Autocross thoughts

[Leadfoot]

Has any thought been given to changing the way we run autocrosses in order to minimize dead time and make it easier on non-driving participants?

For example, if the run groups were announced in advance (I realize it would take a little guesswork), friends and family members who want to ride along or watch would have some idea when they'd need to be there. As it is, they have to plan to be there at the first-car-off time, and might have to hang around for hours until I get to run.

Also, with our usual three run groups, most people have to hang out at the event all day. If we broke it down into four groups and paired them into two sessions, say Morning and Afternoon, we'd only have to be there half as long. This would work especially well with pre-announced run groups, so people would know whether to be there for the Morning or Afternoon session.

Just thinking out loud and not trying to step on anyone's toes...

[disneyd]

For example, if the run groups were announced in advance (I realize it would take a little guesswork), friends and family members who want to ride along or watch would have some idea when they'd need to be there. As it is, they have to plan to be there at the first-car-off time, and might have to hang around for hours until I get to run.

The run groups are created after everyone has registered... for a reason. We don't have a way of knowing for sure how many drivers we are going to have and which classes they are running in. I've been chairing events for several years now and we hardly ever have the same run-group breaks twice in a row. If we had pre-set run groups, and say, 20 extra people showed up for STS, then one work group would end up standing out in the sun/rain much longer than others. This isn't far fetched as we often have the Miata/BMW/etc. club show up at an event without notice.

Also, with our usual three run groups, most people have to hang out at the event all day. If we broke it down into four groups and paired them into two sessions, say Morning and Afternoon, we'd only have to be there half as long. This would work especially well with pre-announced run groups, so people would know whether to be there for the Morning or Afternoon session.

We try to keep the number of heats down to the minimum possible while keeping workers out of the weather as much as we can. Two run groups sometimes puts workers out in the sun too long, so we have gone to running three... this was forced by the greater participation we've been having.

The problem with running more run groups is that people are slow getting to their work stations. The more run groups we have, the less runs you will get because even efficient worker change-overs cost us time.

Morning/Afternoon sessions sounds great for people who just show up and drive. However, our club isn't currently big enough to support two completely separate groups to run timing/scoring, tech, registration, etc. These work stations require some training and lots of dedication from the workers. Currently, the same crew would have to work all day.

Also, most of our sites have churches near, so we cannot start runs before noon... so that kills any "Morning" sessions.

Just thinking out loud and not trying to step on anyone's toes...

Input is always appreciated. We've been doing this long enough that we pretty much have it down, but its also easy to get stuck in a groove and overlook something that would improve things.

[whenry]

What David said.
The greatest aid would come from better cooperation and participation of the entrants. We try to arrange the schedule so that you work after you run so that you have some time between the sessions to work on car, make a pottie run, eat lunch, etc but it doesnt always work out. The more folk that step up to help regardless of the level of responsibility will make our events successful. I know that as a newbie, every entrant will not know what to do but if you watch and follow you will pick it up and you can be useful. And as the post sought to do, you may even come up with a useful organizational idea. Generally, ETR doesnt have much use for "this is the way that we have always done things"