Entries for Speedweek

[mkilger]

 The three coures would be really hard to do, its hard to keep an eye on 2 course the way its is now, crossing them to get to cars that have spun or fires is hard to do now. you  would have to have more wires for the timing, two more people in the tower ,one more starter  more cones ect, but have you looked at the bike records at bonneville give me a break 50cc  79.697  100cc 94.934 175cc 130.898  78.048  sorry never really looked at them before maybe BNI sould. I know bonneville has a lot of bike history  and I like the bikes but I think it really sould be looked at .

[thundersalt]

The three coures would be really hard to do, its hard to keep an eye on 2 course the way its is now, crossing them to get to cars that have spun or fires is hard to do now. you  would have to have more wires for the timing, two more people in the tower ,one more starter  more cones ect, but have you looked at the bike records at bonneville give me a break 50cc  79.697  100cc 94.934 175cc 130.898  78.048  sorry never really looked at them before maybe BNI sould. I know bonneville has a lot of bike history  and I like the bikes but I think it really sould be looked at .

I may be wrong,but I believe this was all figured out, including the courses dragged and laid out at speedweek 07 before the weather took  the 3rd course away.

[desotoman]

One last note, I thought the numbers at El Mirage evolved to determine starting position on points earned and was not necessarily put into effect to make the meet move quicker with less waiting in line. 
c ya,

Sum

Sum,
   The reason starting numbers were institiuted at El Mirage was because it used to be first come first served. Well it got to be so riduculous that people were showing up on the lake bed with their race cars and forming a line on the Tuesday and Wenesday before a Sunday meet. Talk about a long line to run maybe once on race day. It got to be insane. So it was decided to tie starting line position to number of points received per meet. Hence the starting line numbers. Personally I never want to go back to the first come first serve method. It is so nice to be able to work on your race car in the pits and listen to the radio for your number to be called. When your number is called you go to prestage then the official puts you in line based on starting line number. The most I have been in line is for a hour, unless someone spins, an accident happens or weather puts a hold on the meet.
   Most people don't like change because of the unknown. But let me tell you IMO the change at El Mirage was one of the best things to happen at the lake bed in the last 30 years.

Tom G.

[Stan Back]

Increased cost of entry, high gas prices, lack of rooms, new other events, the general economy and a few years away from "the movie" may all tend to limit the number of entries.

At least that's what I said last year!

[Glen]

The differance of running at the lakes vs Bonneville is the lakes are club events and a points system. Do you want this at Bonneville, I don't think so. The size of the meet and all else it takes to make the lakes work won't 
work on the salt. With all of the new people every year it would require daily crew / driver meetings and when someone qualifies for the long course they would go to the back of the line, need to know which way to turn out and the same goes for the push crew.

There are so many factors between the two events that are different and one won't work for the other.Most of you don't have any idea what goes on behind the scenes during the event. Each have many of the same rules but making the same work at both is not always an option.

The size of the real estate on the salt takes a lot more man power to control it and make the event run smooth. With runs under 4 minutes we are on the edge all day. When things go wrong it takes time away from the running and we do everything we can to resume running.

When the racers and crews don't have a good CB radio we can't talk to them. The radio is the key to making the meet run smoothly and keep everyone current on whats going on all day.It's a major link to the overall operation.

Work with us and make suggestions, we do listen and when we can we try nto work in changes. There are meetings all year and new board members each year. Some are first timers and others have years of experence at both venues.

[JackD]

The Speedweek meet has already said goodbye to the fastest vehicles.
I guess we should look at what segment of the entries causes the most delays with not being ready to run, crashes, spins, dropped parts, and short turnouts, to eliminate them.
I can already hear the screaming.

"Tradition unhampered by progress."

[836dstr]

Hey Stan,

With all the new cars and bikes being built as evidenced by the "newbie posts" here, I think the people dropping out will be offset.

*********************

One thing I thought about was the number of cars/bikes in the stageing lines vs. the number in pre-stage. Maybe the number in the stageing line could be cut in half, and smaller groups from pre-stage released.

My thinking is this, as long as we are in line, it's nice to visit with other racers and check out the cars. In the staging lines you spend most your time waiting to move up 30 feet and the people behind you get uptight when you're not in the push truck 24/7.

SCTA/BNI do a great job and the procedures have evolved over time. We don't need to rebuild the engine, just do some fine tunning.

Tom

[JackD]

Instead of moving 30 feet 5 times, move 150 feet once.

[Stainless1]

ok, first come, first served. Then go to registration, pick up your "first come, first served" number and go back and wait for your number to come up.

At 3 minutes per run you are going to run +/-20  vehicles per hour. What's the point of having more than 20 vehicle in line? There were 562 entries. Vehicle #562 should wait 28 hours in line?

I don't understand lines at the supermarket, bank, or Bonneville.

DLA, thanks for making my point so well,    instead of waiting for the third day to get her first run, #562 waited in line like the rest and made a couple of runs a day by getting up early, being ready and enjoying the company of the other racers. 

But, if we really want a number and run system, Johnboy and I figured out a good system while drinking last night...  by zipcode, smallest number to the largest, start over every morning... 

It ain't broke, let's not screw it up by fixing it.  If people don't like the line, first come system, they will stay home and bitch that it takes too long to run at the salt.  Works for me... 

[Stan Back]

Tom --

Yer right.

But some of the newbies are already planning for WOS or ECTA.  And as much as we try to tell them, ya can't run a 500" Camaro with a 3-point roll bar!

Plus I think some of the "hobby" cars are going to be impacted with costs.  I know I am.

As an aside, ten or fifteen years ago we were at the head of prestage with a tow-bar on the race car.  The official told us to move up the 500 feet or so to the line.  I hadn't driven the push (pull?) truck and the driver wasn't there so I carefully proceded towards the line.  I was PASSED by an import with a large imported crew.  They stayed in line ahead of us and flew the car at about 200 mph.  It was worth the wait while they drug it off the course.  Some times life does reward us with paybacks.

[desotoman]

ok, first come, first served. Then go to registration, pick up your "first come, first served" number and go back and wait for your number to come up.

At 3 minutes per run you are going to run +/-20  vehicles per hour. What's the point of having more than 20 vehicle in line? There were 562 entries. Vehicle #562 should wait 28 hours in line?

I don't understand lines at the supermarket, bank, or Bonneville.

DLA, thanks for making my point so well,    instead of waiting for the third day to get her first run, #562 waited in line like the rest and made a couple of runs a day by getting up early, being ready and enjoying the company of the other racers. 

You are both wrong. Dean you math is correct but you forgot there is more than one course. Also you cannot figure just because numbers would be called that everyone would be ready to run.(100% efficient). With the number system, 2 courses and a short short course, everyone who wanted to run on the first day would have a chance to. Unless there was some tragic accident, which would affect the starts no matter what system you used.

Tom G.

[Glen]

just for general information every delay last year at both BNI meets were racer caused. There were no equipment or course problems that stopped the meets during the events. There were a couple of weather issues, also not a BNI problem. If you go to the www.scta-bni.org web site and open the 2007 speed week and world finals each has the stats of the number of runs and records set. 

[Sumner]

Also you cannot figure just because numbers would be called that everyone would be ready to run.(100% efficient). ...........Tom G.

You hit the nail on the head there.  There are some people that show up and don't even run for a day or two.  Then like us last year run the first day and break and then it isn't until 4 days later that we are ready again.  Then when you do run you never know how long it will take you to get ready to run again.  You might be able to do it in line, you might go to the pits and find something that needs attention and it might take an hour or a day to take care of.  When you get it taken care of it is back to the line.

It would be nice if it was a perfect world and you just ran and ran and ran, but that hardly ever happens, at least with us that has been the case.

c ya,

Sum

[JackD]

It took 6 weeks each of private time to set 2 of the MC ultimate records and 7 vehicles with lots of private time to set another.

"Records are made to be broken and parts too."