Brent O'Connor wrote:
You took a swipe at the organizers of the time attack series that you do not participate in, and I called you out for it. My response to you is not rooted in childishness, but in honest discourse.
For you to not participate in a series and still gripe about the process of cancelling the event this Saturday, without regard for or knowledge of the status of the financial bottom line, is not what I consider constructive. Your criticism of those in the region who try their best to make the series work would certainly add to any discouragement that they certainly already feel. It does not build up, it tears down. Many of us work hard at encouraging new time attack competitors, but we also recognize that for the region to keep staging money losing events is not feasible.
Your swipe at the organizers frustrated me, and I joined you and took a swipe back on behalf of those like me that try to make this sport work. Guilty as charged.
My god man... I'm not sure what twisted universe you're talking about here, but again, you've successfully provoked me to respond.
A) No swipes were made at the organizers. Literally. I don't think that there is ANY argument regarding my second post in this tread that
when there is no info available for an event 5 days before it is supposed to take place, that will contribute to the attendance problem. It wasn't sarcastic nor abusive. If you want to get offended because I pointed out a problem, then I don't know what to tell you. You can't "call me out" for something I didn't do. (I'm also not sure how discourse can be rooted in discourse either, that's a logical fallacy)
B)I have a fair amount of knowledge of the bottom line. I've been part of the conference calls regarding budgeting for the CTAC and have all the spreadsheets which I looked over merely out of interest. You might think that would give me a reasonably clear picture of what running an event looks like financially. You're throwing axes in the dark here Brent.
C) I pointed out a problem not with a person, but with the series. Your ad hominem reaction is unwarranted and quite frankly, embarrassing for both of us. You clearly have no idea what my contributions are to ARMS, and I'm not going to list them. Let's just say you have no idea what you're talking about
Alright, back to the grown up stuff.
Great ideas Steve. I think you're right about the division due to the different disciplines. It has the benefit of attracting participants with different "types" of vehicles (rallycross vs slalom for ex) but it divides people's time and money. Also, if you're invested in a championship for any of the disciplines, it really messes up trying to attend the others. Hardly anyone has the funds to burn to do all of them, and time is even harder to come by for some.
My personal opinion is that the problem is rooted in people not knowing the track is even there. We're drawing from an extremely small pool of potential participants. I have a hard time explaining to people that they can literally show up at autocross/lapping/etc, ask anyone they see about getting involved, and they will almost certainly be happy to help. I do car shows and whatnot explaining this to people, and I hear back through mutual friends that they think "it can't be that simple" or "if it were that simple everyone would be doing this". I try the foot in the door process... Get them out to watch an autocross, get them to try it, get them comfortable with that, get them out to the track to watch lapping, get them to get their lapping card, and so on. I think I've done this with 4 or 5 people this year alone. 5 more are very interested in getting their lapping/time attack license. I'm really hoping this method "roots out" and the word spreads. I'm not giving any of the older folks here a hard time by saying this, but my generation and younger have no idea this stuff is in Nova Scotia. The "car scene" is big with the 20-30 crowd, we need to get the word out that it takes place and it is accessible to the average Joe. I hear there was a decent parade lap the other day... I wonder where those folks came from Brent?
