Non-neha Ascutney report

[sachilles]

I think check five is as important as any. I've had to do a lot of work there in the last couple of years. Shea's vw fire. Julies off on the bring down. Kiwi, you had a minor off at the corner before check five. Alex had a mechanical. The mutt lost at least one transmission there. I've had so much action there, I moved for fear I was a jinx.

[sdwarf36]

I think check five is as important as any. I've had to do a lot of work there in the last couple of years. Shea's vw fire. Julies off on the bring down. Kiwi, you had a minor off at the corner before check five. Alex had a mechanical. The mutt lost at least one transmission there. I've had so much action there, I moved for fear I was a jinx.

Magnet Seth!

[sachilles]

....and that checkpoint ripped my pants

[Chief Geek]

Jamie et al.

First of all, it was clear that the Max BMW crew did a great job of promoting the event, The atmosphere at staging was great.

I was disturbed about the safety procedures in use. So much so that Rich (my dad) and I quit during the event on Saturday afternoon. Here are the main reasons why:

1) Many competitors commented that tech inspection was "a rubber stamp".
2) Workers were instructed to stay off the radio unless we "knew" something was wrong. It was not clear that "when unsure if the course is clear, throw the red flag". I can easily see how a new worker could come out of the worker meeting with a very lax attitude about safety procedures.
3) We received a call that the Speedway crew was needed but without a location. If the location was transmitted, we didn't receive it. If anyone responded to our calls asking for the location, we never received them (we received one transmission, but it wasn't English anymore). Fortunately Rich was keeping a detailed list of when each number started and when they passed us. Speedway eventually got to the scene but Rich and I had to connect the dots as to where the scene must be and told Speedway to go uphill, not down. The Speedway crew stopped at every checkpoint on the way up trying to confirm the location but the first few couldn't tell them. The driver later described it as "driving to the scene by braille".
4) Rich's list of times and numbers was intended to tell us if someone was late to our check point. While this may work in theory, it was difficult to rely on. Without the cadence of calls as a car climbed the hill, I could never feel like I had a handle on the hill. Also, there was no opportunity for Control or any other checkpoint to keep an eye on us and we couldn't keep an eye out for anyone else.
5) Late in the day, several workers wanted to leave. Control said that some CPs would have just 1 worker but they were continuing the event that way. This was the last straw for me and I quit.
6) When I told the Speedway crew that I was quitting, the EMT (I've forgotten her name) pleaded with me to stay. She admitted that without someone experienced enough to put together the bits of radio sound we were getting for her, she wasn't sure they'd know where to go if something else happened. Without experienced workers, she worried that they'd have an even slower response time.
7) After I told control that I quit, two workers were dropped off @ CP4 to replace Rich and I. One said he'd only ever taken pictures at events before, the other said this was his first motorsports event and he'd been a spectator until 5 minutes ago. I then proceeded to yell at Max in a rude an unhelpful way, for which I'm sorry.
8) Competitors weren't instructed that they must stop for any red flag, at any time, any place, no matter what.

Seeing fast cars is cool. Seeing really fast cars like #s 45, 395, 25, & 36 on the hill is awesome. Seeing a car set split times faster than #5 & #395 have set is terrifying when you recognize the car isn't properly prepared. I wasn't worried about the driver, he's an adult. I was worried about everyone else getting an experience that no one should have to endure.

Now that I have seen a bit of contrast, it is clear to me that the NEHA rules are there for good reason. Clearly the rules aren't intended to reduce fun, they're there to ensure things don't get tragically un-fun all of a sudden. No doubt some adjustments could be made, but in general, they don't seem far off the mark.

I think rogue hillclimb events with weak rules can clearly put the future of the sport in jeopardy. None of these hills need us, they are doing us a favor. It won't take much negative publicity for a resort or state forest service to make the very easy, and politically very safe, choice of saying no more motorsports on the hills.

I think we should reduce the driving force behind rogue events by allowing all vehicles types at all the events. Max and his crew clearly do many useful things really well, just not road control and safety comms. At NEHA events, I've never experienced Max BMW staff and clients or other "bike-people" to be anything other than good sports that are easy to get along with. Why not let them compete.

For those that don't think they need properly prepared cars, I just hope they choose to install safety equipment before they very suddenly need it. I've never met anyone that couldn't crash or that could predict how the crash would turn out.

{stepping down from the soap box}

I agree Jamie's point the number of runs being more a function of wrecker recovery time than anything else. I suspect there are only minutes to be saved by hurrying starts, but there are hours to be saved when the drivers stay "clean". Should we limit the number of times a competitor can bring out a red flag before they're done for the weekend?

While being on the hill at 6:30 isn't fun and not coming down for lunch is a drag, I think there is an opportunity here. I'm sure time can be saved and extra runs gained by sticking to the morning schedule militantly as well as being firm about getting on the hill after lunch. The air horn is a good idea, but it's operator needs to be somewhat less kind. Maybe the first radio check should be at a scheduled time.

If you've read this far, thank you for your persistence. I've tried not to upset anyone and I don't intend to. I hope everyone I met last weekend had a great time and wants to hill climb some more. I plan to continue working and begin competing at NEHA events and maybe others with similar rules. My first priority, however, is to ensure hill climbing continues for a long time.

Paul

[Robevo]

i dont know what to say since i was driving, for me the event was awesome.

Your feed back point , number 8, is defenietly not true. Sorry to say that but we had a driver meeting and we were instructed for a day. And yes one point was a red flag... And as usual immidiate stop on course. Also the rest of the safety thing. Both days , saturday and sunday we had before the first run a drivers meeting.
the rest of your post i have no insight on it.

Rob

[sdwarf36]

i dont know what to say since i was driving, for me the event was awesome.

Your feed back point , number 8, is defenietly not true. Sorry to say that but we had a driver meeting and we were instructed for a day. And yes one point was a red flag... And as usual immidiate stop on course. Also the rest of the safety thing. Both days , saturday and sunday we had before the first run a drivers meeting.
the rest of your post i have no insight on it.

Rob

How many people stopped for the red flag on the fam on Sunday?( It may have been behind you Rob)-silver Honda had a broken front wheel. I was the only one at the 1st one-(where there was a red-AND a waving yellow!) then told to proceed-no red or anyone stopped at 4-5-6-then another red at 7-where i stopped again-2 Saabs were also stopped. Also told to procced.

[Rabbit Farmer]

I don't have any comments on the event as I was not there. It was their first event so you can expect a bit of a learning curve that would improve with each future event. What were the NEHA events like back in the 70's?

[Robevo]

i dont know what to say since i was driving, for me the event was awesome.

Your feed back point , number 8, is defenietly not true. Sorry to say that but we had a driver meeting and we were instructed for a day. And yes one point was a red flag... And as usual immidiate stop on course. Also the rest of the safety thing. Both days , saturday and sunday we had before the first run a drivers meeting.
the rest of your post i have no insight on it.

Rob

How many people stopped for the red flag on the fam on Sunday?( It may have been behind you Rob)-silver Honda had a broken front wheel. I was the only one at the 1st one-(where there was a red-AND a waving yellow!) then told to proceed-no red or anyone stopped at 4-5-6-then another red at 7-where i stopped again-2 Saabs were also stopped. Also told to procced.

well that doesnt shows the lack of information. more like the lack of experience or ignorance.
Both days clearly at a driver meeting they explain the flags , saturday even more detailed since the first time ever they run with these rally scheme.
Now that is up to the individulas they do listen and acting properly. You cant blame orgenizer for someone behavior. Those guys would do a same regardless of the organizations. That is all i am saying.
Sunday before the first run, one orgenizer even came a cross the main road out side of the event, where we were getting ready with our car. To call us in, for a driver meeting.
(We had no room for our set up inside of the service area, that is why we were out side of the event)

i never orgenized anything, but from a driver point of view, the event was very nicely orgenized. We even got food and drink
Also i never saw any flag either. Since all the stories happend behind me, that's why i cant really comment how those yellow or red flags stories happened.
But i can comment on the "Competitors weren't instructed that they must stop for any red flag, at any time, any place, no matter what.", since i was there with a competitors both morning.