Notes from the SEDiv mid-year meeting

[glenthompson]

I spent the weekend in Atlanta attending the SEDiv mid-year meeting. Not a lot of issues to address this year.

• Spec Miata tires - this issue has been raised again due to the issues with the RA888 tires. Decision was made to continue with the division using the same tire as national. Restricted regionals can allow an open tire as before. General consensus was that anyone wanting to run a Miata with other tires can always run ITA.
• IT7 may have a problem with 12A housings going away.
• Scheduling problems - Robelong can move the double national from July 4 to Memorial Day weekend but that causes problems for the memorial day race at CMP. Everybody wants to have a dbl national.
• Budget issues - Revenues are down across the board with little reduction in costs. Net result may be higher entry fees for races and other events. Other cuts may be made.
• Some classes aren't meeting participation levels. Due to economic conditions, it was decided not to put any classes on probation at this time.
• Personnel changes - This will be Rick Mitchell's last year as Executive Steward. Steve Tompkins is stepping down as TT Steward in favor of a new TT structure.

[drum3]

And there were no problems in the SEDiv Solo Dept ?? I guess they didnt need to improve on scheduling SEDiv events 2 weeks out , cancelling them 4 days before the event or switching locations 1 week before the event ....

[glenthompson]

Robert wasn't there to provide a report on Solo. Only comment made was about the canceled event.

[Scott]

I spent the weekend in Atlanta attending the SEDiv mid-year meeting. Not a lot of issues to address this year.

• Spec Miata tires - this issue has been raised again due to the issues with the RA888 tires. Decision was made to continue with the division using the same tire as national. Restricted regionals can allow an open tire as before. General consensus was that anyone wanting to run a Miata with other tires can always run ITA.

I thought the SCCA had decided to go back to RA-1's for next year

[glenthompson]

It looks like the RA1 will be the tire next year but it will be a slightly different compound than the old RA1.

I was more concerned about having a spec tire instead of adding an open tire class. Some regions proposed having a SMT class that had open tires (read Hoosiers). Many SM racers didn't want SMT running with SM.

[Scott]

It looks like the RA1 will be the tire next year but it will be a slightly different compound than the old RA1.

I wonder if I we will be able to use any RA-1 (like the several extra's I have laying around), or if we can only use certain one's after a build date (I also wonder if the "new" compund will be really the same compound as the R888)

[aged racer]

We are going back to the RA-1 for 2010 (or in other words, same spec tire for SARRC as National). Glen, very glad things turned out that way. Appreciate your help. There's been repeated forum battles over on specmiata.com, and the last I saw was another class of SM (WSM?) for those wanting open tires. Great, let's fragment the class some more...

I had not heard that the compound w/be slightly different, can't imagine what they would change (we just want our RA-1's back). Have to see, but I would think that any RA-1 w/be eligible.

On another note, hate the thought of entry fees going up. I can see why, but it's approaching $500 for a double weekend, and that's just not sustainable (at least for me) since there's not much contingency or sponsorship at the regional level. I've been pondering cutting back anyway, have to see how it goes.

Steve

[Scott]

On another note, hate the thought of entry fees going up. I can see why, but it's approaching $500 for a double weekend, and that's just not sustainable (at least for me) since there's not much contingency or sponsorship at the regional level. I've been pondering cutting back anyway, have to see how it goes.

Steve

Just an FYI, the MARRS Labor Day double is $350 for Saturday-Monday.


*Off topic, but does the SEDIV have a SSM class?