Autocross dying in enthusiast-rich area

So I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. When I started autocrossing the SCCA had events at the Oakland Coliseum, Candlestick Park and Golden Gate Fields and other venues sometimes opened up, like Marriot's Great America. Now Candlestick's gone, GGF's asphalt is more appropriate for Rallycross, and the Oakland Coliseum is in doubt. What's left is driving to the central valley (1 hr. or more each way). Marina (2 hrs. and also cloudy future). Finagling your way into the Redwood Empire car club in Santa Rosa, or buying a Porsche, because they have somehow gotten an exclusive on the most desireable venue in the area: The old Alameda Naval Air Field.

This sucks! All the urban dirt-biking spots dried up twenty years ago, as did the drag strips and ovals. Economic success has its pitfalls! I'd like to see Sears Point pave one of its larger parking lots for autocross, but nobody wants to pick up the $1.5 Mill tab.

wah!

San Diego's Qualcomm stadium is getting close to going away or being completely redone. The next closest place is Orange county, roughly an hour away. Auto X is simply one of the victims; it's not like the stadium was put there to support it - it's the other way around.

Around here, PCA doesn't require club membership OR Porsche ownership to play with them.

B. Choate wrote: Finagling your way into the Redwood Empire car club in Santa Rosa, or buying a Porsche, because they have somehow gotten an exclusive on the most desireable venue in the area: The old Alameda Naval Air Field.

Maybe it's a very clever conspiracy by Porsche to get all the wealthy tech employees to buy Porsches.

B. Choate wrote: Economic success has its pitfalls!

I hear gentrification's really great if you're "the pitcher"...

I heard it's because it's not really racing.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

Bazinga! (I don't agree with you BTW)

Maybe you could just go to a big parking lot and stand in the sun for awhile.

An hour drive isn't that bad. I live in a small area, and my region's sites are an hour from my house. My next closest region has sites that are 4+ hours away.

Around here, extended mall hours hurt us 25 years ago. A new hockey rink/auditorium was built, and we put together a group to go talk to them, and convinced them that they could save a lot of money, and earn a bit, by not putting parking pillows or dividers in the parking lot.

Fast forward to last year, and we get hung in the middle of a political situation. The city owns the facility, and looks after the parking lot maintenance. The management is trying to get the lot repaved, and the city is trying to prove the lot has been damaged by abuse, so while the management is on our side, they are unwilling to do anything that will put the several million dollar paving bill on their shoulders...so we have no place at all.

you should be so lucky that you live in such a motorsports centered area of the world. The race tracks and rallies held in CA are incredible. The off road ability is awesome.

keep searching you'll find the right place.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: you should be so lucky that you live in such a motorsports centered area of the world. The race tracks and rallies held in CA are incredible. The off road ability is awesome. keep searching you'll find the right place.

Ya they have Laguna Seca AND Thunderhill nearby. By me what do I have? Spring Mountain

Around here (and I suspect other places as well) new parking lots have to have a certain square footage of "green areas" inserted throughout the lot. So even if there weren't any speed bumps or parking stops, there would be green parking strips and run off basins to contend with.

So yeah, Autocross shouldn't be a tough thing to do in the urban jungle, but the reality is that logisitics and politics means very few places that would be acceptable and even fewer of those that want to take on the potential noise and damage to their property, let alone their PR.

So the clubs absolutely need to play the PR game to their benefit. Ensure that the racers are good neighbors and abide by the rules and avoid annoying people as much as possible. Partnering with local charities to raise money for their efforts (giving disabled or sick kids rides in the cars for example) and ensuring that the media is involved and that you thank the provider of the property where the event is run and that the local elected officials are given a chance to plaster their face on it.

Partner with the local road and drag racers to see if you can carve out a section of their paddock for your event while theirs is going on. A local group of folks run an autocross during the big Historic Race weekend here in Portland (also helps that Portland International is a public park) and both the SCCA and PCA hold regular autocrosses there as well.

Since you'll only be using the paddock area of the local raceways, perhaps see if there is a way to only rent a small portion of it, to lessen the cost to the club. Of course partnering directly with a club that has already rented the track and paying them for the portion of tarmac that you use can help both clubs out (and help raise awareness between the two groups for example).

If the surface at one location is nearly useless, perhaps suggest to help pay for its renovation in exchange for continued use for x number of years?

kanaric wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: you should be so lucky that you live in such a motorsports centered area of the world. The race tracks and rallies held in CA are incredible. The off road ability is awesome. keep searching you'll find the right place.

Ya they have Laguna Seca AND Thunderhill nearby. By me what do I have? Spring Mountain

West coast.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zbeF2dUUSjXw.ku2ssPytjEyU

Sheesh.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

kanaric wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: you should be so lucky that you live in such a motorsports centered area of the world. The race tracks and rallies held in CA are incredible. The off road ability is awesome. keep searching you'll find the right place.

Ya they have Laguna Seca AND Thunderhill nearby. By me what do I have? Spring Mountain

West coast. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zbeF2dUUSjXw.ku2ssPytjEyU Sheesh.

A rally within an hour of me? Need to check that out

kanaric wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

kanaric wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: you should be so lucky that you live in such a motorsports centered area of the world. The race tracks and rallies held in CA are incredible. The off road ability is awesome. keep searching you'll find the right place.

Ya they have Laguna Seca AND Thunderhill nearby. By me what do I have? Spring Mountain

West coast. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zbeF2dUUSjXw.ku2ssPytjEyU Sheesh.

A rally within an hour of me? Need to check that out

that map is a gift from me to you.

an hour away? that's one way to get seat time when autocrossing

Duke wrote: Around here, PCA doesn't require club membership OR Porsche ownership to play with them.

Strange one of the local Porsche clubs runs events with the Philly region.

In Philly, the biggest issue we have is venues. We have one place to run and it's an old air strip with very limited course design options. Our designers do their best, but there's only so much that can be done. We run at a couple of other places, but not regularly. The result has hurt attendance.

We used to run events at the Phillies stadium (CBP), which was awesome - long, fun courses, but CBP changed thier policy and jacked up the rental fee to the point where it just wasn't feasible. The fee was already at a point where we were lucky to break even on the event despite the fact it usually had the largest attendance.

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: An hour drive isn't that bad. I live in a small area, and my region's sites are an hour from my house. My next closest region has sites that are 4+ hours away.

I'm 2 1/2 hrs from each of the regions where I a-x …

and this weekend will be LOTS of fun .. 2 hrs to and from on Sat, then 2 1/2hrs to and from on Sun …

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: An hour drive isn't that bad. I live in a small area, and my region's sites are an hour from my house. My next closest region has sites that are 4+ hours away.

your profile says NC … where ?

kb58 wrote: San Diego's Qualcomm stadium is getting close to going away or being completely redone. The next closest place is Orange county, roughly an hour away. Auto X is simply one of the victims; it's not like the stadium was put there to support it - it's the other way around.

[sticks fingers in ears] "lalalalalalalalalalalala"[sticks fingers in ears] If we don't say it out loud it's not true

I hate to think of what happens when the Q goes away or gets remodeled. Pretty sure SCCA, PCA, BMWCCA, and "Giant used car tent sale!" doesn't bring in enough revenue to keep that lot around.

If someone set out some cones at a side show, in 20 years, Oakland would have an F1 contender. Or, more likely, a generation that's really good at melting cones with flamethrower while doing donuts.

Woody wrote: Maybe you could just go to a big parking lot and stand in the sun for awhile.

Hahaha, yeah no doubt you've been there. It's one reason why I lost interest myself, and it gets pretty hot in SoCal. Further north wouldn't be so bad.

I used to love autocross, but eventually standing around all day for 5 minutes of driving got old and I stopped doing it. I think the most fun I've had behind the wheel is doing a TSD Rally.

Sacramento is generally well into the triple digits most days autocrossing, but it is a dry heat, ha, as if that helps. It is also apparently the nexus for every single allergy inducing substance there is. I know a pulmonologist/allergist who set up practice here because the area was mentioned so many times during his fellowship in the textbooks. SCCA runs at Mather AFB once or twice a year, but is down at the Stockton Fairgrounds the most, but that lot is getting pretty old and tired. If you are the starter you kind of need to stand back so you don't get pelted with loose stuff, even if you sweep it away before starting the session.

Marina is a pretty darn good venue, and you get to watch skydivers while you stand around, and it is never too hot. Last time I was there, there was this Alex Muresan guy pedaling a white ITR around the course who looked human enough, but is definitely an alien.

The lack of venues is a liability thing, for the most part. Trackmasters does test and tunes periodically in the paddock at Sears Point, or whatever it is named now, seems like that would be a good spot, and Trekkor lays out a pretty good course. All those air force bases that got closed should be converted to autocross sites, like Crow's Landing. Write your Congressmen