[Thameth]

So anybody in this group actually part of your local Autox'ing groups board or club that helps put together your events?

I'm our clubs secretary but i help with most anything from timing, course setup, building signs, and organizing each event. It would be good to know who else on the Jet does this so i can ask some questions.

Thanx!

 

[Auto-X-ZTS]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

I used to be on the BOD for Wisconsin Autocrossers, Inc (WAI www.waiautox.org)--until I became a daddy and turned down the wick on the time that I devoted to the sport...

I mainly did course design. I was also the chief of course design for MKE-SCCA...including a CEN-DIV and a PRO.

 

[Egz]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

I've been helping out with my clubs website, and can handle most timing items/issues. (although I can't rmember the name of the timing system we use)

 

[Penguini66]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

I'm just a lowly tech inspector. But I like the job because I'm done my duties by 10:00 usually. But I usually hang around and helped with clean up at the end of the day.

I think I've lost some interest in auto-x so I'll probably fufill my duties this year and politely bow out.

 

[OmniFocus]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

I help organize my hometown club in Oregon when I can... It is more difficult to contribute now living in California, but in the past I've done everything including Tech, Registration, Timing, Event Chair, etc. Now I help with the behind the scenes stuff.

I now do the artwork for almost all the trophies, and I handle whatever task is tossed my way when I make it up north.

 

[Primaris]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

TRSCCA, Region 40, Treasurer...
no I won't write you a check

 

[s2d2]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

i'm on the Speed & Ice committee for The Furrin Group Sportscar Club (50 years old this year!!

) which runs SCCA-style autocrosses, and organize events for Western Michigan Region SCCA. i am at least Co-Chairperson of 6 autocrosses a year, probably more once i get more ramped up into SCCA events. my 2 year goal with WMR is to host a CenDiv event. i'm also a Solo Safety Steward in training. i do it all, and i mean ALL. i secure lots, manage equipment and purchases, secure chiefs, insurance, preregistration, treasury, trophies, course design, tech, this that and the other things. i run control and take a heat at the computer. it's a task but at the end of an event it's all worth it.

this december i'm chairing a TSD rally too! i was also invited to do T&S at an upcoming SCCA race at Gingerman, i can't remember which. in my spare time i do F&C and attend other region's autocrosses.

 

[jinstall]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

Yes I am the organizer for the 1 on 1 racing AutoX events. I had my first track setup last event. Hectic to say the least. Got bored and decided to start runing the course in reverse gear. Very entertaining.

 

[schnack]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

In Detroit we have a Solo Planning Committee (sub-set of the BOD) I am a member. This committee allows a lot of the veterans in the region to have a big say on how things should be ran.

I am also the co-chairmen for our region Divisional

 

[Thameth]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

Wow much better response than i thought.

In the last year a group of us autocrossers decided to get together and take over our local group. There was one man running it and running it badly. We've made huge progress and our events are running much more smoothly now. Since we were all new to running events there were some growing pains but now we're moving onto running events even more efficiently. We broke an attandence record of 142 cars 2 events ago and we expect to pass 150 soon.

Soon we'll be investing in Automated timing system probably from Axware and a Display to show drivers times as they come off the course as its a huge issue right now.

I would love to keep this thread open as a place for people like us to discuss issues with running events an hopefully so we can help each other with research.

Thanx!

 

[s2d2]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

we use AXWARE at Furrin Group and WMR SCCA events. it's great because we run a series together and keep track of points is a breeze. the timers are kind of expensive but they work great and ethernet cable is cheap.

the only thing i don't like is that it's a bit TOO comprehensive, and a lot can be going on onscreen at once. ALWAYS have paper backups of every time for auditing. i've been known to reset the wrong timer before. all in all it's the beest system out there, we print out times from an inkjet and just post them up. if the grid is running well and control is good on the radio it makes T&S the most boring job at the event. i've used TS98/99 and it's worlds better than those.

we haven't tried the networking feature yet but hopefully next year we'll have an event big enough to do it.

my tips for running events:

offer an incentive to get setup workers out in the AM. it makes course set-up so much easier. also try to get a worker chief, grid chief and registration chief to handle those responsibilities.

have a weather radio handy

www.myautoevents.com is autocrossing's saving grace! it also gives you an excuse to shorten the registration window at the event.

the best deal on cones i've found is at http://www.johnmwarren.com/

get a trailer or a beater cargo van. even though i have managed to fit an entire autocross in my focus (one of the reasons i love it!) it tore up the carpet on the backs of my seats. don't use your own car to haul if you can help it!

marine batteries work better than car batteries for portable power!

checklists, checklists, checklists

when you're maneuvering for a lot, try to set up a multi-year agreement. also, pimp a charitable write-off for them if you can. $1 from every entry to your favorite charity makes it a charitable event!

 

[schnack]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

Detroit is also running AX Ware this season for the first time.

myautoevents.com orginator is a member of the Detroit Region.

we cap all our local events at 200 entries, and all entries must be pre-registered and pre-paid. We do have a tendency to take some walk-ups, it just depends on how many no-shows we have.

This makes pre-race stuff go much smoother....we usually have first car off around 9:30 a.m.

 

[corey_dyck]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

There's a web page out there somewhere called, "How to run a solo II season" or something like that. It's good, tailored to a large club. If you can't find it let me know and I'll send you a copy.

I'm the autocross director for our club. It's a small club, so I'm also the course designer, event chair, and school organizer. The day of an event is pretty hectic for me!

You want Roger Johnson's course design manual. It's the bible of course design.

Aside from all the stuff you'll find online, my tips for running the program:
-Find good volunteers
-Find more good volunteers!
-Treat your volunteers like the gold that they are.
-Spread the workload among as many as possible, it's easy to get burned out.
-50% of your efforts need to go towards making the events run as seamlessly as possible. You're selling a product/service, make your customers' lives easier and they'll come back.
-50% of your efforts need to go towards every competitor having fun, this will pay off huge later when they tell their friends how much fun they had.
-Technology is your friend. Axware and on-line pre-registration reduced our workload to a fraction of what it was on the morning of the event.

The one that I'm struggling with right now;
-Find someone to replace you. You need someone that will take over with fresh ideas and lead the club further along the path of development.

We had 30-40 people at our events when I started autocrossing. With some organizational/attitude changes we now are turning people away at some events as our site can only handle about 70 cars. We're contemplating going to morning and afternoon sessions, but that will disrupt the social aspect of the club...

 

[Thameth]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

S2d2,

Some of us who run the club are tech geeks and we know some of our members will like all the details you can get out of Axware. The only thing that sucks is the 14 day trial, i never got to test it at an actual event but i did some testing with the manual timers and it worked great.

Our plan is to get the Pro version with MemberControl and Networking. we'll definitely have printers going to backup everything from registration to runs through out the day.

Our registration normally goes from 8am-9:30am to get all 100-140 people through. But now we've started pre-registration with www.driverregistration.com and we had 40 people pre-register at the last event and it made things go MUCH smoother.

The www.driverregistration.com creator Terry is a buddy of mine and its a great site.

-The morning workers are mainly club officials but we do get alot of people to volunteer working in the morning (especially in Tech and Reg) because they rather work in the morning instead of standing out in the Miami sun at noon.

-I never thought of the weather radio, thats a good idea down here because we can have sudden mid day severe thunderstorms or even tornado's

- I've been told by many people that www.driverregistration.com works alot better than myautoevents and i think Terry charges less but i'm not sure.

-We just bought 200 new 18in cones ($900 shipping included ouch!) through SCCA and they're very nice with an SCCA logo and TireRack on the sides.

-We currently have an open top cargo trailer but it only carries course stuff like cones, tents, brooms, etc. The timing system, PA system, all paperwork is being taken to events by club individuals which is a pain in the arse!

We're looking into getting a new enclosed race trailer so everything can be stored inside and we can use it for airconditioned automated timing when the time comes. I had suggested an old School Bus which we could buy anywhere for $1k but the elders in the club shot it down incase something mechanical were to go wrong. I just wonder how so many other clubs do it with school buses no problem??

-We just got a great deal on a 5k Generator from a friend of mine to power our future

But i'll have to look into Marine batteries for anything else, probably the LED display.

-We recently had MAJOR problems finding lots, we used to run at the Zoo but they decided to build a water park on our lot so we had to scramble. Luckily we've secured nice lots for the rest of this year after months of searching. Alot of places have problems with us using paint to mark cones and we're scrambling againt to find something else, i'm currently testing Spray chalk to make sure it washes away in rain.

-Gotta make Checklists, i agree. We're working on it hehe.

 

[Thameth]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

Shnack,

If we ever have an event with more than 160 or so cars and it doesn't go too well we might start capping at 150. Though i do like your idea of forcing pre-registration to be able to run more cars. Gotta look into that.

All you have to get done in the morning is Tech.

 

[s2d2]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

you paint your course!?!?! holy cow

currently we use drywall slabs to chalk cone boxes and mark the guidelines on the course. i'm looking to fabricate some sort of flour line marker kind of like the markers they use for sports fields to take care of the boundary line thing easier. just lay it down and have someone follow you with a pushbroom and you're good!

$900 is actually a pretty good deal on cones, you can't really find it any cheaper anywhere else.

the demo of AXWRATS has less features than the full version, you'll love it!

a lot of regions/clubs charge a late registration fee after a certain time, so they keep their customer base (i know of half a dozen autocrossers around here that don't have internet access but find out when the events are) but still get 98% pre-registration.

always have 2 people doing registration if there's an extra body around. even if they're not doing anything other than letting people know what to sign, where to paddock/tech/pee. just don't let them touch the money if you don't know/trust them.

 

[Thameth]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

Corey,

I did a search for that HOW TO but couldn't find it, i would love to see what it has to say.

Now having my hand in so many things at an event i know how hectic it can be. We have a good group of maybe 15 main officials so we spread the work pretty well.

Thanx for the design manual. I'll probably be helping in designing our August event course and i'll definitely give that a look.

-Volunteers are great, its amazing how many people you can get to work together when you have a common goal and something you love to do.

Thanx for all the suggestions!

My newest little project is asking Ataru where his club gets these:

 

[Thameth]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

you paint your course!?!?! holy cow

currently we use drywall slabs to chalk cone boxes and mark the guidelines on the course. i'm looking to fabricate some sort of flour line marker kind of like the markers they use for sports fields to take care of the boundary line thing easier. just lay it down and have someone follow you with a pushbroom and you're good!

$900 is actually a pretty good deal on cones, you can't really find it any cheaper anywhere else.

the demo of AXWRATS has less features than the full version, you'll love it!

a lot of regions/clubs charge a late registration fee after a certain time, so they keep their customer base (i know of half a dozen autocrossers around here that don't have internet access but find out when the events are) but still get 98% pre-registration.

always have 2 people doing registration if there's an extra body around. even if they're not doing anything other than letting people know what to sign, where to paddock/tech/pee. just don't let them touch the money if you don't know/trust them.

-We only used paint to mark cones, we currently don't line the sides of the course with flour or anything. We do have an abnormally high off course rate which i'm noticing compared to other clubs accross the country. We're trying to convince our BOD to let us line the course with flour or cornstarch but they think its too time consuming.

Drywall slabs? Hows that work? Thats interesting, does it stand up to rain at all?

-We're working in the future to offer a discount to register online so more and more people will be forced to do it. Wow, 98% pre-reg! like i said we only got 40 at our first pre-reg event which totalled 122 entrants on memorial day weekend. We would love to have 100 pre-reg.

-We currently have a team of 5-6 runing registration in the morning to keep the line down. i can imagine with pre-reg though that you don't need much in registration other than answering questions.

 

[s2d2]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

AFAIK that's a common ASI (ad specialty item) part that should be available at most screen printers.

that's another thing, trophies... we opted for a big batch of t-shirts as trophies this year. it's always kind of nice to have event-specific trophies but there's a lot of tradeoffs.

 

[teamDFL]

Re: Autocross Organizers?

Drywall slabs? Hows that work? Thats interesting, does it stand up to rain at all?

Break off a chunk of drywall (usually a triangle) and drag the edge against asphalt and it will leave a dust trail that will actually disipate without rain over time. A brief shower will wash it away too.