Hey y'all... Another year down and a pretty fun one at that. It was my first year attending with neither my own car nor a vendor booth (tried hard to finish the former, ended up not being ready for the later.) Bah...

That said, in general I thought the event was great. Two points of feedback on the "we could do better front":

1) I arrived kinda late and found that general public attendees where being parked outside the grandstand ring. That made for a big hike with quite a bit of gear in my case. After that finding that the inside "non rotary" parking just past the autocrossers was only 1/3 full was a bit of an unpleasant surprise. Not a big deal but anyways...

2) Ride alongs seemed pretty ad hoc. Maybe I missed it as I was helping shake down a car and wasn't that near the stage, but I've liked it when they had a formal list of volunteer cars to take two flying laps then pit and then pick up a new passenger. Personally, I can say that that's an area of volunteerism I'd be glad to help with. If you're not in competition mode (I have a street car), I think that's a pretty awesome way to share the joy of one of the cool beasties we all build.

Anyways, your dedication to the event is admirable. The food trucks were outstanding this year. Long lines but the pulled pork sandwich I ended up with was genuinely good. Solid turnout and great weather. Being slightly later in the year is probably a good call on that front. There's be a few years past where the heat in September was brutal.

-Joel Payne

 

In terms of volunteerism, do you divide it up into shifts? I could maybe come help the night before (pending location), but day of I'm usually tied up either on track or at a booth. It's easier to commit to one thing without giving away your full day (setup, teardown, etc.)

Since I'm thinking out loud here, a couple ideas of further volunteer hook ups that maybe be done without too much difficulty (since let's be frank, most folks tend to act in their own self interest):

-Volunteer preferred parking lane? IE, get your car at the head of the class an hour before everyone else, if you are then willing volunteer to guide the parade in, tear down at the end of the day etc. I think this is pretty close to the "let you park wherever you want" comment.

-Special photo ops with the race cars or the volunteer's car front of the stage? IE Who wouldn't want a shot with their car with Mazda race car's on each side? You could do it while volunteers parade in. I've seen a few shots of folks sitting in the 787B cropping up on FB.

-Special behind the scenes Mazda info?

-Special ride alongs with a pro driver? If you found a way to make this in a 4 rotor car I swear you'd be turning volunteers away with a stick. Can't remember if any of those have two seats, but you get the idea.

-Free raffle tickets, or hell just their choice of a raffle item valued under $20 (rx7 book, detailing gear, or whatever).

 

volunteer....expecting something in return is "wrong" in my book. I would volunteer but it never go right with my work schedule (no back up or assistant to handle my accounts while im out of the office)

 

^ I agree with this guy...volunteering should not automatically mean that you get something out of the deal. Besides you already said early lot access and free breakfast...that's more than enough in my book

 

A fine event this year, gents. I mostly hung with the track folk this year (had some friends running) but backed and forthed several times to see what was up all over. Excellent turnout, apparently.

It was good to be able to sleep in before a show, for once - - never get enough sleep during the week these days. Got there right at 8, looked like a lot of people never got the "don't be early" memo, but I think still I ended up mid-mob by the time all was said and done. The staging delay was a bit awkward but that looks to just have been new-venue shakedown issues, and we all had fun re-meeting out there.

Looking forward to hanging my banner up in the garage this weekend - - excellent souvenir idea, that. Shirts look excellent, too.

The coolish weather was greatly appreciated, too. Been to that venue a few times for MazFest in the hot part of summer. Not nearly as nice.

Good selection of food choices, too. Lines only got a bit long at peak rush from what I could see, and the prices were not out of line with 'venue' costs for events.

Only actual criticism / improvement item I have to offer is this:

Cars shows are great.
Barbecues are great.
Letting people set up a major barbecue right in the middle of a car show, two or three feet from where others have to park their carefully prepped cars?

Not great.

My car ended up covered, inside and out, with barbecue grease that I'm still trying to get off, & I didn't even get the worst of it.

The guy parked to the right of my car, the nice white FB, had so much grease on his hatch glass it looked frosted.

He was made to park all of a foot or two from the 'Q. I was almost as close but the breeze was more in my favor.



The folks who had the barbecue were apologetic about it, & they were set up well before the rest of the cars got directed there, so I can't really fault them -- BBQs were permitted. But the rest of us didn't have any choice of where to park.

Next time, please either have a dedicated barbecue/picnic area at least a few dozen feet or so away from the show area, or make some provision so that people's show-prepped cars don't get covered with other people's food grease?

Sorry to gripe, but you know how hard I've worked to get and keep this car pristine. I'm facing several hours of work to clean this up.

Overall, a good event. Even with the grease issue, I'm glad I was able to be there again. Looking forward to next year!

 

Sorry you couldn't get your booth or car done Joel. Would've been cool to see the new products.

Unfortunately, the track staff was not as prepared or informed as they should've been. There was no need to park outside. We did clearly post maps all over the forums, website, and Facebook pages.

There was NO ride-along program at SevenStock. Any rides being given were of a strictly voluntary personal kind. We didn't want to obligate any vendor or racer to the program at SS.

Thanks Joel. Yea it was cool we could get food trucks this year. We've not done a SEPT event in a few years at least... has been OCT for the last few. We were worried about rain though.

--Bern

 

Most of the heavy volunteering is in the AM on the day-off 6:00AM to 11:00AM. Also the day before is usually another good opportunity or after the event to clean up.

Yea, the good thing with all of our former volunteers is that this has not been the case. Most do it out of a luv to help out, including all of the SS Staff... no one at SS gets paid, it is a complete volunteer non-profit event...


All Volunteers get early free entry and parking in the show/display area or parking. This has always been teh case... ahead of the class.

Yes Sir... also part of the program if you work on the load in day or clean up.


Dang dude... now you're getting crazy. We don't want volunteers who are just looking for something like this... cause I'll tell you they will not want to help, just hang out and wait for a ride.


Volunteers already get some perks like this... but not donated raffle items.


__

 

really a little more than just that, but that's not the whole point of volunteering right?

 

Glenn, did you mention this to anyone at the event... we could've fixed it in a few minutes. We would've made them put the Q's on their side of the display. We can't fix things unless we know there's an issue. Next year we will keep a better eye on it, but it should've been solved immediately! Thanks for bringing it up!

--Bern

 

I thought it was a great event but you need to get the track day sorted out earlier so we can get more rotaries on the track. Maybe a better price for the track day or something. It would be awesome to have an all rotary track event at sevenstock.

 

Thanks for the good words... but, two (2) plus months lead time this year with constant reminders... should've been enough time to get it together. Most people waited 'til the last two weeks to get signed up. I doubt another two months more lead time would make a huge difference.

Better price??? How much better then $150 at Auto Club Speedway! normal price is $220. we gave a +30% discount just for SS. Even at $120 at Willowsprings it was hard to get a lot of people.


__

 

You're right. Rotorheads are mostly broke and like to procrastinate.

 

By the time I realized just how big a mess it was going to make, it was really too late to do much - - 'damage' done - - and I didn't want to do anything that would further delay the roll-in or distract your folks when they were clearly under a lot of pressure to get everyone in and parked. I had NO idea there'd be that much residue left behind, initially.

I can't fault anyone for not anticipating when I didn't either - - that's why I'm only bringing it up as a "lesson learned for the future."

 

If that ever happens, 1st person in line would be ME!


Thanks for all of the comments though, we'll take them under consideration if we have it there again next year.

Glenn, sorry about your car, I was in that Old School/1st Gen/FD lot parking everyone, I wished I would have known!

 

I couldn't stop staring at those RX-3 BBW girls lol hahaha

 

Don't sweat it, man... it's an inconvenience, not a disaster. No permanent harm. We all know for next time, right?

 

That's the spirit!

 

I got the exterior cleaned off at last, and the interior didn't get hit too badly (wind was not blowing through the windows I guess), but every bit of chrome, polished aluminum, and painted brightwork in my engine bay now looks like this:



Wiping just smears it around, & I can't use alcohol near the painted portions.

Needs dishsoap and rinsing to get it clean.

So, lesson learned.

 

sooooooooo ffuunnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!