brendan90zx
06-03-2010, 11:08 PM
bad news for local drifting, so help it out!!
heres part of the email i got from scca president brendan griggs:
The club has voted that the next drift event (6-26) will be the deciding factor on whether Fresno SCCA sanctions any future drift events.
The primary factors leading to this decision are:
1) The club has seen almost no leadership from the drift community. When this was started 18 months ago, we were promised that the drifters would be able to manage their own events, this hasn't happened. There needs to be a group of at least 5 that can manage and organize all things drift related within the club.
2) Lack of attendance. The last drift event made the club $10. We are not in a financial situation to absorb the impact if an event is not attended well enough to make money. Fresno SCCA's board was told that these drift events would attract people from all over California and that getting 50 cars at each event wouldn't be an issue.
3) Safety. Bottom line, the cars need to be prepared better. MUCH better. We have bent so many rules in allowing the cars to run but our chief safety steward has said no more. Bumpers cannot be flying off while on track - zip ties are not proper fasteners. Battery hold downs must be properly engineered. Wiring and seats were also mentioned. There also needs to be a couple certified safety stewards within the drift community so that you guys can conduct your own events. Josh Fine has been covering them for you but he simply doesn't want to anymore. He was promised, like the rest of us, that you guys would get some members to become safety stewards, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't.
4) Event operations. To date, most of the behind the scenes work for drift events has been conducted by the autocrossers of the club. The club would like to see that the drifters have a clear understanding of exactly how an event is ran. From insurance paperwork, sanction applications, getting the trailer,registration, tech, setup, teardown, returning trailer and everything else. Again, we were promised that the drifters would be able to run their own show.
5) Meeting attendance. Meetings is where the business side of things take place for the club. The meetings aren't optional, they are a required activity in order for us to maintain the club. We have seen VERY little drift attendance at the meetings. This was even more of a problem at the last meeting where we were really discussing the future of drifting within Fresno SCCA.
To wrap up, the next drift event needs to be an example to the board and to the rest of the autocross community within the club that the drifters can and will conduct safe, well managed and well attended events. If this doesn't happen, we have already voted that the rest of the drift events will be removed from the calendar. I hope you realize that this isn't personal, we just need to make sure that the interests of the club are our first priority. This was the result of almost an hour of debate at the meeting.
while some of the info brendan said i think is just fault or exagerations they also bring up good points, sadly some that ive never heard of before (which wouldve been nice to hear earlier as so i could have taken care of it)so what theyre asking for: more people to become scca members so that we can organize our own events (thatll involve having: event chairmens, safety stewards, car tech inspectors, and other event logistics like paperwork and whatnot). they also asking for a larger and more consistent amount of participants, also in increase in ehicle safety via proper/safer means of assembling your vehicle and an increase of drifters showing up to the monthly scca meetings. so step up and help out or see local drifting go away. i mean its just been me at meetings, going to safety trainings and bearing the burden of the drift events. if its easier, cheaper and better to go elsewhere then......what can i say, but please try to avoid the streets if possible.
heres part of the email i got from scca president brendan griggs:
The club has voted that the next drift event (6-26) will be the deciding factor on whether Fresno SCCA sanctions any future drift events.
The primary factors leading to this decision are:
1) The club has seen almost no leadership from the drift community. When this was started 18 months ago, we were promised that the drifters would be able to manage their own events, this hasn't happened. There needs to be a group of at least 5 that can manage and organize all things drift related within the club.
2) Lack of attendance. The last drift event made the club $10. We are not in a financial situation to absorb the impact if an event is not attended well enough to make money. Fresno SCCA's board was told that these drift events would attract people from all over California and that getting 50 cars at each event wouldn't be an issue.
3) Safety. Bottom line, the cars need to be prepared better. MUCH better. We have bent so many rules in allowing the cars to run but our chief safety steward has said no more. Bumpers cannot be flying off while on track - zip ties are not proper fasteners. Battery hold downs must be properly engineered. Wiring and seats were also mentioned. There also needs to be a couple certified safety stewards within the drift community so that you guys can conduct your own events. Josh Fine has been covering them for you but he simply doesn't want to anymore. He was promised, like the rest of us, that you guys would get some members to become safety stewards, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't.
4) Event operations. To date, most of the behind the scenes work for drift events has been conducted by the autocrossers of the club. The club would like to see that the drifters have a clear understanding of exactly how an event is ran. From insurance paperwork, sanction applications, getting the trailer,registration, tech, setup, teardown, returning trailer and everything else. Again, we were promised that the drifters would be able to run their own show.
5) Meeting attendance. Meetings is where the business side of things take place for the club. The meetings aren't optional, they are a required activity in order for us to maintain the club. We have seen VERY little drift attendance at the meetings. This was even more of a problem at the last meeting where we were really discussing the future of drifting within Fresno SCCA.
To wrap up, the next drift event needs to be an example to the board and to the rest of the autocross community within the club that the drifters can and will conduct safe, well managed and well attended events. If this doesn't happen, we have already voted that the rest of the drift events will be removed from the calendar. I hope you realize that this isn't personal, we just need to make sure that the interests of the club are our first priority. This was the result of almost an hour of debate at the meeting.
while some of the info brendan said i think is just fault or exagerations they also bring up good points, sadly some that ive never heard of before (which wouldve been nice to hear earlier as so i could have taken care of it)so what theyre asking for: more people to become scca members so that we can organize our own events (thatll involve having: event chairmens, safety stewards, car tech inspectors, and other event logistics like paperwork and whatnot). they also asking for a larger and more consistent amount of participants, also in increase in ehicle safety via proper/safer means of assembling your vehicle and an increase of drifters showing up to the monthly scca meetings. so step up and help out or see local drifting go away. i mean its just been me at meetings, going to safety trainings and bearing the burden of the drift events. if its easier, cheaper and better to go elsewhere then......what can i say, but please try to avoid the streets if possible.