2020 TT Season

[DanDarcy]

Com has been offered an open date in June at Palmer. Maybe the BOD will use this date.

[TroyV]

The BoD will have a discussion and subsequent vote on the topic of a replacement Palmer event this week.

Graham, at present, there is no particular cut-off date I am looking at for Thompson. My gut feeling is that this event will happen, as long as things improve and state and local guidelines allow it.

There are a lot of balls in the air. The forums can be useful, but if folks are looking for up to the minute info....take the time and reach out to the appropriate people.

[gcranston]

Thanks Troy.

[dinoracer]

Why couldn't we use our phones with earbuds? Maybe we could even set-up conference calls for multiple students. We could test each call prior to proceeding onto the track. Proper positioning of the microphone component within the helmet may be the most challenging aspect of implementation. However I must confess, I'm only thinking of wired earbuds since I have that capability with my older android phone. I have no idea where the mic is when using wireless earbuds.
-Carl

Hi Carl

The BOD has been digging into this possibility with every way we can think of doing it; right now the consensus seems to be each driver would have to own their own in- helmet earpiece and mic ( tough to ask some students, plus instructors, to invest $200 for it). More importantly, at least at Palmer, the cell service is very dependant on your carrier - some have no issues at all, some have no signal at, all some in between. So relying on it for car-to-car is a no go. But we're not giving up yet on coming up with something that works.

[basil2000]

https://event.webinarjam.com/register/15/pq1gvhp

This may be interesting to posted to. Ross Bentley will be on this webinar. I know other groups have been talking about it and I know scda is doing it for there July session at the glen. My first time on track was a course down at spring mountain raceway in Nevada. I found it worked great. I think it would take time to train instructors but something to talk about?

[cfossum]

Why couldn't we use our phones with earbuds?
-Carl

Hi Carl
at Palmer, the cell service is very dependant on your carrier - some have no signal at all

OK, that's a good reason.

[cfossum]

https://event.webinarjam.com/register/15/pq1gvhp

This may be interesting to posted to. Ross Bentley will be on this webinar. I know other groups have been talking about it and I know scda is doing it for there July session at the glen. My first time on track was a course down at spring mountain raceway in Nevada. I found it worked great. I think it would take time to train instructors but something to talk about?

Thanks for the link!

[6PAK72]

A lot to unpack here. All opinions and observations are personal and not a reflection or prediction of, BOD discussions.

First, the functional scope.

As a driver, I would love to get behind the wheel again. As an instructor, and being nearly in the "60" cohort, I'm very aware and cautious of the risks. As a BOD member, I'm one of the group who would mechanically design the experience and work to execute an event at the quality level we hold ourselves to for all participants. As a Club contributor, I recognize the workload of the functional Chiefs is pretty high normally, and that it will be even more intense in these conditions.

IMO, the only way to pull this off is if we all understand that we each are personally responsible to one another for one anothers' safety - pretty much exactly like being on-track. This is the perfect "Red Flag" incident, where, to quote Will, "we all must act in unison" to take actions that keep one another safe.

As a perspective, our company never shut down, and we've been deployed on the forefront of the response, building treatment areas and fabricating PPE and retro-fitting buildings for re-occupancy. So we as a "cohort" have learned to take care of ourselves, one another and our customers. We recognized the risks the second week of February, had a big discussion company-wide, and made commitments to one another to modify and report our personal behavior to one another in a daily company-wide meeting.

So far, only 8% of our staff has been behaviorally "out of bounds", and some re-education and corrective coaching remediated the issue. We are blessed with no infections, though I personally have 7 friends who have been infected, two of whom have died, and another who spent 14 days on a ventilator, lost 30% of her bodyweight and looks like a wraith. This is a serious thing.

What our model shows is how to do this. A framework could include:

- Personal reflection, honesty and self-reporting about who you have seen, where you have been and how you are feeling over the past 14 days
- Heightened attention to hygiene - personal as well as venue and Club responsibility (restrooms, sanitizers, etc)
- Facemasks. Overwhelming data says they work to control risk
- Distancing. Even though there's some mixed data about distance/effectiveness, there's enough data to show that somewhere on the order of 6 to 15 feet is a good idea
- Probably no in-car instruction. This then evolves into A. Any students at all? B. Other methods? (Lead-Follow, Video-Data review, Bluetooth comms?)
- No common food availability
- Spaced-out paddock. This then evolves into A. Number of drivers and B. Cost and C. ROI for the Club
- What happens if?...offs, towing, physical hurt - ambulance transport... Basically, drive well within your limits and go over your car very thoroughly. Maybe even no Subarus because we all know they blow up (LOL)


Following that, there are some "moral" issues to reflect on:

- Is this the "right" thing for the Club to do. At this moment? Which is why Jason's thread is so important to us.
- How does the host community feel about a hoard of performance drivers invading the town? Is COM being a good citizen by running the event, or by NOT running the event?
- What are the ramifications of taking a first-responder team away from the service of those who may need that support? Perhaps a less-pressing question in some geographical areas, but here in NH our case-load is still increasing...
- Aligned to that, what are the ramifications and liabilities of the Club/venue/community if a driver needs transport and ends up in a care facility with the potential of exposure? Are you as a driver accepting that risk?

After all that, my inclination is to try an event and my expectations of the experience of a COM event would be much more open and tolerant. It's going to take work and a continuous-improvement mindset to get it right - there will be issues, unforeseen challenges, and accommodations to be made by venue, club and members.

But we're COM.

[i8ur911]

Awesome post Jeff! Thank you!!!

Another successful "virtual BoD meeting" was held this evening. I can say that everyone that is involved in these meetings are actively trying to get us on track but are also only willing to do so if it's done "right".

With that being said, the more information, thoughts, concerns, questions people have/share, the better.

Now is your time to get involved!

[Stamanti]

Scca covid guidelines are a decent starting point:

https://www.scca.com/pages/covid-19-event-guidelines

Tech and drivers meetings are some tricky things to navigate.

For tech, if self tech is not an option, maybe the driver would have to stay in the car with the Windows rolled up with the signed sheet under the wiper blade, or taped to the window. If the car does not have side windows, maybe that driver has to wear their helmet during tech. Tech inspector does not touch the tech sheet, just takes a photo of it, and then after the inspection places the passed tech sticker on the windshield. Tech is done external to the cabin of the car, visual only, checking the engine bay, wheels, brake pads, trunk, and brake lights. We may need to come up with some custom tools to open the hood and trunk without touching them with our hands, or just wear disposable gloves. I think we would have to self certify helmets, belts, and wheel bearings. We could take photos of the date codes on helmets and belts and email that to the head of tech to document they are current.

Driver’s meeting could be recorded earlier in the week and posted to youtube or facebook by wednesday for a saturday event. You prove you watched it by commenting on the video.