Clovis

[QUOTE]Originally posted by marcucci
[B]Per everyone's generator suggestions, unless the club has money to burn, a better investment might be a large deep cycle battery (~$70) and a 600W inverter (<$100). It should me more than enough to run a laptop and the timing gear and eventually a printer. It would require charging the battery before an event, but no one has to worry about bringing gas. It would also allow us to run off of a car's battery should all else fail (w/o a last minute run for gas).

marcucci

You'll be up against David. I'll be out of town. Keep in mind that I was only ranked 5th, too... you've got a few marks ahead of me before you meet up with David.

I will probably abstain from BMW events in favor of the S2 ones; they are a lot more fun and I'm not exactly swimming in tire money right now!

Elistan

Another tidbit of trivia I meant to mention:
This event, we had 24 cars.
The previous, 12.
And the first one had 6.

I hope that doesn't mean our fourth event will have 48 cars!!!

marcucci

Prepare for it. The BMW club events have skyrocketed in popularity due to the (normally) low turnout, high number of runs, and relaxed atmosphere. Guess what? We duplicated it! It's only a matter of time until people turn out in droves.

There were at least 3 if not 4 or 5 people I can think of off the top of my head that would have been there but had other things going on. They WILL make the next one.

BTW, what are the other Mineral Wells dates?

AATees

[QUOTE]Originally posted by marcucci
[B]Prepare for it. The BMW club events have skyrocketed in popularity due to the (normally) low turnout, high number of runs, and relaxed atmosphere. Guess what? We duplicated it! It's only a matter of time until people turn out in droves.

marcucci

While I think it is probably not "nice" it would be an effective way to limit participation. I think anything more than a $10 differential (or the V8 pays twice!) might be a little much, though.

Not sure if anyone noticed, but running the 2 hot laps with 3 cars on course in the afternoon made things go MUCH faster. Were we to get things going on time (I know, I know) next time and do this from the get-go, we could easily handle another 10-15 people or throw in another pair of laps for people. I'd suggest increasing cost (to everyone) and adding more laps or leaving the cost the same and focusing on this methodology.

Just a thought.

altiain

Before Todd scares you with horror stories about how crowded the BMWCCA events are, keep in mind that in the four seasons I've been going now they've crept up from about 20-25 people to 40-50 people, depending on the weather. However, we still manage to always get eight runs apiece, plus fun runs if we really want, and we always manage to get out of there before dark - usually 3 or 4 pm, even after (in my case) putting the car and trailer back together.

If you want crowded, go to an SCCA event. There were so many people (175+) at the 1st one this season that we were limited to 3 runs each. I have no doubt their popularity will continue, since they have TMS booked as an event site three times this season, but if the turnout continues to force run counts that low, I may stop going altogether.

As for race-prepared Prelude taxes and V8 taxes et al, how about a displacement tax? In which case I ought to get a 10% discount off admission for the next event (2.0L *S2000 standard* - 1.8L Miata motor = .2L displacement rebate) .

Oh, and in all seriousness about increasing non-member costs to something draconian to discourage participation... why? More participants means more $$$ for your club. If you find that you've got too many entrants at the next one, then perhaps make the 3rd one limited to the first 30 participants, who have to register online or confirm with the eventmaster prior to the day of the show? Just a suggestion that would allow you to limit event size without shutting out non-S2k drivers.