Thanks and thoughts from TWS

[Kevin]

In the past two seasons I have not been there to help Walter tear down four times. I have always been there to do set up on Thursdays. Sometime we have help, most of the time it is Walter, Barry and myself. Tear down is not a fun time but is part of the race weekend. If I can get home at 4am then some of you members who live a lot closer than I do might think about staying and lending a hand. Walter would be most thankful and some of the other staff could get home a little earlier. Also as was pointed out, the staffs day starts at dark am and goes until dark. As far as our 'long?' lunch break come have lunch with us sometime and see how much break there really is as most of us are kept busy answering questions or processing paper work that should have been turned in on time. Some of the riders (a lot of the time the same people) seem to think rules and deadlines are for everyone else!!! Sorry if I sound a bit ticked, but that happens when people bust their butt and then catch bs.
Peace, Kevin, the grumpy
tech guy

[Kim Walker]

I have to agree with the grumpy old tech guy when it comes to lunches. I love you guys and my job, but I do like a few minutes of peace to eat my lunch. For 15 min. I hide out in my camper to eat. This Sunday just as I came out, Walter had just pulled up and immediately was swarmed by people with problems and issues. Now, he don't mind because when he took this position he knew what it entailed. BUT, sometimes other staff members can help you. I started running interference for him so he could get a second to get his bearings. He had just cleaned up numerous crashes, had been stopped by several people before he could even get to registration and then he had a protest to deal with when he got there. I don't think he ever did get his lunch!

As far as helping at the end of the day, yeah, we could use some help. I used to help him myself but, I have to get our kids bathed and dressed for bed since they have school the next day. Granted he's pretty **** about how the trailor is packed, but he has to be so everything fits. You would think that a 36 ft. trailor would have lots of extra room, but we have lots of stuff to put in it. Some one to lift the boxes (we can tell you how and where to put them)would be nice and maybe some corner workers with a truck (or anyone else) could round up the dollies and other corner gear and bring it to a central location. The guy at TWS helped by doing this and saved him about an hour. That was great! We got out at 11:45 pm. Just 1 or 2 people would make a difference.

Don't think we're complaining because we're not. We love this organization and all of the people associated with it. Walter has been a member for a long time and I came on board when we started dating. We rearrange our lives to work for you and love doing it. I spend my birthday and will spend our anniversary (which by the way is the Saturday at Hallett) at the track just like a few other wives/ girlfriends. We even plan our vacation around the CMRA schedule like many of our staff members.

OK, I'm through ranting now. Just please don't ask him to cut the lunches of our hard working staff. We barely get time to eat and usually is not longer than 20 min. We still have to ride the spectator lap because we still have a few idiots that think they can ride any which way, disregarding the rules of the ride and ignoring the safety of their passenger or those who are close by. If we have a crash during the spectator lap, you can kiss it good-bye, forever.

OK, now I'm through. See ya'll at Hallett. [img]/ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img]

[INSANE Champagne]

Here's a thought: How bout the prov nov's helping with air-fence on Sunday's. After they work corners, they can assist and get first hand experience with the air fence modules. Maybe its far-fetched, maybe its not.

[Andy Galindo]

Although it goes without saying that you guys (CMRA, ie, Walter, Kim, Nancy, Alan, Kevin, and MANY MANY more) are my heroes, I have to say it again. Thanks for the hard work.

Here's one suggestion that might save a combined 20-30 minutes throughout the day: have everybody drive the SHORT course on the cool down lap instead of driving the whole track. All you really need is for the T3 corner worker to stand close to wheelie hill waving a flag to remind those who forget, or who "missed" the riders meeting. The only time when it may compromise safety is in combined expert/amateur races, where the tail end of the racers may still be on their hot lap. In this case, run the whole track for cool down, or have that corner worker hold everyone back. Of course this exception will probably negate the whole idea... so...

Ideally it'd be nice to have everyone exit the track at the outside of 3 and pit in that way, but that would require some minor modifications by track management; we don't want to go there now, do we...

Anyway, just ideas.

[Walter Walker]

Great minds think alike Brett. We started doing that at OHR.
The problem was at TWS we had no PROVNOVS cornerworking on Sunday.
Andy, I like the turn 3 idea also but the only exit there is rough and muddy when it rains.
Thanks for the input guys.

[Buck Beasley]

Great idea Brett is right!! I suggested this last year or the year before that pro-nov's be required to help with either a set up or take down of the fence. That way they get hands on experience on how to do it right, which only means there will be more folks with the knowledge to do it the right way. You will probably even get a few who enjoy it and might there fore want to do it more often. I remember driving the pits looking for fence help last year and most folks slink away or look the other way until the moment has passed and they are safe for any form of contribution. I'll offer my truck and body in any way that can help make life easier for the staff. Make no mistake, I'm in to help not just suggest, and apparently offend. I think that as a member of the club everyone should be able to work out just one weekend a season where we can stay to help. If everyone stayed an hour or two at the track closest to thier home, we'd have more help than Walter would probably know what to do with. Just let me know where I can help, and I'll be there. I'm not just a *****er....... I want to help.

[John Orchard]

Possibly just send everyone through the short corse after the checkerd flag flies? That'd still save some measurable time I would think?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Originally posted by Walter Walker:
Andy, I like the turn 3 idea also but the only exit there is rough and muddy when it rains.
</div></div>

[cedestech]

Short corse is what Andy ment I believe.

That is a good idea.

I bet that would save several minutes between races.

Good show Mr. Galindo!

[Derek Delpero]

I think the idea about using the short course has come up before. The problem is the leaders might end up cutting in front of people who are still racing. Yeah they are in the back, but they are still racing.

Exiting in T3 would work if it were paved. Other wise it would bring back memories of exiting in T1 at OHR. That wasn't very fun at all.