David Neibert
SCCoA Admin
I’m not saying the committee is doing a bad job at all. What I’m trying to point out is that the committee needs to look forward and consider that the population just changed since any FN10/MN12 is able to race in any class now. Does that mean the event has to move? No. Does it mean that the event might be better served at a different location since the population just changed? Maybe. Don’t know until the committee polls the population. Yes, that means the whole SC/LX/V6/V8 population. Should they? Probably since the decision was made to include any FN10/MN12 in any class.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the event, the racing, the car show, the trophies, Brian cooking steak and shrimp (why cater anymore when Brian’s around) but I think the committee has a lot more decisions that need to be made now than in the past.
So, when can I be a Shootout committee member.
Duane,
The Shootout has been open to all MN12 and FN10s for years (especially the show portion). This year we decided to experiment with a new set of racing rules that would allow the v8 cars to race against the supercharged v6s in all classes instead of only a few classes. It also allowed the v6 guys to have their car modded however they wanted and still be able to race against cars of similar ET.
Proir to making these rules changes there were threads posted on TCCoA soliciting input from the people about the proposed rules changes. There were also several post made after the rules were made official and the change of location happened. Positive feedback from the TCCoA guys was pretty good, but I think we actually ended up with less V8 cars participating this year than we had last year.
I'm sure the bad economy has a lot to do with why we didn't see more of the v8 guys this year. But even when the economy recovers, I don't expect to see a huge surge in attendance just because of the rules changes we made. There is a core group that pretty much always attends, and then there are people who almost always attend, then there are a bunch who are hit or miss.
IMO, many of the TCCoA guys are just not into the meets like they once were. I think the age of these cars and the owner demographic also plays a big part (both for SCCoA and TCCoA). Many of the guys with the nicest cars have sold their cars and moved on to other newer models, or gotten away from modding their cars to start a family or buy a house or just got bored. Look what happened to the T-bird attendance at WFC or Carlisle over the past 6 years.
I think there are still enough people interested in these cars that we can continue to have a well attended Shootout for several years to come, but I don't really see this meet ever becoming even twice as large, no matter where or when it's held.
David