BG race rules procedures for 2006

[Nick Micale]

.....................Nick, I just read that again....does that mean you are not attending the race or you are not going to be the race director?

That DOES NOT sound good.....

Based upon information I have received, I can give you further info about the "new" GSCA race program. This will be all defined and worked out on the official GSCA web site shortly.

As I said before, there will be a rep from each class who will be the race administrator for that class. He will manage and formulate any and all proposed changes for that class.

These changes will then be forwarded to a rules evalulation panel for approval.

At the next event, the class rep will determine if each car is legal or not, and cannot be overruled by anyone other than Richard Lasseter.

To specifically answer your question Bill, the Race Director is now Richard Lasseter. The rules evaluation panel will be Ron and Red. So I am by default, no longer race director, and at this point doubt that I will even attend the 2006 event in BG. :fragez:

I do want to thank all the racers I have met and dealt with over the years in BG. Yes, I am disappointed that John Chamberlain and I could not be allowed to bring this event to a "higher level" with a more professional competition, better payouts including monies from racer fees and gate receipts, and major sponsors. This was our goal when we were given the jobs of Event Director and Race Director over 2 years ago.

However, since John insisted on responsible accounting of the financial transactions, and I ruled the race program with a "heavy hand", it was determined by the "powers to be" that we will not be allowed to go forward with our plan.

I want it to be clear, I leave with no hard feeling towards anyone, and actually enjoyed the opportunity to show that with proper direction, the BG race program could be fun and successful.

It is also with great regret for the racers that we can no longer have an open, unbiased forum to discuss and formulate proposed rules for this event. As has been said, any comment, proposals or ideas here or on any internet site will fall on deaf ears. It will have to be on the GSCA site only, since that is where the control will remain.

John and I will now explore another agenda to see if it is feasable to do an event on our own, or with another organization.

 

[Otto J]

Wwll that kinda sucks, Well we know for sure know with Red behind it,No 4 bolt 76 in TSE
Just for the record, Nick,you did a great job running the show,hopefully it wont fall apart next year
See ya in Vegas

 

[Mike Licht]

So let me get this straight, Richard is the Race director and Rod nad Red are the rules evaluation guys. Well at least they picked guys who will be fair to everyone . What a disappointment. Nick without you there the future is not too bright IMO
Mike

 

[TurboDiverArt]

To specifically answer your question Bill, the Race Director is now Richard Lasseter. The rules evaluation panel will be Ron and Red. So I am by default, no longer race director, and at this point doubt that I will even attend the 2006 event in BG. :fragez:

I do want to thank all the racers I have met and dealt with over the years in BG. Yes, I am disappointed that John Chamberlain and I could not be allowed to bring this event to a "higher level" with a more professional competition, better payouts including monies from racer fees and gate receipts, and major sponsors. This was our goal when we were given the jobs of Event Director and Race Director over 2 years ago.

However, since John insisted on responsible accounting of the financial transactions, and I ruled the race program with a "heavy hand", it was determined by the "powers to be" that we will not be allowed to go forward with our plan.

It is also with great regret for the racers that we can no longer have an open, unbiased forum to discuss and formulate proposed rules for this event. As has been said, any comment, proposals or ideas here or on any internet site will fall on deaf ears. It will have to be on the GSCA site only, since that is where the control will remain.

John and I will now explore another agenda to see if it is feasable to do an event on our own, or with another organization.

I too have regrets on this subject. Over the past 9 months I have grown to have great respect for John and Nick. Behind the scenes many of us (that had been viewed as dissidents and malcontents) have been trying to mend fences. Great strides have been made over the past 9 months with the Nats and BPG event.

I, and many of my peers have had countless emails and discussions with Nick and John regarding payouts, financial accounting and safety. Just the things that John and Nick were trying to make better with the Nats. It's a shame that the "powers that be" do not see the benefit of trying to finally unify the Buick community ONCE AND FOR ALL. Finally these very important issues were being addressed. Did you notice that the payouts were posted before the racers attended the event and these payouts were honored? This is because that’s the way Nick and John changed it! These behind the scenes conversations extended way into the wee hours of many nights. Lots of us lost plenty of sleep working through these issues and ensuring that the 2005 Nats were the best and enjoyable by all and would be even better in 2006. None but a select few people even knew this was happening behind the scenes. We were all hoping to have everything resolved and worked out before a formal announcement to the Buick community was made. The possibilities of having this come to fruition was mind-boggling. Imagine all events adhering to similar rules, payouts, structure and all having there own place in the Buick community without all the frictions that now exist. Without Nick and John driving this for the Nats I don’t see how this is now possible. I would love to keep a positive attitude but I don’t see how the new regime (or is it the old worn out regime) will make this happen. I fear that it’s now back to the old problems again!

Myself, Rich Rezes, Ed Baker, Tommy X, Jim Testa and many, many others were planning to attend the 2006 Nats in a show of our support to the efforts of Nick and John. This planned showing was 100% completely because of the efforts of Nick and John. If the event is going to slide back into the old ways without the safety issues addressed, payouts and financial accounting that Nick and John were working on I personally will also not attend! This is such a shame, we are all making such progress, what a setback!

I don't view this as a failure or waste of time as a lot of progress has been made by many. I'm looking forward to having a beer with Nick and John at BPG if they make it. I believe you may have noticed that many of the typical grumbling regarding the Nats did not happen this year. This is directly related to the hard work Nick and John have done for this event. You guys truly made the 25th anniversary Nats the best event in a very long time and I'm not just saying that because my car was on the silver jubilee T-shirt!

Again, very sorry to hear this. I think you guys not being involved is a great loss not only to the Nats but the long held hopes of unifying everyone. Damn, I really felt we were so close this time!!!

Art.

 

[Nick Micale]

Here is the "official" version from the GSCA:

<

Buick GS Club of America
> GS Nats Race
> 2006 Turbo H/U Classes Race Rules


RonsAuto
GSCA PR Director
Posts: 482
(7/20/05 11:48 am)
Reply 2006 Turbo H/U Classes Race Rules
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For our 2006 Nats., we are implementing a revised system for race rules management and controls, as follows:

For each heads-up class, a Race Rules Administrator (RRA) is being appointed that is a racer who participates in that respective class.
The appointees for the big block / V8 racer RRAs are still in formulation. The turbo classes RRAs are in place and are ready to go as per the following personnel:

TSO Cal Hartline

TSE Bob Hinson

TSM Scott Simpson

TSS Keith Soffa


Each RRA will be the lead person and responsible to manage, control, and formulate, any and all changes, and clarifications deemed necessary to the existing 2005 rules. They will maintain liaison and be in close and frequent contact with every racer in his class that competed in 2005 and 2004.
With careful consideration given to the existing 2005 rules, the RRA will listen to "any others", from "any other venue or source", who offers suggestions to any of the class rules. But, the final decision for any changes will be based upon a 60% majority vote of only the racers who competed in their respective class during the last two Nats. By racer, we mean the owner of the car.
Once each RRA has thorough input from all of the racers in his class and has a 60% majority vote from these racers for any changes, this information will be forwarded to our webmaster Brett Wallace, who will accumulate these changes and submit them to a Rules Evaluation Panel (REP) for review. (This panel will be appointed in the very near future) Once this panel reviews these changes, they are forwarded back to Brett for inclusion on our website.

At the event next year, during tech, each RRA has the sole responsibility and control over whether a car is legal or not and he cannot be overruled by anyone other than Richard Lasseter.
Each RRA will be maintained until he either resigns, is voted out by a 60% majority of his classes racers, or relieved of his duties by Richard Lasseter.

The obvious goal and objective of the above policy is to place all the rules control, where it belongs, directly into the hands of the racers who regularly complete in each respective class. This eliminates the perceived image of the governing body for rules being that of the "GSCA" or "Nats." administrations, or anyone else.

The RRAs now in place will be instructed to go to work with their racers immediately. They will have till 8/31 to complete their discussions and etc. On 9/1 the RRAs should submit all changes and etc. to Brett for compilation. We anticipate having the final 2006 rules posted to our website by on or about 9/15. This enables all racers 8 months to get their cars into compliance with the up-dated and finalized rules.

Edited by: RonsAuto at: 7/20/05 11:50 am


How much credibility can you expect from a flawed concept? Case in point, major input will be accepted from racers that participated in 2004 and 2005, so the RRA for the TSS class is someone that HAS NOT raced TSS in those years.

Good move to protect the stage block and heads in TSS that I proposed to eliminate. I was also going to mandate a compressor inlet size limit and check it with a plug like in TSM. Maybe then one car would not have a half second advantage over the rest of the class.

 

[TurboDiverArt]

Here we go again....

I too have regrets on this subject. Over the past 9 months I have grown to have great respect for John and Nick. Behind the scenes many of us (that had been viewed as dissidents and malcontents) have been trying to mend fences. Great strides have been made over the past 9 months with the Nats and BPG event.

I, and many of my peers have had countless emails and discussions with Nick and John regarding payouts, financial accounting and safety. Just the things that John and Nick were trying to make better with the Nats. It's a shame that the "powers that be" do not see the benefit of trying to finally unify the Buick community ONCE AND FOR ALL. Finally these very important issues were being addressed. Did you notice that the payouts were posted before the racers attended the event and these payouts were honored? This is because that’s the way Nick and John changed it! These behind the scenes conversations extended way into the wee hours of many nights. Lots of us lost plenty of sleep working through these issues and ensuring that the 2005 Nats were the best and enjoyable by all and would be even better in 2006. None but a select few people even knew this was happening behind the scenes. We were all hoping to have everything resolved and worked out before a formal announcement to the Buick community was made. The possibilities of having this come to fruition was mind-boggling. Imagine all events adhering to similar rules, payouts, structure and all having there own place in the Buick community without all the frictions that now exist. Without Nick and John driving this for the Nats I don’t see how this is now possible. I would love to keep a positive attitude but I don’t see how the new regime (or is it the old worn out regime) will make this happen. I fear that it’s now back to the old problems again!

Myself, Rich Rezes, Ed Baker, Tommy X, Jim Testa and many, many others were planning to attend the 2006 Nats in a show of our support to the efforts of Nick and John. This planned showing was 100% completely because of the efforts of Nick and John. If the event is going to slide back into the old ways without the safety issues addressed, payouts and financial accounting that Nick and John were working on I personally will also not attend! This is such a shame, we are all making such progress, what a setback!

I don't view this as a failure or waste of time as a lot of progress has been made by many. I'm looking forward to having a beer with Nick and John at BPG if they make it. I believe you may have noticed that many of the typical grumbling regarding the Nats did not happen this year. This is directly related to the hard work Nick and John have done for this event. You guys truly made the 25th anniversary Nats the best event in a very long time and I'm not just saying that because my car was on the silver jubilee T-shirt!

Again, very sorry to hear this. I think you guys not being involved is a great loss not only to the Nats but the long held hopes of unifying everyone. Damn, I really felt we were so close this time!!!

Art.

 

[TurboDiverArt]

How much credibility can you expect from a flawed concept? Case in point, major input will be accepted from racers that participated in 2004 and 2005, so the RRA for the TSS class is someone that HAS NOT raced TSS in those years.

Good move to protect the stage block and heads in TSS that I proposed to eliminate. I was also going to mandate a compressor inlet size limit and check it with a plug like in TSM. Maybe then one car would not have a half second advantage over the rest of the class.

Nick,

This just goes to prove what many of us have said over the years and you and John were trying to change. The Nats are there for red and ron and rules are made and amended to fit people in the inner circle. Such a shame, you guys had made so much progress on many fronts.

I think they need to change the event name to "The Triple R Nats". I can't wait to see these rules. I bet there are a lot of "optional" in those rules. Why don’t they just spell it out:
Roll bar/cage optional
NHRA/IHRA illegal bolt in roll bars allowed
5-point safety harness optional if stock lap belt on 10-second cars used
Fire jacket optional
Pink hat for winner, mandatory

Stage block in TSS, what a joke!

This has set the Nats back 10 years.

Art.

 

[QuickWrench]

This is why I haven't attended the GS Nationals since 2001, after going for seven years straight.

It's funny that it's taken this long for things to really come into public view. I won't pretend to be 'in the know' with respect to the current state of the Nationals' fiscal matters, but I can't even BEGIN to imagine that the class payouts couldn't significantly increase, if it was made a priority. Maybe Ol' Blue needs another stable mate, I don't know. (Long-time GSCA members will understand...)

The Nats are there for red and ron and rules are made and amended to fit people in the inner circle.

Isn't THAT the truth...

Nick, take to heart the fact that on a small scale, this situation closely mirrors that of the current NHRA administration. A nearly TOTAL disregard for driver safety, measly payouts [as compared to ticket sales and associated revenues], and sheer reverence only for those who have been members of the 'inner sanctum' for decades.

However, take comfort in knowing that several competing [albeit smaller-scale] groups and event promoters are doing VERY well in promoting independent shows and events, without the Big Brother oversight of dinosaurs like NHRA [or, in this case...the GSCA]. George Howard and others are putting on races with six-figure payouts, and drawing massive crowds at these events. I'm certain that if you pursue other venues for Buick events, you'll have little trouble bringing in race cars. If there's one reason that Buicks aren't raced more, it's simply that there's no place to do it.

The bottom line is, if you have cars and events that people will want to attend, people WILL come. Ten years ago, no one would have ever dreamed that non-GSCA events like BPG would bring in nearly the number of racers that they do. The only reason that we've taken on the task of putting together an engine program for a TSM entry is that there's now a points series for Buicks, which the GSCA never had the vision to put into place. Now that its proven itself as 'the class to see', I'm actually looking forward to it.

Really, though...How long can an organization effectively manage the growth and promotion of an entire generation of Buick fanatics, when they don't even have the technical fortitude to post an email address? This is 2005, ferchrissakes...

 

[Nick Micale]

............Nick, take to heart the fact that on a small scale, this situation closely mirrors that of the current NHRA administration. A nearly TOTAL disregard for driver safety, measly payouts [as compared to ticket sales and associated revenues], and sheer reverence only for those who have been members of the 'inner sanctum' for decades.

......The bottom line is, if you have cars and events that people will want to attend, people WILL come. Ten years ago, no one would have ever dreamed that non-GSCA events like BPG would bring in nearly the number of racers that they do. ..........

Could not agree with you more.

Part of my driving force in my effort over the past few years is crap like NHRA not giving a damn about the grassroots racers. Many of my friends who have raced for years quit NHRA as it was too expensive, no fun, awful payouts and very little racing for us little guys.

Talk about payouts, within just the first 2 years, the BPG with less classes, still meets or exceeds the GSCA BG 25th year payouts. Where are all the racer fees, spectator gate receipts and misc. other revenue going? Certainly not much to the most important single item of the event - RACING.

The relatively small payout is one of the major issues I [as well as many race winners] have with the race program, and the other is a consistant, fair and balanced set of rules for heads up classes with a goal to develop Buick series racing.

John and I have discussed the development of the race program over the past few years. When we tried to implement our "new" agenda, it was immediately dismissed and their plan published. Major sponsors for $$$ as well as products, gift certificates and other rewards for racers are necessary to get and maintain quality racer support.

We have discussed with BPG, and others, about expanding the Buick head's up classes into an exciting series. This is impossible without a structured administration to develop/change/expand the rules program. Our plan was to gather input from all racers - past, present and future to help shape and formulate the rules. This was to be done in a 21st. centry manner, i.e. the internet. Not by an archaic system of class reps to gather info for an evaluation panel so they can make the decisions "THEY" want in private.

My personal feeling are that the Buick community is at a crossroads. If the BG annual event can continue as the "Crown Jewel" of Buick racing and expand into other venues with series offshoot or "sanctioned" events, we will continue to grow. Otherwise, racers like myself will say "the hell with it, not worth the time or expense", growth will not happen.

 

[ijames]

Nick,
For the first decade or so that I was in the "Buick" world (the 90's) I just didn't put going to the Nats above the other things I wanted to use my scarce vacation time on (played a lot of foosball tournaments, though ). Plus, there was a steady stream of posts on the gnttype list about how the GSCA and the Nats were run. The main thing that became clear from all this was that the club wasn't a club in the sense of maximizing member benefits and fairly representing ALL member interests, it was a for-profit business owned and controlled by Richard Lasseter, and that the Nats seemed to be run the same way. Because of all that I never joined the GSCA and really never had any plans to ever go to the Nats, even as I got more and more into racing and tuning. Then you and John came in and everything I heard about the massive efforts you guys were putting into the Nats, and the way you were so clearly trying to make them great for the racers, I thought things had turned completely around. I went to my first Nats ever in 2004, and had a great time as a spectator. This year the old short-on-vacation-time thing kept me away, but I was hoping for next summer. Now, since Lasseter has made it clear that any improvements for the "club" members must be a bad thing, I guess I'm back to voting with my feet and staying away. I do want to thank you for the great time I had in Bowling Green in 2004, though!

 

[EightSecV6]

Those directly affected by these recent changes should post their concerns on www.buickgsca.com forum.
I dont like this revision as it cannot be fairly handled. I won the (actually everbody else lost!) S16T class this year and I think it paid $650. I have been going to the GSNats since 91 or so, I have won S16 class several times, split twice, got runner up I think twice. I think they used to pay all the way back to 1/4 finals.I remember getting $2k for the win once and that was SWEET! The pay diminished after they split the ST and BB classes and I was ok with that too because more people got a piece of the pie. I think this is a step in reverse and ultimately will hurt attendance.Time will tell.

 

[Lee Thompson]

news

I had hopes that things were turning around @ BG and it would be all fun like it was years ago, (before it became clear it was all about $ )
This is very sad news!!!

 

[protracracing]

Those directly affected by these recent changes should post their concerns on www.buickgsca.com forum.
I dont like this revision as it cannot be fairly handled. I won the (actually everbody else lost!) S16T class this year and I think it paid $650. I have been going to the GSNats since 91 or so, I have won S16 class several times, split twice, got runner up I think twice. I think they used to pay all the way back to 1/4 finals.I remember getting $2k for the win once and that was SWEET! The pay diminished after they split the ST and BB classes and I was ok with that too because more people got a piece of the pie. I think this is a step in reverse and ultimately will hurt attendance.Time will tell.

The S16T only paid $650.00 to win?That is a slap in the face to the racers.
That an event of this size would only pay the top guys that.At Midwest challange last year its Q8 payed $550.00 to the winner.With only 5 cars in the race.This is a race that only about 70cars where there to race.And it can pay almost as much as GS nats.

Dennis Butt

88 mustang gt 9.110 at 152 mph (Buick powered)
Winner of Q8 at midwest challange 2004
Winner of Q8 at midwest challange 2003
Runner up Q8 at midwest challange 2002