Just thought this deserved its own lil thread. I wanted to thank Lex Dudas, Kathy Phillips, Andy Anderson and the entire Maple Grove staff for putting forth their collective efforts to make this race an enjoyable experience for all those in attendance.

The double entries were always given plenty of time to get back to the lanes. The 4 colors used for the run cards were communicated very well between the tech officials, lanes officials and the announcer. If you were multi-entered you were given a red and yellow sticker or a green and purple sticker (both combinations allowed for a group of cars to be run in between your other set no matter what thanks to the run order of red, green, yellow, purple). That certainly made for an easy go of getting back to the lanes with plenty of time to spare. There were plenty of people on both days with two entries left deep into eliminations and never heard a single complaint out of anyone's mouth regarding the amount of time being allotted to them between passes down the track. And that includes the competitors who had to wait for their opponent to return to the lanes and gave their respective competitors all the time they needed. The ladder at 32 along with the NHRA style pairing lineup in the lanes added that extra bit of professionalism and organization to the race as well.

The "cleanup crew" was on point all weekend. There were a few oil downs and such and the race went off without a hitch (10k was done before sundown and that included a lil spritz of rain right before the 1/4 finals were heading down to run and the 5k final i believe was run at 230 in the afternoon sunday).

The tech officials were a plenty this weekend and the tech line moved as quickly as any. The added effort in this department allowed all the participants plenty of time to get to the lanes for time runs.

True sportsmanship by all of the racers involved this weekend, as well as an organized and prepared crew of workers along with the efforts by the management all came to head and made this race a success this weekend (as i hope it will for many years to come).

Sincerely,
Brian Mullaney

I was there to watch saturday and was glad to see how well they ran the event. I believe the whole color thing made it a lot easier than what your number ended in.

With all the compliments going on this year do you wonder if it will help bring in the crowds for next year. But then again that time next year, they will have the national event instead. Will footbrake race be pushed back until after that event? Only time will tell.

Brian, I agree 100%, the whole program went smooth. There was a good plan and they stuck to it - no surprises.

I thanked Lex before I left Sunday, but also want to thank everyone involved, including the guys in tech, the lanes, tower, and the starting line. Thank you again Andy Anderson for getting involved. Didn't hear 1 complaint about the organization of the event at all. All of the drama was on the track, the way it should be.

I didn't turn on many win lights, but i had a fun weekend.

In my opinion, this is one of the best events around. The fact the management made a conscious effort to improve the race and listen to the racers for input is enough to continue returning year after year.

who made the problems and created all the drama in the first place ?

this was clearly a customer focus problem , that went out of control ...

based on the low car count on both days (sat. being a better count) ... I'd say many are attending cecils 10k / 5k ... perhaps others could attend it to watch and learn .

to have the car count grow to where it was , then decline so hard ... so fast ... sure you can say its the economy ... and it probably is responsible for some of the car count decline ...

... but , again its all about the customer focus.

this years race was run MUCH better ... so hopefully it will result with increased car counts next year ...

you have to thank the people involved for improving the situation , but also thanks the customers that still supported it.

what would be nice , is a series of the 5k /10k races for footbrake with a structered points system say ... 10 races with you only being able to pick 7 (for family time, wich is way more important anyway)...

... we all know that the same wear n tear is done to the wallet, tow vehicles , trailers, racecars and equipment the same for a 1k payout or a 10k payout ...

with the 2010 season being scheduled shortly , there is still time to plan this , however it would take the same insight to organize with the other tracks / people willing to participate and / or organize ...

there would have to be a "GRAND PRIZE FOR THE CHAMPION"

perhaps the golf cart ? (just an idea)

it would be advertized even larger for the sponsors ... and thats a good thing ...

The decline of at gate entries this year was more than likely due to the poor forecast for saturdays weather. Also to be dually noted since you mentioned saturday having a better car count than sundays race, that is virtually the case every year and is comparing apples to oranges. If you want to compare apples to apples it should be stated that the 2009 version of the 5k race had more participants than that of the 2008 version.

As for the FOOTBRAKE SERIES....lets just say from past experience....that people seem more inclined to commit to a single weekend rather than an entire series year in year out. As you mentioned Mike, the same wear and tear is done to your tow vehicles, trailers, race cars, but NOT the wallet, whether it is 1k to win or 10k to win. Only way that the wear and tear on tow vehicles and trailers is the same is if you are in fact a weekly racer there as yourself. The hotel expense, tolls, and other travel expenses that comes with attending a race for many is reason enough not to show up to a two day race let alone an entire series made up of such races. Just my 2 cents...im still new to this whole thing.

Hi Brian , one the wallet comment :

if we raced 7 , or 10 races . vs. the std. 21 - 22 per year its about the same $ ... less wear n tear on alot of items ... resulting in less $ out of pocket in the long run ...(more economical)

i'd be more inclined to race a 10 race series , vs. deticating the ENTIRE summer to this cause.

again,it would take planning , and communication with many other tracks /people to organize it ... but its doable.

i believe it was tried before, but the participation was not there ...

I agree with the other expenses part. Not everyone has a motorhome. My local track is Maple and that itself is a 45 minute drive for me. I'm not willing to go back and forth all the time for a series even though I'd usually just sleep in the trailer. Not everyone does that though so that itself woudl be tough on wallet, also going back to the hotel idea as mentioned. Didn't some other track try this and it didn't work out as well? I want to say Atco.

I am very glad to see this post...unfortunately we weren't able to make it this year, but I have heard nothing but good comments about the re-organized running of these races and I hoped that those compliments would get back to the management so that they are aware that their efforts of solicitating racers opinions was well received. We, as racers, tend to be quick to complain when we don't like something, and I'm sure the manangement is glad to see the compliments when they make an effort to fix an obvious problem.

I hope the organization of the race is repeated next year and for many to come!

actually I believe it was the competition from the cecil race that Anthony / Jeff have been organizing , that made this come to this point ...

we as the racers can compliment , or complain ...

this forum is for drag race results ...

and is NOT one sided.

so, you have to look at the customer side , as well as the tracks side ... (customers needs first )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Customer Focus

Knowing the Customer Research Report

Customer Correspondence Project Example

Customer Identity Verification Project Example

The concept that the customer is the only person qualified to specify what Quality means. This leads to detailed analyses of who are the customers, what are their needs, what features (or new) are required of our products/services, how do customers rate our products/services versus our competitors and why, how can we keep our customers satisfied?

On the Footbrake Series...

YOU WILL NEVER TAKE PEOPLE AWAY FROM NHRA BRACKET RACING FOR POINTS TOWARDS THE BRACKET FINALS.....EVER.


No matter how much any given track treats their customers good/bad the same racers keep going there for points. It's a FACT and will never change because people hold "points" in the highest regard yet most probabably don't have any idea who won what Track Championship in all the classes at any given track other than their own. Now the ROC which i thought was the BEST thing about the Bracket Finals is now at the end of the event when most are either home or on their way home.


There's my rant

its easy ...... all ya have to do , is make the points races 5k 10k to win ... increasing the car counts ... got to pay the rnd money is all ...

have less races, more summer TIME.

We're getting off the main topic here but round money and maybe not the BIG payout may be the key in the near future for the bigger races. Starting another thread may be a good idea so none of this is directed towards MG.

"Now the ROC which i thought was the BEST thing about the Bracket Finals is now at the end of the event when most are either home or on their way home."


the ROC is only at the end the last 2 years because of the weather. its supposed to be fri. night.

OFF TOPIC ? >> GO PHILLIES ~!

GOT MY TICKETS ~!!

lucky bastard. enjoy yourself down there.

quote:

Originally posted by FastWorker70MonteCarlo:
"Now the ROC which i thought was the BEST thing about the Bracket Finals is now at the end of the event when most are either home or on their way home."


the ROC is only at the end the last 2 years because of the weather. its supposed to be fri. night.

I wasn't there this year but thought that it will be run like that from now on.

quote:

We, as racers, tend to be quick to complain when we don't like something, and I'm sure the manangement is glad to see the compliments when they make an effort to fix an obvious problem

Correctamundo!, Jen! ............ I agree.

p.s. ............. I kinda liked 10:15ish a.m. first rounds .... ......

Dave

It's STILL better than 1996 when the track operators decided that the ROC had lived its life and did not have one!!!!! MG IDEA!!!

quote:

Originally posted by FastWorker70MonteCarlo:
"Now the ROC which i thought was the BEST thing about the Bracket Finals is now at the end of the event when most are either home or on their way home."


the ROC is only at the end the last 2 years because of the weather. its supposed to be fri. night.

quote:

Originally posted by Raser/Racing:

quote:

We, as racers, tend to be quick to complain when we don't like something, and I'm sure the manangement is glad to see the compliments when they make an effort to fix an obvious problem

Correctamundo!, Jen! ............ I agree.

p.s. ............. I kinda liked 10:15ish a.m. first rounds .... ......

Dave

I texted Eddie at that time and I was suprised to hear that. That was crazy.