I would like to personally thank all of those that assisted and organised with the track day.
I had a great day even if my car didnt comply with my wishes.
I would also like to thank the participants. I thought that generally the particpants were a little short on information and instructions (particularly during registration and scruteneering) but to their credit no one was getting fussed or upset and everyone went with the flow.
The organisers on the day did not quite have all of the tools they would have liked; but successfully got everyone registered, scrutineered and on the track. It is a credit to them that by mid afternoon everyone had pretty well had enough sessions and the event had moved from running behind schedule to being well in front. As an example the procedure from the chief steward of announcing the cars and telling them to hurry up and get there or we move on to the next group was right on the money. Well done guys.
Some earlier comments were made about suggestions for the next Skyline Nationals and I would like to make a few comments that might assist:
Forum A forum on the Skyline Nationals web site where participants can ask dumb questions would be useful. THis would also serve to informally pass information to other particpants. A topic on extinguisers. A topic on timing procedures. A topic on tethering suction cup mounted stuff.
Checklist A scrutineering, registration and licencing checklist for each particpant would greatly help the participants understand what was required before hitting the track and provide for each bit to get signed off. In a perfect would you would register first, then scrutineer the car, then check the driver clothing and the like but a checklist would allow for people to just make sure they get everything done even if necessarily in any particular order. This would take pressure off the organisers from gates open.
Sprint Groups On the assumption that we had a forum people could nominate to be in a group for the practice and first timed sessions and let the organisers reallocate later in the day ie if RH9 is in group 2 and I would rather be in another group where I dont have to watch it go past me every third lap.
Equipment While the organisers can still remember they should post up a list of all the equiment that they require ie 5 green flags, two chequered flags, 5 red flags, 20 UHF radios and the like. This will help the next guys.
Car numbers Post them on the forum in the weeks leading up to the event - first in first served. Specify the mounting and size requirements to make it easy for the timers if required.
Track familiarity Grab all of the drivers (lets say eighty for an even bigger event next time) and squeeze them into two groups of ten cars and take them out on the track for the briefing to show them some of the critical points like start finish and pit entry.
Scrutineering I thougth the scrutineering guys were very professional, very helpful (particularly given the large number that had never had a car scrutineered before and the huge range of 'guises that vehicles appeared in) and were mostly concerned about safety rather than nit picking on any particular strict regulations. I was not aware of any inconsistencies that were discussed by particpants. The check list would have helped them. The event was not the V8 supercars and the scrutineers did not treat in like the V8 supercars. They were great.
The track day was a great event and all partipants would have been happy with what was achieved during the day.
Again, my thanks to the organisers and hope to make my way to NSW in two years time.