Runoffs

[Richard Hybels]

Anybody coming to Laguna in October?

[KAMcDonald]

i will be there holding down the rear of the formation....

that is what all good Marine Staff NCO's do to make sure no one wanders off....

[mazda17]

Scott Rettich will be there

[steve everard]

Reece Everard will be there from Michigan (34 hour tow each way) Dads bucket list !!!!!!!!!!!

[Jeff Read]

I'm in

[rshute]

I'm one more race away from divisional qualification, I will be there

[R. Armington]

Thinking about it

[La Scuderia Raggi]

Really Robert???? Oh pullleeeese.........

[Richard Hybels]

Robert, Robert, Robert you know damn well you are running.
I'll be doing what I do best: spectating.

[R. Armington]

I thought you were talking about FE class

[SV@RHC]

Well, since Roberts going and after all I've got a camping spot....so hopefully the stars will align and I'll be there?? Maybe...

[Richard Hybels]

Hmm only two FE entered for next Laguna race in June so nobody coming to use the weekend for practice. I'm getting the feeling it will be a small field for R/O.
Dante and Scott above are FC friends of mine that thought I was asking a general question.
I'm betting Brandon Aleckson will be there and he is faster than snot.

[AlecksonRacing]

I'll definitely be there.

John Yeatman should also be there.

I heard Schneider would rather go to a wedding than the runoffs....... He also changed his name to Nancy. Nancy Schneider.

[Brian.Novak]

I'll definitely be there.

John Yeatman should also be there.

I heard Schneider would rather go to a wedding than the runoffs....... He also changed his name to Nancy. Nancy Schneider.

He can give me his car for the race then

[Paul Schneider]

You guys are killing me! I want to go so bad . A really good friend of mine is getting married on the Saturday of our race...in Milwaukee... He waited until the Runoffs moved away from him to do this! Laguna is on our bucket list. We'll get out there one day...

[Jeff Read]

You need new friends Paul!

[Justin_H]

I'll be out there - I figure it's the best reason I'll ever have to drive Laguna Seca.

Justin

[KAMcDonald]

ok, all conferences are completed....

only 18 of us are qualified to go at all... it takes 10 drivers making at least 1 of the sessions to make a national champion, less than that and they call us a supplemental class without a national champion.


saying yes (11) are:
Scott Rettich (registered 7/23/14)
Justin Huffman (registered 7/24/14)
Reece Everhard (registered 7/23/14)
Jeff Read (registered 7/23/14)
John Yeatman (well, Brandon said yes for him) (registered 7/23/14)
Brandon Aleckson (registered 7/23/14)
Keith McDonald (registered 7/23/14)
rshute (via division series) (registered 7/23/14)
Eric Cruz (registered 8/8/14)
Henry Donohoo (registered 8/24/2014, not qualified with national points (as of 9/2/2014), made it in via divisional route?
Steve Grundahl (qualified as of 7/27)(registered 8/28/14 - may have to withdraw depending on transport)


qualified, not going (2)
Paul Schneider (and he is not even part of the wedding party, just a spectator in the cheap seats!)
Christopher Eveland

qualified, unknown status (7)
Brandon Kennedy
Dean Opperman
Curt Harrelson
Stuart Lehr (qualified as of 7/27)
Joseph Sammut
Carl Przyborowski (qualified as of 7/27)
Thomas Green

[steve everard]

Reece will be at Summit point to qualify and we are in for runoffs

[Evl]

I'm not going.

Chris Eveland

[KAMcDonald]

once Justin registers, the 8 of us already saying yes are set for the runoffs....

all we gotta do now is convice a couple of the others to come out and play.... paul of course is a lost cause. maybe the front office can grant us an exception with the whole field signing up on the first day of registration....

no, wait, I got an idea... paul, what is your friends address? I can send strippers to his place nightly, maybe they will change his mind about getting married, or, if she is there when they show, she will change hers.... then you will be able to come out with us.

[Paul Schneider]

Man, you're killing me! I really want to go. One year we'll make it out there.

[mazda17]

Can you just go to the Runoffs and telecommute to the wedding? I'm sure the hotel would have free wifi.

[Paul Schneider]

You're making me think...

[Jeff Read]

Only 8 entered so far, pathetic

[rshute]

Only 8 entered so far, pathetic

I don't think many of these people from the east coast can handle the corkscrew. Prove me wrong :P !!!!

[Justin_H]

Where are the Texans? I know there are some fast guys down there.

[Paul Schneider]

Deleted. Nevermind...

[KAMcDonald]

3 groups left with less than 10 entries

FE 8
B-Spec 7
F500 6

what say you guys sitting on the side.... come on out and play, there is at least one person there you will beat

[Jeff Read]

What is Enterprises going to do to help ?

[KAMcDonald]

uhm, not a lot in contingency
FE
1st $500
2nd $350
3rd $200

SRF
1st 50% off gen3 kit ($5400 ?)
2nd $500
3rd $250

maybe some cool door prizes at the party, uhm, at the non-party, ahhhh, if they can find you in the paddock....

[Jeff Read]

I'm not to worried about prizes, but the fact that we have not had any updates (news not upgrades) in months ???????


I get it the Spec Wrecker is the cash cow but when was the last email from enterprises?

[AlecksonRacing]

enterprise won't do anything. they've made it clear they don't care about the success of this class. If it lives for a couple years, great, if it dies, it'll just be a blip on the SRF radar.

The lack of participation in the class overall is the killer. Got a bunch of track day guys that are too afraid to pull the car out and actually race.

Did I like racing Nationals this year? For the most part, yes. SCCA did a good job trying to boost national competition, but regardless i'm showing up racing against 2 cars. There's nothing driving FE guys to participate on the west coast, no backbone to the class, despite there being 12+ cars in the region.

Will I do it next year, not a chance in hell. Doubt I'll be in the class much longer unless something drastic changes. And it's too bad, cause it's a great car to drive.

[KAMcDonald]

on the plus side, a guy from seattle just bought bruce allen's car up in NH, stopped by SP for the last majors race... so you get one more car on the west coast with someone who seems to want to go racing...

[Bruce Allen FSCCA #82]

on the plus side, a guy from seattle just bought bruce allen's car up in NH, stopped by SP for the last majors race... so you get one more car on the west coast with someone who seems to want to go racing...

So Kieth. I told Cameron to be on the lookout for you and Justin. How did he do?? He had zero hours in the car before Friday qualifying and he never owned a formula Car before.

[KAMcDonald]

way to slow on first session which was a qualifier... 1:28
I got permission to take him out at lunch, went into instructor mode for about 5 laps pointing out the line, stations, escape routes, places where to expect passes (especially since we had several FA's in the group) we our cars would brake/shift
2d session he did a 1:21, just barely under the 115% rule
fri night scott rettich went over some video with him to reinforce lines
sat morning i think he got down to 1:18, then sat race Justin got boxed in behind an FB at s/f that was having shifter problem, contact with car in front of him took off front wing and nose, so in his 1st race Cameron got on the podium with a 3rd place finish.

they do not seem to mind travelling, so i think they may see a lot of him out on the west coast.

[Richard Hybels]

I've got a deposit on my car that will stay in SFR and actually race as opposed to me. I'm one of the track day wankers.

[CameronRobinson]

Hello all,

I'm the guy from Seattle that bought Bruce's car. Had a really great time at Summit Point. That's an awesome track. I was slow, no doubt... Nothing really to say about that other than it was fun regardless!

Keith - thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate you taking the time to show me the track! That was very kind of you. It was icing on the cake to drive a Ferrari for the first time too!

Thank you to Bruce for the awesome car. Thank you Keith and Justin for the trackside help and information!

Had a great trip!! Can't wait to get the car on track on the west coast

[Erik Skirmants]

Let’s start with a little history, maybe even a fact or two…then take a deep breath and look at where we are:
When I got to Enterprises in 2005 we did our best to not acknowledge we were on deaths door, not just with the FE, but as a company as a whole…fact
I invested every penny we had, while getting the ship back afloat and the CSR’s healed, in which product…THE FE…fact
I took shots from 2006 through 2008 about “all I cared about being the damn new FE”…from the Spec Racer folks…fact
We fought like hell to heal the FE’s reputation and fought with Élan to get the parts sorted out and prices right as much as we could under a tight legal supply agreement…fact
During this time the SRF was stable and sustainable and the FE needed help technically and commercially
As 2008 – 2011 rolled through we, like everyone else, switched to recession mode…and we came out the other end; many didn’t.
By this time we were nearing the end of the Élan agreement but the SRF reached a point of critical need in terms of it quickly becoming unsustainable, bad for Enterprises, bad for the SCCA and even bad for the FE in the long run (Enterprises and some shared CSR’s need it to be healthy)
SO…we did what we had to do, and now we have presold almost 300 $10,995 GEN3 SRF updates (delivering almost 50 already) to get the SRF back on an at least a 15 year stable track…it’s really a kick ass little package now.
During this time I have repeatedly asked the CSR’s if the FE had any technical issues, needs etc.
We spent every dime the company had to get the GEN3 developed (remember we were just out of a recession) and will have recovered the $250k cash investment by year’s end.
No, you have not seen me at the race as cheerleader…NEITHER have the SRF’s…nose down, working our asses off...that is what was needed.

NOW…you are all totally and indisputably correct to be disappointed in us, or me. Really…I do agree.
I rebuilt everything with communications…and I am letting you down currently. I don’t love the SRF more, I am communicating with them much more because things are changing daily!
We have a stable and great FE product, but until about last week, no cash to invest in marketing and promotions…we have freedom to source things where we want, but insufficient current volume to get good deals; at least right this second. More on that in the future.
I am saving up to do a onetime buy out of Élan this Fall and walk away with jigs, molds and anything FE. Including a ton of inventory, some I just have to buy as part of the deal. It’s fair and it’s coming - finally.
You want one last fact; my 2005 price list shows that most consumables and crash repair parts are 5% lower now or within 15% of the price almost a decade ago.
We had a mess of a car and a company in 2005, now we have a terrific car and rock solid company.
Have I made the right decisions every day for the FE, probably not; but most days, I believe so.
Laguna will be my 42nd consecutive Runoffs attended…I will be 46 years young…I want a great FE race, we owe it to the West Coast…but is $500 going to change someone’s mind on going? What number would?…and then how is that fair to those already committed to going on their own dime? I cannot just toss out $1500 each for you all to go. Would that matter to an East coast racer anyway? Ford is offering you Runoffs contingency too, and not offering it to the SRF (they are giving us an engine as part of the 50% GEN3 kit discount for the SRF winner). None of it makes this a break even sport…don’t we wish it did!
The FE is the product we always wanted it to be, and so far we have not identified any magic ideas to make it better without making you, the existing customers, spend a lot of money on upgrades only meant to attract new people; not to improve the racing.
Apexspeed is a great site, it is not a daily or even weekly spot I spend time while having a coffee…many CSR’s do, so we generally are up to speed. Give them ideas. I can’t make up news but I can certainly show more love in my email blasts…I am sorry you have gotten frustrated. We never stopped caring or working hard.

[SStadel]

It is certainly not Enterprises fault that SCCA sent the Runoffs to an area with very little FE participation. We had 9 cars at the Cat Majors (and Scott was not one of them). Of the 9 drivers, only 1 of them (Reece Everard) is entered for the Runoffs. I know Steve Grundahl wants to go, but its a huge commitment of both time and money.

Put the Runoffs at Indy and you'd probably have 25 FE's at least.