USAC Racing Forum

Why is it that most of the clubs have had their banquets and R4 has not even set a date, for a organization to say they are for the kids they sure do spend alot of time not finishing one year to start another. My son races for trophys and coats at the end of the year and he has already recieved some and knows that shortly that he will complete his year. I think that all banquets need to be complete by the end of December. From what i have seen and heard from USAC this seems like agood start for a organization to see the best intrest of the kids because i thought thats what we are here for.  ;D

The problem I think r4 has is that 1) alot of the people race indoor 2)they have a treas. that is not involved in order to set a budget,place etc.3)The r4 board resigning might have something to with it.But don't take that the wrong way because some of the people that resigned are the ones that are doing the banquet.the ones that are left aren't doing anything from what I understand.So it is for the kids if it wasn't those people wouldn't be doing the work.I also like them waiting a little bit due to the holidays because the banquets are usually at kalhia water park and it cost good money to go there. :-\

What about the kids that don't race indoors why should they have to wait until the ones that choose to continue to race finish. There is plenty of time between mid October an Christmas to take care of this,again think of all the kids. ???

The cost before the Holidays and timing is what I couldnt do.  After the 1st of Jan works best for me because of the cost.  If it were just a local get together somewhere it wouldnt matter but its alot more than that.

2fast4u - The banquet has been tentatively scheduled.  We are waiting for someone to confirm with Kalahari before publishing the details.  Have you offered your assistance in planning the banquet? 

Kim

I think a lot of people who don't do it forget about basketball, football and baseball training camps. Our kid has had practice every day except Sun. for the last two months and games twice a week. I don't know about anybody else but we don't have free weekends untill March. Last year was the first time we had a chance to go to the banquet and got stuck at home in the snow instead.

Kim thank you for letting me know about the banquet and yes i would be intrested in helping but just let someone know and i'm sure several people would also help if needed. I really do understand it take time to put things together,I,m a dad with 5 kids. Just trying to offer other alternative to completing our year before starting another. Lets all stay positive! 

Did anyone else go to the R4 banquet tonight, if you did can you please explain how the speaker could have been anymore disorganized with his presentation? I guess when you are more worried about what club you will govern next, thats more important than having a organized presentation for our drivers and familys. We could have saved one hour easy!! If this is whats to come It's a good thing that they will have less than half the car counts or more because they will still need two full days to complete at tonights speed. Great leadership Mr speaker. :( :(

Yeah to our Region 4 drivers each and every one of them gave their all wherever they raced.  Sometimes coming out winners and sometimes not!  Each and everyone of them need a super big thank you from we adults.  They kept us guessing, yelling, hoping and hanging on for dear life.

Just pick up any paper and look at the young people who are having problems in this world and thank our lucky stars we have young people who put their all into something positive.  Look around the track at the trailers and watch them discussing what to do, how the car handled, cleaning tires, chasing after younger siblings, making sure their equipment is in the car ready to go, running after a piece of equipment the handler needs then get into the car and often wait in the very hot sun with hot suits and then finally hit the track.  Not once but often in several classes.

Many of those young persons were recognized this weekend.  Many gave a big thank you.
No matter what the complaints are or were our young people were the greatest.

All I know is that I really admire them all.  You put me in one of those cars and you would need to replace every guard rail around the track.

So keep it up young gentlemen and young ladies.  You are our stars and you brighten our days.

does that mean your not doing any testing in the new 600 for your driver gma? lol  you are right though its what i feel is the best atmosphere for my son.

test Drive No way!  Will take me at least 3 or 4 races under her belt until I get the courage to see her drive that thing!  Have you seen it?  And she has to shift!  Lordy Lordy!  I have faith in her and her handler but not my heart!

Very unprepared and disorganized, a simple excel spreadsheet would have saved a lot of time and prevented a lot of mistakes.

Sad part is that 3 driver profiles for some reason didn’t make the program and mention of their Dirt Grand’s appearances were not mentioned.  Finally after hearing all the other drivers Grand’s attendance being mentioned, we brought the 4th class to their attention at which time they later corrected that class and were able to then research for our 4th drivers dirt grand’s attendance to include in the speech for the 5th class.

Maybe in some people’s eyes our team wasn’t that impressive, but our 4 drivers did an amazing job this year and deserve the same recognition as everyone else.  Transferring 5 times to the A-main on Dirt was very impressive to dad.


Awards and Sweaters were very nice and the Facility was great!  We had a great time with many race friends and those moments were priceless!

Congrats to all of the drivers and best wishes to the retiring drivers, you will all be missed.  I think listening to the drivers speeches was about the best part, they were great!

Thanks again Grandma13…   ;-)

Your very welcome, Scott.  Which reminds me seems my buddie, Cody, has a dent in his Quarter Midget Car.  Think he wants and needs that fixed so "car will go fast"!  Well at least that is what I got out of the conversation!

So get to it Dad

LOL!!!

Kody is something else.  His 1st regional he pulled off under green flag.  I said whats wrong buddy?  He said "SOMEONE KEEPS RUNNING INTO MY CAR!"  I said well buddy, sometimes that happens.  He said well, they better not scratch up my nice paint or decals, push me back out.  I said sorry buddy, you cant go back out because you came off under green flag.  Next time, wait until a caution comes out to talk to me...  LOL

how were the nacho's:}

Okay everyone - I need to defend the banquet speaker.  I prepared a spreadsheet of Region 4 series driver accomplishments - how many lower main wins, A main wins, fast times, and A main appearances.  I also printed out the Grands accomplishments for Mark from the web site, however, I didn't organize the Grands accomplishments per driver.  I think that is where the problem was.  I didn't know that Mark wanted to acknowledge each driver's Grands accomplishments when giving their R4 information.  I assumed that the Grands accomplishments would be given separately.  So, it really wasn't Mark's fault for the disorganization.

It is difficult to gather up information on everyone and it is easy to overlook people.  I'm sure it wasn't intentional.  There were a lot of drivers to recognize.

Kim Mathias

If I am going to present information in front of many families, friends and drivers, you can bet your butt I am going to make sure the information is organized and accurate.  I will not fumble through pages during the banquet questioning as I went along.

It was apparent that the information was not reviewed or rehearsed prior to the banquet.  This wasn’t just a handlers meeting at the track, it was an annual banquet at a very nice facility to conclude an entire regional series that people invested a lot of time and money in and traveled to attend, a little preparation and accuracy isn’t asking for much.

As for it “being difficult to gather up information on everyone”, that may be true but when you have 3-4 drivers and 4-6 cars attending regional’s throughout the year, that should account for something and the drivers like others should be acknowledged just like everyone else.  The grand’s information was readily available right from the Region 4 website's home page, right between all the other drivers that didn’t get missed???

I guess valuable time was spent on other issues instead.


There was also no mention of the 3 driver profiles that did not make the program?

The nachos were much better than the buffet and just about as good as the icing…  LOL

Scott

I gave the R4 information to the speaker in the morning.  I did not have it ready prior to the banquet due to other commitments.  Yes, the Grands information has been on the website.  As far as the profiles not making into the program - I don't know.  If they were turned in by the deadline I don't know why they weren't there.  Again - it wasn't intentional.  I guess next year, we will know to come to you for assistance so that we can try to avoid missing drivers in the future. 

Kim

Scott,
Who did you give your information to?

As for the profiles, I followed the instructions that were given and turned the forms and pictures sometime mid October.  Doesn’t matter now, it’s too late to correct and their scrapbooks will just not have their profiles listed in it as they should have been, it’s my kids loss now.  I just thought that having the banquet in March provided enough time to prepare, maybe we should consider May next year?

It’s just a shame that so much time and energy can be spent on, well, “other things” that they shouldn’t be instead of the things that are really important, the kids.

Next year should be much easier to keep up with in Region4 so my help shouldn’t be needed.  However, I would be more than happy to provide a spreadsheet to help with organization and being consistent, just let me know who to send it to.

And no, our 4 cars will not be in attendance in the Region4 series, Have Fun and Good Luck!

m.w. was to busy trying to kick good people out of qma and threatning people to step down from thier own club. now look at reg. 4. no one can blame usac for the reg 4 fall out they can point the finger in the mirror. the way i see it scott qma loss usac gain. ( im assuming your racing usac) another classy racing family going usac.

I gave up on R4 when I saw the dirt grands results and Zach was left off of it.  I guess being a member at Kokomo and registering as such at Grands does not count.  We did run the States Race in R5 because gas was so expensive then and it was a lot closer for us but that should not have mattered.

Yes ssssmoke, we joined both QMA and USAC this year but since our club and the majority of our region is no longer QMA,  it looks like USAC is where we will be racing all year.  We were planning on running the Dirt Grand’s as well but that would cost me $280.00 extra because I would need to replace the belts in all 4 cars because they expired Feb 2009 (the 2 year rule).  So Ill just buy some extra tires and just race a few extra USAC races (maybe the wife and I in Sr. Half) because I don’t think its worth the extra money to replace all of our belts for one race.

I feel comfortable with our decisions based on the stance that the organization and region have taken in the last 6 months.  God forbid .25 doesn’t survive because if it doesn’t we will just sell everything and move onto another form of racing before being associated with such behavior.

I believe in doing things for the right reason, not because of who you know, who someone is or who it will benefit personally.  I also don’t have a problem with people that have a different opinion or vote differently than I do, that’s their choice just like I have mine, and it shouldn’t have an effect on relationships.  I have many who I consider friends, many of which cannot stand others that I associate with.  But you know, their problems with you or your problems with them has nothing to do with me and our relationship.  That’s where a lot of friendships have been strained or lost recently and everyone needs to just grow up and act their ages.

I am just looking forward to a lot of good, clean, fun racing this year and spending time with my family at the track, that’s what it’s all about!!!

As disappointing as it is Scott, it cannot be changed at this point.  But maybe I can help out with the boy's scrapbooks as I always have my camera with me and will gladly take some pictures of them both off and on the track.  Now I have to warn you I am still trying to get the camera right for the car in movement.  Like usual the camera is smarter than I.  I will certainly try.

Tell the boys to stay on the track on green especially my little buddie.  See you the first weekend in April.

True, hopefully a lesson is learned to prevent others from not being acknowledged or listed in the future.

The boys will be fine and will survive, unlike other things.

Kim, I wish you would not blame yourself.You gave that same spreadsheat for the buckeye banq. and I couldn't thank you enough.But I also made my self a cheat sheat on how I was going to do the banq. and as you and alot of people know I am not a good speaker.I don't think I did to bad. The point I'm trying to make you do/did alot for QMA and reg 4. M.W. has done nothing but bury hiself.If he wouldn't worry about trying to control everybody and do what he was elect to do this might have not turned out so bad.So don't blame your self he is the dumb a..     

scott, glad to see your in usac. it makes me angry they would do that but your right "drive on" still alot of good racin to come in the near future in this new era of .25.