"Half Day" Format: run+work in morning (or afternoon) and done.

[stantaur]

Has SASCA tried a format similar to the way Portland, SFR, Houston, etc. are running their events?  

Benefit: Increases ratio of seat time vs. wait time (gives you back part of your Sunday).  Racers get to run 4+ runs (and work their 1 shift) in either morning (8-12:30) or afternoon (1-4:30), allowing them the rest of the day to do whatever.  I did this in San Fran Region, and we regularly moved 280 cars/day through. And that was 1997, BEFORE AxWare integrated the timer with the results...

Cost: Earlier first car out + we'd need to review which classes have ___ participants over the past 2-3 months so we can group classes into balanced run groups ahead of time.

Great description & example below from Portland region:

http://www.oregonscca.com/content/view/1286/288/
All vehicles are divided into Group A and Group B. Group A consists of Stock, Street Tire, Street Touring, Ladies PAX and PAX classes. Group B consists of Street Prepared, Prepared, Modified and Street Modified class vehicles. The event flyer will designate which group is scheduled to run in the morning session and which group is scheduled to run in the afternoon session. Competitors (including newcomers) who show up to register for the morning registration, but whose class is scheduled to run in the afternoon, can opt to wait for the afternoon registration or take non-points TIME ONLY runs in the morning. Competitors (including newcomers) who show up to register in the afternoon, but whose class ran in the morning, will have to take non-points TIME ONLY runs. TIME ONLY runs are priced the same as competition runs.

An approach like this reduces the amount of "dead" time that the course spends unused / maximizes seat time.  
Fewer worker change-outs (improves efficiency  / utilization of course).  
Still get 4-6 runs (esp. since our turnouts are half what SFR / Portland / etc run through the gates)

What do you think?

[Ricky Crow]

I kinda wanted to wait before responding to see what other people had to say, however I have some thoughts in my head fresh from yesterday that I didn't want to lose (second paragraph below):

I don't know how well that would go over here.  The one big thing I'd be concerned about is people adapting to a new scheduling format.  I'd hate for SASCA (or Spokes, etc) to become the odd-ball with a schedule different than any of the other clubs in the region.  I haven't looked at the AXWare log just yet, but here's a testament to how well things are running these days:

85 drivers.  Driver's meeting started at ~10am.  First car was on course before 10:30am.  We had a ~1.5 hour delay... I'd have to look at the AXWare logs, but I think overall it ended up being almost an hour and a half -- sorry to the course workers who were out in the sun because of that) + 30-minute-turned 45-minute lunch break, seven runs for most drivers (some got an extra freebie or two that didn't count) and we were still packed up by ~5pm.  Had we skipped the lunch break (I think people really appreciate that), and didn't have the big delay/course change/etc., I bet we could have begun packing up by 3pm yesterday still with 7-8 runs in the bag for every driver, or 6 runs total and maybe could have done an hour of fun runs (I made a comment to about 2-3 folks yesterday that fun runs were definitely a possibility with as quickly as things were running in the first half of the day).

I don't know -- just throwing some thoughts out there...the thing that would concern me is if we did a split day and we had fewer drivers, we wouldn't have enough course workers.  In addition to that, if we ran through all 6+ runs in a shorter amount of time, then what happens when the second group of folks don't show up until 1pm?  What if we're standing around for an hour+ waiting for the second group to arrive?  Still lots of downtime.  I think the reason it works for those other regions is because they have 200+ participants... half of which handle the morning workload, and half handle the afternoon workload.  I just don't think it would work in our area where there is a smaller number of participants.

Just my thoughts...  Don't let it sway other comments on this topic, because ideas and discussions like these are the way improvements become reality -- I just wanted to get my own thoughts 'on paper' so-to-speak.

[kujitsu]

I've never heard anyone complain about the time they leave.
No one says "yay, 3 runs!" Or "I hate going to sasca, they always have 10 runs"

[WallyD]

A few problems with a split format for SASCA.

1) to really give people a "half day off" you would need two "registration times" for morning and afternoon, two "tech times" for the same, two "walk thrus" for regular drivers and again for novices

2) you would really need to get two completely different "setup" and "takedown" crews AND two experienced groups to run timing and scoring

3) we would have to decide a specific run order and stick to it no matter what cars show up (would take away the flexibility we have now) months in advance

4) in general, scheduling issues for unseen delays ect.

5) IMO it would put a dampner on "out of town" autoxers entrants

Basically, AutoX is still a grassroots form of auto competition. It is the cheapest venue to "flog" your car around without getting a ticket. It comes with certain "inconveniences" to remind us that it is not all fun and games! The logostics of two half days "might" give some people a relief but in whole, I think it would be much more work/time for others.

Now if we were paying a "crew" to run the event...and charged much more per entry...you could make it work. I just don't think there would be a smooth transition from morning to afternoon and the overlap might negate any benefits gained. That being said, anything can be made to work...with a lot of work.

On Another Note: I do think we need to utilize our canopy covers at the work stations with the summer heat approaching. Covers and a supply of cold water at each work station would make the "job" much more pleasant. I think there were at least three that were not used at all and could have provided some pretection/relief for the corner stations.

[1-hot-z]

The AM/PM split day schedule is nothing new.  Houston Region SCCA used this schedule.  They published a schedule matrix that rotated the various classes for the AM/PM run/work assignments so everyone will get a chance to have morning & afternoon times throughout the year.  If I remember, they have two heats in the morning -- flip/flop run/work assignments -- and they're done.  Same thing happened in the afternoon.  More run times, shorter shifts.  Theoretically.

I couldn't find a copy of an old schedule matrix but I found a link below that specifically outlined the schedule for an entire day in 2008:

http://www.houstonperformancedriving.com/forums/showthread.php?goto=lastpost&t=32648

It's a paradigm shift and definitely doable.  The AM/PM schedule would make it convenient for a larger # of enthusiasts to participate more often if their entire Sunday is not tied up for less than five minutes of thrill.

[stantaur]

Great discussion & thanks to all for chiming in.  My question is, are the doubts raised based on speculation or actual experience?   

I ask because I experienced the AM/PM approach in San Francisco '95 - '97, and our regional clubs large and small ran the format successfully.  4-6 runs, half day commitment (and people could stay for the other portion / double-run if they wanted... 8-12 runs for some folks).  Lack of sufficient participants never prevented an event. 

Just asking the question because like all of us, I over-geek on efficiency & felt it appropriate to offer a couple of ideas in case they haven't been considered (or done) before.  Especially after working 1st and 3rd (yes the one with course-redesign) heats yesterday.

Reducing number of shift changes (like the 3-heat / hot-swap format you guys have done a couple of times similar to A&M's format) and getting first car out by 9 (enabled by pre-registration + annual pre-pay event discount like NTS2KOC does & you shorten registration lines/time) could get you more seat time even if SASCA doesn't adopt the AM/PM approach. 

Hope you understand none of this is criticism.  It's an option, not an obligation.  SASCA puts on great events; my intent was only to offer ideas that have been successful with other clubs where they have a lot of racers who can't spend a whole Sunday due to family / work / other-hobby commitments.   

Enjoy...

 

 

[kujitsu]

Perhaps for those with other commitments there could be some grace for them as I don't think there are many. Unless it becomes a habit to skip out on working.
 Even then maybe they could get their runs done for an extra fee and run in doubles lane on either heat.