Drew
07-30-2002, 11:17 PM
This is somewhat of a continuation of my compliments on the St. Cloud Corvette event this weekend; but I wanted to start a new topic to comment on the support of Met Council club events.
As for the site in St. Cloud, I'll echo Bob's comments from the other topic. Those who think St. Cloud is too far to drive for a fun day of autocrossing are missing the boat on this one. I went for both days and it was definitely worth two round trips (even going home in the downpour on Saturday).
Quite honestly, I enjoyed all the runs we got because there weren't a lot of entries there. But the reality is that no club can afford to keep puting on events for us when they can't come close to covering their costs. Those who stay away because they have to drive an extra 30 to 60 minutes, or because St. Cloud isn't a pure parking lot autocross, may not have to make the decision in the future whether to go to an event there. And if you think why bother with St. Cloud because MAC has a couple of sites right in the Cities, remember that no site is guaranteed indefinitely. Any site can be lost as easily as DCTC was, and they're not easily replaced.
The St. Cloud site is available to us in part because a group of car clubs (mostly Met Council) were interested in using the facility. MHSRC set up a program this year to allow car club activities under uniform terms and procedures. The car club revenue no doubt helps in the site improvements that have been made and that are planned for the future. These improvements not only benefit the MHSRC's other training programs, but they have expanded the autocross course design options. So both the facility and the car clubs are benefiting. But if the car club use dwindles, MHSRC could decide that the current program, which has been pretty accomodating to car clubs, isn't worthwhile.
Let me finally say that I have no intent to be critical of anyone who has something else to do besides autocross. I've probably missed about half the possible events so far this season for various reasons. But I am encouraging Twin City autocrossers to look at St. Cloud a viable option when you want to get out and have some fun while improving your driving skills.
Drew Baumbach
As for the site in St. Cloud, I'll echo Bob's comments from the other topic. Those who think St. Cloud is too far to drive for a fun day of autocrossing are missing the boat on this one. I went for both days and it was definitely worth two round trips (even going home in the downpour on Saturday).
Quite honestly, I enjoyed all the runs we got because there weren't a lot of entries there. But the reality is that no club can afford to keep puting on events for us when they can't come close to covering their costs. Those who stay away because they have to drive an extra 30 to 60 minutes, or because St. Cloud isn't a pure parking lot autocross, may not have to make the decision in the future whether to go to an event there. And if you think why bother with St. Cloud because MAC has a couple of sites right in the Cities, remember that no site is guaranteed indefinitely. Any site can be lost as easily as DCTC was, and they're not easily replaced.
The St. Cloud site is available to us in part because a group of car clubs (mostly Met Council) were interested in using the facility. MHSRC set up a program this year to allow car club activities under uniform terms and procedures. The car club revenue no doubt helps in the site improvements that have been made and that are planned for the future. These improvements not only benefit the MHSRC's other training programs, but they have expanded the autocross course design options. So both the facility and the car clubs are benefiting. But if the car club use dwindles, MHSRC could decide that the current program, which has been pretty accomodating to car clubs, isn't worthwhile.
Let me finally say that I have no intent to be critical of anyone who has something else to do besides autocross. I've probably missed about half the possible events so far this season for various reasons. But I am encouraging Twin City autocrossers to look at St. Cloud a viable option when you want to get out and have some fun while improving your driving skills.
Drew Baumbach