USAC Racing Forum

Can't wait to see

an evaulation spread sheet was sent out to members the other day.

Just an FYI, on the NCQMA homepage there is audio from our December meeting.... Something those that are in limbo may want to listen to.....

Hey Lawson, how did the vote go last night at Cummings?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike -- There wasn't a vote (AGAIN)!!! The latest and greatest is -- they're going to have a QMA person come talk on 2/20 and vote at their first race on 2/27. Why are they waiting that long? My guess is because by then, all the other tracks will have their schedules posted and they will then say it's too late to change -- regardless of what the membership votes. They OBVIOUSLY don't want the membership to vote because they KNOW how it'll go.

BTW -- the spreadsheet was a NO BRAINER!!! All roads lead to USAC but they don't want to travel down the road!!!!

Hey GAQMRacers, what spreadsheet? I am looking for as much info as possible as I am reviewing both organizations to prepare for the future. I listened to the NC audio and participate in this forum to gain knowledge.....knowledge is power!

I'd gladly send it to you but our club says it's for our eyes only....don't really know why because it was a fact find mission they were on.

It is probably easier for them to look at your clubs work to fulfill Ziggy's promise to "look over the fence" than try to get past their own biases and take a subjective look. I think they should work on things like having a rule that limits you to a "single crankshaft" before they move to other issues. Again I ask, why does Tony have to work out QMA's issues on the USAC forum?

In the end, it doesn't matter to me who does and doesn't go either way. We are going to race at many different tracks this summer and will have to race whatever it is sanctioned. We are prepared either way. There are good people in both organizations but there are a few in each that brings out the negative. As for NGQMA, I see them being ran as a dictatorship. It is obviously their intent to extend their members vote for USAC as someone said to say it is too late for this year. Speaking for myself at MAQMA and not the rest of the members, we are going forward with our track as if they do not exist for our schedule. We have a points championship here that I think when announced will bring in many cars each race to contend for the prizes, 2nd to none. We have a good board and the members are responding by attending our monthly meetings. We are going to promote our track as well as USAC at many different venues. Everyone have a nice day.

Thanks,
Mike

Swartz --  OK  you said to ask questions?  What do you mean by run a single crankshaft??????

Many years ago a rule was put in place to eliminate multi part crank shafts. I'm told to keep the high dollar bike engines out. It was supposed to read "single piece crankshaft" the rule in the book, however, says "single crankshaft". It gets brought up every year and never gets changed. One of many.

Ok -- that seems a little nit picky.   Don't the rules dictate what components can vary from the factory shipment?  If so, I really don't see that as a big issue, there are much bigger issues.

What it addresses is 3 or 2 piece, usualy titanium, crankshafts with roller bearings that can cost thousands of dollars in the AA class.

Thanks --  understand now

You guys can fight somewhere else the fact is either tenn and cummings want change and a fresh slate or they want the same ol thing a fiffty year track record of diffrent agendas and as caldwell has shown even the rcp process for qma fails and that is the members only voice for change if they don't like the rcps than they can loss them as in the case this year so region 3 has no chance at change so there for metro and ncqma decides to try something diffrent and this thread was started because many people would love for these clubs to be on board and show qma that there are other options and we the members are not scared to that the steps needed to preserve and grow  our clubs our members and the racing our kids love

??????

Nashville voted to stay with QMA this year

Cumming is SUPPOSED to be voting on 2/27. I would bet it will go like before and won't be allowed by the board.

Like I said, a dictatorship club. I know the majority wants to go but they seem to move the vote every time the members want too.

Totally agree....that's why we're not racing for points there this year. We'll be there when we have nothing else to do :-)

you know , they are shooting theirselves. Many that have joined USAC at Metro Atlanta will not pay another QMA fee to go to Cumming. What is going to happen well lets face it, it will. They will not make the move , and they will loose car count, because many will not pay double club fees, i will not. I know a person on the board that wants Cumming to go USAC, but one person over there is holding everyone up on he move, I am not going to mention his name, but I am sure everry one know, what a shame, times are changing a CUMMING , WAKE UP..

From the North Georgia By-Laws:

PROTEST - Any Member in good standing may file a formal protest by submitting same in writing to the Secretary of the Corporation. The protest will be read and acted upon, if needed, at the next monthly meeting of the Board of Directors. By notifying the Secretary in advance, a Member may appear in person to discus his written complaint at the meeting of the Board of Directors. A reply will be mailed back to the Member within seven days (7) after the meeting.

If the membership really wants it, but one person on the board is holding it up...protest it.  If they overturn the protest, get every member that supports it to protest it.  If that still doesn't work, vote out all the board members that aren't listening to their members at the next election.

Tell it like it is. Hey, I see you are running the Jr. Animal. How many HP should I have off the dyno? I have 3.90 compared to 3.50 on the Jr. Honda.

Thanks,
Mike

Scott -- it's way more political than that!!! Cumming is a different "animal" from anywhere else!!!

I am the guy leading the USAC analysis committee at Cumming, so I provide first person testimony, with no opinion or heresay...

One thing that must be said about the North GA Cumming track is that the membership is very passionate about doing the best thing for the club's continued existence given the situation of having 2 R3 clubs go with USAC.  Cumming is one of the nicest QM tracks being on fairgrounds property with electricity, grandstands, lots of bathrooms, pavement, right in the city, and a whole bunch of racing families that will go out of their way to make sure visitors are welcomed.

If you want a great racing experience for your team, then come on down... click here for the schedule http://www.ngqma.com/schedule.htm (http://www.ngqma.com/schedule.htm)

This situation is not very different from when the Metro club got their track only 45 minutes away from Cumming, car counts immediately went down as some racers chose to join Metro.  To race both tracks consistently would mean 35 consecutive weeks of racing, which is a lot for most teams, so most teams choose to stay at one track and race the other 2-3 times per season.

The loss of car counts due to the region split puts the track in jeopardy, as the fairgrounds management cannot continue to lose revenue due to reduced car counts.

So the $64 question is 'what should Cumming do to keep the car counts up?'  USAC or QMA?  The fact of the matter is that there is no obvious answer to that.  There has been tremendous vibrant debate at the club meetings, all driven by our passion to do what's best for the club's car counts on regional/district races. We just don't all agree on what is 'best'.

The driving factor in the 2010 decision is the schedule, as the fairgrounds tells us what dates we are given to race on, since they rent the fairgrounds out for other events during the year.

Unfortunately for 2010 our dates are immovable, and 7 of those dates conflict with USAC National and/or District events.  Were NGQMA to go with USAC charter, on those 7 dates we would have even fewer cars, since some of our members would be racing the national/district events.  Cumming has also picked up a 3rd Region 3 race, and a states race, which will help 2010 car counts.

We continue to explore solutions to insure car counts don't go down, such as

a. dual chartering
b. economic recovery and cost reduction
c. hoping harder

So for 2010 Cumming will stay with QMA, with continued energy invested to find the best solution for the club's future health going into 2011 and beyond.

We have a great class of Jr Novices coming in with heavily leaded right feet, so it is up to us grown-ups to make the best choices... for their sake.

All fact-based suggestions are welcome.

Mark Mackie
Training Director, Webmaster
Owner, Mackie Bros Racing
markmackie@rocketmail.com

Well my vote is in, sending in my memebership to North Metro Atlanta for 2010 !  mackie, reason you cannot get dates is that Cumming track dragged their feet on USAC.  I am looking forward to cutting my tire bill to 75 % !!!  The reason that Cumming picked up another region race is that QMA is scrambling, because North Carolina and metro Atlanta dropped QMA.
Applause to Tullis and i know mike Smith had a say so in USAC at Metro!  Good Luck Cumming, maybe we will see you next year with USAC   

We looked at all USAC tracks car counts last year that had the National races and they had less cars  than we had at the two Region races we had last year.What has hurt us and Merto is  the Mini Cup. None of us at North Georgia have ran a USAC race, but we plan to run one at Merto. We are control by the City Fairgrounds on what we do.Merto and Huntsville lost their track a few years ago at their Fairgrounds. Alot of  people made a  sacrifice to get these  tracks  starded back.We are still looking at next year and hats off for USAC visting North Georgia. 

Thats to bad......wish they would have gone USAC. By far my Sons favorite track! Although, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If you go USAC you have the car count from NC and Metro @ NG. You would have most likley picked up a district and national race plus a couple of southeast swing races. Instead you have a states race and picked up some region 3 races but really the car count may be the same either way as you only have Huntsville and TN. Hopefully USAC next yr.

 The reason N. Ga got 3 region races has nothing to do with QMA national . It was a region decision. All region 3 tracks have 3 races this year.

I am disappointed because we were looking forward to racing at North Georgia this year, but it doesn't look like we are going to renew our membership with QMA for 2010.  I guess we will still make a few trips to Atlanta, but will run at Metro Atlanta instead.  AJ really loved that track and the people there were some of the most welcoming group of people we have met.

As far as the members are concerned...I guess it is a good thing that Metro is only 45 minutes from Cummings...if you wanted to go USAC racing you still can with a relatively short car ride. :)

Keep in mind Ban One, if you come to Metro , you will have to join USAC another 250.00 in additional to your QMA at Cumming, even for one race.  Another bad move for Cumming to stay QMA, oh well ,

No matter what you do or say, it is still all for the kids. I do understand the situation with the Fair Grounds. It does dictate your schedule and how you have to control what you can and can not do as for the schedule. I know some of us at MAQMA will come and race at NGQMA when the schedules do not conflict. I just wish the best for the driver's and hope all of them have fun and stay safe.

Thanks,
Mike

$250 to join Metro Atlanta?  Wow that is a lot.

Well said Mike...it is all about the kids.  It does suck too that the two tracks will be different sanctioning bodies because I know AJ missed some of the kids he didn't see on a weekly basis because they didn't come over to race USAC last year.  He only saw them when we went to race at New Smyrna.

Dual charter sounds like a good idea. Although when Tampa was converting to USAC, the Garcia's wanted to Charter both, but QMA balked at the idea. Once Tampa signed with USAC then QMA came back and wanted Tampa to charter both, but it was to late due to insurance costs. Charter both and they will come!!!

Well Scott, I just heard great news that we both were hoping for. You may know or not but your August 6th-8th east coast is going to be the USAC next generation race. That at least gives us four here in the South. Run the Grand Nationals at Indy and you have your 5. All I need to do now is get my driver off my back and give him something to drive. I do not know if it is $250.00 to join our club or not but if you are USAC then you can race her anytime.

Thanks,
Mike

That's great news. But how would that work? It was originally scheduled for the East Coast Challenge. Will we get another date for that series? or are we counting this race for both series?

Mike what is next generation race ?

Last year the nationals at Indy was not a points paying race.

This year it counts towards the ten race championship.

so it counts as the ten race and the east coast challenge?

Indy doesn't count as the East Coast Challenge series, but does count as one of the 5 required for the Naitonal Points as far as I know.

As far as if they have a National in Tampa in early August, not sure how that would work...we would have to wait until they make announcements on that.

Just for FYI , the Huntsville club adopted a spec tire last night. It will be Hoosier A35 or A40 right sides. I'm sure Nashville will pass the same thing. If that is the case the region series will be a spec tire also. ;D
 ::) :P

It will be interesting to see how the gray area phrase in the QMA rule "readily available" works out.

Hard to have a spec tire when that single phrase opens up a big can of worms. LMAO!   

I think it will work. Each track just needs to make sure they have a good reliable vendor with a good stock. I am the vendor for Georgia for Hoosier and I keep a real good supply. I still have some Vega's left if anyone needs some for their local events that still run them. See ya in NC.

Thanks,
Mike

I am a Hoosier vendor in TN and am keeping good supply on hand.  I have not heard of the results of our vote yet, but quite a few people at our track are trying the Hoosiers.  If anyone comes to Music City to race and needs to buy tires, I will have them available. 

Thanks.
John Pitman
jpitman3@skywardgroup.com