listen to Glen when he was the chief timer and also gave out the speeds and such (as does Debbie Dannenfelzer now) - - - if you listen to Glen you'll hear where I got lots of the stuff I do and say on the air. I knew that I'd have a danged difficult time replicating him - - - Cripes, it took years before people quit telling me about how he did this or that and how it just wasn't the same or as good now - - - so what I tried to do was figure out what the listeners wanted/needed to hear and then say it. For instance, give the speeds clearly enough that the crew for that car or bike can understand while their rider is on course. You know that's the first thing a racer wants at the end of a run - - so I give the speeds and repeat them during and at the end of a run. There was the time when the announcer was somebody else who only announced once or twice at the salt, and who used one certain phrase to denote that a racer appeared to be making a good run. I guess he didn't realise that lotsa listeners worried about a fire or blown engine when they'd hear him say: "Wow, he's really smoking!"
And so on. But always I've tried to offer up - here on the site, and also on the radio - reliable and informed comments. I don't censor what's said about, for instance, how the course conditions are so bad that you might as well turn around and don't bother coming out for SpeedWeek. I've done a tiny bit of removing posts for good reason, but that ain't very often. This point is the crux of the instant issue, by the way. A racer on the way to the salt called the SCTA powers-that-be and reported that he was turning around and going home - - based on what he saw on this Forum. It was said to me by that "Power-that-be" that he felt I should remove the posts that offered negative news. It was the same basic story about 10 years ago at the Pomona Roadster when I was upbraided (same dude) for allowing negative-about-SCTA-posts to be posted. I was dang near banned from streaming then. I managed to negotiate the proceeding years, figuring out streaming and that stuff and treading kinda carefully - but I didn't censor. Maybe he thinks I should write a correction to any post that offers something he deems negative to his cause. No, that's not my job, kids.
You probably remember Ron and me mentioning many times that we could do a better job of informing the listeners if we had one of the UHF handheld radios (used for non-public stuff like race number or emergencies and so on) in the trailer. When a vehicle is at the line the timer will radio (on UHF) the tower with the vehicle number. The timer enters that number into her 'puter and the run begins. We don't see any data on the screen until the racer is in the first of the lights, so we have to rely on catching the numbers on the CB radio when the timer announces 'em, and believe it or not, there are times when we can't hear or understand or someone's sitting on the mic. With a UHF we'd hear more clearly and hear the number earlier, and that allows us more time for information or to alert everybody about a run that lotsa people want to watch. Five or six or seven years ago we were issued one of the UHF radios, and once or twice we got two. Ah, but we sinned. We were instructed to shut off that UHF in case of an incident, and there were times we didn't do it or didn't do it in time or hadn't turned the volume down enough and the official chatter was audible. I can offer excuses 1, 27b, and A sub-alpha on why it happened, but nevertheless it did. Sorry, though I'm comfortable saying we improved over time. Whatever - - when I asked for a radio this year I was told (if I remember correctly) that it had been decided that the radio announcers would not be issued said radio this year. Well, okay, but - - and then I gave the fu@k up. There was the time when Ralph Hudson crashed at about the three, directly in front of me. I was watching the run and giving his speeds and then I watched him crash - and shouted "Rider Down!" before I realised that I shouldn't have said ANYTHING. Yeah, I understand and need to remember that such a comment would likely frighten some folks listening online . It's difficult to see a rider crash at well north of 200 mph, right the heck in front of me and NOT react with that shout. By the way, if I recall correctly, Glen Barrett's final sin was to announce -- on the air - - something about an incident on course and to "roll the emergency crew" or words to that effect. They stated reason for his retirement-by-email was that he wasn't the person that should have issued that order, and not on the air. Maybe it happened, maybe the story is apocryphal. If you're interested I betcha you could dig through the archives here and see the story as it developed, negative, and positive posts and warts and all. Maybe I've remembered it wrong. Maybe not.
Oh,yeah, I gotta tell you this one: During my sentencing call Heather raised the issue of the cost to listen to the live stream. After a few seconds of me trying to figure out WTF she was talking about I came up with one of my better lines. I heard that and said "HUNH? Whaddaya mean? It's free on landracing.com and any site or page is welcome to it". It was then I heard that one of cabal had gone to the homepage here and followed the link for streaming. There he saw the price was $5.99/day, so he paid 35 or 40 bucks to buy the entire week. And, evidently, reported such an outrage that it led to me getting the implied message that SCTA was upset because I was selling access to the live stream. Ok, but Heather, it's free. The only charge is for downloads AFTER THE FACT , like a team that wants the audio from a run to add to a video. At this point I must acknowledge that purchase, and thank the donor, for that's what he became in his effort to entrap me. Thanks, dude, for the $40 that you paid because you made a knee-jerk decision without reading the description. Thanks for supporting the website that evidently irks you. It made me chuckle since I'd been announcing that information on the air - for years. By the also way, the revenue from 12 years of streaming and collecting the fee for downloads - - the balance in the account is about $326 as of today. I haven't ever used any of that handsome amount. I find it difficult to accept the implication that I was charging for a free service and therefore (potentially) cheating SCTA out of a cut of the proceeds as might a vendor be assessed, especially since it was based on a report from someone that didn't even read the instructions. You're all welcome to see the tally on the Mertidix dashboard if you want to see for yourself.
I've herded youse girls and boys along a path that is full of information and has little or no advertising. Once in a while some companies or racers bought ads - but not many since I only would let racers or race vendor companies buy an ad. I have turned down innumerable requests from companies that offer me money if I'd run their stories/ads. There ain't never been a-one of 'em that I let on the site because they had nothing to do with racing. I wanted to have a site without much clutter and that would load pages quickly 'cause there weren't many, if any, ads. I have run the site since '08 when Jon Amo sold it to me. I have evidently done a good enough job - many of you send a few bucks as a donation now and then and it's enough to keep things going just fine (pretty much, except with the failure of my Jetpack at SpeedWeek so I couldn't stream the last days of the '23 event.. I'm very sorry.).
There are about 76 zillion things and ideas and projects that I've got in mind to explore, and yet - - like I said before, I'd go back and announce in a second. But will I do it with the current hierarchy? I doubt it very much. No matter the stresses on all the various muckety-mucks - like "if we cancel the SCTA will run out of money" - - I've lost sight of any sense of integrity for too many of the blue shirted folks (and some that don't don the outfit). By that I mean:
As the whole danged shooting match proceeded I went to the protagonist du jour and offered my hand and asked if we could end it all. I acknowledged that I yielded to his position, and thought I had made it clear that I wanted to get on with the event and put this behind us. He agreed and shook my hand, and then proceeded to rehash the incident to me and the three or four others at the table. They took turns being rude to me as I left. I'll tell you about the falsetto voice and lots of overwrought gestures and the comment about not ever using the new $70,000 trailer for timing slips and radio again. Our sin: Ron and I didn't sweep the floor at the end, but Sheri (timing slips) did her half. Guilty as charged, but the histrionics of one of the fellas, as he mentioned going to Smith's grocery and getting one, were entertaining. Worth it in the long run? Probably not, but fun to see.
Okay: If I give you my word and my hand --- I'm done with the issue, and I expect that in return. It's manners, and being an honorable man. It's evident that some folks missed the day in school maybe the when they taught it.
That's enough for now. I gotta hit the hay. Robyn Munro* has been here for a couple of weeks and flies on to visit other racers tomorrow afternoon. Tonight we had a nice dinner with her and Mike & Ann (car 9006, AA/BGALT) who are the only other racers up here. Ya do what ya can.
Deep Enough!
* Robyn is absolutely the best-ever house guest, and cook, and story teller, and she even gave us a framed photo of her gramps. No, I won't show you the photos, so you'll have to believe me when I say that she even swam in Lake Superior today. That's quite the feat - since the big lake's temp was a fairly moderate 60F. And she swam, too - not just dabbled her toes in the water. And she's going to help me with a project that includes mystery, intrigue, inappropriate comments and maybe even some meaningful content. No it wouldn't be a podcast. And no, it's not running an old Indian racebike. That was Burt's M.O.
