Our July Email was sent to the subscribers today with some fantastic information regarding upcoming events such as .... a Track Day! Yes, you read it right, we are holding our Inaugural Track day in September. Click below to read all the info and while you're there, sign up for our Mailing List so you can be the "First to know!"
mailchi.mp/fe8e19f0d597/july2020
Hey, what's this getting added to the website? Work in progress, news coming soon!
sdrscca.com/roadrally/
Update:
We’ve had to cancel the events due to continuing need for COVID-19 testing at the event site.
Original post:
We've pushed back registration for the weekend of 7/18 and 7/19 to 7/3/20 for now. We need two things to happen, and we are on stand-by to run the event even with late notice. The COVID test site needs to close, and in order for the City to let us run under our permit, they're waiting for a Stage 3 state opening determination for all events at the stadium, not just ours. That was looking possible a week or two ago, but recent news from CA is not helping at the moment. We'll keep you posted.
Testing a short road rally and software later today, all phone app driven for competitors 😁
We were pushing to test this month so we should be ready to test in July at Elsinore. Part of improving overall while making changes to get events running now. No more post it notes?
We gave it our all but couldn't get the June event over the line, the stadium is remaining closed to events through the end of June.
BUT! We have reserved Lake Elsinore for July 18-19, so we'll be refreshing our event registrations to reflect the new dates and location. These are still tentative as well, the lot is currently anticipated to be open again after June but not guaranteed. Good news is if it is, we're all set!
More updates! We're talking with our friends in Elsinore again, COVID site may not extend beyond June. That could be good for everyone and good for us!
UPDATE! Registration for the June 13-14 tentative events has been moved back one week to Saturday, June 6, at 6:00 PM.
We received some initial feedback from the stadium on our plans and have a follow-up meeting with them next week. As you can imagine there are a lot of moving pieces but we're still making progress.
We're still waiting on information from the stadium for the June 13-14 weekend, but remember how we said we've been getting ready? Well, here's your chance to get caught up on changes that are coming so that we can all make our events a success and let them continue.
As Brad Hamilton once famously said to Jeff Spicoli:
Learn it. Know it. Live it.
sdrscca.com/docs/2020_SDR_SCCA_Supplemental_Safety_Guidelines_COVID-19.pdf
Hope is not an executable strategy. Planning and preparation are. We spent our holiday weekend Friday night doing just that, finishing up to make sure we are on stand-by, ready to go. We need a few things out of our control to fall in place. We're at least hopeful, with no guarantees, for the mid-June event. Stay tuned, more to come this week.
We had a productive session this week on planning and prioritizing tasks to be ready to run again when we can and are moving out on making those improvements now. Unfortunately, as expected, we had to formally cancel the May 16-17 dates at SDCCU. Mid-June events at SDCCU are still pending with rumblings of potential changes in overall state, county and city restrictions although we have heard nothing yet to indicate that any loosening may allow our events. The south-east side of SDCCU is also being used in large part as a safe lot for overnight parking, and the lower end of the west lot has a fixed setup as a mobile COVID testing site, so similar to Elsinore, we will face potential challenges beyond event restrictions.
We are still working other event type projects, with Labor Day being a potential first date for a track event based on availability at this point.
Thought we'd put out a bit of an update since taco runs aren't actually going to happen...
We hope that everyone is well in these unique and challenging times. We’d love nothing more than to be out having fun with our cars and our friends, but as you know, it’s a bit beyond our control for the moment and fairly enough, perhaps not a first priority. However, that does not mean we have stopped thinking about you, or racing, or planning for how we return, when we can return. And we will be back!
What is the current state of affairs for events?
Our next planned event for Lake Elsinore on May 3rd is officially canceled. This would have been the last Elsinore event on schedule for the first half of 2020. The course lot is currently in use as a mobile COVID testing site for an unknown duration. While there are cones set up on site, they are not conducive to racing and the lot is being put to a higher and better use in the circumstances. The restart plans for Storm Baseball in the summer and into fall are also uncertain. This leaves us in a wait and see mode for future dates but we have let them know that when the lot is available again, we’d love to schedule more dates.
We have two planned weekends at SDCCU remaining for the first half of the year. A practice/champ for May 16-17, an SCCA Starting Line school on June 13 and a region champ event on June 14. We have preliminarily canceled the May 16-17 weekend and it’s likely a formality before we make it official. We’re in communication with the SCCA National office for a go/no-go decision for the Starting Line School, and have not made any decisions about the June 14 event. The mid-June events will be largely dependent on how the San Diego health and safety orders play out after the current order expires this week. As of now, the order prohibits gatherings of more than one person, unless those persons are in your household. More specifically, the order explicitly includes as gatherings, people in separate vehicles in the same location (not good for autocross). Scheduling with SDCCU, given the unknowns of COVID, including new uncertainties it’s causing for the pending transfer to SDSU, also has us in a wait and see mode for future dates, but we’re keeping in contact.
What are we doing then?
We’re planning for how to alter our events to comply with what will be most likely new requirements – limiting gathering sizes, maintaining levels of social distancing, and complying with health and safety standards. We want to be ready to go as soon as we can. These will require changes, but none seem insurmountable. Some of these give good reason to look into things we’ve been considering for improving our events anyway - streamlining online and onsite registration even further, moving to live timing for run results, expanding annual or allowing self tech, etc. Some will require us do things a little bit differently – driver meetings using distancing or radio broadcast, setup of workers on course and in trailer, etc. Some will require us to take extra steps as individuals and as a group for health and safety – not showing up if you’re not feeling well when you might have before, availability and expansion of sanitation stations (hand wash, sanitizers, gloves, management and disinfecting of shared equipment – cones, radios, trailer load and unload, etc.) While we all hope some of these may be more temporary than permanent, we’re working under the assumption that we will have a “new normal” for a longer term and then work our way back from that as allowed.
Are we doing anything else?
Yes, we are trying. The Region has had two initiatives that we’d like to see move forward with sufficient interest.
First, we want to expand our participation and offerings to some of the new track programs short of club racing. We’d start with a track day for fun. With sufficient interest, we could hopefully move into track attack (think single laps on track, autocross classing, staggered car starts like autocross with timing triggered after leaving, and before returning to pit, via timing lights) or time trials (think open qualifying fastest lap on track with multiple cars on track at a time in a session). We are in discussions with Chuckwalla Raceway and SCCA, and have permission to use the track. More to come on this, but there are also uncertainties on schedule. We were targeting Labor Day weekend as a first event prior to the current disruption, and assuming we had a full autocross schedule through summer. We’re looking into seeing if we could do something sooner, perhaps even a mid-week event, or default back to Labor Day.
Second, we’ve looked preliminarily at Road Rally, with a focus on Social Rally. These are time, speed, distance events on public roads, over a pre-determined course. The objective is not to be the fastest, but to be closest in total, over or under, to the pre-determined times between each checkpoint on route. All scoring and status would be live using a Road Rally free app and GPS through your phone. We thought this might be a fun, non-competitive way to get together and drive our cars. Maybe even some of our other cars, and perhaps culminate events at a destination location. Perhaps some Grand Ole BBQ patio time in Flynn Springs, or Julian Pie, or fish tacos at the beach.
Is that all?
Well, probably not, but hopefully this gives everyone an idea of what’s still going on and we would welcome input and any assistance if you’d like to see some of these ideas and changes come to fruition. Please feel free to email any of the contacts on the Solo Committee and Region Board listed on our webpage or the general contact email, or send us a message here on Facebook.
We look forward to seeing you all soon, and until then, take care of yourselves, and get those cars ready!
Hmmmm, taco runs? Who doesn't need tacos? 🤔🤣
www.facebook.com/203296266352541/posts/3602612726420861/
Well, this is hopefully good news, and we're still working on and monitoring when and how we can hopefully add back local events.
www.scca.com/articles/2013630-tire-rack-national-solo-schedule-april-reset