vintage wrap up

Soup beans and cornbread:up:

 

Now you're talking

 

...white cornbread...pan fried...extra lard, please...

 

Yuengling and popcorn, enjoyed at the movies.

Going to see that "Men who stare at Goats" at the Beach theater a short drive away where they serve beer & wine at the movies.

 

Didn't know that soup beans and cornbread was a pie?

 

You can put anything in a pie....even four and twenty blackbirds

 

Can egg n' chips be called a pie?

 

No more than that leaky tractor you ride can be called a racing machine.

 

That was cruel:tut:

 

Much kinder than 'British cuisine.'

(just poking at you is all!)

 

Only if you have 3.14 of them

 

Yes indeed O' Mong - your life just isn't whole until you've tasted one. Oh...The rapture...

 

Pie + Durrani magnesium wheels = clubman legal.





That is all.

 

The Durrani Wheel...it's for everyone!

 

The Queen likes steak n' kidney pie

 

Her Royal Highness, The Queen Mum, would never indulge in such a plebian eating. I've been to Windsor Castle and I can assure you, my good fellow, that there is no steak and kidney 'pie' to be found on the premises, unless it is invested in the gizzard of some vagrant who has wandered illegally onto the castle grounds. This is a dreadful accusation that you've set forth, and I can only hope that Her Highness never catches wind of it, lest the sickening concoction of ingredients be forever banned from Ol' Blighty.

 

It would be a miracle if she did, she's been dead for a few years.

 

So right, so right.

 

Sean, I do not wish to argue with your conclusions but I can’t say I agree with them either. I believe there are sides to the double points and other rules that are overlooked in what appears to be a single sided view of the issues.

Before I speak to the double points issue I would like to address complaints about “declining grids” I believe there are multiple issues under this topic:

1. Declining participation.
2. Attracting new racers
3. The number of vintage races.

I would like to speak to item number 3. You have pointed out from a WERA revenue /and entry point of view including vintage at every sportsman event is a zero sum or no $ loss/cost issue for WERA. While this is accurate it does not mean there is no impact on vintage. Even though the revenue is the same overall, having so many events spreads out the participation and effectively reduces the grid size per event. This impacts the quality of the events for vintage participants and certainly contributes to the frustration expressed here. If it has no impact on WERA’s revenue why not compress the vintage events a little and increase the participation per event among existing participants? . I realize from an accounting point of view that it may reduce the $ take at the non vintage events, try your paid Saturday practice idea and see if it works at those events.

At times it can take a guy quite a few races or a significant portion of the season to get a hand built vintage bike sorted out. There is no cost to WERA to award points based on finish regardless of taking the checkered flag. This was discussed and explained to me by Lyn Garland when I first started racing. I know your view of finish points, you have expressed it before, this may not make a difference I just thought it a valid point for consideration. It costs WERA nothing yet could help with attendance at later season races and the GNF.


I believe there are multiple positive benefits to a double point race:

1. It will focus attention and increase participation for that event, this is ALWAYS deemed a better race experience, look at the focus the Barber event brings and the resulting positive reviews.
2. point accumulation and GNF participation. A guy that cannot make a full 6 races can accumulate enough points to justify attending the GNF. This is what I understood the motivation was for the finish points rule that was also eliminated.
3. You feel it encourages a racer to skip a race, the opposite side of that view is that it can and does cause racers to attend the double points race because of the additional benefit.



When vintage was taken back in house there was a huge wave of concern that WERA was going to kill the vintage program. Your response was to explain that there was no “cost” difference between vintage and modern. As you previosly expressed, with the incorporation of transponders vintage is just 4 Saturday races. When compared to your position on vintage in this thread (paraphrasing) “Vintage is a $ loss, maybe WERA will dump it and run a paid practice” it is the definition of duplicity and makes it difficult to see the value in proposing anything to WERA. Your admission that the 100 racer number you threw out was pulled out of the air, your quick single minded reply to any suggestion verifies to those that try and have a reasonable debate or exchange with you that it is a waste of time.

The Vintage group has proven that we can and will promote events, you really don’t take advantage of this. If the practice day prior to the GNF does not make $ sense as it was handled this year, communicate with your customers. Announce it in advance, offer it only if it is pre-sold out for both the modern and vintage group. You might be shocked to see that your customers support you and make it happen. If they don’t they have nothing to bitch about, try a little free internal marketing.