East Coast Nationals '09

[MikeD]

I think it would be awesome to go out west and race with some new faces. I just need to figure out how to get the cars out there.

FWIW I think having a nationals separate from Miller is a bad idea.

[DaveCN]

Steve D wrote:

[quote]cwbaader wrote:

Moving the nats away from 90% of their customer base is just stupid.

I keep seeing this 90% figure quoted as gospel.

Is that really the number? I have a feeling that if you draw a 15-hour tow circle around MidOhio you get less than 90% of the racing population and if you draw the same circle around Miller you get way more than 10% of the racing population…

If that 90% really is the number, NASA made a mistake. If it is not, they made the right choice to move nationals around.

If I did it right, below is a map of the US by income. Looks like there’s a good swath of upper-middle income in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado.

Now look at the states near Ohio to the south. The average household income ranges are:
$43 & under - tan
$44-49 - light (lime) green
$50-57 - medium green
$58 up - dark green

Assuming that disposable income and racing are correlated, maybe those NASA execs aren’t so dumb after all…

Steve D.[/quote]

That map does not take into account real estate costs and other costs of living. My house just outside Cincinnati at 3700 sf in the top school district in KY (yeah, I know ) would be a heckuva lot more than the 375-400k range in a lot of those medium and dark green states.

[944_Cup]

allenr wrote:

[quote]944 cup just announced a e.c. nationals event at vir next year!

[quote]

To clarify an important point on the 944 Cup, we are planning an event at year end but we are not considering it as an East Coast National Championship. We respect the right of NASA to select the venues for its events and have no intention to undermine their events.

But, because the Cup series has only a presence with NASA in the East, we wanted to replace the loss of the NASA Nationals event here in the East with an event that would give our drivers, from all our Chapters, an event that would allow them to compete against each other in some fashion. In coordination with NASA, we were careful to format the event in a way that would do this yet not culminate in a National Championship race.

[allenr]

To clarify an important point on the 944 Cup, we are planning an event at year end but we are not considering it as an East Coast National Championship. We respect the right of NASA to select the venues for its events and have no intention to undermine their events.

You clearly stated in the announcement that the event serves to “replace the NASA nationals”.
Also what you intend it to be and what it turns into are two different things. You may not want to take away drivers from nationals but NASA may believe that you are, which seems to be all that really matters.
I’m very curious to know how you did this in “coordination” with nasa while GTS did something similar and got their butts kicked.

[leggwork]

probably with communication, tact and compromise
Only Mark Barr got his butt kicked

allenr wrote:

[quote]To clarify an important point on the 944 Cup, we are planning an event at year end but we are not considering it as an East Coast National Championship. We respect the right of NASA to select the venues for its events and have no intention to undermine their events.

You clearly stated in the announcement that the event serves to “replace the NASA nationals”.
Also what you intend it to be and what it turns into are two different things. You may not want to take away drivers from nationals but NASA may believe that you are, which seems to be all that really matters.
I’m very curious to know how you did this in “coordination” with nasa while GTS did something similar and got their butts kicked.[/quote]

[SurferShawn]

interesting read guys!