Sometimes people point out the complaining and bad attitudes, but I wanna point out some teamwork, enthusiasm, and optimism!
You may have heard we have been working towards making on-road racing at Mike's better recently with some new banners and panels on the drivers stand, some fresh paint, and some new banner poles. We also managed to route a new loop that would allow us to race where ever we wish on the carpet. All of this is a part of our forward focus towards racing on the "poleless" side of the carpet. As you may have heard this would optimally include a new drivers stand. So I sketched some designs and roughly estimated what it would take to build a 3-4 foot stand 24 feet long with a 36" railing for use on the concrete near the double shop doors. The final tally was in the $450 dollar neighborhood. The idea is that racers would all pitch in to cover the expense so we can all enjoy poleless, bump-free, better, less-dirt, carpet racing with the hope of even buying a tarp to cover the carpet. I mentioned this to a couple racers earlier this week and the first two people I asked immediately pledged $50 dollars each. I though "Wow, thats a pretty good start!"
So today I was asked by some off-roaders about what was happening on the on-road side. So I gave them the short version of our plans. And before I finished explaining it all I had another $50 pledge from a racer who I haven't even ever seen on the carpet! I retold the story of the off-roader contributing to a couple more on-road guys today . . .
Long story short is we are well on our way towards a $450 goal to build our drivers stand thanks to some generous racers!
So this brings me to say how awesome I think it is that we have the BEST facility i have ever seen for racing, and racers to match! Hopefully after I get a chance to talk to a few more guys tomorrow we will have enough to start building our stand!
I would like to mention that I realize everyone may not be able to contribute and I don't want anyone to feel pressured or manipulated into helping. I am going to keep the donation amounts private as well as the donors until we have all the necessary funds. Hopefully this will make everyone a little more comfortable, cuz I know its a little awkward to say yes/no. Whether you give or not will not be made public. However once the stand is built I WILL be making sure those who helped out get the recognition they deserve
So with all that good news about our hopes for a drivers stand becoming a reality with just a few more donations, I thought i would post some examples of drivers stands I have seen and get some feedback from the AWESOME racers who will be using it. Post pics of stands you like. Post pics of stands you've seen that you didn't like. While we do have some guidelines that won't be changing to ensure safety and keeping within our budget, a lot of this is up to y'all!!
Here's some pics of the drivers stand in Jackson, MS. Their carpet is 77x36 and it develops a NICE high bite groove. This stand is 24' long and 23" high.
Here's some video of Vegas as well. At the end of the 1/12th scale race you can get a feel for the height of the stand as well as the distance it is back from the track.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... s%3Disch:1
Oh, and The HOBBYPlex in Omaha too
http://media.photobucket.com/image/RC%2 ... C_4475.jpg
